Leibniz construit, teste et vérifie sans cesse la pertinence et la cohérence de sa philosophie en la rapportant aux conclusions des autres disciplines. Cette méthode heuristique nourrit son dialogue avec les sciences mathématiques et physiques; moins connus, les enjeux révélés par la réforme moderne de la médecine et la chimie suscitent une interrogation sur la vie et la qualité. Ces sciences expérimentales s'avèrent en effet cruciales pour une philosophie de la nature qui cherche à concilier le mécanisme et le finalisme (...) à travers les concepts d'entéléchie et de monade. Elles obligent en outre à préciser la logique de l'expérience, la fonction de la raison, le statut des principes explicatifs (loi, cause, éléments, analogie). Enfin, elles exigent un fondement qui permette de rapporter les phénomènes organiques à leur véritable origine: la vie. Ce programme se réalise de façon systématique dans la controverse qu'entretiennent Leibniz et Stahl au sujet d'une philosophie de la nature capable de prendre acte des découvertes modernes de la médecine et de la chimie, tout en fondant ces connaissances sur une théorie générale de la substance et de la vie. (shrink)

Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) was a German physician and chemist. The book (in German) documents a symposium of the Academy Leopoldina on his works and thoughts that contributed to the Enlightenment. Der weite Horizont seines Denkens und seiner Arbeiten umfasst die Phlogiston-Theorie der Verbrennung, die später mit der Entdeckung des Sauerstoffs widerlegt wurde, aber dennoch wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Reversibilität von Reaktionen und zur unsichtbaren Persistenz der beteiligten chemischen Komponenten beitrug. Seine Gedanken zur Rolle der „Anima“, die heute (...) überholt erscheinen, führten bereits am Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts Konzepte ein, die für die moderne Biologie und Psychologie von Bedeutung sind. Dazu zählen etwa Homöostase, Synergie, die Vorbereitung willentlicher Bewegungen und Unterschiede zwischen unbewussten aber vernünftigen Handlungen und solchen, die von rationalen Erwägungen geleitet werden. Stahls medizinisches Hauptwerk ist die „Theoria medica vera”, Halle 1708. Eine der zentralen Publikationen zur chemischen Theorie der Verbrennung ist die „Zymotechnia fundamentalis seu fermentationis theoria generalis”, Halle 1697, in deutscher Sprache 1734. Siehe auch „Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734), German Physician and Chemist“, Artikel von A. Gierer, in: Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Hg. A.C. Kors), Bd. 4, Oxford University Press, New York 2003, S. 124-125. -/- . (shrink)

This essay focuses on the structure of agency in Georg Ernst Stahl's model of organic order and the role that it plays for the difference between living and non-living beings in the discourses of medicine and natural history around 1700. Stahl calls the order of organic beings an "organism". He characterizes the "organism" through the notions of tonic movement, energy and ratio. The tonic movement is a mechanism of contraction and relaxation of organic units to direct (...) fluids to certain parts of the body; the energy represents a certain, limited potential of the living body to act spontaneously and to react if it is irritated; and the ratio expresses the logic of a processual, directed order imposed on corporeal dispositions. This ratio inheres in natural agents. However, to establish his theory of agency, Stahl first analyzes the irregular blood movements that characterize diseases. The capacity of the organic body to change these movements and to heal itself in redirecting them, leads him to the assumption that such bodies can regulate their own order and that self-regulation requires an autonomous agent. (shrink)

Le Obiezioni contro la Teoria medica di G.E. Stahl, tradotte per la prima volta in italiano, rappresentano un documento di particolare interesse storico-filosofico. Da una parte Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734), medico, chimico, fisico, sostenitore di una fisiologia corporea a impronta “vitalista” e dall’altra Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), genio universale della matematica e della filosofia dell’età barocca. Il fulcro della polemica riguarda la possibilità di capire se e in che misura l’organizzazione meccanica di un corpo organico sia (...) di per se sufficiente a spiegare il fenomeno della vita “biologica”, o se invece si debba postulare la presenza di princìpi vitali capaci di integrare le leggi fisiologiche che strutturano la corporeità. A dispetto della lontananza storica, o anzi forse proprio in virtù di tale lontananza, la polemica tra Leibniz e Stahl ci aiuta a decifrare le radici di uno dei refrain più abusati di tanta filosofia contemporanea, il tema cioè della ‘naturalizzazione’ della vita e dello spirito. L’idea di espungere tutti gli elementi “soprannaturali” (l’anima, gli spiriti, etc.) dal novero delle spiegazioni scientifiche non è certo un’idea novecentesca e si confronta in questo caso non solo con la sua tesi opposta, ma soprattutto con una vasta gamma di soluzioni intermedie e di varianti non riduzioniste, di cui proprio la filosofia di Leibniz è uno splendido esempio. Il volume è accompagnato da un saggio di postfazione intitolato Vita e organismo tra filosofia e medicina: le ragioni di una polemica. (shrink)

