This essay comprises two chapters from the first part of Bollnow’s book on moods, namely the second chapter on the concept of Stimmung and the third chapter on Stimmungen as the sustaining foundation of the soul. It argues that moods constitute the simplest and most original form in which human life comes to know itself. Moods are understood as a specific harmony between, first, the inner and outer world; second, the states of the body and the soul; and, third, the (...) individual faculties of the soul. Moods differ from emotions in the narrow sense, which are always intentionally directed towards a specific object, whereas moods do not have any specific object; they are states of being, structuring and coloring human existence as a whole. Hence, no system of moods is provided, but their extensive diversity is indicated. Furthermore, transient, unsteady, or “moody” moods are distinguished from persistent or basic moods. (shrink)

Starting from the problem of tolerance in a multicultural society, the author undermines the limits of a classical‐liberal foundation (negative tolerance) and suggests the need for a new meaning: a positive concern of tolerance implying appreciation of a variety of social cultures and value traditions. On an ethical level, positive tolerance can be grounded in the Discourse Theory, developing the classical Kantian deontological ethics in a transcendental‐pragmatic and in a transcendental‐hermeneutic sense. In this way, discourse ethics can answer two questions (...) posed by tolerance in a multicultural society: the duty to support all in the pursuit of their ideals and realize positive tolerance as well as its restrictions. (shrink)

Different opinions about the simplicity of God may be connected with different understandings of how abstract terms are used to name the properties which are affirmed of a being. If these terms are taken to signify parts of that being, this being is not a simple one. Thomas Aquinas, who attributes essence, existence and perfections to God, nevertheless thinks that these are not different parts of God. When essence, existence and perfections are attributed to God, they all denominate the same, (...) the Being of the first cause. For Aquinas, this is a consequence of his way of introducing the language about God by basing it upon the philosophical ways leading to God as first cause. Awareness of this connection between Divine attributes and the arguments for God’s existence is crucial for an adequate understanding of Aquinas’ position. (shrink)

Shadow pictures radically changed the modern understanding of pictorial concepts. Tim Otto Roth’s broadly based cultural history traces the consequences of this revolution of methods of vision and image production in the sciences and the arts. By means of abundant image and text sources he develops a picture theory based on physics and projective geometry. This definitive book comprising 500 pages provides a generally understandable and vivid insight in the history of shadowgraphs from the 19th century until the present (...) age. A crucial role play scientific processes as the X-ray technique, but also the artistic examination of space and body. (shrink)

Dysphoria is a complex phenomenon which must be defi ned in the framework of different forms of affections. It belongs to the broader field of emotions, which are characterized by some essential features: i.e. movement, passiveness, tran-sitoriness, and reference to the others. All these four essential features of emotion are specifi cally altered in depression, whose phenomenology is presented in a clinical case. In discussing dysphoria, a first distinction is made between par-ticular and global affections. The fi rst type encompasses (...) emotions and feelings, while the second one includes humor, mood and temper. Dysphoria belongs to one of these global affective states: the humor, which has to do with the spatial dimension of existence. In dysphoria the patient experiences the world as oppressive and invasive of his/her intimacy; the others are lived as persons demanding answers or actions he/she is not able to fulfill. Finally, the phenomenology of dysphoria is analyzed through the four essential features described above and examples are given. (shrink)

A distorted representation of one's own body is a diagnostic criterion and core psychopathology of both anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Despite recent technical advances in research, it is still unknown whether this body image disturbance is characterized by body dissatisfaction and a low ideal weight and/or includes a distorted perception or processing of body size. In this article, we provide an update and meta-analysis of 42 articles summarizing measures and results for body size estimation (BSE) from 926 (...) individuals with AN, 536 individuals with BN and 1920 controls. We replicate findings that individuals with AN and BN overestimate their body size as compared to controls (ES= 0.63). Our meta-regression shows that metric methods (BSE by direct or indirect spatial measures) yield larger effect sizes than depictive methods (BSE by evaluating distorted pictures), and that effect sizes are larger for patients with BN than for patients with AN. To interpret these results, we suggest a revised theoretical framework for BSE that accounts for differences between depictive and metric BSE methods regarding the underlying body representations (conceptual vs. perceptual, implicit vs. explicit). We also discuss clinical implications and argue for the importance of multimethod approaches to investigate body image disturbance. (shrink)

Dieser Aufsatz behandelt moderne "Naturphilosophie" am Beispiel von Rupert Riedls evolutionärer Erkenntnistheorie und Carl Friedrich von Weizsäckers Philosophie der Physik. Es wird darin im Anschluss das menschliche Erkennen im Hinblick auf die Ordnung der Natur reflektiert. Schließlich wird das Phänomen der Erkenntnis sowohl im von Weizsäcker und Riedl erschlossenen Zugang zur Realität als auch in wissenschaftsphilosophischer Hinsicht erfasst.

