In 1910, Karl Jaspers wrote a seminal essay on morbid jealousy in which he laid the foundation for the psychopathological phenomenology that through his work and the work of Hans Gruhle and Kurt Schneider, among others, would become the ...

Karl Ameriks here collects his most important essays to provide a uniquely detailed and up-to-date analysis of Kant's main arguments in all three major areas of his work: theoretical philosophy (Critique of Pure Reason), practical philosophy (Critique of Practical Reason), and aesthetics (Critique of Judgment). Guiding the volume is Ameriks's belief that one cannot properly understand any one of these Critiques except in the context of the other two. The essays can be read individually, but read together they offer (...) a comprehensive guide to the main themes of the most influential of all modern philosophical systems. (shrink)

v. 1. Philosophical world orientation.--v. 2. Existential elucidation.--v. 3. Metaphysics.

Avec la première publication de sa philosophie de l' État De Cive, Hobbes réalise, d'une manière paradigmatique, la justification du contractualisme moderne en prenant la théorie de l' état de nature comme point de référence, à la fois déontologique et méthodique de la théorie de l' État et du droit. L'objet de cet article est de reconstruire le commencement de la philosophie politique et déterminer sa place à l'intérieur des Elementa philosophica. Hobbes' rechtsphilosophische Erstveröffentlichung De Cive löst in paradigmatischer Weise (...) das Begründungsprogramm des neuzeitlichen Kontraktualismus ein, indem es die Theorie des Naturzustandes zum normativen und methodischen Referenzpunkt der Theorie von Recht und Staat macht. Die vorliegende Studie versucht, den Begründungsgang dieses Anfangs der politischen Philosophie nachzuzeichnen und seinen Ort innerhalb der Elementa philosophica zu bestimmen. (shrink)

Religious experience can acquire plausibility within a religious tradition not only because of its "immediate giveness" but also through its objective validity and relevance. In medieval theology the doctrine of spiritual senses (sensus spiritualesj was an important locus for discussing the veracity of religious experience. The following paper examines the discourse of mystic experience in Fourteenth Century England and its historical background on the basis of the doctrine of spiritual senses - with the voices of Bonaventure, Richard Rolle, Margery Kempe, (...) Walter Hilton, Thomas Basset and the author of the Cloud of Unknowing. The theological position of the anonymous Cloud-author is of particular interest. This article suggests that the Cloud-author diagnoses a naive "mysticism experienced" as the underlying principle of some works of religious instruction. Hence the anonymous author antagonizes this experientialism with a critical epistemology, limiting the "sensational field" of mystic experience to a rather naked "cognitive nucleus". /// A experiência religiosa pode adquirir plausibilidade dentro de uma tradição religiosa não apenas por causa da sua facticidade imediata, mas também através da sua validade objectiva e relevância. Na teologia medieval, a doutrina dos sentidos espirituais (sensus spirituales) constituía um lugar importante para a discussão da veracidade da experiência religiosa. O presente artigo analisa o discurso acerca da experiência mística na Inglaterra do século XIV bem como o seu contexto histórico com base na doutrina dos sentidos espirituais, dando espaço às vozes de S. Boaventura, Richard Rolle, Margery Kempe, Walter Hilton, Thomas Basset e o autor da obra Cloud of Unknowing. Mostra-se por que razão a posição teológica do autor anónimo da Cloud of Unknowing é particularmente interessante. O artigo sugere que o autor desta importante obra diagnostica como naive o experiencialismo místico considerado como basilar a algumas obras de instrução religiosa. Daí que o autor anónimo antagonize este experiencialismo com base numa epistemologia crítica, limitando o "campo sensacional" da experiência mística a um simples "núcleo cognitivo". (shrink)

Over the past decades, great strides have been made to professionalize and increase access to transgender medicine. As the evidence base grows and conceptualizations regarding gender dysphoria/gender incongruence evolve, so too do ideas regarding what constitutes good treatment and decision-making in transgender healthcare. Against this background, differing care models arose, including the ‘Standards of Care’ and the so-called ‘Informed Consent Model’. In these care models, ethical notions and principles such as ‘decision-making’ and ‘autonomy’ are often referred to, but left unsubstantiated. (...) This not only transpires into the consultation room where stakeholders are confronted with many different ethical challenges in decision-making, but also hampers a more explicit discussion of what good decision-making in transgender medicine should be comprised of. The aim of this paper is to make explicit the conceptual and normative assumptions regarding decision-making and client autonomy underpinning the ‘Standards of Care’ and ‘Informed Consent Model’ currently used in transgender care. Furthermore, we illustrate how this elucidation aids in better understanding stakeholders’ ethical challenges related to decision-making. Our ethical analysis lays bare how distinct normative ambiguities in both care models influence decision-making in practice and how foregrounding one normative model for decision-making is no moral panacea. We suggest that the first steps towards good decision-making in gender-affirming medical care are the acknowledgement of its inherent normative and moral dimensions and a shared, dialogical approach towards the decision-making process. (shrink)