This paper examines Georg Ernst Stahl's first book, the Zymotechnia Fundamentalis, in the context of contemporary natural philosophy and the author's career. I argue that the Zymotechnia was a mechanical theory of fermentation written consciously against the influential "fermentational program" of Joan Baptista van Helmont and especially Thomas Willis. Stahl's theory of fermentation introduced his first conception of phlogiston, which was in part a corpuscular transformation of the Paracelsian sulphur principle. Meanwhile some assumptions underlying this theory, (...) such as the composition of matter, the absolute passivity of matter and the "passions" of sulphur, reveal the combined scholastic and mechanistic character of Stahl's natural philosophy. In the conclusion I show that Stahl's theory of fermentation undermined the old fermentational program and paved the way for his dualist vitalism. (shrink)

The subject of this paper is Georg Ernst Stahl's reflections on epilepsy. In the German physician's work, the concept of disease is stratified: it is the morbid idea which causes dysfunctions in the animal economy, as well as irregular motion, overabundance and ultimately an alteration of the corporeal humours. In particular, epilepsy is an affection deriving from an altered functioning of the bodily motions, caused by abnormal blood flow, intestinal worms, anatomical defects, foreign bodies, and the passions (...) of the soul. While a certain medical tradition attributed a nervous origin to epilepsy, Stahl, giving it a humoural genesis, openly shows the theoretical premises on which his physiology rests. So, Stahlian physiology appears to be a non-mechanistic, teleological-inspired, hydraulicism. (shrink)

. The subject of this paper is Georg Ernst Stahl's reflections on epilepsy. In the German physician's work, the concept of disease is stratified: it is the morbid idea which causes dysfunctions in the animal economy, as well as irregular motion, overabundance and ultimately an alteration of the corporeal humours. In particular, epilepsy is an affection deriving from an altered functioning of the bodily motions, caused by abnormal blood flow, intestinal worms, anatomical defects, foreign bodies, and the (...) passions of the soul. While a certain medical tradition attributed a nervous origin to epilepsy, Stahl, giving it a humoural genesis, openly shows the theoretical premises on which his physiology rests. So, Stahlian physiology appears to be a non-mechanistic, teleological-inspired, hydraulicism. (shrink)

Kommunikation ist ohne Kontextualisierung nicht realisierbar, Texte sind ohne Kontexte nicht denkbar. Die moderne kognitive Textlinguistik und die linguistische Diskursanalyse setzen diese Erkenntnis häufig in ihren Arbeiten voraus. Dabei bleibt aber der Kontextbegriff theoretisch fast stets marginal, und das, was er bezeichnet, vage und/oder arbiträr. Dies hat sicherlich damit zu tun, dass Kontext keine unabhängig spezifizierbaren Sachverhalte oder Klassen von Sachverhalten bezeichnet. Der Begriff benennt vielmehr ein Verhältnis: Fast beliebige Sachverhalte können zu Kontexten dadurch werden, dass sie mit einem im (...) Fokus stehenden kommunikativen Ereignis in Verbindung stehen oder gesetzt werden, und erst diese Verbindung ermöglicht es, das fokussierte Element zu verstehen. Der vorliegende Sammelband versucht, diesen Mangel an begrifflicher Fundierung anzusprechen und ihm in Form theoretischer und text-analytischer Beiträge z.B. zu literalen Praktiken in verschiedenen sozio-kulturellen, medialen und literarischen Kontexten entgegenzutreten. Dabei soll die Macht der Kontexte, wie sie sich in den Texten manifestiert sowie - in umgekehrter Perspektive - die Kontextualisierungspotenz und -notwendigkeit von Texten und damit ihre Macht über die Kontexte herausgestellt werden. (shrink)

Die geschichtliche Entwicklung des Philosophieunterrichts am Gymnasium verlief in Deutschland bis in die heutige Zeit sehr different. Auf diesem Hintergrund erfolgt die Darstellung, Analyse und Kommentierung der Lehrplane und Curricula zum Philosophie- und Ethikunterricht in den Bundeslandern und vermittelt Informationen uber den Verlauf und aktuellen Stand der Curriculumstrategien.".

Religions around the world show support, ambivalence and antagonism towards the right to freedom of religion. Legal and political debates are affected by these profound differences. In this book an international group of scholars offer theoretical and empirical analyses.

