Some metabolic pathways are nearly ubiquitous among organisms: the genes encoding the enzymes for such pathways must therefore be ancient and essential. De novo pyrimidine biosynthesis is an example of one such metabolic pathway. In animals a single protein called CADAbbreviations: CAD, trifunctional protein catalyzing the first three steps of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis in higher eukaryotes; CPS, carbamyl phosphate synthetase domain; CPSase, carbamyl phosphate synthetase activity; ATC, aspartate transcarbamylase domain; ATCase, aspartate transcarbamylase activity; DHO, dihydroorotase domain; DHOase, dihydroorotase activity; (...) GLN, glutaminase subdomain or subunit of carbamyl phosphate synthetase, GL Nase, glutaminase activity; SYN, synthetase subdomain or subunit of carbamyl phosphate synthetase; SYNase, synthetase activity. carries the first three steps of this pathway. The same three enzymes in prokaryotes are associated with separate proteins. The CAD gene appears to have evolved through a process of gene duplication and DNA rearrangement, leading to an in‐frame gene fusion encoding a chimeric protein. A driving force for the creation of eukaryotic genes encoding multienzymatic proteins such as CAD may be the advantage of coordinate expression of enzymes catalyzing steps in a biosynthetic pathway. The analogous structure in bacteria is the operon. Differences in the translational mechanisms of eukaryotes and prokaryotes may have dictated the different strategies used by organisms to evolve coordinately regulated genes. (shrink)

I evaluate two claims; that (a) Jesus’ message as recorded in the gospels implies exclusivism with respect to salvation and that, correspondingly, (b) Christians should be exclusivists with respect to salvation. I evaluate these claims through a cataloguing and evaluation of the logical condition involved in each of the claims regarding conditions for salvation made by Jesus in the Gospel of John. As a result, I argue that (a) is false and that, correspondingly, so is (b).

Was ist Vernunft im Gegensatz zur Sinnlichkeit? Diese Frage erortert der erste Teil dieser Studie, die unterscheidet zwischen Vernunft als Verstehen bzw. Verstand und Vernunft in vollem Sinn: Verstand ist z. B. das Sich-Erinnern an die eigene Vergangenheit, das Vergegenwartigen der Erlebnisse anderer in der Einfuhlung, das Vorausplanen der Zukunft. Vernunft im vollen Sinne dagegen ist Institution des Vergegenwartigens in der Sinnlichkeit oder Kultur, z. B. die menschliche logische Sprache, die Bilder, vergegenwartigende Spiele. Vernunft hat auch mit Erkennen und Wahrheit (...) zu tun, worum es in einem zweiten Teil geht. Hier setzt der Autor sich unter anderem mit tierischem Erleben im Gegensatz zum menschlichen Erkennen, mit naturwissenschaftlichem Erkennen und religiosem Glauben sowie mit Erkennen in den Humanwissenschaften auseinander. An Beispielen aus ganz unterschiedlichen Bereichen, mit vielen Bezugen zur europaischen Philosophie und in sehr personlichem Ton zeigt Iso Kern, was Vernunft ist. (shrink)

This special issue “Inferences and Information Processing in a Conditional Framework“ is dedicated to conditionals as central objects for inferencing and information processing. It presents selected revised papers of the Workshop on Conditionals, Information, and Inference, CII'04, held in Ulm, Germany, co-located with the German national conference on AI, KI'2004.Conditional statements If A then B carry a very special kind of information that can not be captured by interpreting them as material implications. Roughly speaking, the premise, A, provides a context (...) in which it seems plausible to conclude B. So, each conditional can be seen as establishing a tight but flexible link between premise and conclusion, making up a unique piece of information. This link can and has been used successfully for knowledge representation, in particular, for nonclassical inferences and revising beliefs.It is just this generic, dynamic nature of conditionals that makes them most fascinating objects which are, however, difficult to control. But it seems that the problems one typically encounters when using conditionals for reasoning, mostly occur due to the narrowness of thinking strictly along classical lines that we have been getting used to. Classical logic has imposed a rigidity on human thinking that helped a lot making reasoning formal, precise, and clear. Conditionals, on the other hand, open up dimensions beyond classical theories, leaving room for plausibility, uncertainty, intuition, and commonsense reasoning. Philosophers and logicians have been discussing their logical nature since the …. (shrink)

Concerning the foundation of Ethics, three different types of theories may be distinguished inside the Confucian tradition. A first type considers ethical rules as necessary for a harmonious social life and the welfare of man as a social being. A second typesees the foundation of ethics in its correspondence with the cosmical order. For a third type, the original tendencies and demands of the human heart or mind are the roots ofethics. The ethical theory more closely discussed in this paper, (...) and which belongs to the third type, is that of Wang Yangming (1472-1529). In his ethical theory, Wang endorsed first the position of Mencius (fourth and third cent. B.C.) and based ethics on original human tendencies and feelings such as love, sympathy, shame, indignation against injustice, etc. However later he was faced with the problem, of how we are able to distinguish these original good tendencies from egoistic (bad) intentions which also belong to our heart. Wang solves this problem by his new theory oiliang zhi („original knowing”). According to this theory, „original knowing” is a kind of immediate consciousness or awareness present in every intention: In every intention we are more or less aware of the ethical quality of this intention, and in acting according to this awareness, this awareness becomes more and more clear and may attain full enlightenment. (shrink)

