Similar problems keep reappearing in both the discussion about the “hard” problem of consciousness and in fundamental issues in quantum theory. We argue that the similarities are due to common problems within the conceptual foundations of both fields. In quantum physics, the state reduction marks the “coming into being” of a new aspect of reality for which no causal explanation is available. Likewise, the self-referential nature of consciousness constitutes a “coming into being” of a new quality which goes beyond a (...) fully causal account of reality. Both subjects require a categorical scheme which is significantly richer then the one used in addressing factual aspects of reality alone. While parts of this categorical scheme are realized in the formalism of quantum theory, they are seldom applied in the context of consciousness. We show what the structural limitations of a classical categorical framework are, how a richer framework can be developed, and how it can be applied to both quantum physics and consciousness. (shrink)

Als große, integrale Kunstform wird Musik zunehmend unterschätzt. Die Anforderungen ihres Wissens und Könnens wollen die Menschen - zumal in den westlichen Konsumgesellschaften - immer weniger erfüllen. So verkürzen sie ihr Bild von sich selbst. Doch ihnen kann ein besseres Bild geboten werden.0Was heute als Musik beliebt ist, gehört weithin zur Breitenkultur. Musikalische Hochkultur hingegen gilt als elitär. Doch deren seelische und geistige Vermögen konnten in früheren Jahrhunderten in vielen Menschen geweckt werden, weil Breitenkultur und Hochkultur ineinander verflochten waren. Erst (...) mit der Aufklärung des 18. Jahrhunderts kamen vereinfachende und einseitig suggestive Musikauffassungen auf, die mittlerweile weltweite Geltung beanspruchen. Doch in ihnen verkürzen die Menschen ihr Bild von sich selbst. Dieses Bild muss daher nun einer kritischen Revision unterzogen werden. Es müssen die seelischen und geistigen Vermögen, die Musik als integrales Wissen und Können wecken kann, erneut bewusst werden. Und sie müssen bewusst werden als Teil solcher Vermögen, durch die der Einzelne in einer globalisierten Welt, die ihn immer mehr zu überfordern, zu entmündigen und zu entmächtigen trachtet, zumindest einen Teil seines Lebens in die eigene Hand nehmen kann. (shrink)

Light mediates plant development partly by orchestrating changes in gene expression, a process which involves a complex combination of positive and negative signaling cascades. Genetic investigations using the small crucifer Arabidopsis thaliana have demonstrated a fundamental role for the down‐regulation of light‐inducible genes in response to darkness, thus offering a suitable model system for investigating how plants repress gene expression in a developmental context. Rapid progress in eukaryotic gene repression mechanisms in general, and light control of plant gene expression in (...) particular, sheds new light on how a class of ten pleiotropic COP/DET/FUS genes might function to down‐regulate light‐inducible genes in plants. (shrink)

This volume develops a fundamentally different categorical framework for conceptualizing time and reality. The actual taking place of reality is conceived as a “constellatory self-unfolding” characterized by strong self-referentiality and occurring in the primordial form of time, the not yet sequentially structured “time-space of the present.” Concomitantly, both the sequentially ordered aspect of time and the factual aspect of reality appear as emergent phenomena that come into being only after reality has actually taken place. In this new framework, time functions (...) as an ontophainetic [H1] platform, i.e., as the stage on which reality can first occur. Events are merely the “tracks” that the actual taking place of reality leaves behind on the co-emergent “canvas’’ of local spacetime. -/- The view of time proposed here is particularly relevant to the recent debate over the “ER=EPR” conjecture targeting the relation between quantum physics and general relativity theory. The novelty of this radically different framework is that it allows quantum reduction and singularities to be addressed as inverse transitions into and out of the factual layer of reality: In quantum physical state reduction, reality “gains” the chrono-ontological format of facticity, and the sequential aspect of time becomes applicable. In singularities, by contrast, the opposite happens: Reality loses its local spacetime formation and reverts back to its primordial, pre-local shape – making the use of causality relations, Boolean logic and the dichotomization of subject and object obsolete in the process. -/- For our understanding of the relation between quantum and relativistic physics, this new view opens up fundamentally new perspectives: Both are legitimate views of time and reality; they simply address very different chrono-ontological portraits, and thus should not lead us to erroneously prefer one view over the other. -/- The task of the book is to provide a formal framework in which this radically different view of time and reality can be suitably addressed. The mathematical approach is based on the logical and topological features of the Borromean Rings, and draws upon concepts and methods from algebraic and geometric topology – especially the theory of sheaves and links, group theory, logic and information theory in relation to the standard constructions employed in quantum mechanics and general relativity, shedding new light on the problems of their compatibility. The intended audience includes physicists, mathematicians and philosophers with an interest in the conceptual and mathematical foundations of modern physics. (shrink)

