Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 313-336.

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 367-384.

Name der Zeitschrift: Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 249-276.

Eine juristische Diskussion über Einleitung und Abbruch der künstlichen Ernährung bei einwilligungsunfähigen Patienten ist in Österreich erst in Ansätzen auszumachen. Konsens zeichnet sich ab, eine Patientenvorausverfügung unter bestimmten Kriterien als verbindlich anzunehmen. Dann wäre auch eine antizipierte Verweigerung künstlicher Ernährung für die Ärzte rechtsverbindlich. Eine Übereinstimmung bezüglich der Akzeptanz einer „mutmaßlichen“ Verweigerung einer Behandlung (bzw. Ernährung) beim Nichteinwilligungsfähigen ist nicht zu erkennen. Die z. Z. herrschende Auffassung, dass die Ablehnung einer lebenserhaltenden Behandlung oder Ernährung durch einen gesetzlichen Vertreter (...) grundsätzlich nur im Einklang mit einem wirksam erklärten (oder zumindest hinreichend dokumentierten) Patientenwillen zulässig ist und daher bei allen anderen „Mutmaßungen“ über den Willen des Patienten dem Lebensschutz Vorrang einzuräumen ist, kann sich auf die verfassungsrechtliche staatliche Schutzpflicht zugunsten des Lebens berufen. (shrink)

In 1972,Ernst Ulrich and Christine von Weizs ¨acker introduced the concept of pragmatic information with three desiderata:(i) Pragmatic information should assess the impact of a message upon its receiver;(ii)Pragmatic information should vanish in the limits of complete (non-interpretable)'novelty 'and complete 'confirmation';(iii)Pragmatic information should exhibit non-classical properties since novelty and confirmation behave similarly to Fourier pairs of complementary operators in quantum mechanics. It will be shown how these three desiderata can be naturally fulfilled within the framework of Gardenfors' dynamic semantics of (...) Bayesian belief models.(i)The meaning of a message is its impact upon the epistemic states of a cognitive agent. A pragmatic information measure can then be quanti .ed by the average information gain for the transition from a prior to a posterior state.(ii)Total novelty can be represented by the identical proposition, total con- .rmation by the logical consequence of propositions. In both cases, pragmatic information vanishes.(iii)For operators that are neither idempotent nor commuting, novelty and confirmation relative to a message sequence can be defined within Gardenfors' theory of belief revisions.The proposed approach is consistent with measures of relevance derived from statistical decision theory and it contains Bar-Hillel 's and Carnap's theory of semantic information as a special case. (shrink)

The present issue of Mind and Matter on the concept of 'pragmatic information' has originated from a frutiful collaboration with Peter beim Graben,whose active involvement as a co-editor was decisive for its pro- duction and is greatly appreciated. The following extended editorial intro- duces the topic within a broader background. In particular,the concept of pragmatic information will be related to the study of complex systems and to concepts of complexity that are not in detail addressed in the in- dividual (...) contributions to the issue.Finally,possible connections to an epistemically understood distinction of mental and material domains of discourse will be indicated. (shrink)

We reformulate minimalist grammars as partial functions on term algebras for strings and trees. Using filler/role bindings and tensor product representations, we construct homomorphisms for these data structures into geometric vector spaces. We prove that the structure-building functions as well as simple processors for minimalist languages can be realized by piecewise linear operators in representation space. We also propose harmony, i.e. the distance of an intermediate processing step from the final well-formed state in representation space, as a measure of processing (...) complexity. Finally, we illustrate our findings by means of two particular arithmetic and fractal representations. (shrink)

Zhuangzi is one of the great figures in the history of ancient Chinese thought. While Laozi and Zhuangzi are ranked together as the founders of Daoism, it is in fact primarily Zhuangzi who, as the worthy adversary of the Confucian school of Confucius and Mencius, has been the greatest influence in politics, culture, and thought. While this influence has had its negative aspects, its positive side has predominated. How to dialectically and historically evaluate Zhuangzi properly is a very important problem.

