It is well known that John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine contains strong autobiographical elements. Equally, the essay is an important 19th century contribution to the development of the history of theology. Another fact is lesswell known: in the case of Newman, biography and the history of ideas go hand in hand. This article aims to explain how Newman’s personal search for a spiritual home influenced his conception of the development of Christian thought. This is done (...) by analysing Newman’s own writing as well as looking at the critical appraisal of Newman’s thought by Rowan Williams. Both authors share an interest in the development of theological ideas but differ in their opinion on the necessity of continuity in this development. (shrink)

In der 1970 gegründeten Reihe erscheinen Arbeiten, die philosophiehistorische Studien mit einem systematischen Ansatz oder systematische Studien mit philosophiehistorischen Rekonstruktionen verbinden. Neben deutschsprachigen werden auch englischsprachige Monographien veröffentlicht. Gründungsherausgeber sind: Erhard Scheibe (Herausgeber bis 1991), Günther Patzig (bis 1999) und Wolfgang Wieland (bis 2003). Von 1990 bis 2007 wurde die Reihe von Jürgen Mittelstraß mitherausgegeben.

Definition of the problem: In Germany, clinical ethics is still in the state of development. Ethics consultation is very new and rare in the clinical setting in German university hospitals. Therefore this paper describes the clinical ethics activities at the Medical Center of Philipps University, Marburg, regard to ethics consultation in a case report. Clinical ethics rounds at the Surgical Intensive Care Unit are organized according to the theory and practice of the ethics consultation service at the Medical Center of (...) the University of Virginia, established by J.C. Fletcher, F.G. Miller and J.J. Fins. (shrink)

Burkhard Nonnenmacher analysiert Kants Verhältnisbestimmung von Vernunft und Glaube von Grund auf, stellt Kants fundamentaltheologische Weichenstellungen dar und zeigt, zu welchen materialdogmatischen Konsequenzen diese führen. Der Autor fragt, welche methodologischen Probleme in Kants Entwurf enthalten sind und was diese für die Systematische Theologie der Gegenwart bedeuten.

The star-positions on the rete of a European astrolabe made in 1420 and now private German property, emphasize how some medieval European star-tables had been incorrectly copied and misunderstood. The star-coordinates and star-names on the astrolabe in question are based on John of London's star-table (1246). The style of the star-pointers and the aequinoctial bar on the rete, some inscriptions, and also the sundial engraved on the alidade are reminiscent of the earliest known Western Islamic astrolabe. The plates are engraved (...) with curves for latitude 45° though the markings stand for different latitudes. (shrink)

Jon Bing was not only a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and law and the legal regulation of technology. He was also an accomplished author of fiction, with an oeuvre spanning from short stories and novels to theatre plays and even an opera. As reality catches up with the imagination of science fiction writers who have anticipated a world shared by humans and non-human intelligences of their creation, some of the copyright issues he has discussed in his academic (...) capacity take on new resonance. How will we regulate copyright when robots are producers and consumers of art? This paper tries to give a sketch of the problem and hints at possible answers that are to a degree inspired by Bing’s academic and creative writing. (shrink)

We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the embeddability of a finite principally decomposable lattice into the computably enumerable degrees preserving greatest element.

We investigate homomorphisms of degree structures with various relations, functions and constants. Our main emphasis is on pseudolattices, i.e., partially ordered sets with a join operation and relations simulating the meet operation. We show that there are no finite quotients of the pseudolattice of degrees or of the pseudolattice of degrees 0′, but that many finite distributive lattices are pseudolattice quotients of the pseudolattice of computably enumerable degrees.

Lange Zeit hielt sich der westliche Mensch für besonders frei und autonom. Menschen anderer Kulturen hingegen beschrieb und beurteilte er oft als gefangen in verwandtschaftlichen, sozialen, kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen, religiösen und politischen Zwängen. In seinen Essays hinterfragt Burkhard Schnepel dieses Selbst- und Fremdbild. So bricht er die damit einhergehenden Verzerrungen des 'exotischen' und 'orientalischen' Anderen auf. Der Autor betrachtet unterschiedliche Manifestationen und Typen von Personen in Afrika, Indien und in der Welt des Indischen Ozeans. Neben Königen, Narren und Träumern stellt (...) er auch den Tänzer und den Touristen in den Blickpunkt seiner ethnologischen Untersuchungen. (shrink)

Proliferation of data processing and data storage devices in the Internet of Things poses significant privacy risks. At the same time, faster and faster use-cycles and obsolescence of devices with electronic components causes environmental problems. Some of the solutions to the environmental challenges of e-waste include mandatory recycling schemes as well as informal second hand markets. However, the data security and privacy implications of these green policies are as yet badly understood. This paper argues that based on the experience with (...) second hand markets in desktop computers, it is very likely that data that was legitimately collected under the household exception of the Data Protection Directive will “leak” into public spheres. Operators of large recycling schemes may find themselves inadvertently and unknowingly to be data controller for the purpose of Data Protection law, private resale of electronic devices can expose the prior owner to significant privacy risks. (shrink)

Following an idea first proposed by Jerzy Wróblewski, this paperexamines the usefulness of formal logic for comparative legal analysis. Subject of the comparison are the doctrines of mistake and attempt in Germanand English criminal law. These doctrines are distinguished by the interaction of deontic, epistemic and alethic modalities. I propose a purely extensional logic which is based on Leśniewski’s substitutional interpretation ofquantification to analyse differences in the logical structure of the variouscriminal law doctrines.