Since the early Gestaltists there has been a strong interest in the question of how problem solvers get stuck in a mental impasse. A key idea is that the repeated activation of a successful strategy from the past results in a mental set (‘Einstellung’) which determines and constrains the option space to solve a problem. We propose that this phenomenon, which mostly was tested by fairly restricted experiments in the lab, could also be applied to more complex problem constellations and (...) naturalistic decision making. We aim at scrutinizing and reconstructing how a mental set determines the misinterpretation of facts in the field of political decision making and leads in consequence to wrong expectations and an ill-defined problem representation. We will exemplify this psychological mechanism considering a historical example, namely the unexpected stabilization of the Franco regime at the end of World War II and its survival thereafter. A specific focus will be drawn to the significant observation that erroneous expectations were taken as the basis for decisions. This is congruent with the notion that in case of discrepancy between preconceived notions and new information, the former prevails over the new findings. Based on these findings, we suggest a theoretical model for expectation violation in political decision making and develop novel approaches for cognitive empirical research on the mechanisms of expectation violation and its maintenance in political decision making processes. (shrink)

The current volume of the Parmenides Series "On Thinking" addresses our deepest and most personal experience of the world, the experience of "the present," from a modern perspective combining physics and philosophy. Many prominent researchers have contributed articles to the volume, in which they present models and express their opinions on and, in some cases, also their skepticism about the subject and how it may be (or may not be) addressed, as well as which aspects they consider most relevant in (...) this context. While Einstein might have once hoped that "the present" would find its place in the theory of general relativity, in a later discussion with Carnap he expressed his disappointment that he was never able to achieve this goal. This collection of articles provides a unique overview of different modern approaches, representing not only a valuable summary for experts, but also a nearly inexhaustible source of profound and novel ideas for those who are simply interested in this question. (shrink)

A revision of the author's thesis, Stuttgart, 1972.

Wenn wir Technik als Mittel in unseren Lebensvollzügen einsetzen, gehen wir davon aus, dass technische Abläufe determiniert sind. Diese Bestimmtheit ist jedoch nicht einfach gegeben, sondern erfordert eine Anstrengung, die als Auslagerung von Unbestimmtheit verstanden werden kann. Dieses Buch begibt sich auf die Spurensuche: Wo werden technische Abläufe bestimmt, wo stößt dieser Vorgang an Grenzen und lässt Unbestimmtheit neu erkennbar werden? Indem die Auslagerung von Unbestimmtheit als Schatten der Technik mitgedacht wird, ergeben sich neue Impulse für die aktuelle Diskussion über (...) Technik. (shrink)

G. Vespignani hat mit diesem Buch über den Hippodrom von Konstantinopel eine reich dokumentierte Studie vorgelegt, die sich vor allem mit der ideologischen und politischen Bedeutung des Bauwerks beschäftigt.

Auf dem Feld der Theorie ist es zu einer Umpolung der politischen Vorzeichen gekommen. Was fünfzig Jahre lang Gegenstand einer linksemanzipatorischen Kritik war, ist zur Zielscheibe nationalistisch-autoritärer Bewegungen geworden: der Liberalismus, der Kapitalismus, die Globalisierung, das politische Prinzip der Repräsentation, der hegemoniale Charakter von Wahrheitsansprüchen. Lieblingsvokabeln der French Theory wie ›Dekonstruktion‹ und ›Simulation‹ sind in die Machtpraxis von Rechtspopulisten übergegangen. Kulturwissenschaftler dagegen finden sich in der ungewohnten Lage wieder, fact checking zu betreiben und gegen die Relativierung universell gültiger wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse (...) zu demonstrieren. Der Beitrag fragt danach, wie angesichts dieser ›feindlichen Übernahme‹ das emanzipatorische Potenzial und die Erkenntnisleistungen des Poststrukturalismus verteidigt werden können. There has been a reversion of political signs in the (academic) field of theory. What has been the subject of left-wing emancipatory critique during the 1950s has become the target of nationalist- authoritarian movements: liberalism, capitalism, globalization, the political principle of representation, the hegemonial character of truth claims. Favoured words of French Theory like ›deconstruction‹ and ›simulation‹ have assimilated with the exercise of power of right-wing populists. Cultural scientists on the other hand now find themselves in the completely foreign position of being tasked with fact checking and to rally against relativization of universally acknowledged scientific findings. This article asks how the emancipatory potential and the gaining of knowledge of poststructuralism can be defended against a ›hostile takeover‹. (shrink)