Community participation is the core of sustainable tourism development; however, it encounters obstacles at government-controlled heritage sites in China. This paper examines the status quo of community participation and residents’ empowerment perception through 25 in-depth interviews and 168 questionnaires in the Miao ethnic heritage site of Xijiang Village in southwest China, the findings reveal that: The phenomenon of disempowerment focuses on the political and economic aspects, rather than the social and psychological aspects; Spatial difference affects empowerment perception; and Residents desire (...) more political and education empowerment. On this basis, the present research puts forward a comprehensive empowerment system consists of system, information, and education empowerment which contributes to the theorization of community empowerment between Chinese and Western scholars and provides an alternative path to sustainable tourism development for developing countries’ cultural heritage sites. (shrink)

We consider several puzzles of bounded rationality. These include the Allais- and Ellsberg paradox, the disjunction effect, and related puzzles. We argue that the present account of quantum cognition—taking quantum probabilities rather than classical probabilities—can give a more systematic description of these puzzles than the alternate treatments in the traditional frameworks of bounded rationality. Unfortunately, the quantum probabilistic treatment does not always provide a deeper understanding and a true explanation of these puzzles. One reason is that quantum approaches introduce additional (...) parameters which possibly can be fitted to empirical data but which do not necessarily explain them. Hence, the phenomenological research has to be augmented by responding to deeper foundational issues. In this article, we make the general distinction between foundational and phenomenological research programs, explaining the foundational issue of quantum cognition from the perspective of operational realism. This framework is motivated by assuming partial Boolean algebras. They are combined into a uniform system via a mechanism preventing the simultaneous realization of perspectives. Gleason’s theorem then automatically leads to a distinction between probabilities that are defined by pure states and probabilities arising from the statistical mixture of pure states. This formal distinction relates to the conceptual distinction between risk and ignorance. Another outcome identifies quantum aspects in dynamic macro-systems using the framework of symbolic dynamics. Finally, we discuss several ideas that are useful for justifying complementarity in cognitive systems. (shrink)

Classical cognitive science assumes that intelligently behaving systems must be symbol processors that are implemented in physical systems such as brains or digital computers. By contrast, connectionists suppose that symbol manipulating systems could be approximations of neural networks dynamics. Both classicists and connectionists argue that symbolic computation and subsymbolic dynamics are incompatible, though on different grounds. While classicists say that connectionist architectures and symbol processors are either incompatible or the former are mere implementations of the latter, connectionists reply that neural (...) networks might be incompatible with symbol processors because the latter cannot be implementations of the former. In this contribution, the notions of 'incompatibility' and 'implementation' will be criticized to show that they must be revised in the context of the dynamical system approach to cognitive science. Examples for implementations of symbol processors that are incompatible with respect to contextual topologies will be discussed. (shrink)

By means of an intriguing physical example, magnetic surface swimmers, that can be described in terms of Dennett's intentional stance, I reconstruct a hierarchy of necessary and sufficient conditions for the applicability of the intentional strategy. It turns out that the different levels of the intentional hierarchy are contextually emergent from their respective subjacent levels by imposing stability constraints upon them. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, phenomenal physical laws emerge for the coarse-grained description of open, nonlinear, and dissipative (...) non-equilibrium systems in critical states. One level higher, dynamic patterns, such as, for example, magnetic surface swimmers, are contextually emergent as they are invariant under certain symmetry operations. Again one level up, these patterns behave apparently rationally by selecting optimal pathways for the dissipation of energy that is delivered by external gradients. This is in accordance with the restated Second Law of thermodynamics as a stability criterion. At the highest level, true believers are intentional systems that are stable under exchanging their observation conditions. (shrink)

In their target article, Wang and Busemeyer (2013) discuss question order effects in terms of incompatible projectors on a Hilbert space. In a similar vein, Blutner recently presented an orthoalgebraic query language essentially relying on dynamic update semantics. Here, I shall comment on some interesting analogies between the different variants of dynamic semantics and generalized quantum theory to illustrate other kinds of order effects in human cognition, such as belief revision, the resolution of anaphors, and default reasoning that result from (...) the crucial non-commutativity of mental operations upon the belief state of a cognitive agent. (shrink)

In 1972,Ernst Ulrich and Christine von Weizs ¨acker introduced the concept of pragmatic information with three desiderata: Pragmatic information should assess the impact of a message upon its receiver;Pragmatic information should vanish in the limits of complete 'novelty 'and complete 'confirmation';Pragmatic information should exhibit non-classical properties since novelty and confirmation behave similarly to Fourier pairs of complementary operators in quantum mechanics. It will be shown how these three desiderata can be naturally fulfilled within the framework of Gardenfors' dynamic semantics of (...) Bayesian belief models.The meaning of a message is its impact upon the epistemic states of a cognitive agent. A pragmatic information measure can then be quanti .ed by the average information gain for the transition from a prior to a posterior state.Total novelty can be represented by the identical proposition, total con- .rmation by the logical consequence of propositions. In both cases, pragmatic information vanishes.For operators that are neither idempotent nor commuting, novelty and confirmation relative to a message sequence can be defined within Gardenfors' theory of belief revisions.The proposed approach is consistent with measures of relevance derived from statistical decision theory and it contains Bar-Hillel 's and Carnap's theory of semantic information as a special case. (shrink)

