In his commentary of Dionysius the Areopagite’s Mystical Theology Albert the Great outlines the allegorical exegesis of Moses’ ascent of the mount as a way to the unknown God. Step by step Moses has to purify himself, to leave behind his natural knowledge. Separated from all human beings he alone proceeds to the cloud of unknown. At last the infusion of divine light lets him know God through negations. The normal, human way of knowing God is limited, so the mind (...) should attain the paradox of knowing in unknowing. Albert claims that all we cannot properly predicate by names obtained from things known to us, is best indicated by negations. The peak described by Dionysius as union, Albert shows to be intellectual perfection. Guided by divine illumination man contemplates the Trinitarian God. Thus contemplation supports any theological investigation. Descending the mountain, as Albert says in his Summa, Moses spoke to the people. Likewise after contemplation the theologian has to illumine others about what he... (shrink)

Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

Die Arbeit verfolgt Entwicklungslinien eines auf praktische Vernunft gestützten Republikmodells an Hand der exemplarischen Bedeutung der aristotelischen Politik und ihrer Rezeption durch Thomas von Aquin. Diesen werden auch entscheidende Weichenstellungen für die Ausbildung des modernen Staatsbegriffs und seines begrifflichen Instrumentariums politischer Vernünftigkeit zugerechnet. Teil 1 stellt das aristotelische Modell der auf den Begriff des Menschen als Menschen gegründeten "bürgerlichen Gesellschaft" vor, in der sich ein gegenüber der Beliebigkeit tatsächlicher Herrschaftsan-massungen kritischer ursprünglicher Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verständnis "politischer Herr-schaft" und der wechselseitigen (...) "Anerkennung" konkret freier und gleicher Bürger präsent hält. Dieser ruht jedoch auf einschränkenden Voraussetzungen politischer Subjektivität und deren unmittelbarer Bindung an institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen auf, wie sie aus einem spezifisch antiken Verständnishorizont, näherhin aus dem aristotelischen Konzept entelechialer Teleologie, erläutert werden. Der Versuch einer Einordnung in Grundlinien des umfassenden systematischen Kontexts in Metaphysik, Physik und praktischer Philosophie soll gerade durch den gegenüber der unbestrittenen aktuellen Relevanz neuzeitlichen Freiheitsethos differenzierenden und nicht ungeschichtlich-planen Zugang zu diesem Politikmodell auch aktualisierende Perspektiven eröffnen. So soll etwa durch die Erläuterung der aristotelischen Teleologiekonzeption, die anhand des Paradigmas der Naturbewegung eingeführt wird, sowie des dazu korrespondierenden Ethos "vernünftigen Strebens" das etwaige Verständnis einer vorgängigen materialen Zweckbindung der Politik, im Sinne etwa einer herkömmlichen "Werteethik", distanziert werden. Das Verhältnis Naturteleologie - Praxis wird nicht deduktiv, sondern als ein solches der Strukturanalogie bei gleichzeitiger methodischer Abgrenzung verstanden. Teil 2 widmet sich der Herausarbeitung systematischer Akzentverschiebungen und Umformungen im Spannungsfeld der Konfrontation von aristotelischer Teleologie bzw. praktischer Vernunft mit einer von der Perspektive der Geschichtlichkeit geprägten Offenbarungsreligion bei Thomas von Aquin. Im Zeichen eines vorläufig theologisch gewonnenen universalen Freiheitsverständnisses vollzieht sich auch ein Strukturwandel politischer Öffentlichkeit, der zunächst eine institutionelle Verdünnung des republikanischen Ideals herbeiführt. Durch die Rücknahme des Ziels der Politik vom konkreten Bürger-ethos in die Universalität und den nunmehr transzendentalen Anspruch des Begriffs des "bonum commune" wird gleichzeitig aber auch ein Prozess der Pluralisierung und Dynamisierung gesellschaft-licher und individueller Zielsetzungen und Praxisformen freigesetzt. Entscheidende Bedeutung kommt dabei dem Stellenwert des thomasischen "Gesetzes" zu, in dem - jenseits einer material-deduktiven oder imperialistischen Konzeption - ein dezidiert praktisch-handlungsleitendes Gesetzesverständnis zum Vorschein kommt. Dieses führt die sittlich-politische Anerkennung stiftende Funktion der "koinonia politike" weiter und leitet in seinem Anspruch gesteigerter "Allgemeinheit"--Dies sowohl im Rückgang auf ein transzendentales Prinzip seiner Begründung wie auch in der Ausweitung seines Adressaten-kreises - zur Neuzeit über. (shrink)

Razón, poesía, historia.--La cuestión del estoicismo español.--El querer.

Dibujar el pensamiento de Seneca es dibujar su figura viva, trazar el esquema de su persona. Seneca es un mediador que para alzarse sobre nosotros necesita de nuestra necesidad, pues solo apoyado en nuestra indigencia tiene sentido. Maria Zambrano lleva a cabo un lucido estudio de la figura y significacion del pensador cordobes y presenta una seleccion de sus escritos.

