Originally published in 1992. The history of Western philosophy can be seen as a battle between those that insist that the "physical universe" exists and those would claim that there is a much larger "world" which contains atemporal and nonspatial things as well. The central part of this book, and the battle, concerns the existence of universals. Starting with the mediaeval definition of the issue found in Porphry and Boethius, the author then considers modern and contemporary versions of the battle. (...) He concludes that what is at stake between naturalists and ontologists is the existence and nature of a number of important categories, like structures, relations, sets, numbers and so on. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Das Mittelalter Jahrgang: 19 Heft: 1 Seiten: 61-71.

Karl Reinhardt, einer der wichtigsten Altphilologen des 20. Jahrhunderts, hat sich in seinen Untersuchungen uber Platons Mythen, die 1927 erschienen und zuletzt 1969 in einem Sammelband neu aufgelegt wurden, mit diesen ratselhaften Passagen aus Platons Dialogen beschaftigt. Mit seiner grundlegend neuen Deutung des Verhaltnisses des Mythischen und Rationalen bei Platon hat Reinhardt ein neues Kapitel der Platon-Interpretation aufgeschlagen. Seine Auslegung des Mythos als poetischer Selbstentfaltung des Logos hat von ihrer Aktualitat nichts verloren und leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag auch (...) zur Mythos-Forschung der Gegenwart. Die Neupublikation stellt dem Leser ein grosses Werk der Platon-Literatur wieder zur Verfugung. (shrink)

Research methods and their developers play a crucial role in bringing together scientific fields. Scientists, who wish to have their methods acknowledged and used in another discipline have to bridge the gaps between different practices and worldviews, and they often experience hostility, incredulity, and in general feelings of ‘otherness’, while changing the established practice in a scientific field. Researchers representing newly emerging fields such as materials science have to overcome obstacles that are caused more by feelings of threat and fear (...) than by arguments rooted in epistemic or social considerations. In using the habitus concept of Pierre Bourdieu, I analyze in this article statements and observations of the scientists who in the 1950s and 1960s have introduced physical methods into chemistry and in so doing merged characteristic features of research communities into a new unit. The habitus of physicists, chemists and method-oriented researchers are shaped by hierarchical relationships inside the disciplines, and between them. Studying emotional expressions in interviews and self-descriptions gives access to hitherto neglected parts of the historical processes leading to new disciplines and fields. The brief case studies presented are seen as exemplars, and the analysis offered is intended more to provide a possible model for further research than as giving conclusive answers. (shrink)

En esta obra emblemática y, a la vez,enigmática de la primera rnitad dei siglo XII, seha escogido como tema de estudio la condicióndei ser humano desde su origen creacional. LaSumma Sententiarum presenta ai hornbre comocreado a imagem de Dios y profundiza en lascaracterísticas de esta imagem; implicitamenteafirma la dignidad originaria dei hombre y de lamujer, en cuanto portadores, por el alma, de laimagen divina. Es un texto creacionista conrespecto ai cuerpo humano - hombre y mujer - ytarnbién respecto dei alma, (...) que considera comocreada por Dios de la nada. Aunque a vecesparece insinuar la preexistência de las almas, e!texto visto en su conjunto se inclima en favor dela · creación divina y singular de cada alma para yen cada cuerpo, excluyendo ai mismo tiempo e!traducianismo. Los contrastes que aparecen enalgunas posiciones doctrinales apoyan la hipótesisreciente de tratarse de una obra colectiva. Losresultados muestran la continuidad de la SummaSententiarum con las fuentes bíblicas y patrísticasen este tema, con algunas peculiaridades. Lasfuentes filosóficas son platónicas, aunque evidentementees un platonismo cristianizado, decorte agustinianodionisiano. (shrink)

Nos séculos XII e XIII surgiram as sumas teológicas, nas quais distingue-se uma forma literária externa, com a ordenação da matéria e o desenvolvimento do discurso, e, de outro, a forma interna, como uma ideia sistematizadora. Os autores analisam as obras da época para descobrir nelas aspectos comuns e diferenças.

