Es war im Herbst 1970, als ich an der Universität Graz mit dem Studium der Philosophie und Mathematik begann. Schnell verlagerte sich mein Interesse fast vollständig auf die Philosophie, hatte doch das damalige Institut für alle, die sich von grundlegenden Fragestellungen bedrängt fühlten, einiges zu bieten.

This paper contributes to the clarification of the concept of “typicality” discussed in contemporary philosophy of physics by conceiving the nomological status of a typical behaviour such as that expressed in the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a “minutis rectis law”. A brief sketch of the discovery of “typicality” shows that there were ideas of typical behaviour not only in physics but also in sociology. On this basis and in analogy to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, it is shown that (...) the nomological status of sociological laws such as Gresham’s Law can also be conceived as “minutis rectis laws”. (shrink)

The constraint against harming people in order to save yourself and others seems stronger than the constraint against harming people as a consequence of saving yourself and others. The reduced constraint against acting in one type of case is often justified with reference to the intentions of the agent or to the fact that she does not use the people she harms as a means. In this article I offer a victim-centered account. I argue that the circumstances in which the (...) people to be harmed find themselves are significant in distinguishing morally between two instances of harming. (shrink)

Statistical mechanics attempts to explain the behaviour of macroscopic physical systems in terms of the mechanical properties of their constituents. Although it is one of the fundamental theories of physics, it has received little attention from philosophers of science. Nevertheless, it raises philosophical questions of fundamental importance on the nature of time, chance and reduction. Most philosophical issues in this domain relate to the question of the reduction of thermodynamics to statistical mechanics. This book addresses issues inherent in this reduction: (...) the time-asymmetry of thermodynamics and its absence in statistical mechanics; the role and essential nature of chance and probability in this reduction when thermodynamics is non-probabilistic; and how, if at all, the reduction is possible. Compiling contributions on current research by experts in the field, this is an invaluable survey of the philosophy of statistical mechanics for academic researchers and graduate students interested in the foundations of physics. (shrink)

In this article we discuss the notion of a linguistic universal, and possible sources of such invariant properties of natural languages. In the first part, we explore the conceptual issues that arise. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the explanatory potential of horizontal evolution. We particularly focus on two case studies, concerning Zipf's Law and universal properties of color terms, respectively. We show how computer simulations can be employed to study the large scale, emergent, consequences of (...) psychologically and psychologically motivated assumptions about the working of horizontal language transmission. (shrink)

An important finding of the game theoretic research on signaling games is the insight that under many circumstances, a signal obtains credibility by incurring costs to the sender. Therefore it seems questionable whether or not cheap talk—signals that are not payoff relevant—can serve to transmit information among rational agents. This issue is non-trivial in strategic interactions where the preferences of the players are not aligned. Researchers like Crawford & Sobel, Rabin, and Farrell demonstrated, however, that even in the case of (...) partially divergent interests, cheap talk may be informative. They assume that signals have an exogenously given meaning that is common knowledge between the players, and they explore the conditions under which such a signal is credible. This discussion has obvious relevance to the program of Gricean pragmatics in linguistics. According to Grice’s "Cooperative Principle”, this research tradition only considers scenarios where the interests of the players are aligned. Nevertheless, the assumption of differential signaling costs introduces an element of non-aligned interests. The present paper proposes a framework that combines these two research strands. Using an inference protocol of iterated best response, it gives a recipe for how the interlocutors derive rationalizable strategies from exogeneously given "literal” meanings of signals. No special assumptions about the alignment of interests or signaling costs are made. After introducing the formal model, the paper sketches several applications of this model to problems in linguistic pragmatics, like scalar implicatures, the division of pragmatic labor, and the interpretation of measure terms. (shrink)

We study the extension of Feferman’s operational set theory provided by adding operational versions of unbounded existential quantification and power set and determine its proof-theoretic strength in terms of a suitable theory of sets and classes.

Scientific knowledge should not only be true, it should be as objective as possible. It should refer to a reality independent of any subject. What can we use as a criterion of objectivity? Intersubjectivity (i.e., intersubjective understandability and intersubjective testability) is necessary, but not sufficient. Other criteria are: independence of reference system, independence of method, non-conventionality. Is there some common trait? Yes, there is: invariance under some specified transformations. Thus, we say: A proposition is objective only if its truth is (...) invariant against a change in the conditions under which it was formulated. We give illustrations from geometry, perception, neurobiology, relativity theory, and quantum theory. Such an objectivist position has many advantages. (shrink)

In this paper, we discuss some formal properties of the model ofbidirectional Optimality Theory that was developed inBlutner (2000). We investigate the conditions under whichbidirectional optimization is a well-defined notion, and we give aconceptually simpler reformulation of Blutner's definition. In thesecond part of the paper, we show that bidirectional optimization can bemodeled by means of finite state techniques. There we rely heavily onthe related work of Frank and Satta (1998) about unidirectionaloptimization.