The INBIOSA project brings together a group of experts across many disciplines who believe that science requires a revolutionary transformative step in order to address many of the vexing challenges presented by the world. It is INBIOSA’s purpose to enable the focused collaboration of an interdisciplinary community of original thinkers. This paper sets out the case for support for this effort. The focus of the transformative research program proposal is biology-centric. We admit that biology to date has been more fact-oriented (...) and less theoretical than physics. However, the key leverageable idea is that careful extension of the science of living systems can be more effectively applied to some of our most vexing modern problems than the prevailing scheme, derived from abstractions in physics. While these have some universal application and demonstrate computational advantages, they are not theoretically mandated for the living. A new set of mathematical abstractions derived from biology can now be similarly extended. This is made possible by leveraging new formal tools to understand abstraction and enable computability. [The latter has a much expanded meaning in our context from the one known and used in computer science and biology today, that is "by rote algorithmic means", since it is not known if a living system is computable in this sense (Mossio et al., 2009).] Two major challenges constitute the effort. The first challenge is to design an original general system of abstractions within the biological domain. The initial issue is descriptive leading to the explanatory. There has not yet been a serious formal examination of the abstractions of the biological domain. What is used today is an amalgam; much is inherited from physics (via the bridging abstractions of chemistry) and there are many new abstractions from advances in mathematics (incentivized by the need for more capable computational analyses). Interspersed are abstractions, concepts and underlying assumptions “native” to biology and distinct from the mechanical language of physics and computation as we know them. A pressing agenda should be to single out the most concrete and at the same time the most fundamental process-units in biology and to recruit them into the descriptive domain. Therefore, the first challenge is to build a coherent formal system of abstractions and operations that is truly native to living systems. Nothing will be thrown away, but many common methods will be philosophically recast, just as in physics relativity subsumed and reinterpreted Newtonian mechanics. -/- This step is required because we need a comprehensible, formal system to apply in many domains. Emphasis should be placed on the distinction between multi-perspective analysis and synthesis and on what could be the basic terms or tools needed. The second challenge is relatively simple: the actual application of this set of biology-centric ways and means to cross-disciplinary problems. In its early stages, this will seem to be a “new science”. This White Paper sets out the case of continuing support of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for transformative research in biology and information processing centered on paradigm changes in the epistemological, ontological, mathematical and computational bases of the science of living systems. Today, curiously, living systems cannot be said to be anything more than dissipative structures organized internally by genetic information. There is not anything substantially different from abiotic systems other than the empirical nature of their robustness. We believe that there are other new and unique properties and patterns comprehensible at this bio-logical level. The report lays out a fundamental set of approaches to articulate these properties and patterns, and is composed as follows. -/- Sections 1 through 4 (preamble, introduction, motivation and major biomathematical problems) are incipient. Section 5 describes the issues affecting Integral Biomathics and Section 6 -- the aspects of the Grand Challenge we face with this project. Section 7 contemplates the effort to formalize a General Theory of Living Systems (GTLS) from what we have today. The goal is to have a formal system, equivalent to that which exists in the physics community. Here we define how to perceive the role of time in biology. Section 8 describes the initial efforts to apply this general theory of living systems in many domains, with special emphasis on crossdisciplinary problems and multiple domains spanning both “hard” and “soft” sciences. The expected result is a coherent collection of integrated mathematical techniques. Section 9 discusses the first two test cases, project proposals, of our approach. They are designed to demonstrate the ability of our approach to address “wicked problems” which span across physics, chemistry, biology, societies and societal dynamics. The solutions require integrated measurable results at multiple levels known as “grand challenges” to existing methods. Finally, Section 10 adheres to an appeal for action, advocating the necessity for further long-term support of the INBIOSA program. -/- The report is concluded with preliminary non-exclusive list of challenging research themes to address, as well as required administrative actions. The efforts described in the ten sections of this White Paper will proceed concurrently. Collectively, they describe a program that can be managed and measured as it progresses. (shrink)

Was ist Natur oder was könnte sie sein? Diese und weitere Fragen sind grundlegend für Naturdenken und -handeln. Das Lehr- und Studienbuch bietet eine historisch-systematische und zugleich praxisbezogene Einführung in die Naturphilosophie mit ihren wichtigsten Begriffen. Es nimmt den pluralen Charakter der Wahrnehmung von Natur in den philosophischen Blick und ist auch zum Selbststudium bestens geeignet.