The "art of being free" is an essential part of democracy. It involves, Mark Reinhardt believes, bringing into being the multiple spaces in and practices through which individuals and groups help to constitute their lives, their selves, their worlds. Americans are presently witnessing a contraction of officially sanctioned spaces for citizen action. It is now crucial, Reinhardt argues, to identify ways of opening new spaces for the direct practice of democratic politics. Reinhardt treats the writings of Alexis (...) de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Hannah Arendt as exemplary sources for an expansion of political possibility. These writers indicate where and how the new spaces can be brought into being, and they reveal acts of making space as some of the prime moments of politics. Reinhardt's extended readings of these writers, never previously treated together, are quite unlike the familiar understandings of their thought. "Taking liberties," he brings the literary and political sensibility usually associated with postmodernism to a sympathetic if critical encounter with eminently modern thinkers. The result is a strong and idiosyncratic book, accessible and stylish, that mixes acute readings of canonical thinkers with more practical applications and illustrations. Reinhardt combines attention to textual detail and nuance with concern for contemporary politics, discussing as an unusually inventive example the AIDS activist group ACT UP. (shrink)

What would it look like for researchers to take non-human animal rights seriously? Recent discussions foster the impression that scientific practice needs to be reformed to make animal research ethical: just as there is ethically rigorous human research, so there can be ethically rigorous animal research. We argue that practically little existing animal research would be ethical and that ethical animal research is not scalable. Since animal research is integral to the existing scientific paradigm, taking animal rights seriously requires a (...) radical, wholesale reimagining of science.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05340426. (shrink)

Diese Einführung in die Ontologie zeigt die Geschichte der abendländischen Philosophie als einen dauernden Kampf zwischen den Riesen und Göttern von Platons Sophistes. Auf der einen Seite gibt es die Philosophen, die die Auffassung vertreten, daß nur das physikalische Universum existiert und auf der anderen Seite gibt es solche Philosophen, die darauf bestehen, daß es eine weit 'größere' Welt gibt, die auch zeitlose und nicht-räumliche Dinge, wie z.B. Egenschaften enthält. Der Autor diskutiert detailliert diese wichtige metaphysische Debatte, die dem Kampf (...) zugrunde liegt, nämlich die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Naturalisten und Ontologen. Das Buch beginnt mit einer Untersuchung der Geschichte der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Nominalisten und Realisten über das Problem der Universalien. Danach erkundet der Autor die Natur und Existenz der Kategorien wie Relationen, Strukturen, Zahlen und Tatsachen. Im letzten Teil argumentiert er dafür, daß Existenz und Negation keine Kategorien sind, sondern eher Merkmale der Welt. Die Einführung in die Ontologie dient zugleich als Einführung in die Philosophie insgesamt und zeichnet sich durch Klarheit, gute Verständlichkeit und einen lebendigen Stil aus. (shrink)

Diese Einführung in die Ontologie zeigt die Geschichte der abendländischen Philosophie als einen dauernden Kampf zwischen den Riesen und Göttern von Platons Sophistes. Auf der einen Seite gibt es die Philosophen, die die Auffassung vertreten, daß nur das physikalische Universum existiert und auf der anderen Seite gibt es solche Philosophen, die darauf bestehen, daß es eine weit 'größere' Welt gibt, die auch zeitlose und nicht-räumliche Dinge, wie z.B. Egenschaften enthält. Der Autor diskutiert detailliert diese wichtige metaphysische Debatte, die dem Kampf (...) zugrunde liegt, nämlich die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Naturalisten und Ontologen. Das Buch beginnt mit einer Untersuchung der Geschichte der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Nominalisten und Realisten über das Problem der Universalien. Danach erkundet der Autor die Natur und Existenz der Kategorien wie Relationen, Strukturen, Zahlen und Tatsachen. Im letzten Teil argumentiert er dafür, daß Existenz und Negation keine Kategorien sind, sondern eher Merkmale der Welt. Die Einführung in die Ontologie dient zugleich als Einführung in die Philosophie insgesamt und zeichnet sich durch Klarheit, gute Verständlichkeit und einen lebendigen Stil aus. (shrink)

The recent discovery and structure determination of a novel ubiquitin‐like dimerization domain in protein kinase D (PKD) has significant implications for its activation. PKD is a serine/threonine kinase activated by the lipid second messenger diacylglycerol (DAG). It is an essential and highly conserved protein that is implicated in plasma membrane directed trafficking processes from the trans‐Golgi network. However, many open questions surround its mechanism of activation, its localization, and its role in the biogenesis of cargo transport carriers. In reviewing this (...) field, the focus is primarily on the mechanisms that control the activation of PKD at precise locations in the cell. In light of the new structural findings, the understanding of the mechanisms underlying PKD activation is critically evaluated, with particular emphasis on the role of dimerization in PKD autophosphorylation, and the provenance and recognition of the DAG that activates PKD. (shrink)

A study of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. It features a prologue that considers the meaning of the tragedy for a post-Waco, post-9/11 world.

