THE WORK OF ART AS COUNTER-VALUE: ASGER JORN'S CRITIQUE OF MARX'S ECONOMISK VALUE-THINKING IN CAPITALAs one of the rather significant and influential Modernist and Avant-garde artists of the 20th century Asger Jorn is internationally well-known and admired. Lesser known – or lesser accepted in the reception of his work – is the fact that his many critical writings on art, philosophy, and politics as well as his archives and political activism are integrated and important parts of his entire artwork. For (...) the first time in the reception of Jorn’s critical thinking the essay examines his Situationist criticism of Marx’ concepts of value, as outlined in the commodity analysis in Capital vol. 1, by regarding it a crucial example of his understanding of counter value as the only or most prominent quality of the artwork as such. (shrink)

The essay presents Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the paradigm in the first chapter of The Signature of All Things. On Method in order to better understand the well-known use of references to and qoutations from literature in philosophical reasoning and theory. Agamben’s uncommented reference to two short stanzas from Wallace Stevens’ poem “Description without Place”, which he consider the best definition of a paradigmatic ontology, is briefly commented. A gathering of three ‘literary singularities’ from Friedrich Hölderlin/Sophocles, James Joyce, and Samuel (...) Beckett in a suggested paradigm on time is presented as an example of a solely literary way of philosophical thinking. (shrink)

The Golden Age of postwar capitalism has been eclipsed, and with it seemingly also the possibility of harmonizing equality and welfare with efficiency and jobs. Most analyses believe that the emerging postindustrial society is overdetermined by massive, convergent forces, such as tertiarization, new technologies, or globalization, all conspiring to make welfare states unsustainable in the future. Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies takes a second, more sociological and more institutional, look at the driving forces of economic transformation. What, as a result, (...) stands out is postindustrial diversity, not convergence. Macroscopic, global trends are undoubtedly powerful, yet their influence is easily rivalled by domestic institutional traditions, by the kind of welfare regime that, some generations ago, was put in place. It is, however, especially the family economy that hold the key as to what kind of postindustrial model will emerge, and to how evolving tradeoffs will be managed. Twentieth-century economic analysis depended on a set of sociological assumptions that, now, are invalid. Hence, to better grasp what drives today's economy, we must begin with its social foundations. (shrink)

In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll das komplexe Zusammenwirken von unbewusst Psychischem, biologischem Körper in der Pubertät und gesellschaftlichen Verschiebungen hin zu multiplen Genderidentitäten untersucht und differenziert werden. Ausgangspunkt ist eine Gruppe von Jugendlichen, die sich in der Spezialsprechstunde für Geschlechtsdysphorie des Universitätsklinikums Hamburg-Eppendorf vorstellen und als »Transgender« identifizieren; meist ist der Anlass der Vorstellung der Wunsch nach einer medizinischen Transition (Hormonbehandlung etc.). Der Autor versteht die frühe Adoleszenz als einen sozio-psychischen Umschlagsplatz, der per se einer psychischen und körperlichen, zumal hochgradig (...) konflikthaften Transition nahekommt. Plädiert wird für eine offene und oszillierende Haltung gegenüber den Jugendlichen – und dafür, sich Zeit zu nehmen, auch im Hinblick auf medizinische Schritte, die Teil unserer kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeit geworden sind. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2018 Heft: 225 Seiten: 77-102.

This paper discusses the Uniqueness Thesis, a core thesis in the epistemology of disagreement. After presenting uniqueness and clarifying relevant terms, a novel counterexample to the thesis will be introduced. This counterexample involves logical disagreement. Several objections to the counterexample are then considered, and it is argued that the best responses to the counterexample all undermine the initial motivation for uniqueness.

Recently, several scholars have argued that scientists can accept scientific claims in a collective process, and that the capacity of scientific groups to form joint acceptances is linked to a functional division of labor between the group members. However, these accounts reveal little about how the cognitive content of the jointly accepted claim is formed, and how group members depend on each other in this process. In this paper, I shall therefore argue that we need to link analyses of joint (...) acceptance with analyses of distributed cognition. To sketch how this can be done, I shall present a detailed case study, and on the basis of the case, analyze the process through which a group of scientists jointly accept a new scientific claim and at a later stage jointly accept to revise previously accepted claims. I shall argue that joint acceptance in science can be established in situations where an overall conceptual structure is jointly accepted by a group of scientists while detailed parts of it are distributed among group members with different areas of expertise, a condition that I shall call a heterogeneous conceptual consensus. Finally, I shall show how a heterogeneous conceptual consensus can work as a constraint against scientific change and address the question how changes may nevertheless occur. (shrink)