Otto Neurath’s empiricist methodology of economics and his contributions to politi- cal economy have gained increasing attention in recent years. We connect this research with contemporary debates regarding the epistemological status of thought experiments by reconstructing Neurath’s utopias as linchpins of thought experiments. In our three reconstructed examples of different uses of utopias/dystopias in thought experiments we employ a reformulation of Häggqvist’s model for thought experiments and we argue that: (1) Our reformulation of Häggqvist’s model more adequately complies with (...) many uses of thought experiments, especially with the open-ended discussions of utopias and dys- topias in thought experiments. (2) As a strict logical empiricist, Neurath is committed to a strictly empiricist account of thought experiments. John Norton’s empiricist argument view can indeed account for the justifications of empirical beliefs and genuine discoveries targeted by scientific utopianism in three distinct (yet connected) ways, all of which Neur- ath already contemplated: (2.I) Dealing with utopias and thought experiments on a regular basis increases creativity and inventiveness. (2.II) Particular ways of presenting knowl- edge facilitate scientific discovery and social progress. (2.III) The use of utopias in thought experiments can prompt conceptual change and allow access to new phenomena. We con- clude by highlighting that, even though thought experiments support a positive attitude for exploring new social possibilities, Neurath points out that active decisions are unavoidable. The exploration of alternatives and the awareness of a need for decisions in policy discus- sion avert a technocratic outlook in social science. (shrink)

Friedrich Stadler und sein Team schließen über 40 Jahre nach Präsentation der ersten beiden Bände das von Rudolf Haller initiierte Projekt einer umfassenden Werkschau Otto Neuraths (1882–1945) ab. In acht Bänden wird auf fast 5.000 Seiten das Schaffen eines Polyhistors dokumentiert und zugänglich gemacht, dessen intellektueller Spannweite man nicht einmal gerecht wird, wenn man ihn als Philosophen, Nationalökonomen, Gesellschaftstechniker und Aufklärer bezeichnet.

In this dialogue Otto K. and The Professor talk about how experiences from war can affect subjects over generations.

Article on the meaning of the notion 'soul' and its historical development in western philosophical and theological tradition.

Selbst wenn die traditionellen Beweise der immateriellen Seele (von Platon bis Descartes) zu wünschen übrig lassen, muss uns das nicht davon abhalten, sie mit den Mitteln der modernen analytischen Philosophie neu zu fassen und wasserdicht zu machen. Ich werde (ohne eigene Diskussion der bereits vorliegenden Beweise) eine neue Version vorschlagen, die von Swinburne angeregt wurde, sich an wesentlichen Stellen von seinem Ansatz unterscheidet und auf zwei verblüffend schwachen Prämissen beruht: Einerseits auf der konsistenten Vorstellbarkeit von Gedankenspielen, in die irgend eine (...) beliebige Wahrheit über meine augenblickliche Situation integriert ist und denen zufolge ich meinen Tod seelisch, aber ohne Körper überlebe; diese Prämisse ergibt sich der virtuosen Macht unseres Möglichkeitssinns. Andererseits beruht der Beweis auf einer Voraussetzung, die sich (ohne exegetische Garantie) als Echo aristotelischer Substanz-Konzeptionen verstehen, aber ohne großen ontologischen Überbau begründen lässt – dem zufolge folgt aus der materialistischen Analyse meiner augenblicklichen Situation, dass diese Analyse während meiner gesamten Existenz gilt (einmal Körper, immer Körper). Die Logik des Beweises ist bodenständig und setzt keine strittigen modallogischen Prinzipien voraus. Und die Konklusion des Beweises besagt, dass ich jetzt eine immaterielle Seele habe, aber nichts über deren Unsterblichkeit. (shrink)

R. Otto (1869-1937) is known for his work in the field of philosophy of religion. The article addresses his main contributions, with special attention to the Aufsätze zur Ethik and its connection to The Idea of the Holy. Against the idea that Otto is unable to develop an ethics without giving up some fundamental positions of The Idea of the Holy, the article argues in favor of their agreement with his ethical writings, on the basis of the thesis (...) that not everything we know is a form of knowledge (wissen), in the sense of intellectual representation. (shrink)

