In light of scientific advances such as genomics, predictive diagnostics, genetically engineered agriculture, nuclear transfer cloning, and the manipulation of stem cells, the idea that genes carry predetermined molecular programs or blueprints is pervasive. Yet new scientific discoveries—such as rna transcripts of single genes that can lead to the production of different compounds from the same pieces of dna—challenge the concept of the gene alone as the dominant factor in biological development. Increasingly aware of the tension between certain empirical results (...) and interpretations of those results based on the orthodox view of genetic determinism, a growing number of scientists urge a rethinking of what a gene is and how it works. In this collection, a group of internationally renowned scientists present some prominent alternative approaches to understanding the role of dna in the construction and function of biological organisms. Contributors discuss alternatives to the programmatic view of dna, including the developmental systems approach, methodical culturalism, the molecular process concept of the gene, the hermeneutic theory of description, and process structuralist biology. None of the approaches cast doubt on the notion that dna is tremendously important to biological life on earth; rather, contributors examine different ideas of how dna should be represented, evaluated, and explained. Just as ideas about genetic codes have reached far beyond the realm of science, the reconceptualizations of genetic theory in this volume have broad implications for ethics, philosophy, and the social sciences. Contributors. Thomas Bürglin, Brian C. Goodwin, James Griesemer, Paul Griffiths, Jesper Hoffmeyer, Evelyn Fox Keller, Gerd B. Müller, Eva M. Neumann-Held, Stuart A. Newman, Susan Oyama, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Sahotra Sarkar, Jackie Leach Scully, Gerry Webster, Ulrich Wolf. (shrink)

In the regeneration of shamanism in Buryatia, kinship and locale play a significant and, indeed, determining role. Shamans, as representatives of their clans and kinship lines, are the intermediaries between people and the sacred, between people and the spirits in nature, in particular spirits of a specific locale which is linked historically to a clan and to the ancestors who have been buried there. It is to these ancestral spirits as well as to the spirits of place that the clan (...) shaman makes entreaties and asks for blessings and protection from ill fortune.The historical relationship of the Buryat tribes to the present land of Buryatia and Ust‐Orda region and the kinship structure of these tribes as existent prior to the Soviet period is shown to have parallels with traditional spiritual territorial cults of Buryats. There is a clear‐cut link between Buryat social organization into hierarchical units of kinship structures along patrilineal descent lines and their conceptions of deities according to locality, that is, they traditionally conceived of protective deities as associated with wider or narrower territorial groupings which corresponded to the social groups of tribes, clans, villages, and families.Several cases of renewal of home and hearth through appeal to ancestral and local spirits by the clan shaman are presented. (shrink)

In the regeneration of shamanism in Buryatia, kinship and locale play a significant and, indeed, determining role. Shamans, as representatives of their clans and kinship lines, are the intermediaries between people and the sacred, between people and the spirits in nature, in particular spirits of a specific locale which is linked historically to a clan and to the ancestors who have been buried there. It is to these ancestral spirits as well as to the spirits of place that the clan (...) shaman makes entreaties and asks for blessings and protection from ill fortune.The historical relationship of the Buryat tribes to the present land of Buryatia and Ust‐Orda region and the kinship structure of these tribes as existent prior to the Soviet period is shown to have parallels with traditional spiritual territorial cults of Buryats. There is a clear‐cut link between Buryat social organization into hierarchical units of kinship structures along patrilineal descent lines and their conceptions of deities according to locality, that is, they traditionally conceived of protective deities as associated with wider or narrower territorial groupings which corresponded to the social groups of tribes, clans, villages, and families.Several cases of renewal of home and hearth through appeal to ancestral and local spirits by the clan shaman are presented. (shrink)

Particularly, but not exclusively, in Germany, concerns are uttered as to the consequences of modern biotechnological advances and their range of applications in the field of human genetics. Whereas the proponents of this research are mainly focussing on the possible knowledge that could be gained by understanding the causes of developmental processes and of disease on the molecular level, the critics fear the beginnings of a new eugenics movement. Without claiming a logical relationship between genetic sciences and eugenics movements, it (...) is nevertheless suggested in this article that a connection between both can become established when the distinction between scientifically validated statements on one hand and guiding hypotheses and assumptions on the other hand is blurred, as is observed particularly when scientists report their results to the public. This claim is demonstrated in comparisons between the current state of scientific knowledge on the role of genes in development and causation of diseases, and the way this is presented to the public. It is required that a debate on biotechnology should include reflections on the validity of claims made by scientists. (shrink)

