Philosophers have predominantly regarded morality and aesthetics judgments as fundamentally different. However, whether this claim is empirically founded has remained unclear. In a novel task, we measured brain activity of participants judging the aesthetic beauty of artwork or the moral goodness of actions depicted. To control for the content of judgments, participants assessed the age of the artworks and the speed of depicted actions. Univariate analyses revealed whole-brain corrected, content-controlled common activation for aesthetics and morality judgments in frontopolar, dorsomedial and (...) ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Temporoparietal cortex showed activation specific for morality judgments, occipital cortex for aesthetics judgments. Multivariate analyses revealed both common and distinct whole-brain corrected representations for morality and aesthetics judgments in temporoparietal and prefrontal regions. Overall, neural commonalities are more pronounced than predominant philosophical views would predict. They are compatible with minority accounts that stress commonalities between aesthetics and morality judgments, such as sentimentalism and a valuation framework. (shrink)

Etwa um 1800 kommt es zu einem konstitutiven und irreduziblen Bruch mit der Vorstellung des Kosmos. Hieraus folgt ein signifikantes und kritisches Ineinanderwirken von wissenschaftlichen, philosophischen und ästhetischen Diskursen. Der Kollaps kosmologischer Vorstellungen veranlasst das Ich, das sich nunmehr selbst begreift, zu grundlegend veränderten Darstellungsweisen. Diesen Zusammenhang, so die These der Untersuchung, entdeckt zuerst die Frühromantik. Sie zieht damit zum einen die Konsequenzen aus der Verunmöglichung des Kosmos und erkennt hierin die Möglichkeitsbedingung moderner Subjektivität. Zum anderen macht sie die Erfahrung (...) des Akosmismus zur Voraussetzung ihrer eigenen Poetik. (shrink)

L’urbanisation entraîne des mutations importantes dans la vie sociale comme dans l’expérience individuelle. La mobilité, la liberté, la précarité : autant de traits dominants de la vie moderne. Ces facteurs doivent-ils être reçus comme autant de menaces pour la foi chrétienne? La cité contemporaine relèverait-elle plus de Babel que de Jérusalem? Quels sont les éléments positifs et négatifs que la théologie pastorale peut relever dans la foi d’un citadin? À quelles conversions concrètes l’action ecclésiale pourrait-elle consentir dans ce contexte nouveau, (...) pluriel et mouvant? (shrink)

Researchers and managers alike are becoming increasingly interested in the topic of unethical consumer behavior. Where most studies view unethical behavior as something that is identifiable per se, the authors of the present article believe that it only exists because it has been constructed by people operating within a specific context. Hence the efforts made by this paper to explore, at the level of one specific organization, how interactions between employees and consumers might lead to the construct of unethical consumers. (...) Based on a case study of France’s AMDM—a mutual insurance company set up to serve a client base comprising motorcyclists—the paper addresses how one group of consumers ends up being categorized as unethical by revealing the existence of a sensemaking process within the target organization. This process develops in three main phases: the nurturing of a shared ethos; the protection of employees’ recognized status; and the demonization of any group of consumers threatening this status. Managers incorporating this sensemaking process can avoid or mitigate the negative effects befalling organizations when these kinds of unethical consumer behavior are constructed. (shrink)

The paper analyses economic evaluations by distinguishing evaluative statements from actual value judgments. From this basis, it compares four solutions to the value neutrality problem in economics. After rebutting the strong theses about neutrality (normative economics is illegitimate) and non-neutrality (the social sciences are value-impregnated), the paper settles the case between the weak neutrality thesis (common in welfare economics) and a novel, weak non-neutrality thesis that extends the realm of normative economics more widely than the other weak thesis does.

RÉSUMÉ: Cet article part des réflexions sur l'économie politique que Michel Foucault a présentées lors de ses cours au Collège de France dans les années 1977-1979 pour mettre en évidence l'originalité de sa réflexion sur le marché, entendu comme dispositif social de gouvernement des individus en vue d'assurer la sécurité des populations. Dans la deuxième partie, l'article propose un rapprochement de cette réflexion foucaldienne sur l'économie et celle de Max Weber en montrant que les techniques de soí développées par (...) Foucault sont des «méthodiques» et des formes de conduites de vie proches de cellesque Weber a étudiées, notamment dans ses travaux de sociologie de la religion. L'ensemble permet de dégager les pistes d'une histoire, encore inachevée, du comportement économique entendu comme une forme d'ascèse.ABSTRACT: This article deals with Michel Foucault's 1977-79 lectures on political economy. In the first part, we highlight his views on the market, which is equated to a social device instrumental in governing individuals so that they are induced to allow the ruler to reach his goal, which is providing security to the population. In the second part, we consider together Foucault's and Weber's views on the economy, since Foucault's concept of technique of the self is similar to Weber's concept of life conduct, which is central in his sociology of religion. This opens the way to a history of the modern economic behaviour considered as a form of ascetism. (shrink)

