Summary This article compares the discoveries of the planets Neptune and Pluto and the unsuccessful search of intra-Mercurial planets. Its conclusion is, that the search of intra-Mercurial planets was started on the basis of reasonable assumptions and competently pursued, that the success in the search of Neptune and Pluto and the failure in the search of intra-Mercurial planets was not due to greater competence of the successful planet searchers, but to good luck of the successful researchers and bad luck of (...) the unsuccessful researchers. (shrink)

Der Beweis des Vierfarbensatzes mit Hilfe eines Computers, der so viel Zeit erforderte, daß ein Mensch die Berechnungen niemals überprüfen könnte, hat Zweifel erregt an vier philosophischen Annahmen über Mathematik. Die Mathematik ist die Lehre der Klassifikation, insoweit als sie vollständig abstrahiert von der Art der zu klassifizierenden Dinge. Diese Auffassung wird vom Beweis des Vierfarbensatzes nicht erschüttert. Wahrscheinlich kann mathematisches Denken nicht vor sich gehen ohne sinnliche Vorstellungen, aber die Eigenschaften mathematischer Gegenstände sind unabhängig von ihrer Weise sinnlicher Vorstellung.

Der Streit darüber, ob es objektive Wahrheitskriterien gibt, wird oft mit der Frage vermengt, ob Wissenschaft immer fortschreite. Vor allem Popper in "Objective Knowledge" unterstellt in starkem Maße einen allgemeinen Trend der Wissenschaft zum Fortschritt. In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, daß Wissen verloren gehen kann: 1. Weil es nicht aufgezeichnet wird; 2. weil die Dokumente, in denen es niedergelegt wurde, verloren gehen; 3. weil das Wissen um die Sprache der Dokumente, in denen es niedergelegt wurde, verloren gegangen (...) ist, 4. weil die spätere Wissenschaftlergemeinschaft die Dokumente nicht genügend beachtet, in denen es niedergelegt wurde. Der Verlust nichtaufgezeichneten Wissens ist äußerst üblich. Der Verlust veröffentlichter Dokumente war besonders vor der Erfindung der Drucktechnik häufig und hat besonders in manchen Zweigen der Geisteswissenschaften einen Rückschritt bedeutet, weil entweder Dokumente, die das Objekt dieser Wissenschaften ausmachen, oder Aufzeichnungen historischer Ereignisse verloren gingen. Der Verlust veröffentlichter Dokumente nach der Erfindung der Drucktechnik war etwas weniger bedeutend, aber er kam dennoch vor. Der Verlust unveröffentlichter Dokumente geschah häufig, und zwar sowohl vor wie nach der Erfindung der Drucktechnik. Ob in unentzifferten Dokumenten definitiv Wissensverlust vorliegt, ist einigermaßen zweifelhaft. Einige unentzifferte Sprachen mögen eines Tages entziffert werden, aber einige unentzifferte Sprachen mögen auch für immer unentziffert bleiben. Der Verlust von Wissen wegen unzureichender Aufmerksamkeit gegenüber dem Werk eines früheren Wissenschaftlers kann behoben werden, wenn man seine Behauptungen nochmals untersucht. Wissensverlust kommt hauptsächlich in den Geisteswissenschaften vor. In der Mathematik und einigen Naturwissenschaften gibt es fast nur Zunahme an Wissen wegen der Wiederholbarkeit der Experimente. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft Jahrgang: 21 Heft: 2 Seiten: i-ii.

Es wird die Frage untersucht, ob die Annahme der Existenz von universellen Normen für die Annäherung der Wissenschaft an die Wahrheit nicht in praxi lediglich Gegenwartszentrismus und Ethnozentrismus heißt. Die griechisch-römische Zivilisation förderte die Wissenschaft durch ihre Demokratie, aber andere Zivilisationen haben sehr wertvolle Datensammlungen geliefert. Die Universalität der Wissenschaft impliziert u. a. daß, wo verschiedene Zivilisationen mit ihren Wissenschaften einander begegnen, sie von einander lernen können.