This is the classic work upon which modern-day game theory is based. What began as a modest proposal that a mathematician and an economist write a short paper together blossomed, when Princeton University Press published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In it, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern conceived a groundbreaking mathematical theory of economic and social organization, based on a theory of games of strategy. Not only would this revolutionize economics, but the entirely new field of scientific (...) inquiry it yielded--game theory--has since been widely used to analyze a host of real-world phenomena from arms races to optimal policy choices of presidential candidates, from vaccination policy to major league baseball salary negotiations. And it is today established throughout both the social sciences and a wide range of other sciences. (shrink)

Eva Picardi has been one of the most influential Italian analytic philosophers of her generation. She taught for forty years at the University of Bologna, raising three generations of students. This collection of selected writings honors her work, confirming Picardi's status as one of the most important Frege scholars of her generation and a leading authority on the philosophy of Donald Davidson. Bringing together Picardi's contributions to the history of analytic philosophy, it includes her papers on major 20th-century figures such (...) as Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Rorty, and Brandom. She examines their work in comparison with the philosopher Michael Dummett's, illuminating contrasts between American Neo-pragmatism and Continental philosophy. By considering key contributions made by Gadamer and Adorno and contrasting them with Davidson and Rorty's proposals, Picardi is able to bridge the Analytic and Continental divide. Featuring an introduction by Annalisa Coliva and new translations of previously unpublished papers, this collection emphasizes the significance of Picardi's work for a new generation of readers. (shrink)

This book represents the views of one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century on the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain.

Concepts of International Relations, for Students and Other Smarties is not a stereotypical textbook, but an instructive, entertaining and motivating introduction to the field of International Relations (IR). Rather than relying on figures or tables, Concepts of International Relations, for Students and Other Smarties piques the reader's interest with a pithy narrative that presents apposite nutshell examples, stresses historical breaks and throws in the odd pun to get the big picture across. While there are other brief, introductory IR titles, Iver (...) Neumann's book remains fully within the academic genre, and is comparatively long on history. It is based on his repeatedly offered introductory lectures to first-year IR students and students from other disciplines looking for an overview course at the LSE. With a relaxed lecturing style, this textbook introduces the long-term historical emergence of concepts such as state (European), state (global), empire, non-state agents, foreign policy, state system, nationalism, globalization, security, international society, great powers, diplomacy, war and peace, balance of power, international law, power and sovereignty, intervention, gender and class. It demonstrates how such phenomena have been understood in very different ways. First, the reader is alerted to how the use of concepts is an integrated part of politics. Secondly, the reader is sensitized to how social change has worked in the past, and is working now. Thirdly, the book demonstrates how historical and social context matters in ongoing international relations. (shrink)

This article aims to sketch a phenomenological approach to Heidegger’s concept of Ereignis. In understanding Ereignis as the presencing of being, the fun­damental question is whether and how this presence of being, i.e., presence as such, can be experienced. While this experience is incompatible with a transcendental ap­proach, the suggestion here is that Ereignis can be experienced not as my own, but as an anonymous presence. To flesh out this suggestion, a close reading of Heidegger’s critique of subjectivity in the (...) Contributions will elaborate on why presence can belong neither to humanity nor to being. In a second step, a motif in Heidegger’s reception of Schelling is discussed which clarifies that the experience of Ereignis involves a necessity that goes beyond subjectivity. In a third step, the idea of “letting-presence” shows how the coming into being of experience has to remain anonymous in order to be the experience of Ereignis. (shrink)

