Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, thinker, dramatist and controversialist of many-sided interests, is the most representative figure of the German Enlightenment. His defence of Spinoza, who had traditionally been condemned as an atheist, provoked a major controversy in philosophy, and his publication of H. S. Reimarus' radical assault on Christianity led to fundamental changes in Protestant theology. This volume presents the most comprehensive collection to date in English of Lessing's philosophical and theological writings, several of which are here translated for (...) the first time. They are edited and translated by H. B. Nisbet, who also provides an introduction that sets them in their historical and philosophical contexts. (shrink)

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81), thinker, dramatist and controversialist of many-sided interests, is the most representative figure of the German Enlightenment. His defence of Spinoza, who had traditionally been condemned as an atheist, provoked a major controversy in philosophy, and his publication of H. S. Reimarus' radical assault on Christianity led to fundamental changes in Protestant theology. This volume presents the most comprehensive collection to date in English of Lessing's philosophical and theological writings, several of which are here translated (...) for the first time. They are edited and translated by H. B. Nisbet, who also provides an introduction that sets them in their historical and philosophical contexts. (shrink)

Greek eudaimonists often discuss the nature and value of friendship. The prominence of such discussions results from the utility of the conception of friendship in formulating and testing central ethical doctrines. As they engage in a radical revision of ordinary ethical concepts, the Stoics challenge us to relinquish conventional beliefs about friendship. Ideal Stoic moral agents are passionless and austere. Yet, the Stoics not only contend that these relatively affectless temperaments have friends but that, in fact, friendship is possible for (...) no one else. Their extraordinary detachment from the external world also seems to disqualify sages from real friendship. This essay examines the Stoic conclusions about friendship and the coherence of their distinctive view. (shrink)

Collection of works on literature theory, translated into Mongolian language.

Der aus einer wohlhabenden jüdischen Familie stammende Theodor Lessing (1872-1933) studierte Medizin, Philosophie, Psychologie und Literatur und war seit 1907 Privatdozent für Philosophie an der Technischen Hochschule Hannover. Sein 1925 veröffentlichtes kritisches Hindenburgporträt machte ihn zum Hassobjekt völkischer und nationalistischer Kreise. 1933 emigrierte Lessing und fiel im gleichen Jahr einem nationalsozialistischen Attentat im tschechischen Marienbad zum Opfer. Seine Nietzsche-Studie, ebenfalls 1925 veröffentlicht, ist eine literarische Lebensbeschreibung des tragischen »Zertrümmerers alles Gewohnten«, vor allem aber eine Darstellung der verschiedenen, oftmals (...) divergierenden Entwicklungslinien in Nietzsches Denken. (shrink)

THE rapprochement of existential and Marxist philosophy has received a good deal of attention since Sartre published in 1960 his Critique de la raison dialectique. Its introduction, Question de méthode, has been translated into English by Hazel Barnes. At least two major explications of the work have appeared in the last two years. Extensive reviews have appeared in philosophical journals in this country and abroad. Finally, at least one critical study devoted explicitly to the problems such a marriage entails was (...) published last year in paperback format. Another publication which brings together a collection of essays and excerpts is titled Existentialism Versus Marxism and has already decided the future of the marriage by its sub-title: "Conflicting Views on Humanism.". (shrink)