It is a commonly raised argument against the family resemblance account of concepts that there is no limit to a concept's extension. An account of family resemblance which attempts to provide a solution to this problem by including both similarity among instances and dissimilarity to non-instances has been developed by the philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn. Similar solutions have been hinted at in the literature on family resemblance concepts, but the solution has never received a detailed investigation. I shall provide (...) a reconstruction of Kuhn's theory and argue that his solution necessitates a developmental perspective wchich builds on both the transmission of taxonomies between generations and a progressive development through history. (shrink)

Scientific Change How do scientific theories, concepts and methods change over time? Answers to this question have historical parts and philosophical parts. There can be descriptive accounts of the recorded differences over time of particular theories, concepts, and methods—what might be called the shape of scientific change. Many stories of scientific change attempt to give […].

Global energy studies have produced a flurry of empirical analyses. However, the amount of theoretical reflection on the topic remains comparatively low. This article takes two specific limitations of the literature as its starting point: First, the often-unclear relationship between states and markets in global energy governance, and, second, the concept of energy as a material and external structure. With the aim of providing more nuanced perspectives on these issues, the article turns to the work of Niklas Luhmann and Bruno (...) Latour. Luhmann’s ideas of functional differentiation and structural coupling provide a new look at the interaction of states and markets. Latour’s symmetric anthropology allows us to rethink energy as a hybrid that is in the midst of instead of outside society. While these thinkers provide interesting ways forward for global energy studies, they also appear to be utterly incompatible. Instead of accepting this incompatibility, however, the article uses the tension between Luhmann and Latour’s work as a productive resource for further reflection on global energy governance. It develops a ‘Luhtourian’ approach, arguing that hybrid, issue-specific governance systems can emerge whenever a resistant hybrid instigates the emergence of symbolically generalized governance objects. (shrink)

Intentio is a widespread concept in the writings of Thomas Aquinas (1224/5–1274). This article focuses on its use in the description and explanation of human action because Aquinas is the first author to elaborate a coherent conception of practical intentionality in the history of Western philosophy. The analysis shows that his account is characterized by five distinctive features: Practical intentionality is (1) an active striving toward a causally relevant intentional object (i. e., a goal), which is not ‘in the mind’, (...) (2) a volitional state of mind rather than a distinct mental event, (3) action-guiding because it is a principle of concrete human actions which realize it, (4) essentially tied up with rationality, which is needed for bridging the operational distance to the final goal by deliberation on the means conducive to it, (5) potentially complex – allowing for a plurality of simultaneous intentions – but at the same time unified in the hierarchical ordering of means and ends. The article also relates these features to modern discussions of intentionality in phenomenology and in analytic philosophy. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie Jahrgang: 3 Heft: 1 Seiten: 26-50.

I highlight a metaphysical concern that stands in the way of more widespread adoption of causal modeling techniques such as causal Bayes nets. Researchers in some fields may resist adoption due to concerns that they don't 'really' understand what they are saying about a system when they apply such techniques. Students in these fields are repeated exhorted to be cautious about application of statistical techniques to their data without a clear understanding of the conditions required for those techniques to yield (...) genuine insight into the data. They are acutely aware that anyone can chuck some data into a software package and get what looks like an answer, even though these tests may not be well-defined for the data on which they can apparently be run. This is thus a healthy skepticism for uptake of causal modeling methods, which points directly to the need for a metaphysical understanding of causation in order to successfully use the modeling methods. Without a clear understanding of what the methods are committing to, including what it means to say that there exists a causal relationship, researchers have limited ability to identify potentially bad output, or to independently verify results. (shrink)

The article presents a particular case of undergraduate students working on subprojects within the framework of their supervisors' (the authors') research project during Autumn Semester 2012 and Spring Semester 2013. The article's purpose is to show that an institutionalized focus on students as "research learners" rather than merely curriculum learners proves productive for both research and teaching. We describe the specific university learning context and the particular organization of undergraduate students' supervision and assistantships. The case builds on and further enhances (...) a well-established and proven university model of participant-directed, problem-oriented project work. We explore students' and researchers' experiences of being part of the collaboration, focusing on learning potentials and dilemmas associated with the multiple roles of researcher and student that characterized this particular intertwined research and education arrangement. We show that the connection to the research project assisted students to orientate, learn, and contribute in relation to empirical and theoretical aspects of research and supported the development of broad perspectives and deep analysis. (shrink)