This book provides a philosophical theory explicating the cognitive contribution of metaphor. Metaphor effects a transference of meaning, not between two terms, but between two structured domains of content, or ‘semantic fields’. Semantic fields, construed as necessary to a theory of word-meaning, provide the contrastive and affinitive relations that govern a term’s literal use. In a metaphoric use, these relations are projected into a second domain which is thereby reordered with significant cognitive effects. The book provides a revision and refinement (...) of ‘the semantic theory of metaphor’. Taking into account pragmatic considerations and recent linguistic and psychological studies, the book aims to forge a new understanding of the relation between metaphoric and literal meaning. It illustrates the thesis with sensitive and systematic analyses of metaphors found in literature, philosophy, science, and everyday language. Keywords:,, . (shrink)

Historical Justice and Memory highlights the global movement for historical justice—acknowledging and redressing historic wrongs—as one of the most significant moral and social developments of our times. Such historic wrongs include acts of genocide, slavery, systems of apartheid, the systematic persecution of presumed enemies of the state, colonialism, and the oppression of or discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities. The historical justice movement has inspired the spread of truth and reconciliation processes around the world and has pushed governments to make (...) reparations and apologies for past wrongs. It has changed the public understanding of justice and the role of memory. In this book, leading scholars in philosophy, history, political science, and semiotics offer new essays that discuss and assess these momentous global developments. They evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the movement, its accomplishments and failings, its philosophical assumptions and social preconditions, and its prospects for the future. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Rip‐Off Account Musical Traditions Recorded Music: The Blues Rock and Race The Music Business Sensibilities The Evolution of Taste Conclusion Notes.

Auf der Grundlage der Lehre von C.G. Jung, den Erfahrungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges und der atomaren Bedrohung Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts entwirft der Autor eine neue Ethik der Tiefenpsychologie, die der psychologischen Situation des modernen Menschen gerecht werden soll.

Philosophische Familien- und Geschlechterkonzeptionen waren zu allen Zeiten ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der philosophischen Arbeit, insbesondere in der politischen Philosophie, da jede gesellschaftliche Ordnung auf einer bestimmten Familienform und darin institutionalisierten Geschlechterverhältnissen beruht. Auch Hegel hat sich intensiv mit den Begriffen Familie und Geschlecht auseinandergesetzt. Eva Bockenheimers Arbeit liefert einen Kommentar zu den dafür zentralen Abschnitten der "Phänomenologie des Geistes" und der "Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts" unter Einbeziehung zahlreicher Schriften und Vorlesungen, insbesondere der "Naturphilosophie" und der "Vorlesungen über die Philosophie (...) der Weltgeschichte". Ergebnis ist, dass Hegel einen ausgefeilten, systematisch eingebetteten Gedankengang zum Familien- und Geschlechterverhältnis und dessen Geschichte präsentiert, der grundlegende Einsichten bietet - auch für die Analyse der aktuellen Verhältnisse und für die Erarbeitung eines auf Emanzipation zielenden, zeitgemässen Begriffs von Familie und Geschlechtlichkeit."--Publisher's website. (shrink)

Ideas about heredity and evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. New findings in molecular biology challenge the gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution in Four Dimensions, Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb argue that there is more to heredity than genes. They trace four "dimensions" in evolution -- four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic. These systems, they argue, can all (...) provide variations on which natural selection can act. Evolution in Four Dimensions offers a richer, more complex view of evolution than the gene-based, one-dimensional view held by many today. The new synthesis advanced by Jablonka and Lamb makes clear that induced and acquired changes also play a role in evolution.After discussing each of the four inheritance systems in detail, Jablonka and Lamb "put Humpty Dumpty together again" by showing how all of these systems interact. They consider how each may have originated and guided evolutionary history and they discuss the social and philosophical implications of the four-dimensional view of evolution. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors engage the contrarieties of the fictional "I.M.," or Ifcha Mistabra -- Aramaic for "the opposite conjecture" -- refining their arguments against I.M.'s vigorous counterarguments. The lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist-physician Anna Zeligowski's lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors' points. (shrink)

The dynamic development of science and technology in the last decades has led to new challenges in jurisprudence. This holds for individual fields of doctrinal law as well as the concerned fields of jurisprudence. It is especially significant for the structure of justice, the efficiency of law as a steering instrument of society, and the empirical conditions of legal responsibility. In a jurisprudential perspective, the philosophy of law is rather engaged with the adaptiveness of its traditional principles and categories or (...) the capacity to come to terms with the new developments and less concerned with concrete matters of law. (shrink)