The central theme of this book is the question, Why do scientists pursue scientific investigation? Of course, Bert Theunissen begins by pointing out that the answers scientists offer will be socially acceptable answers. Even so, Theunissen asserts, the historian may infer from the answers what motivated the persons questioned. Moreover, insights may be gleaned concerning science, society, and the relations between the two in the period the scientists lived.In this book the author discusses the notions of the objective of science (...) endorsed, respectively, by Jan Hendrik van Swinden , Jan van der Hoeven , Pieter Harting , Gerrit Jan Moll , Franciscus C. Donders , Hugo de Vries , Martinus W. Beijerinck , and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz .From this list of names it appears that Theunissen has focused his study on the nineteenth century. That period is especially interesting with respect to the changing images of science, as the ideas of the main goal of the university altered completely during that period. At the beginning of the century providing an academic education was seen as the prime task. Research was not seen as part of the duties of a professor at all. Those that did any experimentation chose to do so for their own sake, not because it was an element of the curriculum. That had changed completely by the end of the century. By then scientific investigation was considered a regular—in fact the most important—task of the university. This change in focus went hand in hand with the establishment of a number of new laboratories for most Dutch universities.In the accounts of the above‐mentioned men the content and development of their ideas about the pursuit of science are examined. From this analysis the common element that emerges in their images of science is gain for society, as expressed in the title, which translates into English as something like “Profit and more profit.” In the view of these men the pursuit of science is profitable for society; it is not pursued just for its own sake, let alone for the pleasure of the pursuer. In the beginning of the century the well‐trained minds of an intellectual elite that had completed academic training was regarded as the prime benefit for society. By the end of the century the profit was understood to come from scientific investigation of nature: science was seen as an instrument to further human welfare.Initially, I found it surprising that each and every one of the leading persons confidently asserts that the pursuit of science is for the benefit of society at large. Yet, on closer inspection, that was not so surprising, as Theunissen has studied and quotes almost exclusively from published sources, from treatises written for fellow scholars, for administrators, and for the lay public. The author seems not to have studied correspondence or other private papers in which a man may have voiced less elevated purposes for the pursuit of science.One thing amazed me: in the whole of this work, covering over a hundred years of discussion and the ideas of some 300 Dutch scholars on the subject at hand, there is not one woman mentioned. Admittedly, by the time the present story finishes, in the early twentieth century, only a few women had been appointed to academic positions in Dutch universities, so there is presumably not much material to draw on. However, one argument in the debate raging in the last quarter of the nineteenth century about the admission of women to the universities was the view that women, like men, should have the benefit of a higher education so as to fully develop their minds.Most of the contents of this book have appeared in print already in the form of separate articles in various journals, some in English but mostly in the Dutch language. Presumably that explains why the author has chosen to publish his treatise in Dutch rather than English. Even though the author has stressed the national character of his exposé by discussing at length some controversies among Dutch historians of science on points he addresses, the issues considered in this book and the scope of the inquiry warrant international notice and discussion.This book has a pleasantly unpretentious layout and typography and is, moreover, very carefully produced: I have seen but one printing error—which I leave it to you to discover. (shrink)

In deze bewogen ‘Notities over de verloren ziel van de cultuur’ signaleert Jack Miles hoe religie tot kitsch dreigt te verworden wanneer we haar uitsluitend bezien in concurrentie met de voortschrijdende wetenschap. Pas zodra we deze tweestrijd over rivaliserende kennisaanspraken opgeven en onze duurzame onwetendheid onder ogen zien, is er ruimte voor een religiositeit die geen kitsch is en het ontzag, de verering en de angst voor het Onbekende een plaats geeft in ons leven. Uiteindelijk zouden de klassieke religies (...) van Europa - judaïsme en christendom – een analoge plaats moeten krijgen in de bestudering van onze cultuur, doordat we ze bezien per differentiam, waardoor we ze met een antropologische nieuwsgierigheid tegemoet kunnen treden. (shrink)

