Durante todo o século XVIII, existiu um grande fascínio por seres humanos hermafroditas. Este interesse encontra-se patenteado nas suas inúmeras exibiçōes públicas e nas vánas dissertaçōes académicas sobre o tema. Neste período, e em contraste com o anterior, a existência de seres humanos hermafroditas passou a ser questionada por membros da comunidade médica da época incluindo James Parsons, para o qual a figura do hermafrodita deveria ser erradicada do entendimento anatómico da diferença sexual. Albrecht von Haller nāo ficou (...) indiferente à controvérsia sobre a existência de hermafroditas humanos. Este artigo tem como objectivo apresentar e debater a sua visāo sobre esta temática, primeiramente apresentada na sua dissertaçāo sobre hermafroditas datada de 1752 e depois num artigo da Encyclopédie de 1777. De que modo a sua abordagem do problema foi distinta da dos seus contemporâneos? Qual foi o seu contúbuto para o entendimento da ambiguidade sexual? Haller pnvilegiou o estudo de homens com deformaçōes genitais habitualmente descrítos como hermafroditas mas que, no seu entender, deveriam ser considerados verdadeiros homens com plenos direitos legais e sociais. Mais ainda, Haller não tinha uma visāo redutora sobre o problema da ambiguidade sexual. No seu entender, os seres humanos hermafroditas, embora raros, poderíam existir. Afinal, o estudo da natureza mostrava o quāo ela era fértil na produçãāo de novas figuras e formas. Throughout the eighteenth century, there was a great fascination with human hermaphrodites. This interest is evident in their frequent public exhibitions and in the numerous academic dissertations published on the subject. In contrast with the previous period where men, women and hermaphrodites where thought to exist, the very existence of the latter was called into question by some members of the medical community including James Parsons for whom the the category of hermaphrodite should be eradicated from the understanding of sexual diference. Albrecht von Haller was not indifferent to the controversy on the existence of human hermaphrodites. This article is concerned with his views on the issue first presented in his dissertation on hermaphrodites and later in the French Encyclopédie . To what extent were his views on the subject different from the ones argued by other anatomists of the period? What was his contribute to the understanding of sexual ambiguity? In this paper, I will argue that Haller was especially concerned with men with genital deformations who, in his view, should not be described as hermaphrodites and should have the same social rights as other men. Moreover, Haller had an open view on the issue of the existence of human hermaphrodites. Although he considered the possibility of their existence rare, he did not deny the vast potential of nature in producing new shapes and forms. (shrink)

Die Physikotheologie leitet Gottes Schöpferkraft, Weisheit und liebende Vorsorge aus Schönheit, Funktionalität und Ordnung seiner Schöpfung ab. Diese Theologierichtung - Vorläufer des Intelligent Design Movement? - wird, von Natürlicher Theologie und Naturrecht ausgehend, von Cicero über Calvin, Luther, Kant, Barth und Gogarten besprochen. Ist diese Theologierichtung ein Zugang zu Gott neben der Offenbarung? Der Berner Anatom und Botaniker Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), ein physikotheologisch denkender Gelehrter, hat als Calvinist das Christentum gegen Voltaire und materialistischen Atheismus kämpferisch verteidigt. Hallers (...) Interpretation der Bibel als von Gott eingegebenes Menschenwort - nicht als Verbalinspiration - ist gerade in der Kreationismus-Diskussion lesenswert. Man würde heute Haller als Anhänger des Intelligent Design einordnen: dass es eine evolutionäre Entwicklung zum Überleben der Schöpfung gibt, ist Gottes Plan zu danken. (shrink)

SummaryThis article approaches eighteenth-century views on scientific academies by examining Haller's utterances, public and private, especially those occasioned by the founding of the Göttingen Society. It deals in turn with his understanding of the distinctive purpose of academies, with his explanation of the chief ways in which they realized this end, with his thoughts on their broader usefulness, and finally with his various reasons for considering close ties with the state to be essential to their productive and harmonious operations.

The scientific and literary achievements of Albrecht von Haller were never questioned, but there has been much disagreement on the issue whether he was able to bring his scientific, philosophical, and religious beliefs into a harmonius synthesis. The recent and most comprehensive book on Haller by Richard Toellner (1971) suggests that Haller's thought possessed such a unity, and this judgment has remained unchallenged. This article reopens the question by painting out discrepancies between the Cartesian, Lockean, and (...) Newtonian strands in Haller's philosophy of science, as evidenced particularly by his pivotal essay on irritability and sensibility. In opposition to vitalism Haller postulated forces innate to matter, but out of religious concerns he feared materialism and was anxious to limit the power of such innate forces. (shrink)

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)

ZusammenfassungIn der Antike wie in der zeitgenassischen Philosophie wird die Frage diskutiert, ob sprachli‐che Bedeutungen auf Übereinkunft beruhen. In unserer Zeit heisst die Frage, inwieweit sprachliche Verständigung durch Konventionen bestimmt ist. Ich versuche zu zeigen, dass in den Regelbrauch, der sprachliches Verhalten teitet, zwar übereinkünfte eingehen können, ihn aber nicht wesentlich auszeichnen. Von da her erhält auch die Behandlung der Frage im Kratylos neue Aspekte: Der Regelbrauch, in den die ursprüngliche Übereinkunft zwar einge‐gangen ist, garantiert den Bezug der Narnen, aber (...) nicht auch die Bedeutung der Wörter.SummaryIn Antiquity, just as in contemporary philosophy, it was asked whether linguistic meaning is a matter of convention. Nowadays the question takes the following form: “to what extent is linguistic communication determined by convention?” I attempt to show that although there may be conventions among the rules governing linguistic behavior, they are not in any essential way distinctive of those rules. As a result of this view there are also new aspects to be considered in the treatment of the question in the Cratylus: the rules, which the initial convention indeed concerns, guarantee the reference of names but not the meaning of other kinds of words.RésuméDans ľAntiquité tout comme dans la philosophie contemporaine, on s'est demandé si Ies significations linguistiques reposent sur une convention. Aujourd'hui, la question se pose sous la forme suivante: dans quelle mesure la communication linguistique est‐elle déterminée par convention? J'essaye de montrer que, parmi les régies qui gouvernent le comportement linguistique, il peut y avoir des conventions, mais que le caractère conventionnel n'en est pas un critère distinctif. De ce point de vue, le traitement de la question dans le Cratyle révèle de nouveaux aspects: les règies, qui tiennent certes compte de la convention primitive, garantissent la référence des noms mais ne garantis‐sent pas celle des autres mots. (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)

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)