Ernst Jünger is known for his war writings, but is largely ignored by contemporary phenomenologists. In this essay, I explore his e Adventurous Heart which has recently been made available in English. is work consists of a set of fragments which, when related, disclose a coherent ow of philosophical thinking. Speci cally, I show that, beneath a highly poetic and obscure prose, Jünger posits how subjective experience and poetry allow individuals to realize truth. I relate parts of Jünger’s insights to (...) contributions by Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, arguing that Jünger o ers a unique and valuable contribution to the phenomenological discipline. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Lived Experience and Cognitive Science Reappraising Enactivism’s Jonasian Turn” by Mario Villalobos & Dave Ward. Upshot: We argue that Villalobos and Ward’s criticism misses two crucial aspects of Varelian enactivism. These are, first, that enactivism attempts to offer a rigorous scientific justification for its teleological claims, and second, that enactivism in fact pays too little attention to the nature of human phenomenology and intentionality, rather than anthropomorphically over-valuing it.

In deliberate contrast to the ethical intellectualism of Socrates, Aristotle develops a complex conception of virtues as character traits which are closely tied to the different elements and stages of their cultivation: in the gradual process of becoming good, ‘learning by doing’ is the central cornerstone for establishing a close connectivity between emotion and reason as well as between desire, decision and right action. Virtue as a perfection of human nature engenders the best possible integration of irrational striving with reason (...) in the soul and is thus the constitutive component of human flourishing. (shrink)

This paper extends Mori’s (IEEE Robot Autom Mag 19:98–100, 2012) uncanny valley-hypothesis to include technologies that fail its basic criterion that uncanniness arises when the subject experiences a discrepancy in a machine’s human likeness. In so doing, the paper considers Mori’s hypothesis about the uncanny valley as an instance of what Heidegger calls the ‘challenging revealing’ nature of modern technology. It introduces seeming autonomy and heteronomy as phenomenological categories that ground human being-in-the-world including our experience of things and people. It (...) is suggested that this categorical distinction is more foundational than Heidegger’s existential structures and phenomenological categories. Having introduced this novel phenomenological distinction, the paper considers the limits of Mori’s hypothesis by drawing on an example from science fiction that showcases that uncanniness need not only be caused by machines that resemble human beings. In so doing, it explores how the seeming autonomy-heteronomy distinction clarifies (at least some of) the uncanniness that can arise when humans encounter advanced technology which is irreducible to the anthropocentrism that shapes Mori’s original hypothesis. (shrink)

Im Gegensatz zu dem Weltreisenden und Revolutionär Georg Forster (1754-1794) ist der Autor Forster, der Theoretiker der Wahrnehmung und der Beschreibung weniger bekannt. Der Band vereinigt Studien zu unterschiedlichen Werkgruppen Forsters, die befragt werden nach der Aneignung des 'Wirklichen' durch 'Erfahrung', 'Verstand', 'Idee', 'Bild' und 'Totaleindruck' im Spannungsfeld von Perzeption und Möglichkeitskonstruktion. Konkrete Textanalyse, Bestimmung der Wirkungsabsicht des Autors bzw. der Arbeitsverfahren des 'gesellschaftlichen Schriftstellers' eröffnen ein neues Forster-Bild.

Many degree programs in science and engineering aim at enabling their students to perform interdisciplinary problem solving. In this paper we present three types of expertise that are involved in different ways in interdisciplinary problem solving. In doing so we shall first characterise two important epistemological challenges commonly faced in interdisciplinary problem solving, namely the communication challenge that arises from the use of different concepts within different scientific domains, and the integration challenge that arises from the differences between domain-specific epistemological (...) standards. Next, drawing on recent work on expertise developed within science studies, we characterize the interactional expertise that is a precondition for scientists to communicate across scientific domains, and the integrational expertise that is a precondition for scientists to be able to integrate cognitive resources originating in different domains. Finally, we shall analyse how different types of interdisciplinary problem solving sets different requirements for interactional and integrational expertise and discuss the implications for science and engineering programs in higher education. (shrink)

Digitalization goes hand in hand with a fundamental change in methods that has the potential to change people’s thinking, decisions and actions. Departing from this thesis, a structure is proposed for the analysis of the method change induced by digitalization. The article provides a brief outline of the driving forces, the forms and the effects of this method change.