The focus of this article is on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh, as a way of talking about and understanding mission and addresses at least two concerns in the contemporary debate about the missional church. Many missionary methods and strategies have contradicted both the teaching and actions of Jesus as he trained his disciples to continue his ministry. The message may have been the gospel, but the way the message was made known was often not congruent (...) with the gospel. The attempt to interpret mission in terms of the incarnation of Jesus suggests that the earlier forms of mission strategies should be replaced by a theology and praxis rooted in and defined by the life and ministry of Jesus. Ephesians 4 provides the key to the theology and praxis by giving us a direct link backward into the ministry that infused and led the early church in the life and the ministry of Jesus. (shrink)

NG van Kampen is a well-known theoretical physicist who has had a long and distinguished career. His research covers scattering theory, plasma physics, statistical mechanics, and various mathematical aspects of physics. In addition to his scientific work, he has written a number of papers about more general aspects of science. An indefatigable fighter for intellectual honesty and clarity, he has pointed out repeatedly that the fundamental ideas of physics have been needlessly obscured. As those papers appeared in various journals, partly (...) in Dutch, it was felt that it would be worthwhile to collect them (translating the Dutch material into English) and make them available to a larger audience. This is a book of major importance to scientists and university teachers. (shrink)

Generally, we want certain ethical claims to be unconditionally true. One such claim is “Apartheid was unjust”. In this paper, I discuss a group of South African post-structuralist philosophers who call their view Critical Complexity (CC). Because of post-structuralism’s radical contextualism, CCists can only claim that things are ‘as if’ Apartheid was unjust. They cannot claim that Apartheid was unconditionally unjust. Many will find this unsatisfying. I argue that a naturalised or Darwinian notion of rationality can help CCists (and perhaps (...) post-structuralists in general) in this regard. This kind of rationality is what has come to be known as embodied rationality. We employ embodied rationality when navigating the ecological and social domains. It has, though, been co-opted for navigating the ethical domain. We can, then, claim that Apartheid was unconditionally unjust because it is embodied rational to do so. This does not involve embracing the kind of Cartesian rationality that CCists rightly reject. (shrink)

The idea that human cognition is, or can be understood as, a form of computation is a useful conceptual tool for cognitive science. It was a foundational assumption during the birth of cognitive science as a multidisciplinary field, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of its contributing fields. One conception of AI in this context is as a provider of computational tools (frameworks, concepts, formalisms, models, proofs, simulations, etc.) that support theory building in cognitive science. The contemporary field of AI, (...) however, has taken the theoretical possibility of explaining human cognition as a form of computation to imply the practical feasibility of realising human(-like or -level) cognition in factual computational systems, and the field frames this realisation as a short-term inevitability. Yet, as we formally prove herein, creating systems with human(-like or -level) cognition is intrinsically computationally intractable. This means that any factual AI systems created in the short-run are at best decoys. When we think these systems capture something deep about ourselves and our thinking, we induce distorted and impoverished images of ourselves and our cognition. In other words, AI in current practice is deteriorating our theoretical understanding of cognition rather than advancing and enhancing it. The situation could be remediated by releasing the grip of the currently dominant view on AI and by returning to the idea of AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science. In reclaiming this older idea of AI, however, it is important not to repeat conceptual mistakes of the past (and present) that brought us to where we are today. (shrink)

We analyse whether Belgian tax policy over the period 1965-1995 was affected by the ideological position of the government. Both the level and composition of taxation are considered. We find no significant ideological effect on the level of the tax burden. The burden has increased systematically over most of the period, irrespective of the ideology of the incumbent. Considering individual tax categories, one can find a significant ideological influence for taxes on financial and capital transactions. Under centre-left oriented governments this (...) tax is lowered whereas it increases under centre-right governments. A possible explanation is that centre-left governments try to stimulate households' wealth acquisition by keeping taxes on transactions of immovable properties low. (shrink)

This paper was largely written by the General Manager for People and Conservation in South African National Parks , with a contribution by an anthropologist studying the post-apartheid transition of Kruger National Park. Our purpose is to engage in an ongoing discussion aimed at equitable best practice and community empowerment in social research and protected areas by bringing together context informed, insider and outsider perspectives. It is not intended to offer a conclusive account of people and park dynamics in SANParks. (...) The paper begins with an overview of the establishment of protected areas in South Africa. It then traces conservation philosophies and management principles from 1900 to the present. We then examine the move towards community involvement with conservation areas, outlining the impacts of the World Conservation Strategy and the Brundtland Report. This leads into a discussion of the development of Social Ecology within SANParks, evaluating the successes and failures of consultative efforts with indigenous communities. Lastly, we describe recent moves to include cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge into the programmatics of park management. (shrink)

Recently the English scholar Heather McKay defended the thesis that before the third century CE the synagogue had never been a place of sabbath worship. In this article the author reviews all the material presented by her, adds some new evidence, and comes to the conclusion that the evidence points to a situation in which already before 70 CE the synagogue served as a place of sabbath worship.