Seele kommt zweifellos schon ‚höheren‘ Tieren zu, die als solche über phänomenale Wahrnehmung verfügen. Als aufschlussreich erweist sich der kontrastierende Vergleich von Tier und Roboter: Was hat das Tier, was der Roboter nicht hat? Schlüsselfunktion kommt hier Hegels Deutung zu, die als eine Phänomenologie der ‚animalischen Seele‘ angesprochen werden kann. Sein Diktum ‚Nur ein Lebendiges fühlt Mangel‘ verweist auf das alles Organische durchwaltende Prinzip Selbsterhaltung als Grund des Seelischen: Alles, was das Tier wahrnimmt, hat dadurch existentiellen Sinn, Selbsterhaltungs-Sinn. Zugleich wird (...) deutlich, dass die Roboter-Wahrneh- mung nicht zur Sinn-Konstitution befähigt, sondern durch Sinn-Demenz charakterisiert ist. Konkret-systemtheoretisch wird die Sinnbezogenheit des Tiersubjekts hier als Emergenzphänomen desjenigen Systems gedeutet, das durch die Kooperative von Wahrnehmung, Bewertung und Verhalten (Perc-Eval-Act-System) konstituiert wird. In dieser emergentistischen Perspektive gibt es so gleichsam den Dualismus des ‚bloß Physischen‘ und des Ideell-Seelischen, der im Hinblick auf die insgesamt physische Basis zugleich ein Monismus ist. (shrink)

Walter Reese-Schäfer, Karl-Otto Apel, Zur Einführung (with an Afterword by Jürgen Habermas), Junis Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 1990, 176pp. DM 17.80 -/- The author, presently a freelance writer published in the newspaper “Die Zeit” and the magazine “Stern,” pro­vides in this small book a clear and concise introduction to sources, themes and conclusions in the philosophy of Karl-Otto Apel. Apel, Emeritus Pro­fessor at Frank­furt, and close colleague of Habermas, characterizes his viewpoint as a “transcen­dental pragmatism” in which a Kantian (...) concern for question regarding “the conditions for the possi­bility of some­thing,” (p.10) mixes with deontological discourse-ethics, semeiotic themes from Peirce, an ap­proach to fallibilism, the demand for “final justifica­tions” (Letzt­begründung) and German her­meneutics. In view of the “den­sity and concentration” of Apel’s texts, which often have a “deterrent effect” upon those not already at home with “the phil­osophical language game,” it is the announced aim of this book to provide a work of translation and clarification of Apel’s special­ized efforts --in effect an orientation to Apel’s work. The book divides into an Introduction, 8 chapters and a summary conclusion --with Habermas’ appreciation, “A Master Builder with Hermeneutic Feeling --The Way of Philosopher Karl-Otto Apel,” bringing up the rear. There is also a bibliography of primary and secondary sources and a short table outlining highlights of Apel’s career. The “Introduction” provides a good overview of the aims of the book and gets one started on central themes. (shrink)

Two names often grouped together in the study of religion are Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1884) and Rudolf Otto (1869–1937). Central to their understanding of religion is the idea that religious experience, characterized in terms of feeling, lies at the heart of all genuine religion. In his book On Religion, Schleiermacher speaks of religion as a “sense and taste for the Infinite.” In The Christian Faith, Schleiermacher grounds religion in the immediate self-consciousness and the “feeling of absolute dependence.” Influenced by Schleiermacher, (...) Otto also grounds religion in an original experience of what he calls “the numinous,” which can only be grasped through states of feeling. This article discusses the views of Otto and Schleiermacher on religion as feeling. It examines how both men conceived of feeling, the reasons they believed religion had to be understood in its terms, and the common threads linking their perspectives. It also considers Schleiermacher's interpretation of religious feeling as transcendental experience. (shrink)

On the basis of Karl-Otto Apels’ diagnosis of the shortcomings of philosophical ethics in general, and any ethics of individual accountability in particular, I give an outline how these shortcoming are currently to be articulated in the context of ecological crisis and socio-technical change. This will be followed with three interpretations of Karl-Otto Apels’ proposal for an ethics of collective coresponsibility. In conclusion, I will advocate that only a further social evolution of the systems of science, economy and (...) law will enable a possible institutionalization of collective co-responsibility by means of a new innovation paradigm: responsible innovation. (shrink)

The essay discusses F. Schleiermacher and Rudolf Otto on the centrality of religious experience.

Článek se zabývá demystifikací dodnes panující legendy o ikoně světové vědy, nositeli Nobelovy ceny za objev štěpení těžkých jader, chemiku Otto Hahnovi. Desítky let byl považován za vzor německé slušnosti, zodpovědnosti a příklad antinacistického vědce, který nekolaboroval se zločinným režimem na jeho válečné mašinérii. Teprve od devadesátých let 20. století se dostávají k rukám historiků archivní materiály, jež umožňují získat ucelenou představu o Hahnově působení v době nacistického Německa a o jeho aktivním zapojení ve válečném uranovém výzkumu, jehož výsledkem (...) mělo být sestrojení jaderných reaktorů a bomb. (shrink)