What is the good life for a human being? Aristotle’s exploration of this question in the Nicomachean Ethics has established it as a founding work of Western philosophy, though its teachings have long puzzled readers and provoked spirited discussion. Adopting a radically new point of view, Ronna Burger deciphers some of the most perplexing conundrums of this influential treatise by approaching it as Aristotle’s dialogue with the Platonic Socrates. This dialogue initially takes the shape of a debate Aristotle stages (...) with Socrates, identified in the Ethics as a proponent of the doctrine that virtue is knowledge. Tracing the argument of the Ethics as it emerges from the debate, Burger’s careful reading shows how Aristotle represents ethical virtue from the perspective of those devoted to it while standing back to examine its assumptions and implications. Providing brilliant insights into Aristotle’s understanding of the moral life, friendship, and philosophy, Burger’s study uncovers in the speeches of the Ethics an action that proceeds in a Socratic manner to offer a Socratic answer to the question of human happiness. (shrink)

Thinking in medicine is still dominated by the cartesian view of science of the past centuries, dividing individuals into the reasoning mind (res cogitans) and an objective body as part of all non-subjective things of the world (res extensa). This classical scientific paradigm does not take into account the influence the observer exerts on the observed phenomena. Applying this paradigm to medical research and education has consequences regarding the relationship between physicians and patients as well as between medical teachers and (...) their students. An improvement of medical education towards a broader understanding of complex illnesses with their psycho-social implications must be based on philosophical and epistemological issues. The requirements of modern medicine cannot just be met by adding more psycho-social content to somatic medical education or by changing the didactic approach without reflection on the underlying concepts and the relation of the human being to his world. (shrink)

Hilary Putnam is one of the world’s leading philosophers. His highly original and often provocative ideas have set the agenda for a variety of debates in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. His now famous philosophical thought experiments, such as the ‘Twin earth’ and ‘the brains in the vat’ have become part of the established canon in philosophy and cognitive science. _Reading Putnam_ is an outstanding overview and assessment of Hilary Putnam’s work by a team of (...) international contributors, and includes replies by Putnam himself. Divided into clear sections, it contains chapters on key aspects of Putnam’s large body of writing, including: Scientific realism and the changes that Putnam’s thought has undergone on this topic analyticity and ontology, including the important interconnections between the views of Putnam and Quine Putnam’s arguments concerning externalist views of meaning and reference, questions of conceptual relativity, and his preoccupation with ethics through a denial of the fact–value dichotomy Putnam’s developing views on perception. Offering an excellent survey of Putnam’s work, _Reading Putnam_ is essential for those studying philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science, as well as for anyone interested in contemporary philosophy. (shrink)

Positive reappraisal strategies have been found to reduce negative affect following the recall of negative personal events. This study examined the restorative effect of two mood-repair instructions (self-compassion vs benefit-focused reappraisal) and a control condition with no instructions following a negative Mood Induction Procedure by using the guided recall of a negative autobiographical event. A total of 112 university students participated in the online study (81% women, Mage: 21.0 years). Immediately following the negative memory recall, participants were randomised to each (...) condition [(self-compassion: n = 36, benefit-focused: n = 39) or a control condition (n = 37)]. Repeated measures ANOVAs 3 (Repair condition) × 3 (Time of mood assessment: pre-recall, post-recall, post-regulation) showed that, as expected, negative mood (sadness, shame, and guilt) worsened significantly after the guided recall in all groups (p <.001). After the mood-repair intervention, participants in the self-compassion and benefit-focused conditions showed a significant reduction in negative mood (p <.019), while such improvement was not observed in the control group. Self-compassion and benefit-focused reappraisal functioned similarly as mood repair strategies after experiencing negative affect induced by the recall of negative personal memories. Implications in the context of autobiographical memory biases are discussed. (shrink)

In proof theory one distinguishes sequent proofs with cut and cut-free sequent proofs, while for proof complexity one distinguishes Frege systems and extended Frege systems. In this paper we show how deep inference can provide a uniform treatment for both classifications, such that we can define cut-free systems with extension, which is neither possible with Frege systems, nor with the sequent calculus. We show that the propositional pigeonhole principle admits polynomial-size proofs in a cut-free system with extension. We also define (...) cut-free systems with substitution and show that the cut-free system with extension p-simulates the cut-free system with substitution. (shrink)