In order to overcome the unhealthy perspective of body-mind dualism and become capable of holding the “higher” and healthier perspective of body and mind as will to power, Nietzsche stresses that one must engage in a process of cultivation of the body. Such a practice of self-cultivation involves leaving behind incorporated illusory and life-denying perspectives and incorporating more “truthful” and affirmative perspectives on life. In this article, Nietzsche’s views on the body and its cultivation will be further explored and compared (...) with Japanese Buddhist thought on body, mind, and cultivation. In Japanese thought, the notion of shinjin-ichinyō (oneness of body and mind) was developed in order to overcome a dualistic approach to body and mind. The unity of body and mind plays an essential part in the philosophies of both Kūkai and Dōgen. Whereas in early Indian Buddhism, self-cultivation took place primarily through the mind (citta), in Japanese Buddhist practice the body, not the mind, is the primary locus as exemplified in Dōgen’s somatic practice of zazen. Although from the everyday perspective, body and mind are experienced as two separate things, a higher perspective is possible in which body-mind is experienced as a continually changing configuration of dharmas that doesn’t contain any “I.” Such a higher perspective is called “samadhic awareness” by Dōgen, in which “body and mind are cast off” (shinjin totsuraku). For both Nietzsche and Dōgen, their “philosophy am Leitfaden des Leibes” does not aim at discovering “truths” by means of introspection and thinking, but at increasing the body’s capacity for the incorporation of new and liberating perspectives. (shrink)

Literatuur leeft. Na een betrekkelijk stabiel maar sluimerend bestaan in de marges van de cultuurbijlagen is de literatuur sinds een jaar zowel de inzet als het mikpunt van een felle discussie. Aanstichter van deze discussie is hoogleraar moderne letterkunde Thomas Vaessens, die met zijn De revanche van de roman een vurig pleidooi hield voor de terugkeer van de literatuur naar de binnencirkel van het actuele debat. Aan zijn pleidooi ligt een diepe onvrede ten grondslag over het feit dat de literatuur (...) in de loop van de twintigste eeuw haar waarde als betekenisvolle cultuuruiting lijkt te hebben verloren. (shrink)

Bohm’s interpretation of quantum mechanics has generally been received as an attempt to restore the determinism of classical physics. However, although this interpretation, as Bohm initially proposed it in 1952, does indeed have the feature of being deterministic, for Bohm this was never the main point. In fact, in other publications and in correspondence from this period, he argued that the assumption that nature is deterministic is unjustified and should be abandoned. Whereas it has been argued before that Bohm’s commitment (...) to determinism was connected to his interest in Marxism, I argue for the opposite: Bohm found resources in Marxist philosophy for developing a nondeterministic notion of causality, which is based on the idea of infinite complexity and an infinite number of levels of nature. From ca. 1954 onwards, Bohm’s conception of causality further weakened, as he developed the idea of a dialectical relation between causality and chance. (shrink)