Meier’s Gedancken von dem Zustande der Seele nach dem Tode (Gedancken) deserves a prominent place among treatments of the immortality of the soul in 18th century German philosophy, both within and without the Wolffian tradition of rational psychology. It does not wilt next to Mendelssohn’s Phädon in its quality of expression, and might even be compared with Kant’s discussion in the Paralogisms chapter of his Kritik der reinen Vernunft in terms of the boldness of its argument and its philosophical rigour. (...) The Gedancken contributed greatly to Meier’s growing reputation as an original thinker and helped him emerge from the shadow of his famous colleague in the philosophy faculty at the Friedrichs-Universität in Halle, Christian Wolff; moreover, it provoked detailed responses on the part of its critics and even made Meier himself the subject of official investigation as an accused aider and abettor of freethinkers. Meier’s Gedancken thus stands as a work of central importance within his own philosophical corpus and in the history of 18th century German rational psychology more generally. Accordingly, in this Introductory Essay, I will present the context and argument, as well as the reception, of the Gedancken, and then consider Meier’s subsequent defense of his controversial text. (shrink)

The article first (i) gives an exegesis of the famous passage in the Republic, 505d11-506a2. Attention is drawn to the fact that the principle that every soul does everything for the Good (panta prattei) can be translated in two ways: Every soul does everything for the sake of the Good, or goes to all lengths for the sake of the Good. Depending on the different translations, we have a different picture of the platonic Socrates in the Republic, an intellectualistic Socrates (...) for whom pure irrational desires do not exist, or a Socrates who also accepts irrational desires. The article favours the first picture. Then it (ii) attempts to show that we can elucidate two dark points in the Socratic thesis that the Good is what every soul pursues and for which every soul does everything, with the help of Aquinas. Finally, the article (iii) outlines three substantive answers to the question ``What is the Good?'' - the henological, the perfectionist and the structuralist - and shows that these three answers lead into a trilemma. Instead of advancing a new answer, the article suggests an uncontroversial formal starting point for an answer to this question. (shrink)

In the essays collected here, Apel addresses some of the points of the discourse ethics controversy by responding to critics and developing his original formulation in different directions: a) the distinction between two stages of discourse ethics, relating respectively to the ideal community of communication and the real community; in the second stage, while maintaining the principle of equal dignity of communication partners as a regulatory idea, deontological ethics should be integrated with an ethics of responsibility; b) placing a deontological (...) ethics as a post-conventional ethics within an evolutionary reconstruction of individual development and the history of humankind in the light of Gehlen's anthropology and Kohlberg's psychological theory of moral development; c) a recognition of a certain validity in the neo-Hegelian claim of the ineliminable role of morality or Sittlichkeit in the face of all universalistic ethics, accompanied, however, by the characterization of ethics as a compromise between universalistic instances and concrete cultural and institutional data, without any concession, yet, to the thesis of incommensurability between different forms of life. (shrink)

Between Mircea Eliade and Rudolf Otto many connections can be made concerning the idea of sacred. Even though, the scientist of Romanian origin perceives the sacred reality differently from the German theologian. If the latter puts an emphasis on the irrational side of the divine, the former argues that the sacred has to be perceived twofold: as irrational and rational in the same time, the concept of coincidentia oppositorum best embodying the sacred reality. The sacred’s materializations are the hierophanies, (...) the history of religion being nothing else than a sum of hierophanies. Finally, for Eliade, the ascred is connected to the life of homo religiosus. (shrink)

Seit geraumer Zeit ist wieder einmal die Rede vom Ende der Philosophie als einer eigenständigen Disziplin zu vernehmen. Neurophilosophen streben eine Erklärung grundlegender philosophischer Fragen mit Hilfe neurowissenschaftlicher Forschungsergebnisse an, da nach dem Erreichen des Jahrzehnts des Gehirns einer empirisch fundierten Erklärung des Bewusstseins in allen seinen Gestalten nichts mehr im Wege stünde. In Bezug auf Descartes sieht man sich als Postcartesianer jetzt in der Rolle, das sog. Leib-Seele-Problem durch eine naturalistische Reduktion auf neurobiologische Gegebenheiten zu lösen. Ich habe mir (...) die Aufgabe gestellt, diesen Erklärungsanspruch aus einer transzendentalphilosophischen Perspektive zu prüfen. Allerdings nicht, wie es beispielsweise Gerhard Roth erwartet, durch eine dreijährige Einarbeitung in die Neurobiologie, sondern auf wissenschaftstheoretischer bzw. konzeptueller Ebene. Dabei geht es um eine Überprüfung der methodischen Brauchbarkeit des postcartesianischen Referenzrahmens für eine philosophische Theorie des Bewusstseins. Die methodenkritische Untersuchung disqualifiziert materialistisch-reduktionistischer bzw. neuro-philosophischer Ansätze führen wird, insofern diese einen philosophischen Erklärungsanspruch des Bewusstseins erheben. Es wird deutlich, dass ein problematisiertes Leib-Seele-Verhältnis nicht zur Erklärung des Bewusstseins geeignet ist. (shrink)