This article deals with Michel Foucault's 1977–79 lectures on political economy. In the first part, we highlight his views on the market, which is equated to a social device instrumental in governing individuals so that they are induced to allow the ruler to reach his goal, which is providing security to the population. In the second part, we consider together Foucault's and Weber's views on the economy, since Foucault's concept of technique of the self is similar to Weber's (...) concept of life conduct, which is central in his sociology of religion. This opens the way to a history of the modern economic behaviour considered as a form of ascetism. (shrink)

Abstract: Economists are accustomed to distinguishing between a positive and a normative component of their work, a distinction that is peculiar to their field, having no exact counterpart in the other social sciences. The distinction has substantially changed over time, and the different ways of understanding it today are reflective of its history. Our objective is to trace the origins and initial forms of the distinction, from the English classical political economy of the first half of the 19th century to (...) the emergence of welfare economics in the first half of the 20th century. This sequential account will also serve to identify the main representative positions along with the arguments used to support them, and it thus prepares the ground for a discussion that will be less historical and more strictly conceptual. -/- Résumé : Les économistes ont coutume de distinguer entre une composante positive et une composante normative de leurs travaux, ce qui est une singularité de leur discipline, car cette distinction n'a pas de répondant exact dans les autres sciences sociales. Elle a fortement évolué au cours du temps et les différentes manières de la concevoir aujourd'hui en reflètent l'histoire. On se propose ici d'en retracer les origines et les premières formes, de l'économie politique classique anglaise de la première moitié du XIXe siècle jusqu'à l'apparition de l'économie du bien-être dans la première moitié du XXe siècle. Ce parcours séquentiel vise aussi à identifier les positions les plus représentatives et les arguments invoqués pour les soutenir, en préparant ainsi une discussion qui serait moins historique et plus strictement conceptuelle. (shrink)

Zum 65. Geburtstag des Kolner und Brusseler Agyptologie-Professors Philippe Derchain gratulierten ihm seine Freunde Kollegen und Schuler mit 33 Beitragen aus dem Gebiet der Religions- und Geistesgeschichte des Alten Agyptens: H. Altenmuller, J. Baines, E. Blumenthal, W. Boochs, M. Broze, Fr. de Cenival, W. Decker, M. Derchain-Urtel, E. Doetsch-Amberger, E. Graefe, J.Gw. Griffiths, M. Heerma van Oss, W. Helck, M. Herb, J.M. Kruchten, D. Kurth, Fr. Labrique, A. Loprieno, M. Malaise, D. Meeks, H. De Meulenaere, J. Quaegebeur, B. Radomska, (...) U. Rossler-Kohler, H.J. Thissen, CL. Traunecker, U. Verhoeven, P. Vernus, M. Weber, W. Westendorf, W. Wettengel, E. Winter, J. Zandree (+). Ein Schriftenverzeichnis Philippe Derchains und diverse Indices beschliessen den Band. (shrink)

This is the outline: Introduction — La question de la cybernétique et de l'information — Une « pensée du milieu » — Cybernétique et homologie — Une théorie de l'apprentissage — L'information vue de l'autre côté — Champ et domaine unitaire — La thèse des « autres-je » — Le passage par l'axiologie — La rétroaction vraie — L'ontologie de Ruyer — Le bruissement de l'être même.

