This is the first complete, one-volume English translation of the ancient Chinese text Xunzi, one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and elegant works in the tradition of Confucian thought. Through essays, poetry, dialogues, and anecdotes, the Xunzi articulates a Confucian perspective on ethics, politics, warfare, language, psychology, human nature, ritual, and music, among other topics. Aimed at general readers and students of Chinese thought, Eric Hutton’s translation makes the full text of this important work more accessible in English than ever (...) before. Named for its purported author, the Xunzi has long been neglected compared to works such as the Analects of Confucius and the Mencius. Yet interest in the Xunzi has grown in recent decades, and the text presents a much more systematic vision of the Confucian ideal than the fragmented sayings of Confucius and Mencius. In one famous, explicit contrast to them, the Xunzi argues that human nature is bad. However, it also allows that people can become good through rituals and institutions established by earlier sages. Indeed, the main purpose of the Xunzi is to urge people to become as good as possible, both for their own sakes and for the sake of peace and order in the world. In this edition, key terms are consistently translated to aid understanding and line numbers are provided for easy reference. Other features include a concise introduction, a timeline of early Chinese history, a list of important names and terms, cross-references, brief explanatory notes, a bibliography, and an index. (shrink)

In this paper we briefly examine and evaluate Quine’s physicalism. On the supposition, in accordance with Quine’s views, that there can be no change of any sort without a physical change, we argue that this point leaves plenty of room to understand and accept a limited autonomy of the special sciences and of other domains of disciplinary and common-sense inquiry and discourse. The argument depends on distinguishing specific, detailed programs of reduction from the general Quinean strategy of reduction by explication. (...) We argue that the details of the relations of particular sciences, disciplines and domains of discourse depend on empirical evidence and empirical-theoretical developments and that the generalized approach of reduction by explication is also subject to related empirical-theoretical constraints. So understood, physicalism lacks much of the controversial force and many of the implications sometimes associated with it. (shrink)

Jetzt beim Akademie Verlag: Sammlung Tusculum - die berühmte zweisprachige Bibliothek der Antike! Die 1923 gegründete Sammlung Tusculum umfasst ca. 200 klassische Werke der griechischen und lateinischen Literatur des Altertums und bildet damit das Fundament der abendländischen Geistesgeschichte ab. Die Werke Ciceros, Ovids und Horaz’ gehören ebenso zum Programm wie die philosophischen Schriften Platons, die Dramen des Sophokles oder die enzyklopädische Naturgeschichte des Plinius. Die Reihe bietet die weltliterarisch bedeutenden Originaltexte zusammen mit exzellenten deutschen Übersetzungen und kurzen Sachkommentaren. Von renommierten (...) Altphilologen betreut, präsentiert Tusculum zuverlässige Standardausgaben mit klassischer Einbandgestaltung für Wissenschaftler und Bibliotheken, Studenten und Lehrer sowie das allgemeine Publikum mit Interesse an antiker Dichtung und Philosophie. Der Name der Reihe geht auf die ehemalige Stadt Tusculum in Latium zurück, in der Cicero eine Villa besaß, die ihm als Refugium diente und in der er die Tuskulanen verfasste. Neben der hochwertig ausgestatteten Hauptreihe erscheinen in der Serie Tusculum Studienausgaben einschlägige Texte für Universität und Schule im Taschenbuch. Im Akademie Verlag startet die Reihe 2011 mit sieben wichtigen Neuerscheinungen. (shrink)

In this article the author shows Harthorne's important contribution to the revival of modern interest in the proofs of God's existence. He gives a short exposition of Harthorne's philosophy as far as that is relevant to our understanding of the superiority of the neo-classical concept of God (in comparison with classical theories) to face critical questions as to the validity of the ontological argument. The author analyses Harthorne's ontological argument and examines the following points of critique : (i) Existence is (...) not a predicate. (ii) The concept of a perfect being as well as the concept of a greatest number is meaningless. (iii) In the ontological argument the logical type fallacy is committed : Just as the universal ‘humanity’ is not human so ‘perfection’ is not perfect. (iv) In the ontological argument the paradox of the abstractness of the necessary is present. (v) The ontological argument forces us to accept an objectionable Aristotelian essentialism. (vi) The ontological argument jumps incorrectly from a de dicto modality to a de re modality. The author shows that these objections can be answered satisfactorily in Harthorne's neo-classical metaphysics. He discusses further a modal reconstruction of the cosmological argument (of his own) and shows that this establishes an argument for Harthorne's God conception. Finally he asks two critical questions. Hartshorne does not sufficiently acknowledges the fact that there are more than one logical system so that a choice must be made, which brings in an ‘existential’ moment in philosophy. Further he wonders as to whether Harthorne's temporal interpretation of modalities is correct. In an appendix written in English the author discusses modern reconstructions of the ontological and cosmological argument with the help of modern symbolic logic. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Studien Jahrgang: 48 Heft: 1 Seiten: V-VIII.