This paper provides an analysis of Rudolph Otto's understanding of the structures of human consciousness making possible the appropriation of revelation. Already in his dissertation on Luther's understanding of the Holy Spirit, Otto was preoccupied with how the " outer " of revelation could be united to these inner structures. Later, in his groundbreaking Idea of the Holy, Otto would explore the category of the numinous, an element of religious experience tied to the irrational element of the (...) holy. This paper first provides a brief account of Otto's account of the holy, especially its numinous, irrational elements. Second, the paper analyzes Otto's understanding of the structures of consciousness grounding the experience of the numinous and allowing the irrational element to be " schematized " by the rational element. Otto's exposition of these structures is heavily influenced by his reception of Kant's analysis of the two stems of human cognition, namely understanding and sensibility, and their possible relation to a common root, which Otto identified with what the mystics called the ground of the soul. Yet it is in Otto's reception of Kant's Critique of Judgment that all of these ideas find their completion, and it is here where we must look to understand the relation between the religious a priori and Otto's category of the numinous. Kant's aesthetic idea is a singular representation given in intuition; it is infinitely saturated and as such intimates the ideas of God, the soul, and the world as a whole. I show how Otto appropriates Kant's aesthetic idea and its relation to ideas of reason in order to make sense of how an empirically given revelation, for instance, an experience of the numinous, can connect with the inner structures of consciousness and thereby have the singular import that it does. (shrink)

Segundo Kierkegaard, a verdade se sobrepõe ao caráter objetivo que encerra desde uma investigação histórica até um exercício especulativo, guardando correspondência com a subjetividade em um movimento que implica a condição-limite da interioridade. Detendo-se em tal princípio hermenêutico-existencial, o artigo assinala a espiritualidade enquanto experiência epistêmico-existencial envolvendo a verdade como paradoxo em Kierkegaard, que se sobrepõe à mediação lógico-discursiva e implica uma construção dialético-subjetiva que transcende a razão histórico-objetiva (ou finita). Dessa forma, caracterizando a espiritualidade enquanto experiência epistêmico-existencial que encerra (...) como único tipo de evidência a evidência de caráter não racional, o artigo recorre à perspectiva fenomenológica de Rudolf Otto, que sublinha o sagrado e a sua distinção absoluta em relação à realidade natural e ao seu caráter perceptível em uma construção que enfatiza o elemento não racional e a sua natureza suprarracional e implica o numinoso, que escapa aos processos lógico-racionais e, emergindo como a priori, converge para a apreensão do racional e do não racional na noção da Divindade. Assim, se a relação com Deus se sobrepõe às fronteiras que encerram a subjetividade e a objetividade, convergindo para a superação do referido esquema estrutural epistêmico, o artigo, baseado na perspectiva teológico-filosófica de Paul Tillich, detém-se no conceito de Presença Espiritual que, caracterizando a vida sem ambiguidade, implica a união transcendente, correlacionando ágape e gnosis enquanto experiência epistêmico-existencial envolvendo a relação com o sagrado como presença de Deus através de um movimento extático-religioso que converge para a automanifestação, a autorrevelação e a autocomunicação do Absoluto e Transcendente como Deus. (shrink)

Die Zeiten, in denen der Leib-Seele-Dualismus als Ansatz der Philosophie des Geistes durch ein herrschendes Dogma als diskussionsunwürdig galt, sind vorbei. Der Dualismus darf wieder diskutiert werden. Er muß diskutiert werden, wenn in diskussionswürdiger Strenge für ihn argumentiert wird – auch wenn das, wie sich zeigen wird, manchmal ein ziemlich technisches Geschäft ist. In diesem Sinne soll im folgenden Richard Swinburnes Versuch behandelt werden, die Existenz einer Seele und damit die Wahrheit des Substanzdualismus aus einigen zunächst recht unspektakulär aussehenden Prämissen (...) mit Hilfe der modernen Modallogik formal zu beweisen. Zugleich sei damit auf eine kleine Debatte aufmerksam gemacht, die sich inzwischen um Swinburnes Argument entwickelt hat. Die Untersuchung führt zu einem doppelten negativen Ergebnis: Zum einen sind Swinburnes Prämissen nicht plausibel, zum anderen ist ein wichtiger Teil seines Beweisversuches formal nicht in Ordnung. Swinburnes Argument ist also weder überzeugend noch gültig . Allerdings ist das nicht auf den ersten Blick ersichtlich, denn Swinburnes Argument ist alles andere als trivial. Eine eingehende Kritik dieses Arguments soll zeigen, daß, selbst wenn der Dualismus wahr sein sollte, er nicht ganz so einleuchtend ist, wie Swinburne meint. (shrink)