This article attempts to assess Jon Elster's contribution to rational choice in Ulysses and the Sirens and Sour Grapes. After reviewing Elster's analysis of functional versus intentional explanations, the essay moves on to the crucial distinction between the thin and broad theories of rationality. The former elabo rates on the traditional economist's preference / feasible set apparatus; the latter is the more demanding theory which inquires into the rationality of beliefs and preferences. Elster's approach to the broad theory normally consists (...) in using the thin theory as a reference point and in making purposefully limited departures from it. The essay illustrates the method while commenting on Elster's discus sion of autonomous preferences in Sour Grapes. It goes on to stress some impor tant analogies between Elster's use of the thin and broad theories, on one hand, and Weber's ideal-typical method, on the other. The final assessment is phrased in terms of these analogies; it is suggested that Elster is at his best when the ideal-typical method and his own separate from each other, that is, when he comes to grips with the broad theory in its own terms. (shrink)

The Warburg Institute, founded in the 1920s in Hamburg by art and cultural historian Aby Warburg, is a pioneering institution that has greatly shaped the fields of art, myth, religion, medicine, philosophy, and intellectual history. When, in 1933, the institute was moved to London to escape the Nazis, its research and legacy were protected and further developed by a network of researchers dispersed throughout the UK, the US, and Canada. The first interdisciplinary study of the Warburg network as an arena (...) of intellectual transmission, transformation, and exchange, this volume reveals the dynamics, agencies, and actors at play in the development of the Warburg Institute's program and output, with a specific focus on the role of Raymond Klibansky in the institute's major ventures. Among these collective projects of the institute are the famous Saturn and Melancholy, which blends art history with philosophical and cultural history, and the Latin and Arabic Corpus Platonicum Medii Aevi series, which contributed to research on the continuity of Platonic thought. Consulting published and unpublished sources including correspondences, memories, and diaries of affiliated scholars, the essays explore the history of the Warburg Library as a vital cultural institution and the personal and intellectual relationships of the researchers devoted to it. From Hamburg to London to Montreal, Raymond Klibansky and the Warburg Library Network takes readers on a journey into more than forty years of intellectual life at one of the most prestigious cultural research institutes. Contributors include Philippe Despoix, Georges Leroux, Eric Méchoulan, Elisabeth Otto, Elizabeth Sears, Davide Stimilli, Jillian Tomm, Martin Treml, Jean-Philippe Uzel, Regina Weber, Claudia Wedepohl, and Graham Whitaker. (shrink)

Dans le fragment sur la musique, Max Weber réduit l'objet musical empiriquement descriptible au « médium technique » utilisé par chaque culture, dans la mesure où son analyse reste hétérogène aux valorisations esthétiques. Weber souligne que la reproduction phonographique du son constitue la condition de possibilité d'une analyse empirique du matériau musical, le point de départ d'une musicologie comparée moderne. Approche empirique et comparaison culturelle apparaissent ainsi reliées dans un chiasme « empirico-transcendental » qui fait du médium technique (...) à la fois un objet et un a priori. L'article explicite ce choix méthodologique et ses conséquences pour une sociologie comparative de l'art. (shrink)

Ή σειρά τῶν μνημείων,πού θεωρεῖται σήμερα σάν ἡ βόρεια πλευρά τοῦ Forum τῶν Φιλίππων, δέν ἐμποδίζει τη θέα, σέ ἀντίθεση μέ τίς τρεῖς ἄλλες πλευρές. Διατυπώνεται ἡ υπόθεση ὅτι, στις πρῶτες κλιτῦες τῆς ἀκρόπολης, πέρα ἀπό τό decumanus maximus πού ἐκτείνεται κατά μήκος — ἤ μάλλον διασχίζει — τό Forum, ὑπῆρχε μία σειρά μνημείων κτισμένων πάνω στό ἄνδηρο ὅπου ἀργότερα ἐγκαταστάθηκε ἡ βασιλική Α. Σώζονται πολλά λείψανα αὐτοκρατορικῶν χρόνων : ἡ ὑποδομή ἑνός μνημείου πού ἔγινε δεξαμενή σέ δεύτερη χρήση, μᾶλλον (...) ρωμαϊκοῦ παρά ἐλληνιστικοῦ, μνημειώδεις κλίμακες πού προηγήθηκαν τῶν παλαιοχριστιανικῶν κτισμάτων καί λίθοι, διάσπαρτοι ἤ σέ δεύτερη χρήση, πού προέρχονται τουλάχιστον ἀπό τρία διαφορετικά κτήρια, τά ὁποῖα δέν μπορεῖ νά τοποθετηθοῦν στήν κάτω πλατεία. Ἡ ἐνοποιημένη σύνθεση πού ἀποκτοῦμε ἔτσι, συνδέεται μέ ἀνάλογα οἰκοδομικά σύνολα, καί ἡ ὁδός, πεζόδρομος μᾶλλον παρά καρρόδρομος, ἐντασσόταν σ' αὐτό τό μνημειακό σύνολο χωρίς νά τό τέμνει. (shrink)