According to the standards of public law, municipal polls have only a local scope : the election of a common council. Do politicians make deductions concerning the formal political power-constellation on national level either from the approach of municipal elections or from their results? Can these elections lead to changes in or of the government and eventually to anticipated legislative elections?After the first world-war, the electorate was called eight times to vote for new common councillors. Half of these elections had (...) no influence on the national power-constellation :they hardly stirred the national political life. In 1958 any possible influence of the municipal elections was even a priori ruled out. A remarkable point is that all municipal elections which took place undergovernments of national union, were only of local importance.Since the first world-war not a single municipal election has led to changes within the government : there was never a redistribution of ministerial portfolios amongst the coalitionpartners, nor did any electioncause the dismissal of an individual minister.It is traditional in Belgian politics that the national opposition, when the results of municipal elections are in its favour and prejudicial to the party in office, tries to call in question the legitimacy of the government in the opinion of the public by the way of motions or interpellations in parliament, claiming dismissal of the government or anticipated legislative elections. At these occasions it appeared unimportant whether the parliamental majority were confortable or not. But never did the governments give in to these attempts.The elections of 1857, 1884 and 1932 constitute an element of power - although of subsidiary importance - in the discharge of the then governments. The governmental crisis of 1884 however can only be explained if the constitutional position of Leopold II is taken into account. With all other factors alike, such a crisis wouldn't arise any more in the context of to-day. The municipal elections of 1932 have moreover led to anticipated legislative elections whose date was an element of power in the election-process. At that time, these elections played the part of an indicator of the electorial condition, comparable to that of the by elections in Great-Britain. And an unreliable indicator too, in view of the difference between national and local electionstatures. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.2 (2001) 313-333 [Access article in PDF] Vestige of the Third Force: Willem Bilderdijk, Poet, Anti-Skeptic, Millenarian Joris van Eijnatten One of the unfortunate consequences of Babel is that only the Dutch read Dutch poetry. 1 Although English-speaking historians may have heard of the seventeenth-century poet Joost van den Vondel, who generally qualifies as the greatest literary artist of the Netherlands, virtually no (...) one outside Holland knows Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1831), poet, jurist, and man of learning. Robert Southey, having met the poet at his home in Leiden in 1825, lamented several years later the fact that Bilderdijk's fame had not traversed national boundaries: "And who is Bilderdyk?" methinks thou sayest: A ready question; yet which, trust me, Allan, Would not be asked, had not the curse that came From Babel, clipt the wings of Poetry. 2When Southey sojourned in the Netherlands, Bilderdijk had already established his reputation as one of the few unconventional figures in Dutch history, comparable, in this sense, to Coornhert and Spinoza. The most outstanding poet of his age, he dominated nineteenth-century Dutch literature through his versatility, rhetorical prowess and sheer output. He is reputed to have written 300,000 lines of verse, not counting his unpublished poems. He practiced virtually all literary genres, from Pindaric odes and erotic rhyme to didactic poetry. Versed in the classics, he wrote numerous translations of, among many others, Homer, Sophocles, Anacreon, Callimachus, Horace, and Ovid. Bilderdijk was a prolific [End Page 313] writer of essays on subjects ranging from moral philosophy, epistemology, and natural law to aesthetics, architecture, and botany. He translated theological and devotional works, including Thomas Chalmers's Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation, Chrysostome's sermons, and books on freemasonry and pneumatology. Besides contributing to perspective drawing, he wrote the first geological study in Dutch. His History of the Fatherland appeared posthumously in thirteen volumes. He himself regarded his linguistic studies and literary essays as his main achievement. Bilderdijk filled thousands of pages with his idiosyncratic views on the gender of nouns, the alphabet, grammar, spelling, medieval manuscripts, tragedy, and drama in general.Not surprisingly, Bilderdijk's varied interests and comprehensive mind have led to different interpretations of his thought. Most are one of two kinds. Writers subscribing to the first interpretation regard him as a somewhat strange but devout apologist for Calvinist orthodoxy. They stress the fact that Bilderdijk was the only intellectual who, in the midst of the soul-destroying rationalism propounded by a complacent liberal establishment, dared to cry out against Revolution and Enlightenment, thus revivifying the religious heart of the nation. 3 Those who follow the second interpretation emphasize the Romantic nature of his thought. This group tends to look upon Bilderdijk as the only true Dutch Romantic, a Wordsworth and Coleridge combined, a metaphysical if rather erratic genius who outgrew the intellectual marshlands of his native country. Writers in this tradition stress his definition of poetry as a spontaneous overflow of feeling, his linguistic achievements, his preoccupation with geology, and his visionary view of Dutch history. 4 One major interpreter, commenting on Bilderdijk's "real position as a philosopher," has stated that "to me there can be no doubt that Bilderdijk should be placed among the post-Kantian idealists like Fichte and Schelling (cf., again, Coleridge!)." 5Such statements are largely products of wishful thinking. Bilderdijk was not a devout Calvinist. He hardly ever went to church, his theology exhibits suspiciously heterodox leanings, and his professed adherence to the doctrine of predestination had less to do with a profound knowledge of the articles of Dort than mystical resignation. Similarly, the depiction of Bilderdijk as a post-Kantian idealist is sympathetic but lacks any evidence. Some literary historians have [End Page 314] tried to salvage the "Romantic" nature of his poetry, but the result is not particularly convincing. 6"And who is Bilderdijk," to echo Southey, if he was neither a Calvinist nor a Romantic? How should one interpret his thought? What should one do... (shrink)