Hans-Ulrich Lessing beschäftigt sich in seinem Beitrag „Die Genese Diltheys deskriptiver Psychologie“ mit der Entwicklung der deskriptiven Psychologie im Ausgang von Diltheys Frühschriften zu Schleiermacher, seiner Habilitationsschrift und frühen Berliner Logik-Vorlesungen, seinen Arbeiten zu Novalis bis hin zu allgemein bekannten Hinwendungen Diltheys zum Problem der Psychologie ab 1886, in welcher Dilthey die deskriptive Psychologie als Grundlagenwissenschaft auszuweisen sucht. Ausgehend von einer Explikation der Problemstellung, Methodik und umfassenden Definition deskriptiver Psychologie, betont Lessing Diltheys Opposition zur erklärenden konstruktiven Psychologie, die (...) nach dem Vorbild der Naturwissenschaften von Hypothesen ausgehend versucht, die Vorkommnisse des Seelenlebens durch Kausalzusammenhänge zu erklären. Dem entgegen sieht Dilthey die Aufgabe der deskriptiven Psychologie, welche Lessing als die älteste philosophische Konzeption Diltheys auszuweisen weiß, als eine Erfahrungspsychologie, zu deren Methoden sowohl Beobachtung, Analyse und Vergleich psychischer Vorgänge zur Statuierung von „Gleichförmigkeit des geistigen Lebens“ als auch dessen Individuationen gehören, in der Aufstellung,abschließender‘ Hypothesen. Dabei steht Dilthey, so Lessing, dem Formalismus der erklärenden Psychologie kritisch gegenüber und sucht ihn durch die Berücksichtigung entsprechender Inhalte zu ergänzen, welche für das jeweilige Leben von unschätzbarer Bedeutung sind, worin gleichsam die gewichtige Rolle der Geschichte zum Ausdruck kommt. (shrink)

Verstehen ist nicht nur ein Grundbegriff menschlicher Lebensfuhrung und Lebenswelt, sondern besitzt auch in der Philosophie und den verschiedenen Wissenschaften eine zentrale Bedeutung. Die Frage nach der Moglichkeit von Verstehen ist dabei immer auch die Frage nach dem Subjekt und Objekt des Verstandnisses. Wer versteht wen oder was? Ist "Verstehen" also nur rationales Erfassen, Erkennen tieferer Einsichten und komplexerer Zusammenhange oder impliziert es mehr? Versteht man den Anderen, den Fremden, aber auch den Text wirklich so einfach? Und wenn ja, wie (...) strukturiert sich dieses Verstehen? Es soll in dem interdisziplinaren Band versucht werden, mit den genannten Fragen Anschlussfahigkeit zu evozieren, so dass die Vieldimensionalitat des Verstehens thematisiert und nach Funktion, Leistung und Grenzen des Verstehens vor allem in Philosophie, Geistes- und Naturwissenschaft gefragt werden kann. Mit Beitragen von Christina Brandt, Selin Gerlek, Julia Gruevska, Felix Huttemann, Bernhard Irrgang, Gudrun Kuhne-Bertram, Hans-Ulrich Lessing, Kevin Liggieri, Kate Meyer-Drawe, Sabine Ohlenbusch, Tobias Schlicht, Gunter Scholtz und Volker Steenblock. (shrink)

"Nichts geschieht von selbst, sondern alles pflegt vom Menschen her zu geschehen", postulierte schon Herodot, der "Vater der Geschichtsschreibung". Der Kulturphilosoph Theodor Lessing beschreibt im vorliegenden Band seinen Entwurf der voluntaristischen Geschichtsphilosophie, nach der erst der Mensch in einem Willensakt dem an sich sinnfreien und chaotischen Geschehen einen sinnvoll geordneten Verlauf und somit Bedeutung zuordnet. Lessing wandte sich gegen die Auffassung von objektiver Kausalität, Notwendigkeit und Gesetzmäßigkeit der Geschichte. Sorgfältig nachbearbeiteter Nachdruck der zweiten Auflage aus dem Jahr 1921.

A collection of essays by Lessing, the German-Jewish journalist and social critic who was murdered by the Nazis in 1933. In two of his last essays, written in 1933 - "Gnade dem Maultier" (pp. 358-363) and "Vermächtnis an Deutschland" (pp. 367-372) - he asserts that German Jews are true Germans and, in contrast to the Nazis, faithful representatives of German culture, and he condemns the servile acceptance of antisemitic restrictions by many German Jews.