Anstatt die Herkunft von Leibniz' Monadenkonzept in rezeptionsgeschichtlicher Perspektive nachweisen zu wollen, erklärt die vorliegende Studie die offensichtliche Präsenz und Virulenz des Monadenbegriffs im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert selbst zu ihrem Untersuchungsgegenstand.Sie rekonstruiert den frühneuzeitlichen Bildungskanon zum Pythagoreismus, in dem der Monadenbegriff tradiert worden ist, und analysiert vor diesem Hintergrund die monadologischen Philosophien von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Christian Wolff und Andreas Clavius. An reichem Quellenmaterial zeigt sie, wie die ahistorisch argumentierenden Monadologien von Leibniz und Wolff von deren Zeitgenossen rehistorisiert bzw. (...) "repythagoreisiert", in das Raster des Antike-Moderne-Verhältnisses verortet und auf diese Weise evaluiert worden sind.Ein die Studie beschließender Ausblick fasst die Ergebnisse zusammen und weist selektiv auf die Wege der Monaden in die Moderne hin. (shrink)

The influence of emotion on episodic and autobiographical memory in schizophrenia was investigated. Using an experiential approach, the states of awareness accompanying recollection of pictures from the IAPS and of associated autobiographical memories was recorded. Results show that schizophrenia impairs episodic and autobiographical memories in their critical feature: autonoetic awareness, i.e., the type of awareness experienced when mentally reliving events from one’s past. Schizophrenia was also associated with a reduction of specific autobiographical memories. The impact of stimulus valence on memory (...) performance was moderated by clinical status. Patients with schizophrenia recognized more positive than negative pictures, and recalled more positive than negative autobiographical memories while controls displayed the opposite pattern. A hypothesis in terms of a fundamental executive deficit underlying these impairments is proposed. (shrink)

-- 2. Moses Mendelssohn -- 3. Hermann Cohen --.

"Das Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist es, die Frage nach dem Wesen und dem Begriff der menschlichen Freiheit als ein philosophisches Grundproblem vor den phänomenologischen Blick zu bringen und nicht nur im Rahmen einer bereits vorausgesetzten philosophischen Teildisziplin - wie etwa in der Ethik oder als Gegenstand einer praktischen Philosophie - abzuhandeln. Diese Aufgabe führt uns in das Zentrum von Heideggers Philosophie. Heidegger gewinnt seinen eigenen Freiheitsbegriff jedoch in der grundlegenden Auseinandersetzung mit den großen Denkern des Abendlandes. Auch und gerade bei (...) Leibniz wird der Freiheitsbegriff in einer weit ausgreifenden Auseinandersetzung mit der philosophischen und theologischen Überlieferung eingeführt und auf dem Boden seines eigenen Denkens, der Monadenlehre, neu positioniert. Durch die Entgegensetzung der beiden Denker kann der jeweilige Standpunkt zum Freiheitsproblem noch schärfer in den Blick gebracht und im Rahmen der abendländisch-europäischen Geistesgeschichte erörtert werden. Zudem ermöglicht es gerade die Auseinandersetzung mit Leibniz, die Frage nach dem Wesen und dem Begriff der menschlichen Freiheit und andere wesentliche Fragen, die sich daraus ergeben, auf unsere Gegenwartsprobleme, insbesondere die Deutung oder gar Leugnung der Freiheit durch die Neurowissenschaften, zu beziehen und anzuwenden."--. (shrink)

Am Beispiel des lutherischen Erbauungsschriftstellers Johann Arndt (1555-1621) läßt sich ein naturtheologisches Frömmigkeitsverständnis aufzeigen, das vom Florentiner Neuplatonismus, von Paracelsus, vom Paracelsismus und von der Alchemie Heinrich Khunraths beeinflußt ist. Der Autor vorliegender Studie zeichnet die relevanten Traditionslinien quellennah nach und analysiert deren Einbindung und Interpretation in Arndts Schriften. Eine systematische Darstellung der Kohärenz von Naturphilosophie und Mystik in der frühen Neuzeit beschließt vorliegende Studie.