In his short epistle 6,15 Pliny reports on an incident which has happened during a recitation of poetry: The poet Passennus Paulus started with the words „Prisce, iubes …“; the addressee Javolenus Priscus, a renowned jurist, protested „ego vero non iubeo“. The audience laughed, but not so Pliny. He evaluates, even criticizes. Conversely, this article evaluates Pliny himself and his opinion with regard to his other epistles.

Der isländische Historiker, Dichter und Politiker Snorri Sturluson war eine Ausnahmegestalt des nordischen Mittelalters. Die Beiträge international renommierter Forscher diskutieren den aktuellen Stand der Forschung und bringen selbst neue Ansätze ein. Dabei werden neben religionshistorischen und historischen Themen auch Fragen der Biographie, der Wissenschaftsgeschichte und der Textüberlieferung behandelt.

The existence of superstition and religious beliefs in most, if not all, human societies is puzzling for behavioral ecology. These phenomena bring about various fitness costs ranging from burial objects to celibacy, and these costs are not outweighed by any obvious benefits. In an attempt to resolve this problem, we present a verbal model describing how humans and other organisms learn from the observation of coincidence (associative learning). As in statistical analysis, learning organisms need rules to distinguish between real patterns (...) and randomness. These rules, which we argue are equivalent to setting the level of α for rejection of the null hypothesis in statistics, are governed by risk management as well as by comparison to previous experiences. Risk management means that the cost of a possible type I error (superstition) has to be traded off against the cost of a possible type II error (ignorance). This trade-off implies that the occurrence of superstitious beliefs is an inevitable consequence of an organism’s ability to learn from observation of coincidence. Comparison with previous experiences (as in Bayesian statistics) improves the chances of making the right decision. While this Bayesian approach is found in most learning organisms, humans have evolved a unique ability to judge from experiences whether a candidate subject has the power to mechanistically cause the observed effect. Such “strong” causal thinking evolved because it allowed humans to understand and manipulate their environment. Strong causal thinking, however, involves the generation of hypotheses about underlying mechanisms (i.e., beliefs). Assuming that natural selection has favored individuals that learn quicker and more successfully than others owing to (1) active search to detect patterns and (2) the desire to explain these patterns mechanistically, we suggest that superstition has evolved as a by-product of the first, and that belief has evolved as a by-product of the second. (shrink)

Ultraviolet radiation is generally considered to have been discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter in 1801. In this article, we study the reception of Ritter’s experiment during the first decade after the event—Ritter’s remaining lifetime. Drawing on the attributional model of discovery, we are interested in whether the German physicists and chemists granted Ritter’s observation the status of a discovery and, if so, of what. Two things are remarkable concerning the early reception, and both have to do more with neglect than (...) with reception. Firstly, Ritter’s observation was sometimes accepted as a fact but, with the exception of C. J. B. Karsten’s theory of invisible light, it played almost no role in the lively debate about the nature of heat and light. We argue that it was the prevalent discourse based on the metaphysics of Stoffe that prevented a broader reception of Ritter’s invisible rays, not the fact that Ritter himself made his findings a part of his Naturphilosophie. Secondly, with the exception of C. E. Wünsch’s experiments on the visual spectrum, there was no experimental examination of the experiment. We argue that theorizing about ontological systems was more common than experimenting, because, given its social and institutional situation, this was the appropriate way of contributing to physics. Consequently, it was less clear in 1810 than in 1801 what, if anything, had been discovered by Ritter.Keywords: Johann Wilhelm Ritter; Carl Johann Bernhard Karsten; Christian Ernst Wünsch; Ultraviolet radiation; Conceptions of heat and light. (shrink)

Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) est resté dans l’histoire des sciences comme un des principaux adversaires de l’atomisme, qu’il identifiait au « matérialisme scientifique », et comme le théoricien de l’« énergétisme », théorie physique ensuite généralisée à l’ensemble des phénomènes, y compris sociologiques. Dans sa critique de l’atomisme, Ostwald emprunte une partie de ses arguments au positivisme ambiant, celui de Mach notamment, mais aussi, plus discrètement, au positivisme de Comte, pour lequel il affiche une estime sincère. L’article met en lumière certains (...) aspects fondamentaux de la lecture de Comte par Ostwald et montre ce que la classification des sciences par Ostwald doit à celle de Comte. Si Ostwald revendique son identité de savant et si son énergétisme ne doit rien au fondateur du positivisme français, qui aurait refusé toute forme de monisme, en revanche, plusieurs points communs se font jour dans leur conception des sciences. (shrink)

I first became interested in De dialectica in 1966, while I was doing re search on Augustine's knowledge of logic. At the time I made a transla tion of the Maurist text and included it as an appendix to my doctoral dissertation (Yale, 1967). In 1971 I thoroughly revised the translation on the basis of the critical text of Wilhelm Crecelius (1857) and I have re cently revised it again to conform to Professor Jan Pinborg's new edition. The only previously (...) published translation of the whole of De dialectica. is N. H. Barreau's French translation in the Oeuvres completes de Saint Augustin (1873). Thomas Stanley translated parts of Chapters Six and Nine into English as part of the account of Stoic logic in his History of Philosophy (Pt. VIII, 1656). I offer De dialectica in English in the hope that it will be of some interest to historians of logic and of the liberal arts tradition and to students of the thought of Augustine. In translating I have for the most part been as literal as is consistent with English usage. Although inclusion of the Latin text might have justified a freer translation, for example, the use of modern technical terms, it seemed better to stay close to the Latin. One of the. values in studying a work such as De dialectica is to see familiar topics discussed in a terminology not so familiar. In the translation I follow these conventions. (shrink)