Une découverte récente permet d'interpréter un monument situé à proximité du temple Est du forum : il s'agit d'une longue base pour au moins cinq, et peut-être sept dames dont quatre avaient été prêtresses de Livie. Ce monument, mis en place à l'extrême fin du Ier s. ou au début du n* s. ap. J.-C, a curieusement été respecté lors des importants travaux exécutés au début du règne de Marc-Aurèle. Étude des dédicaces et de la base, et réflexions sur les (...) implications topographiques de cette situation. (shrink)

L’article présente diverses observations faites au forum de Philippes au fil des ans, difficiles à intégrer dans une publication définitive. I. Plusieurs creusements affectent les dalles, surtout dans la partie nord-ouest du dallage : six logements pour rabattre des anneaux ayant peut-être servi aux officiels de la colonie pour attacher leur monture, et cinq trous carrés (deux sont traversants) qui pourraient avoir servi à fixer des mâts. II. Publication de 12 jeux de marelle (un seul avait déjà été illustré) dont (...) la répartition peut donner des indications sur la fréquentation réelle de la place ; en appendice, présentation succincte de 5 autres marelles (4 au marché, 1 dans la rue du Commerce). III. Fragment de cadran solaire en marbre dont le lieu d’exposition pourrait avoir été la rue du Commerce à proximité du forum. IV. Fragment d’une plaque de latrine trouvée dans un remblai, probablement antérieure au milieu du IIe s. p. C., mais dont l’emplacement d’origine ne peut être déterminé. (shrink)

Newly edited by Konrad Koerner (University of Ottawa), with an introduction by Clemens Knobloch (Universitat Siegen)The importance of Wegener's Untersuchungen uber die Grundfragen des Sprachlebens can only be compared to that of Karl Buhler's Sprachtheorie. Even now, however, Wegener's work remains virtually unknown to the English speaking world. Wegener's main work was published in 1885. It has its origin in two lectures given in 1883 and 1884 at school teacher meetings held in the Magdeburg area and it still recalls those (...) original occasions and maintains much of the oral style. Part of the volume treats the subject in a systematic and theoretical manner; other sections contain vivid examples and are characterized by a considerable didactic effort. The book is held together by leitmotif-questions, such as 'How do we understand language?' and 'How does language function as a means of everyday communication?'. We witness the experiences of the talented school teacher and the observations of the innovative dialect researcher combined, condensed, and conceptually ordered.In spite of the relatively unsystematic form of presentation, the book remains thoroughly consistent in thought and argument. In the Untersuchungen we have before us the outline of a communicative and functional view of language structure, of the analysis of speech, and of semantics. (shrink)

Logical paradoxes – like the Liar, Russell's, and the Sorites – are notorious. But in Paradoxes and Inconsistent Mathematics, it is argued that they are only the noisiest of many. Contradictions arise in the everyday, from the smallest points to the widest boundaries. In this book, Zach Weber uses “dialetheic paraconsistency” – a formal framework where some contradictions can be true without absurdity – as the basis for developing this idea rigorously, from mathematical foundations up. In doing so, (...) class='Hi'>Weber directly addresses a longstanding open question: how much standard mathematics can paraconsistency capture? The guiding focus is on a more basic question, of why there are paradoxes. Details underscore a simple philosophical claim: that paradoxes are found in the ordinary, and that is what makes them so extraordinary. (shrink)

Max Weber (1864-1920), generally known as a founder of modern social science, was concerned with political affairs throughout his life. The texts in this edition span his career and include his early inaugural lecture The Nation State and Economic Policy, Suffrage and Democracy in Germany, Parliament and Government in Germany under a New Political Order, Socialism, The Profession and Vocation of Politics, and an excerpt from his essay The Situation of Constitutional Democracy in Russia, as well as other shorter (...) writings. Together they illustrate the development of his thinking on the fate of Germany and the nature of politics in the modern western state in an age of cultural 'disenchantment'. The introduction discusses the central themes of Weber's political thought, and a chronology, notes and an annotated bibliography place him in his political and intellectual context. (shrink)

I examine different arguments that could be used to establish indeterminism of neurological processes. Even though scenarios where single events at the molecular level make the difference in the outcome of such processes are realistic, this falls short of establishing indeterminism, because it is not clear that these molecular events are subject to quantum mechanical uncertainty. Furthermore, attempts to argue for indeterminism autonomously (i.e., independently of quantum mechanics) fail, because both deterministic and indeterministic models can account for the empirically observed (...) behavior of ion channels. (shrink)

