Hobbes' theory of the state is based on natural principles, i.e. everybody's search for security and peace. The eternally valid rules of peaceful coexistence between men - the natural laws - are even binding on the sovereign, Hobbes maintains. I intend to show that, though there is no doubt in Hobbes' assertion of natural law, the definition of civil law, i.e. the sovereign's will, is not affected by this fact. Hobbes' belief, that the sovereign - carrying out his task to (...) guarantee peace - will in most cases respect the laws of nature, although he can in no way be obliged to do so in terms of civil law, is said to be unconvincing. I argue, that it can be explained with regard to the sovereign's situation, which, unlike the naturale state, is one of complete security. This means that war as a result of the endless search for more power is, in Hobbes' view, unnecessary for an absolute monarch. (shrink)

Wie machen wir uns als Menschen? Diese Frage liegt vor allen Problemen der Philosophie und der Wissenschaften vom Menschen. In diesem Band wird sie als Grundfrage der Anthropologie behandelt. Anthropologie ist als »erste Philosophie« eine Reflexion über die Selbst-Verständigung des Menschen. Wie der Mensch sich macht, wird als Entwurf seiner selbst untersucht. Gunter Gebauer exploriert das Projekt aus verschiedenen Richtungen, die in das Zentrum der aktuellen Wissenschaften vom Menschen führen: die Körpertechniken, der Habitus, die Sprache, die Selbstsorge, die Empathie. (...) Der Band wendet sich an Leser*innen mit Interesse an einem vertieften Verständnis des Menschen und der Wissenschaften vom Menschen. (shrink)

The harmonization of reason and faith was for Averroes the main scientific challenge whereby Aristotle served him as a key philosophical point of reference. Whilst Averroes followed Aristotle to a large extent, Thomas Aquinas attempts to make use of Aristotle's work in a different manner for his own philosophical-theological model whilst still referring to Averroes. For the two philosophers reason and revelation attain a singular synthesis which is, however, not completely tension free. In this study Averroes is praised as a (...) congenial thinker of scholarly topics. Thomas' handling of islamic-arabic philosophy proves an example worthy of attention of intercultural philosophical discourse which can serve contemporary Western-world philosophy projects as a valuable point of reference. (shrink)

This book explores how Wittgenstein's personal life provided more of a reference point for his philosophical work than has been previously thought. Focusing on two key phases in Wittgenstein's life during which he dramatically changed his philosophical orientation and reinvented both his intellectual methods and himself, the author presents and alternative understanding of Wittgenstein and his work. The book firstly addresses the period of his "anthropological turn" (1929-1932), in which Wittgenstein developed one of his central arguments concerning the role of (...) the body in the acquisition of language and the rules of social practice. The second key phase, commencing after the end of the Second World War, was one of introspection, during which Wittgenstein became intensely preoccupied by inner events, sensations, and his own personality. As his work evolved, the anthropological aspects became the primary focus of his work by the end of his life. Providing an accessible and novel insight into Wittgenstein's work and his interest in 'continental' philosophy, this translation will appeal to a wide audience. (shrink)

Unlike sonographic examinations, sonic fetal heartbeat monitoring has received relatively little attention from scholars in the social sciences. Using the case of fetal heartbeat monitoring as part of midwifery prenatal care in Germany, this contribution introduces music as an analytical tool for exploring the aesthetic dimensions of obstetrical surveillance practices. Based on ethnographic stories, three orchestrations are compared in which three different instruments help audiences to listen to what becomes fetal heartbeat music and to qualify fetal and pregnant lives in (...) relation to each other. In the Doppler-based orchestration, audible heartbeat music is taken as a sign of a child in need of parental love and care cultivated to listen. The Pinard horn makes esoteric fetal music that can be appreciated by the midwife as a skilled instrumentalist alone and helps to enact a child hidden in the belly. The cardiotocograph brings about soothing music and a reassuring relationship with a child but also durable scripts of juridical beauty. This material-semiotic analysis amplifies how well-being is shaped in midwifery prenatal care practices. (shrink)

Mimesis, the notion that art imitates reality, has long been recognized as one of the central ideas of Western aesthetics and has been most frequently associated with Aristotle. Less well documented is the great importance of mimetic theories of literature, theater, and the visual arts during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. In this book, the most comprehensive overview of the theory of mimesis since Auerbach's monumental study, Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf provide a thorough introduction to the complex and (...) shifting meanings of the term. Beginning with the Platonic doctrine of imitation, they chart the concept's appropriation and significance in the aesthetic theories of Aristotle, Molière, Shakespeare, Racine, Diderot, Lessing, and Rousseau. They examine the status of mimesis in the nineteenth-century novel and its reworking by such modern thinkers as Benjamin, Adorno, and Derrida. Widening the traditional understanding of mimesis to encompass the body and cultural practices of everyday life, their work suggests the continuing value of mimetic theory and will prove essential reading for scholars and students of literature, theater, and the visual arts. (shrink)

