Name der Zeitschrift: Millennium Jahrgang: 9 Heft: 1 Seiten: 163-186.

As modelling becomes a popular approach in the study of biological systems it is necessary to clarify its concepts and dimensions. This helps to characterize and to distinguish models but cannot establish their quality. The virtue of a model depends on the insight gained in respect to a specific scientific question, and it is hard to measure this with a theory.

Neural organization has many facets; multiple descriptive levels and multiple analytical strategies coexist. Although most neuroscientists agree that a multidisciplinary, multistrategic approach is necessary to understand neural organization, diverse individual approaches make it difficult to find the optimal mixture and priority list.

O livro Amor pelo avesso: de Afrodite a Medusa. Estética da Existência entre antigos e contemporâneos, de autoria de Cassiana Lopes Stephan, fruto de sua tese em Filosofia apresentada na Universidade Federal do Paraná, é tecido por uma espécie de escrita realizada com o próprio sangue, como diria Nietzsche; em um texto filosófico visceral, de crise e agonia, a autora nos convida a participar de uma discussão sobre as perspectivas ético-políticas das relações amorosas. Tal incursão filosófica se dá desde os (...) antigos, com ênfase no estoicismo e no cinismo, levando-nos à aproximação tanto das reflexões contemporâneas de Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, Maurice Blanchot, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Sarah Kofman, Judith Butler, dentre outros, como também da inquietante literatura de Marguerite Duras e de produções cinematográficas baseadas em seus roteiros. (shrink)

O livro Amor pelo avesso: de Afrodite a Medusa. Estética da Existência entre antigos e contemporâneos, de autoria de Cassiana Lopes Stephan, fruto de sua tese em Filosofia apresentada na Universidade Federal do Paraná, é tecido por uma espécie de escrita realizada com o próprio sangue, como diria Nietzsche; em um texto filosófico visceral, de crise e agonia, a autora nos convida a participar de uma discussão sobre as perspectivas ético-políticas das relações amorosas. Tal incursão filosófica se dá desde os (...) antigos, com ênfase no estoicismo e no cinismo, levando-nos à aproximação tanto das reflexões contemporâneas de Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, Maurice Blanchot, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Sarah Kofman, Judith Butler, dentre outros, como também da inquietante literatura de Marguerite Duras e de produções cinematográficas baseadas em seus roteiros. (shrink)

Philipp W. Balsiger / Rudolf Kötter Die Kultur moderner Wissenschaft am Beispiel Albert Einstein Für alle, die über den Tellerrand der Physik EInsteins blicken wollen Albert Einstein ist ein wissenschaftshistorisches Musterbeispiel dafür, wie wissenschaftliche Kulturleistungen bei der Entwicklung neuer Theorien, in persönlichen Netzwerken und im Zusammenhand mit philosophischem Denken entstehen. Dieses Buch enthält Beiträge von Physikern, Philosophen und Wissenschaftshistorikern, die überraschend vielseitigen Facetten der physikalischen Kultur am Beispiel Albert Einsteins zusammentragen: von den Paradigmenwechseln des Raum- Zeitverständnisses über die Philosophie in (...) der Physik bis hin zur Bildungs- und Popularisierungskultur, die mit seinem Wirken verbunden ist. (shrink)

Part of understanding the functional organization of the brain is understanding how it evolved. This talk presents evidence suggesting that while the brain may have originally emerged as an organ with functionally dedicated regions, the creative re-use of these regions has played a significant role in its evolutionary development. This would parallel the evolution of other capabilities wherein existing structures, evolved for other purposes, are re-used and built upon in the course of continuing evolutionary development (“exaptation”: Gould & Vrba 1982). (...) There is psychological support for exaptation in cognition (e.g. Cosmides 1989), theoretical reason to expect it (Anderson 2003; in press-a; in press-b) and neuroanatomic evidence that the brain evolved by preserving, extending, and combining existing network components, rather than by generating complex structures de novo (Sporns & Kötter 2004). However, there has been little evidence that integrates these perspectives, bringing such an account of the evolution of cognitive function into the realm of cognitive neuroscience (although see, e.g., Barsalou 1999). (shrink)

This article concerns a short but significant letter of April 1630 from the Bohemian prophet, alchemist and theosopher Paul Felgenhauer (1593-c. 1677) to the Leipzig alchemist and physician Arnold Kerner. The letter is presented in transcription, with an annotated English translation. It is prefaced by an introduction incorporating a new biographical account of Felgenhauer, which draws on overlooked or unknown manuscript material preserved in Germany and England. The letter itself shines a rare light on a variety of different areas of (...) interest concerning Felgenhauer's life and activities in the years prior to 1630. These areas include his immediate contacts and associates (such as with the Silesian prophet Christoph Kotter), interest and undertakings in alchemical experimentation, publishing and bibliographical activities, methods of communication, his circle of wider contacts and the nature and extent of broader interpersonal and epistolary networks in which he participated. However, it also illuminates tangential issues, such as the scale of social and informational economy in a heterodox correspondence network, the intricacies of dissident book production in the United Provinces, the history of trade in Leipzig, the role of commercial agents in facilitating contact between dissident personalities throughout the Holy Roman Empire, and the postal history of Bremen. (shrink)