El artículo se propone rebatir la propuesta que planteó Allen Fromherz en uno de los últimos números de Al-Qanṭara, al identificar Īgīlīz-Des-Harġa, lugar de nacimiento de Ibn Tūmart y primer foco de la revolución almohade, con la localidad de Īglī, ubicada en el valle del Sous. Al juntar el estudio de la documentación escrita, la evocación historiográfica de los pocos estudios eruditos dedicados a este yacimiento desconocido, con los primeros elementos de una encuesta de geografía histórica y arqueológica en curso, (...) la presente contribución pretende demostrar : 1.º) que la teoría de Fromherz adolece de errores de apreciación de los materiales históricos empleados ; 2.º) que el pueblo natal de Ibn Tūmart no se ubica en el valle del Sous, sino en el Anti-Atlas central, tal como ya demostraron Huici Miranda y D. Jacques- Meunié ; 3.º) que el yacimiento de Īgīlīz-Des-Harġa, del cual se avanza aquí una ubicación precisa, encierra entre otros elementos un lugar fortificado de altura que sirvió de refugio a Ibn Tūmart y los miembros de su tribu durante los primeros enfrentamientos contra los Almorávides. Finalmente, se da una breve descripción arqueológica de los vestigios de este yacimiento inédito hasta ahora. (shrink)

Cadaveric donation comprises organ donation—that is, taking organs from brain dead people, as well as tissue donation, meaning taking tissues from brain dead as well as heart dead people. The organ transplant procedure from brain dead patients is beyond the scope of the pathologist, as it is done by surgeons in the operating theatre. In a broader sense, however, pathologists are involved in cadaveric tissue donation as well as taking tissues from cadavers for diagnostic procedures within the framework of the (...) autopsy , and to gather material for research and training students and pathology residents . For cadaveric tissue donation, different ethical and practical issues must be considered, which we will try to review in this paper from the perspective of the pathologist.CADAVERIC TISSUE SAMPLING FOR TRANSPLANTATION PURPOSESSeveral tissues can be taken from “true” cadavers that may still be used for transplantation such as skin, corneas, tendons, bone. This is usually done in collaboration with the pathologist, who is in most countries responsible for the body after the death of the patient in the hospital. All these tissues can be harvested several hours after death, as they undergo only slow degradation. In The Netherlands, as dictated by law, patients must actively have given permission for donation during life by registering with the Transplantation Register. Since this procedure was implemented, the number of organs available for donation has not increased but decreased somewhat, while the number of tissues has increased. A great obstacle to the increase in the number of donations is that only 37% of the population is registered …. (shrink)

This Handbook documents the main trends in current research between logic and language, including its broader influence in computer science, linguistic theory and cognitive science. The history of the combined study of Logic and Linguistics goes back a long way, at least to the work of the scholastic philosophers in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of this century, the subject was revitalized through the pioneering efforts of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Polish philosophical logicians such as Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz. Around (...) 1970, the landmark achievements of Richard Montague established a junction between state-of-the-art mathematical logic and generative linguistic theory. Over the subsequent decades, this enterprise of Montague Grammar has flourished and diversified into a number of research programs with empirical and theoretical substance. This appears to be the first Handbook to bring logic-language interface to the fore. Both aspects of the interaction between logic and language are demonstrated in the book i.e. firstly, how logical systems are designed and modified in response to linguistic needs and secondly, how mathematical theory arises in this process and how it affects subsequent linguistic theory. The Handbook presents concise, impartial accounts of the topics covered. Where possible, an author and a commentator have cooperated to ensure the proper breadth and technical content of the papers. The Handbook is self-contained, and individual articles are of the highest quality. (shrink)