Drawing on recent findings, this study examines whether valence concordant electromyography (EMG) responses can be explained as an unconditional effect of mere stimulus processing or as somatosensory simulation driven by task-dependent processing strategies. While facial EMG over the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomaticus major was measured, each participant performed two tasks with pictures of album covers. One task was an affective evaluation task and the other was to attribute the album covers to one of five decades. The Embodied Emotion Account (...) predicts that valence concordant EMG is more likely to occur if the task necessitates a somatosensory simulation of the evaluative meaning of stimuli. Results support this prediction with regard to Corrugator supercilii in that valence concordant EMG activity was only present in the affective evaluation task but not in the non-evaluative task. Results for the Zygomaticus major were ambiguous. Our findings are in line with the view that EMG activity is an embodied part of the evaluation process and not a mere physical outcome. (shrink)

Concreteness ratings are frequently used in a variety of disciplines to operationalize differences between concrete and abstract words and concepts. However, most ratings studies present items in isolation, thereby overlooking the potential polysemy of words. Consequently, ratings for polysemous words may be conflated, causing a threat to the validity of concreteness‐ratings studies. This is particularly relevant to metaphorical words, which typically describe something abstract in terms of something more concrete. To investigate whether perceived concreteness ratings differ for metaphorical versus non‐metaphorical (...) word meanings, we obtained concreteness ratings for 96 English nouns from 230 participants. Results show that nouns are perceived as less concrete when a metaphorical (versus non‐metaphorical) meaning is triggered. We thus recommend taking metaphoricity into account in future concreteness‐ratings studies to further improve the quality and reliability of such studies, as well as the consistency of the empirical studies that rely on these ratings. (shrink)

One determining characteristic of contemporary sociopolitical systems is their power over increasingly large and diverse populations. This raises questions about power relations between heterogeneous individuals and increasingly dominant and homogenizing system objectives. This article crosses epistemic boundaries by integrating computer engineering and a historicalphilosophical approach making the general organization of individuals within large-scale systems and corresponding individual homogenization intelligible. From a versatile archeological-genealogical perspective, an analysis of computer and social architectures is conducted that reinterprets Foucault’s disciplines and political anatomy to (...) establish the notion of politics for a purely technical system. This permits an understanding of system organization as modern technology with application to technical and social systems alike. Connecting to Heidegger’s notions of the enframing (Gestell) and a more primal truth (anfänglicheren Wahrheit), the recognition of politics in differently developing systems then challenges the immutability of contemporary organization. Following this critique of modernity and within the conceptualization of system organization, Derrida’s democracy to come (à venir) is then reformulated more abstractly as organizations to come. Through the integration of the discussed concepts, the framework of Large-Scale Systems Composed of Homogeneous Individuals (LSSCHI) is proposed, problematizing the relationships between individuals, structure, activity, and power within large-scale systems. The LSSCHI framework highlights the conflict of homogenizing system-level objectives and individual heterogeneity, and outlines power relations and mechanisms of control shared across different social and technical systems. (shrink)

Since antiquity the Phaedo has been considered the source of "the twin pillars of Platonism" -- the theory of ideas and the immortality of the soul. Burger's attempt to trace the underlying argument of the work as a whole leads to a radical rethinking of the status of those doctrines.

For some time sociologists and philosophers have tended to label present day society “post-industrial” or “post-modern.” Understandable as the wish is to set off the present from the age of advanced capitalism, the terms selected are no less problematic. A new epoch is introduced before the question is even asked, let alone answered, as to how decisive current social changes are, and whether they require that a new epochal boundary be set. The term “post-modern,” moreover, has the additional disadvantage of (...) only naming the new period abstractly. There is an even more drastic disadvantage. Of course, deep economic, technical and social changes can be observed when compared with the second half of the nineteenth century, but the dominant mode of production has remained the same: private appropriation of collectively produced surplus value. (shrink)

In the introduction to the second volume of Capitalism and Schizophrenia Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari develop, under the tide Rhizome, the principles of a new method of thinking. One could, with the certain approval of the authors, turn around the theorem of Carl Schmitt and claim that, since the “highpoints of great [philosophy] are at the same time those moments in which the enemy is sighted in concrete distinctness as an enemy,” rhizome-thinking also starts out from the definition of (...) the enemy. It is discerned in Western Rationalism, which rhizome-thinking rejects in all its historical manifestations. An argumentational strategy characteristic of rhizome-thinking is thus made visible: that it again and again reproduces the categories that it negates. (shrink)

For the classA of uncountable Archimedian real closed fields we show that the statement “TheL <ω-theory ofA is complete” is independent of ZFC. In particular we have the following results:Assuming the Continuum-Hypothesis (CH) is incomplete. Conversely it is possible to build a model of set theory in which is complete and decidable. The latter can also be deduced from the Proper Forcing Axiom (PFA). In this case turns out to be equivalent to the elementary theory of the real numbers ℝ (...) (by a quantifier-elimination procedure).Formally: is incomplete. is complete and decidable. (shrink)

_Jane and Louise Wilson_ With Essays by Jeremy Millar and Claire Doherty London: Ellipsis, 2000 ISBN 1-84166-027-2 84 pp., inc. 120 b/w photograph.