There remains only the obligation to thank those who have helped me with specific suggestions and the editors who have kindly granted permission to reprint material which first appeared in the pages of their journals. To the former group belong Alan B. Brinkley and Max O. Hocutt Portion of chap ters I and VI were published in Philosophy of Science; of chapters IV and V in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine; of chapter VIII in Dialectica; of chapter IX in The (...) British lournal for the Philosophy of Science; and of chapter XIII in Synthese. J.K.F. New Orleans, 1971 PREFACE In this book I have tried to describe the scientific method, understood as the hypothetico-experimental technique of investigation which has been prac ticed so successfully in the physical sciences. It is the first volume of a three-volume work on the philosophy of science, each of which, however, is complete and independent. A second volume will contain an account of the domain in which the method operates and a history of empiricism. A third volume will be devoted to the philosophy of science proper: the metaphysics and epistemology presupposed by the method, its logical structure, and the ethical implications of its results. (shrink)

There remains only the obligation to thank those who have helped me with specific suggestions and the editors who have kindly granted permission to reprint material which first appeared in the pages of their journals. To the former group belong Alan B. Brinkley and Max O. Hocutt Portion of chap ters I and VI were published in Philosophy of Science; of chapters IV and V in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine; of chapter VIII in Dialectica; of chapter IX in The (...) British lournal for the Philosophy of Science; and of chapter XIII in Synthese. J.K.F. New Orleans, 1971 PREFACE In this book I have tried to describe the scientific method, understood as the hypothetico-experimental technique of investigation which has been prac ticed so successfully in the physical sciences. It is the first volume of a three-volume work on the philosophy of science, each of which, however, is complete and independent. A second volume will contain an account of the domain in which the method operates and a history of empiricism. A third volume will be devoted to the philosophy of science proper: the metaphysics and epistemology presupposed by the method, its logical structure, and the ethical implications of its results. (shrink)

We argue that the simplicity condition on a probability function on sentences of a predicate language L that it takes only finitely many values on the sentences of any finite sublanguage of L can be viewed as rational. We then go on to investigate consequences of this condition, linking it to the model theoretic notion of quantifier elimination.

Ranking theory is one of the salient formal representations of doxastic states. It differs from others in being able to represent belief in a proposition (= taking it to be true), to also represent degrees of belief (i.e. beliefs as more or less firm), and thus to generally account for the dynamics of these beliefs. It does so on the basis of fundamental and compelling rationality postulates and is hence one way of explicating the rational structure of doxastic states. Thereby (...) it provides foundations for accounts of defeasible or nonmonotonic reasoning. It has widespread applications in philosophy, it proves to be most useful in Artificial Intelligence, and it has started to find applications as a model of reasoning in psychology. (shrink)

_Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy_. explores the composition, language, thought, and early history of the _Shangshu_ (Classic of Documents), showing its texts as dynamic cultural products that expressed and shaped the political and intellectual discourses of different times and communities.

_Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy_. explores the composition, language, thought, and early history of the _Shangshu_ (Classic of Documents), showing its texts as dynamic cultural products that expressed and shaped the political and intellectual discourses of different times and communities.

Die vielfältige Ethik-Diskussion in der Wirtschaft wird in diesem Buch vor die existentiellen Herausforderungen des Atomzeitalters gestellt: Möglicher atomarer Holocaust, tiefgreifende Ökologieprobleme und das Elend der armen Länder sind Themen, die zentral in den Dialog zwischen «Ethik und Wirtschaft» einbezogen werden müssen. Die gegenwärtige Wirtschaftsethik stellt sich diesen Problemen nur in unzureichender Weise. Damit bekommt die Ethik eine bloße Alibifunktion in der Wirtschaft. Mit dem Konzept eines «ökosophischen Managements» soll versucht werden, auch in der Wirtschaft ethisch legitimierbare Antworten auf die (...) Herausforderungen des epochalen Umbruchs zu geben. Auf welches Interesse dieses Konzept stößt, belegt die mittlerweile 4. Auflage. (shrink)

Financing Public Schools moves beyond the basics of financing public elementary and secondary education to explore the historical, philosophical, and legal underpinnings of a viable public school system. Coverage includes the operational aspects of school finance, including issues regarding teacher salaries and pensions, budgeting for instructional programs, school transportation, and risk management. Diving deeper than other school finance books, the authors explore the political framework within which the schools must function, discuss the privatization of education and its effects on public (...) schools, offer perspectives regarding education as an investment in human capital, and expertly explain complex financial and economic issues. This comprehensive text provides the tools to apply the many and varied fiscal concepts and practices that are essential for aspiring public school administrators who aim to provide responsible stewardship for their students. (shrink)

Für Meister Eckhart (um 1260 - um 1328) ist der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes ein denkendes Wesen, wobei das Denken für ihn epistemologische und ontologische Relevanz hat. Diese Arbeit behandelt wesentliche Aspekte von Eckharts Denken, so seine Intellekttheorie, die theoontologische Wertung der Ichs, die Armut, die Liebe, die Zeit, das Nichts, das Glück und den Frieden.

This volume provides a valuable discussion of Husserl's lifelong project of the critique of science which makes no attempt to conflate the pre-World War I ...

Featuring contributions by preeminent scholars of early China, _Confucius and the_ Analects _Revisited: New Perspectives on Composition, Dating, and Authorship_ advances and examines debates surrounding the history of the Confucian _Analects_.

"How can human beings, who are liable to error, possess knowledge, since the grounds on which we believe do not rule out that we are wrong? Andrea Kern argues that we can disarm this skeptical doubt by conceiving knowledge as an act of a rational capacity. In this book, she develops a metaphysics of the mind as existing through knowledge of itself."--Provided by publisher.

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.