Church and theology heading towards the third millennium: Thoughts on the contextualization of dialectical theology within a plural society This article elaborates on a previous one [HTS 51/1, 13-38] in which it was argued that postmodern theology, seen from a specific angle, might be regarded as a contextualization of dialectical thinking. The intention of this article is to focus on an illumination of the road that the author is convinced ought to be taken by the church and in theology, heading (...) towards the third millennium — specifically against the background of the changing South African context. The following issues are given cursory attention: mythography and the importance of metaphors, the social political dimension of believing, ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, and postconfessionalism. (shrink)

The Christian-democrat/socialist government Martens IV resigned at the end ofMarch 1981, because the socialist party could not agree with an urgency plan to reorganize the public finances. Mark Eyskens, Minister of Finance in that cabinet, put together a new government as soon as April 6 of the same year. He succeeded as Prime Minister while all the other resigning ministers remained in their function. Minister Robert Vandeputte, an extra-parlementarian and honorary governor of the Central Bank, became the new Minister of (...) Finance. Like the preceding governments, the Eyskens cabinet was strongly hampered by deep mistrust between the coalition partners, opposing views between the two communities of Belgium and by disagreements about the way to deal with the socio-economic crisis.The Eyskens cabinet was particularly confronted with the organization of the restructured steelmill Cockerill-Sambre and with the absolute low point of the economic crisis. The budget was strongly affected by the increasing unemployment benefits and the collapse of the fiscal revenues. Due to the continuing protest of the trade unions, Mark Eyskens did not succeed to adapt the automatic wage indexation in order to improve the competitive position ofthe Belgian enterprises. He did however manage to prevent the devaluation of the Belgian franc, which had come under pressure regularly on the financial markets.By the middle of September 1981 the Eyskens government fell as a result of disagreements between the coalition partners about the financing ofthe money loosing steelmill Cockerill-Sambre in Wallonia. Parliamentary elections were advanced to November 8, 1981. The Christiandemocrats lost a considerable number of seats. A Christian-democrat/liberal cabinet, again headed by Wilfried Martens, emerged by mid December. It would carry out a neoliberal policy. Mark Eyskens became the Minister of Economicaffairs in the new government. (shrink)

Disputations were a fixture of Martin Luther’s academic career. Luther participated regularly in disputations. It was an important communicative vehicle through which he developed and expressed his theology. The well-known 95 theses are a case in point. Luther’s career as a disputator was impressive. Several of his most influential disputations were explicitly intended for consideration by his academic and ecclesiastical colleagues, but the majority of his disputations took place as a curricular exercise at the University of Wittenberg. The purpose of (...) these disputations was pedagogical and polemical. Luther deployed the same tools for his defence of proper doctrine that were at the centre of the Protestant reformation in the face of objections. The disputatio de homine is a systematic summary of Luther’s anthropology. It incorporates the doctrine of justification as the theological definition of man. It treats the subject within the context of the relationship between theology and philosophy, and reflects upon the new language of theology. The disputatio de homine provides an essential resource for the study of Luther’s anthropology and the doctrine of justification. (shrink)

I started out as a student of physics, hard-working, interested, but alas, not ‘in love’ with my subject. Then logic struck, and having become interested in this subject for various reasons – including the fascinating personality of my first teacher –, I switched after my candidate’s program, to take two master’s degrees, in mathematics and in philosophy. The beauty of mathematics was clear to me at once, with the amazing power, surprising twists, and indeed the music, of abstract arguments. As (...) our professor of Analysis wrote at the time in our study guide “Mathematics is about the delight in the purity of trains of thought”, and oldfashioned though this phrasing sounded in the revolutionary 1960s, it did resonate with me. Then I had the privilege of being taught set-theoretic topology by a group of brilliant students around De Groot, our leading expert around the time, who worked with Moore’s method of discovering a subject for oneself. Topology unfolded from a few definitions and examples to real theorems that we had to prove ourselves – and the take-home exam took sleepless nights, as it included proving some results from scratch which came from a recent dissertation (as it turned out later). Only at the very end did De Groot appear, to give one lecture on Tychonoff’s Theorem where an application was made of the Axiom of Choice, a sacral act only to be performed by tenured full professors. (shrink)