Mimesis, the notion that art imitates reality, has long been recognized as one of the central ideas of Western aesthetics and has been most frequently associated with Aristotle. Less well documented is the great importance of mimetic theories of literature, theater, and the visual arts during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. In this book, the most comprehensive overview of the theory of mimesis since Auerbach's monumental study, Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf provide a thorough introduction to the complex and (...) shifting meanings of the term. Beginning with the Platonic doctrine of imitation, they chart the concept's appropriation and significance in the aesthetic theories of Aristotle, Molière, Shakespeare, Racine, Diderot, Lessing, and Rousseau. They examine the status of mimesis in the nineteenth-century novel and its reworking by such modern thinkers as Benjamin, Adorno, and Derrida. Widening the traditional understanding of mimesis to encompass the body and cultural practices of everyday life, their work suggests the continuing value of mimetic theory and will prove essential reading for scholars and students of literature, theater, and the visual arts. (shrink)

One distinguishing feature of vertebrate oocyte meiosis is its discontinuity; oocytes are released from their prophase I arrest, usually by hormonal stimulation, only to again halt at metaphase II, where they await fertilization. The product of the c‐mos proto‐oncogene, Mos, is a key regulator of this maturation process. Mos is a serine‐threonine kinase that activates and/or stabilizes maturation‐promoting factor (MPF), the master cell cycle switch, through a pathway that involves the mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. Oocytes arrested at prophase I (...) lack detectable levels of Mos, which must be synthesized from a pool of maternal mRNAs for proper maturation. While Mos is necessary throughout maturation in Xenopus, it seems to be required only for meiosis II in the mouse. The translational activation of c‐mos mRNA at specific times during meiosis requires cytoplasmic polyadenylation. Cis‐ and trans‐acting factors for polyadenylation are, therefore, essential elements of maturation. (shrink)

The first part of the article (§§ 1-3) illustrates the critical relation the authors establish with the leading figures of philosophical anthropology in terms of their engagement with “world-openness” (Weltoffenheit). This notion cannot be reduced to the objectivity that confronts man as a spiritual being, as in Max Scheler, but rather makes it possible to grasp the limits of distancing objectification; in Arnold Gehlen, the coercion to action derived from the indeterminacy of man’s relation with the world is not sufficient (...) to comprehend the role of culture for the constitution of the human animal itself; and with the biological means utilized by Helmuth Plessner it is not possible to account entirely for the human capacity to establish relations by means of society. Historical anthropology, as the second part (§§ 4-5) of the article shows, aims to respond to such deficiencies by bringing to light the numerous historical and cultural forms of openness to a plurality of worlds. Freeing itself of any abstract and binding anthropological norm that claims to define the essence of man, historical anthropology investigates human structures and phenomena through a series of transdisciplinary studies centering on themes such as the body, ritual, mimesis and the performative dimension in its entirety, performance and performativity. (shrink)

Wie machen wir uns als Menschen? Diese Frage liegt vor allen Problemen der Philosophie und der Wissenschaften vom Menschen. In diesem Band wird sie als Grundfrage der Anthropologie behandelt. Anthropologie ist als »erste Philosophie« eine Reflexion über die Selbst-Verständigung des Menschen. Wie der Mensch sich macht, wird als Entwurf seiner selbst untersucht. Gunter Gebauer exploriert das Projekt aus verschiedenen Richtungen, die in das Zentrum der aktuellen Wissenschaften vom Menschen führen: die Körpertechniken, der Habitus, die Sprache, die Selbstsorge, die Empathie. (...) Der Band wendet sich an Leser*innen mit Interesse an einem vertieften Verständnis des Menschen und der Wissenschaften vom Menschen. (shrink)

Sport ist eine besondere Form der Selbstoptimierung, die auf eine systematische Verbesserung des eigenen körperlichen Leistungsvermögens gerichtet ist. Die eingesetzten Trainingsmethodiken ähneln alten Praktiken religiöser Exerzitien der Selbstformung; sie zielen ebenfalls auf die Verbesserung des Menschen. Anders als spirituelle Übungen hat sportliches Training jedoch keinen Bezug zur Transzendenz. Aber auch von den Praktiken in anderen sozialen Feldern unterscheidet sich die Selbstoptimierung im Sport – durch den Glauben des Erfolgreichen an die eigene Überlegenheit gegenüber den Konkurrenten und an die Bedeutung des (...) Sieges. Im Illusionsrahmen des Sports ist der Sieg mit dem Gedanken der Steigerung verbunden. Gesteigert wird nicht nur die sportliche Leistung: Der Glauben wird auf den Menschen übertragen, der sie hervorbringt. Durch seine Leistung wird dieser selbst in seiner Existenzweise erhöht. (shrink)