The extended mind thesis claims that some mental states and cognitive processes extend onto the environment. Items external to the organism or exploratory actions may constitute in part mental states and cognitive processes. In Clark and Chalmers’ original paper, ‘The Extended Mind’, this thesis receives support from the parity principle and from the active externalism. In their paper, more emphasis is given to the parity principle, which is presented as neutral regarding the nature of cognition. It would be advantageous to (...) maintain that extended mental states and processes do not require a reform of our pre-theoretical view of cognition. In the present paper, I submit that we should give more emphasis on the active externalism, which, I argue, is not neutral regarding the nature of cognition. Cognition is viewed as successful adaptation to a specific task. Although this move may seem at first disadvantageous, it is necessary for the correct understanding and justification of Otto case as an example of extended mental state. Additionally, the parity principle cannot handle Weiskopf’s criticism that information registered in Otto’s notebook is not responsive to reasons. In order to address this criticism, we need to appeal to active externalism and its corresponding view of cognition. (shrink)

Article on the question whether the mind-body problem is partially non-empirical, and irreducibly conceptual or philosophical.

When Otto Neurath went into exile in 1934, first to Holland and then to England, he succeeded in establishing important new connections within the context of the international Unity of Science movement, for which he was largely responsible. A notable example was the British philosopher L. Susan Stebbing, who supported his pragmatic ideas on the “humanization” of knowledge. Both Neurath and Stebbing were looking for ways to apply modern logic and linguistic analysis, not only to the transfer of information (...) in science and teaching, but above all in publication projects for the “common reader.” In 1941, Stebbing became the first president of the Isotype Institute in Oxford, which Neurath directed until 1945. Soon after ISOTYPE was founded, long-term relations began between it and the book-packaging company Adprint managed by German-speaking emigrés in London, as well as its successors and British clients. A technically and organizationally sophisticated process for the production of illustrated non-fiction books was gradually established. The “picture-text style” developed by Neurath and epitomized in Modern Man in the Making was applied to non-fiction books and series with “integrated layouts,” then professionalized and successively transformed into a production model for illustrated books which enabled scientific information to be prepared for the mass market and the “common reader” – in the service of a modern, democratic society. (shrink)

This article (in German) explores divine activity, human passivity, and the role played by grace in the medieval image-and-verse program "Christ and the Loving Soul". After discussing the historical context and target readers and laying out the story of CMS, I show how this popular piece of late medieval devotional literature expresses complex theological and philosophical ideas that central to understanding the narrative. I argue for a new way of reading CMS that places emphasis on movement and the notion of (...) volitional "turning points" ("Ke(h)rmomente") - a reading that sheds new light on medieval understandings of divine acts of grace and human autonomy. (shrink)

[please see my website for the English language version] What is the relationship between a philosophical or theoretical conception of mind, and the mind’s conception of itself? Should the latter constrain the former? And how does the mind itself understand a theory of mind, that is, a theory of itself? I raise these questions by means of Freud. Freud suggested that the mind cannot merely theoretically comprehend psychoanalytic concepts but must be able to “recognize” and “sympathize” with them. I call (...) this the recognition requirement. This idea clarifies the rationale behind Freud’s last metapsychology of Id, Ego, and Super-ego. I close by asking: when should a theory of mind try to meet the recognition requirement? I propose that a theory of mind should be structured according to the recognition requirement when that theory is connected with practical aims, specifically, when the theory is concerned with the life of the mind and with facilitating the mind’s own self-understanding. (shrink)

According to Kierkegaard, truth is superimposed on the objective character that encompasses from a historical investigation to a speculative exercise, keeping a correspondence with subjectivity in a movement that implies the limit-condition of interiority. Focusing on such existential-hermeneutic principle, the article points out spirituality as an epistemic-existential experience involving truth as a paradox in Kierkegaard, that overlaps the logical-discursive mediation and implies a dialectical-subjective construction that transcends reason historical-objective (or finite). In this way, characterizing spirituality as an epistemic-existential experience thatconverges (...) to the borders that contain non-rational evidence as the only type of evidence, the article resorts to Rudolf Otto's phenomenological perspective, that emphasizes the sacred and its absolute distinction in relation to natural reality and its perceptible character in a construction that emphasizes the non-rational element and its supra-rational nature and implies the numinous, which escapes logical-rational processes and, emerging as a priori, converges to the apprehension of the rational and the non-rational in the notion of Divinity. Thus, if the relationship with God overlaps the borders that enclose subjectivity and objectivity, converging to overcome the aforementioned epistemic structural scheme, the article, based on Paul Tillich's theological-philosophical perspective, focuses on the concept of Spiritual Presence that, characterizing life without ambiguity, implies a transcendent unión, correlatingagape and gnosis as an epistemic-existential experience involving the relationship with the sacred as the presence of God through an ecstatic-religious movement that converges to self-manifestation, self-revelation and the self-communication of the Absolute and Transcendent as God. (shrink)

