Although the principle of informed consent is well established and its importance widely acknowledged, it has met with criticism for decades. Doubts have been raised for a number of different reasons. In particular, empirical data show that people regularly fail to reproduce the information provided to them. Many critics agree, therefore, that the received concept of informed consent is no more than a myth. Strategies to overcome this problem often rest on a flawed concept of informed consent. In this paper, (...) it is suggested that informed consent is a communicative act between two persons. The challenge is to elucidate the norms and constraints for successfully performing such a communicative act. The view developed here has major consequences with regard to the standards for information disclosure as well as for the general scope of informed consent. (shrink)

Proof Theory of Modal Logic is devoted to a thorough study of proof systems for modal logics, that is, logics of necessity, possibility, knowledge, belief, time, computations etc. It contains many new technical results and presentations of novel proof procedures. The volume is of immense importance for the interdisciplinary fields of logic, knowledge representation, and automated deduction.

As the discoverer of electromagnetic waves, Hertz is one of the most important figures in the history of physics. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his death, this volume ties together his personal and professional life. It contains 11 of Hertz's most important papers, seven accounts of his life by renowned contemporaries, and a biographical introduction. A bibliography of Hertz's scientific papers, a general bibliography of books and articles about his contributions to physics, and a comprehensive index round out (...) the coverage. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to analyse compactness properties of nonmonotonic inference operations within the framework of model theory. For this purpose the concepts of a deductive frame and its semantical counterpart, a semantical frame are introduced. Compactness properties play a fundamental in the study of non-monotonic inference, and in the paper several new versions of compactness are studied.

Examines the diverse cultural influences which have shaped the basic philosophical traditions of India "Indian philosophy was at the heart of Zimmer's interest..

Lange vergriffen ' jetzt als Neuausgabe:Heinrich Barths Philosophie der Praktischen VernunftHeinrich Barths Philosophie der Praktischen Vernunft ist zugleich eine gründliche Analyse von Immanuel Kants Kritik der praktischen Vernunft und die Grundlegung einer eigenständigen Philosophie der existentiell begründeten Vernunft. Ausgehend von den Marburger Philosophen Hermann Cohen und Paul Natorp, vertieft Barth deren transzendentalen Systemgedanken zu einem radikalen Prinzip, das die Wirklichkeitsfrage neu aufwirft. Letztere wird zwar auch in Kants zweiter Kritik gestellt, doch nicht im Sinne einer Handlungstheorie, sondern mit der (...) Absicht aufzuweisen, dass es so etwas wie praktische Vernunft überhaupt «gibt». Genau darin aber erkennt Barth den Kern der Philosophie der Existenz, wodurch sich seine Philosophie der Praktischen Vernunft ' wie Sein und Zeit 1927 erschienen ' in einer noch zu erhellenden Verwandtschaft zu Martin Heidegger befindet. Dennoch könnte die Ausgangslage beider Philosophen verschiedener nicht sein. Weder Sein noch Tod geben die Leitlinien von Barths Interpretation vor, vielmehr die transzendental verstandene Vernunft und der Mensch, der wesensmässig vom Anspruch praktischer Verwirklichung herausgefordert ist. Grundsätzlicher als ethische Normen und Regeln werden hier die Grundlagen der praktischen Vernunft erachtet, die im Horizont von Platons «Idee des Guten» und Kants Begriff der «Pflicht» eine eigenständige Wirklichkeit beansprucht. Dass der Philosoph Barth auch offen ist für die Dimension der Glaubenswahrheiten zeigte sich schon bei seiner Mitarbeit an der «Dialektischen Theologie» in den frühen Zwanzigerjahren des 20. Jahrhunderts. (shrink)

Can an artificially intelligent tool be a part of a human’s extended mind? There are two opposing streams of thought in this regard. One of them can be identified as the externalist perspective in the philosophy of mind, which tries to explain complex states and processes of an individual as co-constituted by elements of the individual’s material and social environment. The other strand is normative and explanatory atomism which insists that what is to be explained and evaluated is the behaviour (...) of individuals. In the present contribution, it is argued that counterintuitive results turn up once atomism tries to appropriate insights from psychological externalism and holism. These results are made visible by technological innovations, especially artificially intelligent systems, but they do not result from these innovations alone. They are rather implicit in situated cognition approaches which join both theoretical strands. This has repercussions for explanatory as well as ethical theorising based on situated cognition approaches. It is a fairly rare constellation that new technological options, namely artificial intelligence, raise doubts concerning a philosophical theory, namely extended mind theory. (shrink)