The recent literature on causality has seen the introduction of several distinctions within causality, which are thought to be important for understanding the widespread scientific practice of focusing causal explanations on a subset of the factors that are causally relevant for a phenomenon. Concepts used to draw such distinctions include, among others, stability, specificity, proportionality, or actual-difference making. In this contribution, I propose a new distinction that picks out an explanatorily salient class of causes in biological systems. Some select causes (...) in complex biological systems, I argue, have the property of enabling coherent causal control of these systems. Examples of such control variables include hormones and other signaling molecules, e.g., TOR (target of rapamycin), morphogens or the products of homeotic selector genes in embryonic pattern formation. I propose an analysis of this notion based on concepts borrowed from causal graph theory. (shrink)

... PREFACE Paul Gochet (Liege) "[...] une entite physique ne peut etre envisagee que comme une sorte de concretisation, de consolidation locale dans un ...

Several authors have used the notion of causal specificity in order to defend non-parity about genetic causes (Waters 2007, Woodward 2010, Weber 2017, forthcoming). Non-parity in this context is the idea that DNA and some other biomolecules that are often described as information-bearers by biologists play a unique role in life processes, an idea that has been challenged by Developmental Systems Theory (e.g., Oyama 2000). Indeed, it has proven to be quite difficult to state clearly what the alleged special (...) role of genetic causes consists in. In this paper, I show that the set of biomolecules that are normally considered to be information-bearers (DNA, mRNA) can be shown to be the most specific causes of protein primary structure, provided that causal specificity is measured over a relevant space of biological possibilities, disregarding physical as well as logically possible states of the causal variables. (shrink)

A commonly neglected feature of the so-called Equal Weight View, according to which we should give our peers’ opinions the same weight we give our own, is its prima facie incompatibility with the common picture of philosophy as an armchair activity: an intellectual effort to seek a priori knowledge. This view seems to imply that our beliefs are more likely to be true if we leave our armchair in order to find out whether there actually are peers who, by disagreeing (...) with us, force us to revise our beliefs. This article argues that the Equal Weight View should be spelled out in such a way that not only actual peer disagreement requires us to revise our beliefs, but also merely possible peer disagreement. This result is not a reductio ad absurdum of the view. Quite the opposite: it shows that the view is, contrary to appearance, compatible with our common way of doing philosophy. (shrink)

Darwin famously held that his use of the term "chance" in evolutionary theory merely "serves to acknowledge plainly our ignorance of the causes of each particular variation". Is this a tenable view today? Or should we revise our thinking about chance in evolution in light of the more advanced, quantitative models of Neo-Darwinian theory, which make substantial use of statistical reasoning and the concept of probability? Is determinism still a viable metaphysical doctrine about biological reality after the quantum revolution in (...) physics, or dowe have to abandon it in favor of an objective indeterminism? In light of such reflections, what is the relevant interpretation of probability in evolutionary theory? Do biologists use the concept of probability because they are finite cognitive agents or because the evolutionary process is fundamentally probabilistic? In this paper, I will show that we do not yet fully understand the nature of chance in evolution. (shrink)

Die Reihe "Studien interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung" präsentiert regelmäßig neuere Untersuchungen über Herausbildungen und Bedeutungen von Geschlecht. Verknüpft werden natur-, technik-, sozial- und kulturwissenschaftliche Sichtweisen. Ebenfalls thematisiert werden hochschulpolitische Entwicklungen und Perspektiven von Geschlechterforschung in und außerhalb der Hochschule. Die Reihe wird herausgegeben vom Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung an der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (ZFG) und dem Zentrum für feministische Studien, Universität Bremen (ZFS). In diesem Band: In unserer heutigen Technowissenschaftskultur ist die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Körper und (...) Maschine zentral. Während Körper denaturalisiert und durch die Life- und Cyberscience als turbulent und dynamisch reformuliert werden, wird Maschinen Sozialität zu- und eingeschrieben. An Beispielen aus der Robotik, Embodied Agents-Forschung und anderen Technowissenschaften, mit Bezug auf Philosophie, Wissenschaftsforschung und Literatur wird gezeigt, wie sich transklassische Maschinen und post-humane Körper herausbilden und geschlechtlich neu kodiert werden. (shrink)