Most people believe that everything happens for a reason. Whether it is “God’s will,” “karma” or “fate,” we want to believe that an overarching purpose undergirds everything, that nothing in the world--especially a disaster or tragedy--is a random, meaningless event. This dilemma presents itself provocatively in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that, in the conventional scientific understanding, is driven by random chance. Reconciling chance and divine purpose poses challenges to the Judeo-Christian tradition. But the Hebrew Scriptures, in the ancient and (...) powerful story of Job, reveal that questions of purpose and order have long been a part of the conversation. Although the Bible generally affirms that God blesses the righteous in an orderly way, the story of Job is a powerful counterexample to this orderly scheme. The achingly beautiful but tragic story of Job, in concert with the modern quantum picture of the world, push back against the idea that “everything happens for a reason.”. (shrink)

God's action in the world poses a challenge for the Christian scholar. At the scholarly level of one's discipline, invocations of divine Providence as an explanatory category are considered unacceptable. Yet the scholar-believer necessarily acknowledges that God is indeed active in His Creation. Generally, this tension is resolved via the assumption of methodological naturalism at the level of one's discipline and the embrace of theism at the level of one's faith. This can result in an incoherence between the commitments of (...) one's discipline and one's faith. Yet both theology and physics suggest that this tension may be relieved somewhat by acknowledging that the physical universe is no longer understood to be closed to the possibility of divine action. Consequently, Christian historians may want to reconsider the value of Providence as an explanatory category. (shrink)

The Anthropic Principle suggests that the universe may have been designed for human life. This anthropocentric, anti-Copernican, notion elicits a variety of responses from scientists, including some elaborate attempts to invalidate it by trying to show that there may be an infinity of alternative universes. These attempts may be challenged as unreasonably speculative and presumptive. What emerges is the suggestion that cosmology may at last be in possession of some raw material for a postmodern creation myth. If the Anthropic Principle (...) can be integrated with biological explanations of human origins, and the result joined to the traditional Biblical Creation story, what emerges is a possible recovery of a religiously traditional, yet scientifically coherent, creation story for our generation. (shrink)

Ist Intelligenz erblich? Karl-Friedrich Fischbach und Martin Niggeschmidt zeigen, dass „Erblichkeit“ in der biologischen Fachsprache etwas anderes bedeutet als in der Alltagssprache – was fast zwangsläufig zu Fehlinterpretationen führt. Die 2. Auflage dieses essentials wurde um Kapitel zur Aussagekraft von Zwillingsstudien und genomweiten Assoziationsstudien über IQ-Unterschiede erweitert. Wer sich die Logik der Modelle und Methoden vergegenwärtigt, stellt fest: Intelligenz als „erblich“ zu bezeichnen, ist unpräzise und irreführend. Die Autoren: Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Fischbach ist Entwicklungsbiologe und Neurogenetiker. Er war (...) von 1985 bis 2013 Professor für Biophysik und Molekularbiologie an der Universität Freiburg, davon zwei Jahre lang als geschäftsführender Direktor des Instituts für Biologie III. Martin Niggeschmidt ist Redakteur in Hamburg. Stimmen zur 1. Auflage: „... Das zugänglich geschriebene Werk erklärt faktenbasiert und anhand zahlreicher Abbildungen den komplexen Stoff, um so Missverständnisse, aber auch bewusste Falschaussagen aufzudecken.” „... wirklich lohnenswert, ja verdienstvoll...“. (shrink)

Karl Barth was, without doubt, one of the most significant religious thinkers of modern times. His radical affirmation of the revealed truth of Christianity changed the course of Christian theology in the twentieth century and is a source of inspiration for countless believers. Pope Pius XII declared that there had been nothing like Karl Barth's later thought since Thomas Aquinas. God Here and Now offers a succinct and accessible overview of that thought. In it, Barth outlines his position (...) on the fundamental tenets of Christian belief, from the decision of faith to the authority of the Bible, and from the interpretation of grace to the significance of Jesus Christ. In this way Barth challenges each and every reader to discover what it means to encounter God, here and now. (shrink)