The book is an analytic exposition of Brentano's early theory of intentionality. In spite of the immense influence of this theory it is the first separate monograph on this topic. The book is based in great part on the unpublished manuscripts where one can find substantially better articulated formulations then those expressed in the already published `standard' works. Our analysis concentrates mainly on the ontological and epistemological problems of Brentano's immanent object. We highlight an interesting ambiguity of this concept and (...) try to outline the inner logic of its evolution. It turns out that Brentano's early philosophy of intentionality should be conceived not as a single, well defined theory but rather as a bundle of kindred but not always fully consistent and sometimes even competing ideas. Primary audience for the work are philosophers interested in Brentano's philosophy, theory of intentionality and its epistemology and ontology, phenomenologists and cognitive scientists. Das Buch bietet eine analytische Darstellung von Brentanos früher Theorie der Intentionalität. Trotz der großen historischen Bedeutung dieser Theorie bildet es die erste Monographie zu diesem Thema. Das Buch basiert zum größten Teil auf den unveröffentlichten Manuskripten, in denen man die Formulierungen findet, die viel besser artikuliert sind als jene, die in den publizierten Standard-Werken Brentanos zu finden sind. Unsere Analyse konzentriert sich in erster Linie auf die ontologischen und epistemischen Probleme des Brentanoschen immanenten Objekts. Wir besprechen eine interessante Mehrdeutigkeit dieses Begriffs und skizzieren die innere Logik seiner Entwicklung. Es stellt sich heraus, daß die frühe Philosophie der Intentionalität Brentanos nicht als eine einheitliche, eindeutig bestimmte Theorie, sondern eher als ein Bündel von verwandten, jedoch nicht immer völlig koherenten und manchmal sogar konkurrierenden Ideen interpretiert werden soll. Das Buch wendet sich in erster Linie an die Philosophen, die sich für die Philosophie Brentanos, für die österreichische Philosophie, für die Theorie der Intentionalität und ihre Epistemologie und Ontologie interessieren. Es wird ferner auch für die Phänomenologen und die Forscher im Bereich der cognitive science interessant sein. (shrink)

Gedankengang beim Beweise für das Dasein Gottes.

May 1, 2004 is a joyful day for the Polish society. Poland became a member of the European-Union! The Austrians did not enjoy the admission of the 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe to the EU. At that time only 38% of Austrians were satisfied with EU membership. Before the enlargement of the Union Austria suggested a seven-year grace period for citizens from new member states who wish to work in the area of the EU and the protection period (...) for the four main industries. Members of the Austrian Government and the Commissioner, Franz Fischler expresses a hope that Austrian entrepreneurs would expand to the east. Sixty seven percent of entrepreneurs of small Austrian companies felt, however, that EU enlargement will not bring the country any benefits. They pressured the government to protect its own labor market, agriculture and border regions. (shrink)

Der Aufsatz schildert den platonisierenden Antipsychologismus welchen Bolzano, der junge Brentano, Twardowski, Meinong, der Husserl der Logischen Untersuchungen, Frege, der Russell der Jahrhundertwende und der junge Wittgenstein philosophisch vertraten, und versucht eine soziologische und ideologiekritische Interpretation sowohl dieser Einstellung als auch derjenigen des traditionellen Psychologismus des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Der Platonismus des neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts wird als ein Ausdruck fiir ? oder vielmehr als eine Reaktion gegen ? den Verfall der klassischen burgerlichen Werte aufgefaBt. In Wittgensteins Tractatus spielen Elemente sowohl (...) eines platonisierenden Antipsychologismus wie auch eines relativistischen, verhaltensphanomenologisch orientierten Antipsychologismus eine Rolle: dieses Werk wird also als eine grelle Manifestation des Uberganges von der klassischen zur spatbiirgerlichen Weltanschauung, als ein Obergang vom Glauben an ewige Wahrheiten zur Hinnahme einer Gebrauchs?Theorie der Bedeutung und deren Konsequenzen interpretiert. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche has emerged as one of the most important and influential modern philosophers. For several decades, the book series Monographien und Texte zur Nietzsche-Forschung has set the agenda in a rapidly growing and changing field of Nietzsche scholarship. The scope of the series is interdisciplinary and international in orientation reflects the entire spectrum of research on Nietzsche, from philosophy to literary studies and political theory. The series publishes monographs and edited volumes that undergo a strict peer-review process. The book (...) series is led by an international team of editors, whose work represents the full range of current Nietzsche scholarship. (shrink)