Kin Milinda asked the sage, “How are you known? What is your name?”“I was named Nãgasena by my parents, the priests and the others… But Nāgasena is not a separate entity. Just as the different parts of the chariot when they are brought, together form a chariot, so when the constitutive elements of existence are brought together in a body, they form a living being”.Later the king asked, “What becomes reborn, Nāgasena?”“The name and the form (nāmarūpa) are reborn”.“Is it this (...) name and this form that are reborn?”“No, but through this name and this form, deeds, whether good or bad, are performed, and by these deeds, the karma, another name-and-form is reborn”.This dialogue from the first century B.C. explains, with a slightly different meaning, a cardinal notion for Hinduism, the principle of individuation. Designated by the composite nāma (name) and rūpa (form), this notion illustrates the consubstantial relationship between the person and his name. (shrink)

Non-treatment decisions concerning demented patients are complex: in addition to issues concerning the health of patients, ethical and legal issues are involved. This paper describes a method for the development of a guideline that clarifies the steps to be taken in the decision making process whether to forgo curative treatment of pneumonia in psychogeriatric nursing home patients.The method of development consisted of seven steps. Step 1 was a literature study from which ethical, juridical and medical factors concerning the patient's health (...) and prognosis were identified. In step 2, a questionnaire was sent to 26 nursing home physicians to determine the relative importance of these factors in clinical practice. In a meeting of nine experienced physicians , the factors identified in step 2 were confirmed by most of these professionals. To prevent the final guideline being too directive, a concept guideline that included ethical and legal aspects was designed in the form of a “checklist of considerations” . Experts in the fields of nursing home medicine, ethics and law reviewed and commented on the concept guideline . The accordingly adapted “checklist of considerations” was tested in a pilot study , after which all experts endorsed the checklist .The resulting “checklist of considerations” structures the decision making process according to three primary domains: medical aspects, patient's autonomy, and patient's best interest. (shrink)

Belgium's annual «horizontal» State budgets for scientific activities show a transition from the «golden» sixties and early seventies, with a privileged higher increase than the State budget as a whole, to recent years, during which the science budget has had some difficulty to maintain its level in absolute figures, constant prices.This evolution reflects mainly three phenomena : the completion, in 1971, of the legal and financial measures for university expansion gradually developed since the early sixties and creating a large reserve (...) of student places; beginning in the same year, the surprising reducingrate of increase and even stagnation of student numbers, as against the previous explosion of these numbers; the fact that the expansion of scientific activities in higher education was not followed to the same extent by a process of «scientification» outside education.Out of the decade came probably less enthusiasm in society for science and many aften organizational problems. The main task for the next few years is, especially considering Belgian conditions and the context of economic crisis, to reinforce, through various policies, scientific activities and impact on productive and service industries as well as in the publicservice. (shrink)

It has become a commonplace to say that Western civilization—all the civilizations of the globe, in fact—is in a state of crisis. Spengler and Toynbee, after studying the laws governing the development of great cultures of the past, expressed the opinion that our experience is repeating what marked the decline of each of them: development of universal empires, atony of languages, cultural as well as religious agnosticism. For those who may distrust such sweeping views, it is sufficient to observe that (...) today's questioning attitudes represent neither mere matters of detail nor even the major renewals experienced by a civilization in a state of becoming. Humanism is shaken to its very foundations, and, the object of criticism and schism, has lost its inspirational force. Renaissance and revolutions broke with their immediate past only to breathe new life into an endangered civilization. This new breath was either drawn from an old tradition or anticipated in political and social readjustment. The French Revolution professed to be carrying out the aims of reason and nature, which had inspired the West for eight centuries, just as the Renaissance had professed to rediscover the spirit of antiquity. Our questions, on the other hand, arise not from a disorder in the old but from a conviction that the old has exhausted its principles and its possibilities and that it can henceforth only give way to something entirely new. (shrink)