According to Kierkegaard, truth is superimposed on the objective character that encompasses historical investigation and speculative exercise, dialoguing with subjectivity and the limit-condition of interiority. Focusing on such existential-hermeneutic principle, the article points out spirituality as an epistemic-existential experience involving truth as a paradox in Kierkegaard, that overlaps the logical-discursive mediation and implies a dialectical-subjective construction that transcends reason historical-objective. Thus, characterizing spirituality as an epistemic-existential experience that contains non-rational evidence, the article resorts to Rudolf Otto's phenomenology to underline (...) the sacred and its absolute distinction from natural reality and its perceptible character, emphasizing the non-rational element and its supra-rational nature in the numinous, which escapes logical-rational processes and converges to the apprehension of the rational and the non-rational in the notion of Divinity. Therefore, if the relationship with God overlaps subjectivity and objectivity and overcomes the aforementioned epistemic structural scheme, the article, based on the philosophical theology of Paul Tillich, focuses on the concept of Spiritual Presence and on life without ambiguity, which implies the union transcendent and correlates agape and gnosis in an ecstatic-religious movement that encompasses the self-manifestation, self-revelation and self-communication of the Absolute and Transcendent. (shrink)

Die transzendentalphilosophische Theorie Johann Gottlieb Fichtes bietet eine Konzeption, mittels derer sich strukturelle bzw. methodologische Schwierigkeiten einer philosophischen Theoriebildung über das empirische Bewusstsein nicht nur vermeiden, sondern produktiv instrumentalisieren lassen. Um der gegenwärtig naturalistisch geprägten Bewusstseinsphilosophie einen logisch-begrifflich bzw. apriorisch fundierten Ansatz gegenüberzustellen, stehen im folgenden einzelne Theoriestücke des Fichteschen Systems zentral, die der besonderen Struktur des empirischen Bewusstseins gerecht werden können.

This book (in German) on "Physics, life and mind" is on the physical foundations of modern biology. The basic features of living systems, reproduction, mutation and metabolism, can be explained in terms of molecular processes involving nucleic acids as genetic material, and proteins as catalysts. The generation of structure and form in each generation results from spatiotemporal gene regulation in conjunction with the de novo formation of spatial order in which interplays of activation and inhibition play a crucial part. Brain (...) functions can be understood in terms of information processing in neural networks. Fundamental limitations of explanations of biological phenomena on the basis of physics are expected for the relation between neural and mental states, which may not be fully decodable by finite procedures. A complete algorithmic theory of the human mind encompassing all, including self-referential, aspects appears to be impossible even in principle, not only in practice. The range and limitations of explanations of life on the basis of physical laws and processes reflect the scope and limits of science in general. In contrast to the notions in circulation in the 19th century, modern science is open at the metatheoretical level to different philosophical, cultural and religious interpretations of man and the universe. -/- . (shrink)

The outline and introduction to my dissertation addresses the problem of the crisis between the human and natural sciences and the way in which Plato, by introducing the soul, as mediator between the two, provides us with solutions. The dissertation is divided into three chapters: the cosmos, the state or polis and the individual knower, which are each divided into three topics, the body, the soul and the mind, which represent the material cause, the efficient cause and the formal cause, (...) leaving out the final cause and which in modern terminology translate into: the philosophy of science, political theory or ethics and epistemology or the philosophy of mind. (shrink)

This paper briefly describes the life of Otte Gross and his thoughts on sexuality, society, and repression. This provides the basis to interpret the #MeToo movement as functioning in the same way as a repressed memory that breaks through to consciousness. Gross' suggestion that society "rapes" individuals and his assertion of a primordial matriarchal society are useful insights in understanding the #Metoo movement.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relations between knowledge, language and communication within the framework of Neurath's philosophical and political program. In particular, we draw a parallel between the adoption of the physicalist language as the basic language of science and the development of ISOTYPE system of visual education. We defend the idea that they maintain a relation of reciprocity with each other that makes possible the exchange of factual information and the transformation of verbal statements into (...) visual statements, and vice versa. This relation of reciprocity is also based on a series of shared features. In this regard, we consider that both are conceived as thing-languages and both play a pedagogical and political role, that consists in enabling communication between science and society. For Neurath, this role also involves a model of communication aimed at the humanization of knowledge and the democratization of decisions. (shrink)