Neuroeconomics focuses on brain imaging studies mapping neural responses to choice behaviour. Economic theory is concerned with choice behaviour but it is silent on neural activities. We present a game theoretic model in which players are endowed with an additional structure – a simple “nervous system” – and interact repeatedly in changing games. The nervous system constrains information processing functions and behavioural functions. By reinterpreting results from evolutionary game theory, we suggest that nervous systems can develop to “function well” in (...) exogenously changing strategic environments. We present an example indicating that an analogous conclusion fails if players can influence endogenously their environment. (shrink)

The Two Truths in Chinese Buddhism, Chang-Qing Shih, pp. xviii, 401. Rs. 695. ISBN 81-208-2035-5.

The blood‐brain barrier (BBB) is a complex structure formed by vascular endothelial cells, which serve to stabilize the homeostasic processes that are essential for neural functioning. The barrier relies on tight junctions between neighboring endothelial cells and a highly restricted passage of blood‐borne components through the endothelial lining. Selective transport mechanisms guarantee the essential import and export of metabolites through the BBB into and out of the neural microenvironment. The dual functions of barrier and carrier depend on distinct proteins, some (...) of which have been characterized in detail. (shrink)

We seek an evolutionary explanation for why in some situations humans maintain either optimistic or pessimistic attitudes toward uncertainty and are ignorant to relevant aspects of their environment. Players in strategic games face Knightian uncertainty about opponents’ actions and maximize individually their Choquet expected utility with respect to neo-additive capacities allowing for both an optimistic or pessimistic attitude toward uncertainty as well as ignorance to strategic dependencies. An optimist overweighs good outcomes. A complete ignorant never reacts to opponents’ changes of (...) actions. We focus on sub- and supermodular aggregative games and provide monotone comparative statics w.r.t. optimism/pessimism. With qualifications, we show that in finite populations, optimistic complete ignorance is evolutionary stable and yields a strategic advantage in submodular games with aggregate externalities. Moreover, this evolutionary stable preference leads to Walrasian behavior in these classes of games. (shrink)

The influence of background music on cognitive functions is still a matter of debate. In this study, we investigated the influence of background music on executive functions (particularly on inhibitory functions). Participants completed a standardized cued Go/NoGo task during three different conditions while an EEG was recorded (1: with no background music, 2: with relaxing or 3: with exciting background music). In addition, we collected reaction times, omissions, and commissions in response to the Go and NoGo stimuli. From the EEG (...) data, event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated for the Go and NoGo trials. From these ERPs, the N2 and P3 components were specifically analyzed since previous studies have shown that these components (and particularly the Go-NoGo difference waves) are strongly associated with inhibitory functions. The N2 and P3 components of the difference waves (N2d and P3d) were used for statistical analyses. The statistical analyses revealed no differences between the three conditions in terms of amplitudes and latencies of the N2d and P3d components. In addition, reaction times, omissions, and commissions were comparable across all conditions. Our results suggest that in the context of this paradigm, music as background acoustic stimulation has no detrimental effects on the performance of a Go/NoGo task and neural underpinnings. (shrink)

It is argued that an indefinite statement as introduced by Aristotle in De Int. 7 refers to a universal which may partly partake in contradictory accidental predicates together. This fact is mirrored on the semantic level by ascribing truth to some degree to both parts of a contradiction. Accordingly, Aristotle should be interpreted as saying in De Int. 9 that the statement that a certain individual object will be F at some time in its contingent future is to be taken (...) to be true to some degree. This is because an individual object cannot yet, with respect to its contingent future, be regarded as factual but only as - time-independently - exemplifying a universal. In this context, fundamental connections become apparent between indefinite statements on the one hand and Aristotelian modal logic, statistics and theory of science on the other. (shrink)

Muße ist ein freies Verweilen in der Zeit jenseits von Zweckrationalismus. Die Eigenzeitlichkeit wird zum Freiraum simultaner Möglichkeiten unserer Lebensgestaltung. Muße zielt auf ästhetisch und räumlich inszenierte Lebensformen, die in der Zeit nicht der Herrschaft der Zeit unterliegen. Konzepte von Muße sind stets eingebettet in ihre historischen und kulturellen Kontexte. Der Band beleuchtet historische Paradigmen der Muße in ihren literarischen Inszenierungen, diskursiven Verflechtungen und performativen Effekten. Die Beiträge aus der Philosophie, Klassischen Philologie, Alten Kirchengeschichte, germanistischen Mediävistik, neueren deutschen Literatur, Anglistik, (...) Soziologie, Geschichtswissenschaft, Archäologie, Kunstgeschichte, Ethnologie und Sinologie untersuchen Muße als anthropologisches und kulturgeschichtlich distinktes Phänomen, das sich Zeitzwängen widersetzt und Freiräume eröffnet. Analysiert werden unterschiedliche Semantisierungen, Ähnlichkeiten und Umbesetzungen, wie beispielsweise 'Freizeit', die Überschneidungen, aber auch gravierende Abgrenzungen zur Muße aufweisen. (shrink)