The final section of the book considers two features of the world which transcend the categories, existence and negation.

This book is available either individually, or as part of the specially-priced Arguments of the Philosphers Collection.

Professor Grossman’s introduction to the revolutionary work of Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre studies the ideas of their predecessors too, explaining in detail Descartes’s conception of the mind, Brentano’s theory of intentionality, and Kierkegaard’s emphasis on dread, while tracing the debate over existence and essence as far back as Aquinas and Aristotle. For a full understanding of the existentialists and phenomenologists, we must also understand the problems that they were trying to solve. This book, originally published in 1984, presents clearly how (...) the main concerns of phenomenology and existentialism grew out of tradition. (shrink)

L. R. Reinhardt; III—Dualism and Categories, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 66, Issue 1, 1 June 1966, Pages 71–92, https://doi.org/10.1093/aris.

Throughout the post-World War II decades, the United States has wrestled in its own unique style with a problem that is shared by all modern societies: how to achieve a reasonably equitable distribution of health care, without losing control of total spending on health care, and without suffocating the delivery system with controls and regulations that inhibit technical progress.Because an equitable distribution of health care inevitably requires at least some government regulation, and because government regulations tend to impose rigidity on (...) any system, it is widely believed in the United States that a trade-off actually exists between fairness in the distribution of care and the health system’s ability to innovate. This troublesome trade-off bedevils American policy makers to this day. (shrink)

Susan Sontag once remarked that since the invention of the camera, photography has “kept company with death.” And indeed, images of suffering human beings and devastated landscapes appear regularly in the popular media and even in contemporary art. This volume explores these painful images from the past few decades of photography, weighing in on the intense critical debate that has arisen in recent years around depictions of acute human suffering—especially those that are beautifully rendered. Drawing on works from advertising, photojournalism, (...) art photography, and conceptual art, Beautiful Suffering features reproductions of all the pieces in the Williams College Museum of Art exhibition that shares its name—including portrayals of AIDS sufferers, Abu Ghraib prisoners, refugees, and casualties of war. It also includes five critical essays that engage the works themselves as well as the larger issues the exhibition confronts: Is it inherently problematic to seek aesthetic pleasure in a rendering of pain? And if so, why? These essays, composed by scholars in fields as diverse as art history and political science, are perfect complements to the powerful images of suffering that probe some of the most pressing issues we face today. (shrink)

In Plato's Meno , there is a famous discussion of desire and evil. This paper is not a contribution to Platonic scholarship, but a direct taking up of the issue whether someone can desire evil. One stock interpretation of the putative impossibility of desiring what is evil or bad is the interpretation which emphasizes an internal or conceptual tie between desire and good. This interpretation compares pairs of terms such as ‘fear—danger’, ‘belief—truth’ and ‘desire—good’. To fear something is to regard (...) it as, or believe that it is, dangerous ; to believe something is to regard it as, or believe it to be, true ; to desire something is to regard it as, to believe it to be, good. Since it is obvious that people believe things which are false, it is maintained that it is equally obvious that people may desire what is bad and fear what is harmless or of no danger. Let us call this interpretation of the doctrine that it is impossible to desire evil the weak thesis. The weak thesis allows what seems a plain fact of human reality, that people believe falsehoods, fear things that cannot harm them and desire things which are not good. Equally obviously, it allows that people fail to believe truths, fail to desire goods, and fail to fear things that are dangerous. On this weak interpretation, the manner in which wickedness to others and self-destructiveness are due to ignorance is that people are ignorant about the nature of things and ways of acting, ignorant about what it would be like to possess something or ignorant about what it would be like to do something or other. (shrink)

Hilary Putnam has recently observed that the fact/value distinction has acquired a strength and pervasiveness in our culture that make it akin to an institution. 1 I take it he meant an institution in the sense that Taboo is an institution in some cultures, not in the sense that the Church is an institution in ours. Invoking the distinction is a widespread conversational gambit in social life, not only in academic discussions. ‘That's a value judgment’ and ‘That's emotive’ are to (...) be heard at dinner parties more often than ‘Pass the salt’. (shrink)