Die Autoren berichten über die erste kontrollierte Psychotherapiestudie, die psychoanalytische und kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutische Langzeitpsychotherapien mit randomisierter und präferierter Zuweisung mit­einander vergleicht. In vier Behandlungszentren wurden 554 chronisch depressive Patienten interviewt, von denen 252 in die Studie aufgenommen werden konnten. In den Selbsteinschätzungen der Patienten zeigten sich große und stabile Veränderungen. Die vollständige Remissionsrate (für BDI) lag nach einem Jahr bei 34 % und stieg auf 45 % nach drei Jahren. Analoge Ergebnisse zeigten sich in den Einschätzungen der unabhängigen, bezogen auf die (...) Therapieverfahren verblindeten Rater (QIDS). Entgegen ihrer Hypothesen fanden die Autoren aber keinen statistisch signifikanten Unterschied zwischen den Verfahren und auch keine Effektunterschiede zwischen randomisierter Therapiezuweisung und Behandlung mit der präferierten Psychotherapie. Besser als in anderen Studien sind die erzielten Remissionsraten, die zeigten, dass chronisch depressive Patienten von Langzeitpsychotherapien profitieren. (shrink)

Jean-Pierre Cléro, philosophe et traducteur d’œuvres philosophiques, signe à nouveau une traduction qui fait sortir d’un oubli relatif un texte utilitariste essentiel. Il choisit de présenter une œuvre de G.E. Moore : Ethique. D’autres écrits de G.E. Moore sur l’éthique sont plus connus du public éclairé, comme Principia Ethica ou The Elements of Ethics. Jean-Pierre Cléro fait ici le pari d’un texte jusqu’à présent jamais traduit et que G.E. Moore décrit lui-même comme be...

This essay focuses on an unknown Latin translation of Georg Ernst Stahl's treatise on the nature of sulfur (Zufällige Gedancken und Nützliche Bedencken über den Streit von dem so genannten Sulfure). The original edition, published in 1718, laid the foundation for the phlogiston theory, which dominated European chemistry until the early 1770s. However, the dissemination of the treatise on sulfur outside the German states remained limited. Its Latin translation proposes a different scenario as it was owned by (...) three prominent French chemists: Étienne-François Geoffroy, Jean Hellot and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Geoffroy's early interest in Stahl's chemistry has been evidenced and it is suggested that the acquisition of the manuscript might be linked to his connection with Stahl through Caspar Neumann, a chemist from Berlin. When he entered in the possession of the manuscript Jean Hellot wrote a long excerpt of Stahl’s work. Lavoisier acquired the manuscript in 1766, and his critical reading of Stahl's work significantly influenced his own effort to outline a new theory of combustion. This manuscript represents a significant historical connection between Stahl’s phlogiston theory and Lavoisier's revolutionary ideas. (shrink)

Substantively revised entry, 2023. Georg (György) Lukács (1885–1971) was a literary theorist and philosopher who is widely viewed as one of the founders of “Western Marxism” and as a forerunner of 20th-century critical theory. Lukács is best known for his Theory of the Novel (1916) and History and Class Consciousness (1923). In History and Class Consciousness, he laid out a wide-ranging critique of the phenomenon of “reification” in capitalism and formulated a vision of Marxism as a self-conscious transformation of (...) society. This text became a reference point both for critical social theory and for many currents of countercultural thought. Even though his later work did not capture the imagination of the intellectual public to the same extent as his earlier writings, Lukács remained a prolific writer and an influential theorist in his later career and published hundreds of articles on literary theory and aesthetics, not to mention numerous books, including two massive works on aesthetics and ontology. He was also active as a politician in Hungary in both the revolution of 1919 and during the events of 1956. Today, his work remains of philosophical interest not only because it contains the promise of an undogmatic, non-reductionist reformulation of Marxism, but also because it combines a philosophical approach that draws on Neo-Kantianism, Hegel, and Marx with an acute cultural sensitivity and a powerful critique of modern life inspired by Weber’s and Simmel’s sociological analyses of modern rationalization. (shrink)

Although the critique of reification is a core commitment of critical theories, there is no widely accepted account of its normative foundation. In Lukács’s original analysis, this foundation is provided by a strong concept of practice which is, however, not acceptable from a contemporary point of view. I argue that the systematic character of reification theory can only be upheld if this concept is replaced by a more intersubjective notion of normative practices. Reification can then be analysed as a second-order (...) pathology of social practices, as an inhibition of reflexivity by their normative shape. The normative justification of such critique, however, turns out to be more context-dependent than it is usually imagined. (shrink)

Bloch, E. Discussing expressionism.--Lukács, G. Realism in the balance.--Brecht, B. Against Georg Lukács.--Benjamin, W. Conversations with Brecht.--Adorno, T. Letters to Walter Benjamin.--Benjamin, W. Reply.--Adorno, T. Reconciliation under duress.--Adorno, T. Commitment.--Jameson, F. Reflections in conclusion.

Georg (György) Lukács (1885–1971) was a literary theorist and philosopher who is widely viewed as one of the founders of “Western Marxism”. Lukács is best known for his pre-World War II writings in literary theory, aesthetic theory and Marxist philosophy. Today, his most widely read works are the Theory of the Novel of 1916 and History and Class Consciousness of 1923. In History and Class Consciousness, Lukács laid out a wide-ranging critique of the phenomenon of “reification” in capitalism and (...) formulated a vision of Marxism as a self-conscious transformation of society. (shrink)