Die Digitalisierung geht mit einem fundamentalen Methodenwandel einher, dem das Potential innewohnt, das Denken, Entscheiden und Handeln der Menschen nachhaltig zu verändern. Ausgehend von dieser These wird eine gliedernde Struktur zur näheren Betrachtung des durch die Digitalisierung induzierten Methodenwandels vorgeschlagen. Der Artikel bietet dazu einen kurzen Abriss über die Triebfedern, die Formen und die Auswirkungen dieses Methodenwandels.

The theory of event coding by Hommel et al. proposes that feature binding is a central component of action planning. To evaluate the binding hypothesis, we consider findings from studies of action-perception interference and bimanual movements. We argue that although binding of action features may be a valuable concept, interference from partial feature overlap does not provide a parsimonious account for the observed phenomena.

La numérisation va de pair avec un changement fondamental des méthodes qui a le potentiel de changer la pensée, les décisions et les actions des gens. Sur la base de cette thèse, une structure est proposée pour l’analyse de le changement de méthode induit par la numérisation. L’article donne un bref aperçu des forces motrices, des formes et des effets de ce changement méthodologique.

The "Digital Era Framework" is a reference framework for the digital information age. Targeted at science and practice alike, the concept offers a comprehensive approach for the analysis and assessment of phenomena of digital change, digitalization and digital transformation. The "Digital Era Framework" is based on an integrated approach to examine digital change, in so far as the original state, the occuring change and the final state can be represented in a uniform scheme. The framework emphasises information as the central (...) point of consideration. Therefore it is based on two factors as main moments of order that define the structure of the scheme: the form of manifestation of information on the one hand and the type of application of information on the other. This creates a two-dimensional frame of reference that allows for a differentiated classifcation of phenomena, objects and events. The model is particularly suitable for studying entire systems and processes. By positioning their individual elements within the two-dimensional frame, it can be shown how the structure and interaction pattern of theses systemes and processes are shaped and how this configuration may change as a result of digitalization. Offering a theoretically well-founded systematization, the framework provides a solid basis for analyses, explanations and forecasts. At the same time, it serves as a basis for the development and evaluation of strategies. The presentation of the "Digital Era Framework" is also aimed at contributing to the development of an adequate technical terminology by proposing a well-founded nomenclature based on the reference framework. (shrink)

Der »Digital Era Framework« ist ein Bezugsrahmen für das digitale Informationszeitalter. Gerichtet an Wissenschaft und Praxis gleichermaßen, bietet das Konzept einen umfassenden Ansatz zur Einordnung und Analyse von Phänomenen des Digitalen Wandels, der Digitalisierung und der Digitalen Transformation. Dem »Digital Era Framework« liegt dabei ein integrierter Ansatz zur Untersuchung des Wandels zugrunde, insofern als Ursprungszustand, Veränderung und Endzustand in einem einheitlichen Schema dargestellt werden können. Der Bezugsrahmen stellt die Information in den Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung und beruht auf zwei Ordnungsmomenten: der (...) Form der Manifestation von Information einerseits und der Art der Applikation von Information andererseits. Dadurch wird ein zweidimensionaler Bezugsrahmen aufgespannt, der eine differenzierte Einordnung von Phänomen, Objekten und Geschehen gestattet. Anhand dieses Ordnungsmodells lassen sich insbesondere Systeme und Prozesse untersuchen und aufzeigen, wie sich deren Struktur, Interaktionsgefüge und Konfiguration durch die Digitalisierung verändern. Durch die begründete Systematisierung schafft der Bezugsrahmen eine Grundlage für Analysen, Erklärungen und Prognosen. Zugleich dient er als Basis für die Entwicklung und Bewertung von Strategien. Mit der Vorstellung des »Digital Era Framework« ist darüber hinaus das Ziel verbunden, zur Ausprägung einer adäquaten Fachterminologie beizutragen, indem eine begründete Nomenklatur vorgeschlagen wird, welche auf dem Bezugsrahmen aufbaut. (shrink)

Das „Glossar der Öffentlichen Rede“ stellt prägnante Definitionen für zahlreiche Grundbegriffe im Bereich des öffentlichen Sprechens vor.

The "Glossary of Public Speaking" presents concise definitions for numerous basic terms in the field of public speaking.

Antibiotic resistance is a serious public health problem on a global scale. In both developed and developing countries, the unpleasant consequences of the phenomenon are being felt. This paper discusses wild-card patent extensions as a means to incentivize research and development of new antibiotics. The thesis defended in the paper is that the implementation of such patent extensions is an appropriate legislative response to the problem of antibiotic resistance. The general idea of wild-card patent extensions is presented in the first (...) part of the paper. A number of objections to the idea are thereafter discussed and rejected. (shrink)