This paper is intended as a contribution to a recent vigorous debate inThe Times, between the distinguished journalist Bernard Levin, the eminent Oxford economist Wilfred Beckerman and the Archbishop of York, John Habgood, among others. The debate concerns morality, ‘free will’ and determinism. As a former German Jew, who lost close relatives at Auschwitz and who suffered personally severely in my youth under daily virulent Nazi persecution, I obviously cannot remain strictly detached and neutral. Yet, I shall attempt to retain (...) as much neutrality as possible, since I think that the main rivals in this debate have all some very relevant, interesting and valid things to say. Let me also state other, probably very relevant, biases. I am an ardent Zionist. In addition, I am a diehard mechanistic materialist as regards basic philosophy, although I am tolerant of other people's religious feelings, because I realize that my materialism is as metaphysical as their religious views. With this as background let me return to the technical issues. Obviously, in a philosophical journal one can write at a level above that ofThe Times, where there is, perhaps, insufficient room to debate philosophical, biological, physical and other niceties in some depth. (shrink)

Wer hat sich nicht schon gefragt, was es mit unseren moralischen Überzeugungen auf sich hat: Spiegeln diese die Wahrheit in Sachen Moral wieder? Gibt es eine solche Wahrheit überhaupt? Oder sind moralische Überzeugungen eher das Produkt unserer Interessen und Neigungen, Ausdruck unserer Wünsche oder Mittel der Machtausübung, das bloße Ergebnis unserer Erziehung, unseres sozialen Umfelds oder gar eine List der Evolution? Ist es eine Illusion, wenn man glaubt, echte moralische Erkenntnisse gewinnen zu können? Kurzum: Kann die Moral Objektivität beanspruchen? Die (...) vorliegende Arbeit versucht, eine Antwort auf diese zentrale Frage der Metaethik zu geben. Dazu wird zunächst gezeigt, dass uns der Status der Moral ein Rätsel ist, weil wir dazu neigen, drei Thesen für wahr zu halten, die nicht zugleich wahr sein können. Die drei prinzipiell möglichen Strategien zur Auflösung dieses Trilemmas geraten jedoch in Schwierigkeiten, weil es bisher nicht gelungen ist, ein passendes Vergleichsobjekt für die Moral zu finden. In dieser Arbeit wird dafür argumentiert, dass die Moral in genau der gleichen Weise wie die Wissenschaft Objektivität beanspruchen kann. (shrink)

Suppose two people are about to drown. We are in a position to save only one, so the other will have to die. One of the two has just culpably killed an innocent person, but has no intention of killing anybody else and there is no reason to expect that he will. Everything else being equal, should we give them an equal chance of being saved by flipping a coin? In this paper I argue that we should not. I argue (...) that the implications of a person's moral culpability for (recent or prospective) harm to a particular victim should transfer to other conflict situations in which the wrongdoer might find him or herself. This requires establishing the extent to which a person's contributing to harming another person — and his moral culpability for that harm — impinges on our decision making in situations where it is possible only to assist either the wrongdoer or some other person that is not his victim. (shrink)

We discuss several ontological properties of explicit mathematics and operational set theory: global choice, decidable classes, totality and extensionality of operations, function spaces, class and set formation via formulas that contain the definedness predicate and applications.

We show that the principle of ω model reflection for Π1n − 1 formulas is equivalent over ACA0 to the scheme of Π1n bar induction. This extends and refines previous results of Friedman and Simpson.

The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893 bis 974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only (...) a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893 bis 974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893-974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. (shrink)

Im Zentrum der Hauptform des metaethischen Relativismus steht eine kontextualistische Analyse der Bedeutung moralischer Aussagen. Gegen diese Analyse lassen sich jedoch bestimmte sprachliche Beobachtungen anführen, die der Relativist erklären muss, wenn er an seiner Theorie festhalten möchte. In diesem Aufsatz argumentiere ich für die These, dass keiner dieser Erklärungsversuche gelingt. Wir betrachten, wie sich zeigt, moralische Aussagen als weder in offensichtlicher noch in versteckter Weise kontextsensitiv. Damit gerät aber der Relativismus als metaethische Position überhaupt in ernsthafte Bedrängnis.