1. „Schwache“ oder „freie Menschen“? „Weil es aber doch einem nachdenkenden und forschenden Wesen anständig ist, gewisse Zeiten lediglich der Prüfung seiner eigenen Vernunft zu widmen, hierbei aber alle Parteilichkeit gänzlich auszuziehen, und so seine Bemerkungen anderen zur Beurteilung öffentlich mitzuteilen; so kann es niemanden verargt, noch weniger verwehrt werden, die Sätze und Gegensätze, so wie sie sich, durch keine Drohung geschreckt, vor Geschworenen von seinem eigenen Stande verteidigen können, auftreten zu lassen.“ These: Wer diesen Text kritisch liest, stutzt – (...) was sollen die „schwachen Menschen“ hier? Ist nicht das bizarre „schwacher“ durch „freier“ zu ersetzen? Kant verbindet mit der Gerichtshofmetapher die gegen die Politik der Machtsprüche des Absolutismus, aber auch gegen die Gesetzlosigkeit des „status naturalis“ gerichtete Freiheit der Richter und Geschworenen, nicht aber deren Schwäche. Erst im Staat unter Freiheitsgesetzen könne ein Gerichtshof eingerichtet werden – „Zu dieser Freiheit gehört denn auch, seine Gedanken, seine Zweifel, die man sich nicht selbst auflösen kann, öffentlich zur Beurteilung auszustellen, ohne darüber für einen unruhigen oder gefährlichen Bürger verschrieen zu werden [„durch keine Drohung geschreckt“] Das liegt schon in dem ursprünglichen Rechte der menschlichen Vernunft, welche keinen anderen Richter erkennt, als selbst wiederum die allgemeine Menschenvernunft, worin ein jeder seine Stimme hat.“ Die Freiheit bezieht sich auf den Bürgerstand der Menschen und ihre Freiheitsgesetze. Wir befinden uns im Bereich einer Rechtsinstitution – was soll da der Appell an die Schwäche? Gibt es einen bürgerlichen Stand der Schwachen? Nein. Das Ergebnis der Gerichtsverhandlung wird sein, dass weder Satz noch Gegensatz gilt oder dass beide gelten könnten. Nun kommt hinzu, dass Kant zuvor den Menschen charakterisiert, der zwischen These und Antithese hin- und herschwankt – ein schwacher Mensch, dem der nachdenkende und forschende Mensch entgegengesetzt wird, der nun entschlossen vor dem Gerichtshof erfahren will, wie es um die Ansprüche der beiden Parteien steht. Auch im nachfolgenden Text wird emphatisch dafür argumentiert, dass der Mensch das Problem der Antinomie und seine Auflösung in seiner eigenen Vernunft findet und daher „die Verantwortung [Beantwortung?] nicht von sich abweisen und auf den unbekannten Gegenstand schieben kann“. (shrink)

In this book the system is fearlessly applied to the issues that have arisen out of false and godless philosophic principles and which have thrown into cosmic ...

Considering formative twentieth-century theories in relation to contemporary technosocial developments, this article examines ideas of spectacle and surveillance as ways of approaching visual politics. I argue that the historically important relationship between the visual and political fields is now intensifying and mutating. First discussing Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle, I show how his influential approach proves inadequate to the politics of image-saturated societies. I next show how critics of imperial and racial spectacles, from Michael Rogin to Claudia Rankine (...) and Tina Campt, provide better ways of engaging power and political contestation in the visual field. Third, I examine how Michel Foucault deployed notions of spectacle in his own work but argued for leaving the term behind, presenting surveillance as not just a different modality of power but also spectacle’s temporal successor. This account remains essential for both historical understanding and reckoning with contemporary surveillance. Fourth, however, as Simone Browne argues, Foucault’s separation between spectacle and surveillance is too stark, his history too prone to occlude race. Furthermore, recent surveillance technologies and practices have changed in ways that confound his terms, while extending and also altering the racial dynamics explored earlier in the essay. Today, even surveillance based on optical media contributes to a “postvisual” image world in which algorithmic, machine-machine communication abets forms of power neither tied to human perception nor graspable as subject formation. With surprising assistance from Debord, I end by discussing the significant theoretical and political challenges posed by the ironies of postvisual visuality. (shrink)

A discussion of how and whether judgment regarding the happiness, flourishing or well-being of a life is appropriately influenced by false belief or ignorance on matters central to that life. That is, is it so that what we don't know does not, or cannot hurt us? How much does it matter if the false belief was owing to betrayal or deception by others who mattered deeply to the now dead person? Further, is truthfulness about such betrayal something a friend of (...) a dying person may eschew or is it itself a kind of betrayal? (shrink)