Die frühesten Zeugnisse zu Carnaps philosophischer Entwicklung bekunden einen klaren und bewußten Nonkognitivismus, wie vor allem an einem Vortrag aus dem Jahre 1911 gezeigt wird. Wie man weiß, bekannte sich Carnap nach etwa 1929 auch zum Nonkognitivismus, dem er 1963 als erster sogar diesen Namen gab. Zwei Dokumente werden aber manchmal als Gegenbeispiele angeführt, ein nichtveröffentlichter Aufsatz über „Deutschlands Niederlage“ aus dem Jahre 1918, und der skizzenhafte § 152 des Aufbau; es fragt sich also, ob es eine Episode zwischen seinen (...) philosophischen Anfängen und 1929 gab, in der Carnap seinen Nonkognitivismus zeitweise aufgab. Diese Frage wird anhand einer Interpretation dieser zwei Texte verneint. Es wird angedeutet, dass Carnaps Nonkognitivismus von Anfang an sich relativ geradlinig zu einem „Funktionalismus“ im weitesten Sinn entwickelte, in Richtung auf einen „globalen Funktionalismus“ wie ihn heute Huw Price vertritt. (shrink)

The German problem dominated among the priorities of the Polish diplomacy after 1960. The stalemate was broken by the visit of the Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz in Vienna in September 1965. Józef Cyrankiewicz’s visit in Austria highlighted new possibilities in Austrian-Polish relations. The old policy of Minister Adam Rapacki had been conceived in a difficult period and had no impact on the international environment. The article aims to characterises of the conditions for developing Polish-Austrian relations in the late 60s. The (...) articles poses several questions: how far policy towards Germany stimulated relations with Austria and how Polish authorities saw the possibilities of economic cooperation with Vienna and finally how they prepared for this cooperation. The difficult economic situation in Poland required resuming cooperation with the West. The meeting in Vienna developed further bilateral relations in a very positive way. The Minister Bruno Kreisky recognized in the Polish government both a partner and a neighbour to cooperate. Cyrankiewicz’s visit launched the ratification processes of many bilateral agreements which developed trade in the Eastern Europe. (shrink)

In dem Band entwickeln renommierte Autorinnen und Autoren in 22 Beiträgen Antworten auf eine Reihe von Fragen zu Immanuel Kant und der Rezeption seiner Philosophie in Österreich, die bis heute noch nicht ausreichend diskutiert wurden: Gab es überhaupt einen österreichischen Neukantianismus? Wie prägend ist die Philosophie von Kant für die Entwicklung der Philosophie in Österreich? Oder anders formuliert: Inwiefern haben österreichische Denkerinnen und Denker des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts einen Beitrag zu einem spezifischen Verständnis der kantischen Philosophie geleistet? (...) Dabei zeigt sich, dass neben den zwei Hauptformen des Neukantianismus in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts – d.h. der Marburger und der Südwestdeutschen Schule – ein spezifisch österreichischer Zugang zu Kant historisch wie systematisch von besonderer Bedeutung ist und weitreichende Folgen hatte. Unter Absehung der üblichen geografischen Zuordnungen der verschiedenen Schulen lässt sich dieser als realistischer Kritizismus beschreiben und hat neben Richard Hönigswald und Robert Reininger seinen wichtigsten Vertreter in Alois Riehl. (shrink)

Der Aufsatz schildert den platonisierenden Antipsychologismus welchen Bolzano, der junge Brentano, Twardowski, Meinong, der Husserl der Logischen Untersuchungen, Frege, der Russell der Jahrhundertwende und der junge Wittgenstein philosophisch vertraten, und versucht eine soziologische und ideologiekritische Interpretation sowohl dieser Einstellung als auch derjenigen des traditionellen Psychologismus des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts. Der Platonismus des neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts wird als ein Ausdruck fiir - oder vielmehr als eine Reaktion gegen - den Verfall der klassischen burgerlichen Werte aufgefaBt. In Wittgensteins Tractatus spielen Elemente sowohl (...) eines platonisierenden Antipsychologismus wie auch eines relativistischen, verhaltensphanomenologisch orientierten Antipsychologismus eine Rolle: dieses Werk wird also als eine grelle Manifestation des Uberganges von der klassischen zur spatbiirgerlichen Weltanschauung, als ein Obergang vom Glauben an ewige Wahrheiten zur Hinnahme einer Gebrauchs-Theorie der Bedeutung und deren Konsequenzen interpretiert. (shrink)