In den letzten Jahren hat sich der internationale Sport so grundlegend gewandelt, dass er in Gefahr ist, seine historisch gewachsene Identität aufzugeben. Nicht seine bildliche Qualität, seine Intensität und Spannung haben sich verändert; sie haben im Gegenteil noch zugenommen. Auf einem anderen Feld haben sich Dinge ereignet, die dem Sport einen neuen Charakter geben. Doch diese Veränderungen gehören zu einem Ausschnitt der Wirklichkeit, der auf den Fernsehbildern und in den Kommentaren nicht erkennbar ist; für die meisten Zuschauer bleibt er unsichtbar.

In this article I argue that, with the liberation of the hand from the tasks of locomotion in human evolution, unconscious use of the hands begins to create cultural forms. The first feature of the hands is its openness to the world. The second feature is its mediation between things and the body of which it is a part. The third feature is its self-referentiality. By touching, by giving form to a material, by gestures, and by establishing symbolic order in (...) the given world, the actions of the hand develop important preconditions for language, aesthetic forms, and social order. The hand itself assumes the most diverse shapes and gives different shapes to the objects around it. Touching and pointing produce the certainty that the indicated object exists, insofar as it is produced as object-for-the-hand. Its doubling in the use of the hand re-creates the object in a symbolic medium. This mimetic re-creation of the world is the main characteristic of the creativity of hand use. The two-sided plasticity of the hands divides the social universe into right and left halves, classified according to right-handed and left-handed values. The hand’s actual acquisition of this capacity is the result of a social process. In coordination with our visual sense, the use of the hands leads both to the making of objects and to the construction of worlds of subjective feelings. Both achievements are often ascribed to language. But the functions considered as most fundamental to language first take shape in the unconscious use of our hands. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Nietzscheforschung Jahrgang: 21 Heft: 1 Seiten: 61-74.

In this article, a philosophical conception of the relationship of language to emotions is developed. Based on a conceptual analysis, the language-game of emotions is described, the core of which is the interchangeability of „I» and «thou». A series of insights is derived from empirical observation: The first-person perspective expresses the experience of an emotion in its singularity. The second-person perspective allows the speaker to participate in the emotional situation of the «thou». In children’s acquisition of language, the child’s natural (...) emotional experience is re-configured in language through the involvement of the second person. The second person forms the crucial precondition enabling a general understanding of emotions. With its «outside» viewpoint the second person can also consider emotional states from the perspective of observation — a perspective that can be expanded to the third person. (shrink)

This anthology collects reflections on Wittgenstein's philosophy which treat it as a "Philosophical Practice" -- as a "Work On Oneself", as Wittgenstein desribed philosophy once. With contributions from Markus Gabriel, Andrew Norris, Allan Janik, and others.

Homegardens are traditional food systems that have been adapted over generations to fit local cultural and ecological conditions. They provide a year-round diversity of nutritious foods for smallholder farming communities in many regions of the tropics and subtropics. In southwestern Uganda, homegardens are the primary source of food, providing a diverse diet for rural marginalized poor. However, national agricultural development plans as well as economic and social pressures threaten the functioning of these homegardens. The implications of these threats are difficult (...) to evaluate, because the structure and functions of the homegardens are not well understood. The aim of the study was to identify patterns and influencing factors in the diversity of homegardens by documenting the floristic diversity and its interactions with spatial, environmental and socio-economic factors. A geographically and socially focused assessment of floristic diversity in 102 randomly selected homegardens in three districts of southwest Uganda was conducted along a deforestation gradient following a human ecology conceptual framework and testing multiple quantitative hypotheses regarding the above mentioned factors. A merged mixed-method approach was followed to provide context and feedback regarding quantitative findings. Results show a high total richness of 209 crop species dominated by food species, which constituted 96 percent of individuals and 44 percent of all species. Forest-edge homegardens maintained higher plant diversity compared to homegardens in deforested areas and near degraded wetlands. Multiple linear regression models indicated elevation, location, homegarden size, distance to market, additional land ownership and livestock ownership as significant predictors of crop diversity. Cluster analysis of species densities revealed four garden types: ‘diverse tree gardens’, ‘small forest-edge gardens’, ‘large, old, species-rich gardens’, and ‘large, annual-dominated herb gardens’, with 98% correct classification. Location, elevation, and garden size were also important determinants in the cluster assignment. We conclude that the diversity of the studied homegardens may be changing as part of adaptive traditional practices and in response to external drivers. The identified patterns illustrate the importance of homegardens for rural livelihoods and may offer some ways to support farmers to maintain these systems as relevant mechanisms for development in Uganda. (shrink)