The consent process for publication of clinical images in medical journals varies widely. The extent of this variation is not known. It is also not known whether journals follow their own stated best practices or the guidance of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. We assessed consent requirements in a sample of 10 top impact factor general medicine journals that publish clinical images, examining variability in consent requirements for clinical image publication and congruence of requirements with the recommendations of (...) the ICMJE. Clinical image consent requirements varied widely from journal to journal. None of the studied journals, even amongst n = 4 ICMJE members or n = 8 journals who self-report adherence to ICMJE guidelines, comply with all of the recommendations of the ICMJE. Half of studied journals require a journal-specific consent form. Among top medical journals there is significant heterogeneity in consent requirements for clinical images. Variability of consent requirements is neither practical nor rational; inconsistent requirements create uncertainty for authors, present impediments to dissemination of scholarship, and undermine a shared professional understanding of how best to protect patient privacy. We propose adopting a standardized consent form and process for publication of identifiable images in medical journals, with uniform elements and explicit definitions. (shrink)

Chapter VI is an extended sketch of Plato 's psychological theory found in the Republic, especially Book IV. Plato, unlike Socrates, distinguishes among three kinds of desire, corresponding to the three parts of the soul. Plato, however, still agrees with Socrates that all desires are belief-dependent. Furthermore, because Plato is much clearer than Socrates about the nature of goods, he is able to distinguish among three distinct kinds of beliefs about what is good. So Plato also agrees with Socrates that (...) all desires are for the good, if we speak properly of what is believed to be good. The picture of Plato 's views that emerges in this study is a fundamentally Socratic one and a development of Socratic psychology. This picture is somewhat contrary to what recent commentators have claimed about how the positions of Socrates and Plato are related. Plato, it is said, rejects the Socratic proposal about desire and its role in human motivation. It is argued in this study, however, that such a view rests upon certain misconceptions of both the Socratic and Platonic positions. ;This study has the following structure. Chapter I discusses the methodology of this dissertation and the chronology of Plato 's dialogues. Chapters II-V develop the central features of Socratic psychology. In chapter II, we establish that virtue is a craft. This is particularly important because, unlike other Socratic crafts which are merely cognitive, virtue has affective characteristics also. Virtue, moreover, aims at producing goods. Chapter III examines the nature of Socratic desire. We argue by examining both linguistic evidence and texts where there is some suggestion to the contrary that Socrates does not distinguish among kinds of desire. It is also shown that desire has two key features for Socrates. All desire is belief-dependent and, in particular, involves beliefs about what is good. Because of these features, chapter IV is concerned with the Socratic analysis of the structure of goods. We find in such dialogues as the Lysis, Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Meno a record of some confusion about the nature of goods. Finally in chapter V, we show how Socrates applies his account of desire to problems in philosophical psychology. He holds that knowledge is necessary and sufficient, not only to achieve a certain psychological state, but also for certain kinds of action. He provides an alternative explanation for what is commonly held to be weakness of will. There are also suggestions which we explore that Socrates has original views, deriving from his account of desire, about the nature of action and psychological freedom. ;Both Socrates and Plato attempt to demonstrate that moral behavior is rational, by grounding it in the structure of human wants. This study examines the accounts of desire to which they appeal and shows how desire so conceived is related both to human rationality and to human motivation. Much of what is said here bears upon ethical questions, but our principal concern is not ethics, but moral psychology--the psychological underpinnings for the Socratic and Platonic ethical views. (shrink)

Im Unterschied zu Max Scheler und Helmuth Plessner, den beiden anderen Hauptvertretern der philosophischen Anthropologie, hat sich Arnold Gehlen auch intensiv um die Ausarbeitung der Grundzüge einer Anthropologie der Technik bemüht. Ansätze zu einer solchen anthropologischen Betrachtungsweise der Technik finden sich vor allem in Gehlens Schrift Sozialpsychologische Probleme in der industriellen Gesellschaft bzw. in der leicht erweiterten zweiten Auflage, die im September 1957 unter dem Titel Die Seele im technischen Zeitalter. Sozialpsychologische Probleme in der industriellen Gesellschaft in der Reihe »Rowohlts (...) deutsche Enzyklopädie« des Rowohlt Verlags erschienen war. (shrink)