The phenomenon of life — yours, or mine always — is given to be seen or to be understood in its cohesion and in its proper identity through a narrative “montage”. This is the hypothesis which this article explores in trying to determine if the narrative montage refers to a “staged coup”, as Artaud suggests, or if instead it is not, following the very different analysis by Ricoeur, a plot in which the character, entangled in his or her own experiences, (...) fights against the scattering of the self, or again, as according to Schapp, if each person is not simply involved in his or her own stories as well as in those of others, with no other means of reaching himself or herself than through such tangles. (shrink)

Die Trias Martyria, Leiturgia, Diakonia ist vielen als Zusammenfassung der Grundvollzüge oder auch Grundfunktionen der Kirche vertraut und geläufig. Sie wird - zu Recht - mit dem II. Vatikanischen Konzil und dessen Rezeption in Verbindung gebracht. Weniger bekannt ist aber die Herkunft dieser Trias. In dieser Weise formuliert wurde sie erstmals im Rahmen der Evangelischen Michaelsbruderschaft wohl bereits im Rahmen einer Probebrüderwoche im Jahr 1935, dann in dem Werk „Bruderschaft" von Wilhelm Stählin im Jahr 1940. Die Michaelsbruderschaft hat zahlreiche ökumenische (...) Kontakte gepflegt, so auch zu katholischen Theologen unmittelbar vor dem II. Vatikanischen Konzil. Das ökumenische Wirken der Michaelsbruderschaft war nachhaltiger, als ihr Einfluss innerhalb der Evangelischen Kirche. Die Rezeption der Trias ist ein Beispiel für einen latenten Transfer verschütteter ökumenischer Gemeinsamkeit.The triad of Martyria, Leiturgia, Diakonia is well known as an aggregation of the basic functions of the church. It is - for good reasons - often seen in the context of the Vatican II and its reception. Less known is the origin of this triad. In the above way it was apparently first drafted at a trial week of the Evangelische Michaelsbruderschaft in 1935, later then in the 1940 book „Bruderschaft" by Wilhelm Stählin. The Michaelsbruderschaft maintained several oecumenical contacts, also with catholic theologians right before the Vatican II. The oecumenic work of the Michaelsbruderschaft was more sustainable than its influence in the protestant church. The reception of the triad is an example of a latent transfer of buried oecumenic commonality. (shrink)

Dieser Band versammelt originäre Beiträge am Schnittpunkt von Philosophie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Kultur- und Theaterwissenschaft. Auf der Grundlage von Falluntersuchungen zum 17. Jahrhundert trägt er zum Verständnis der Rolle bei, die Instrumente im Schnittfeld von Wissenschaft und Kunst spielen. Die Beiträge verfolgen dabei die Hypothese, dass die Entwicklung und Gestaltung von Instrumenten wesentlich zur Eröffnung neuer Felder des Wissens, zur Entstehung neuer kultureller Praktiken, aber auch zur Abgrenzung bestimmter Genres, Methoden und Disziplinen beiträgt. Diese Perspektive führt die Beiträge dieses Bandes dazu, auf (...) neue Weise das, was ein Instrument überhaupt ausmacht, zu durchdenken und eine Reihe von Grundfragen zur Bestimmung des Instrumentes zu erarbeiten: Welche Handlungen verkörpert das Instrument? Welche Handlungen werden durch das Instrument ermöglicht? Wann werden Untersuchungsobjekte ihrerseits Instrumente? Welche Fähigkeiten setzt der Instrumentengebrauch voraus, welche produziert er? Durch die Kombination neuer theoretischer Modelle und historischer Fallstudien, durch den detailgenauen Nachweis des gegenseitigen Einflusses von Kunst und Wissenschaft am Schnittpunkt des Instrumentes betritt dieser Band Neuland. Er ist von großem Wert für alle, die sich für die Vorgeschichte unsere instrumentengeleiteten Wahrnehmung interessieren. Zu den Autoren des Bandes zählen neben den Herausgebern Jörg Jochen Berns, Olaf Breidbach, Georges Didi-Huberman, Peter Galison, Sybille Krämer, Dieter Mersch, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann und Otto Sibum. (shrink)

Book review: Adam Adamandy Kochański, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Korespondencja Adama Adamandego Kochańskiego i Gottfrieda Wilhelma Leibniza z lat 1670-1698, D. Sieńko, wyd. Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie, Warszawa 2019, ss. 256.

This paper considers the role of physicaleducation researchers within current publicconcerns about body shape and weight. UsingUlrich Beck's notion of `risk' it examines howcertainty about children, obesity, exercise andhealth is produced in the contexts of `expert'knowledge and recontextualised in the academicand professional physical education literature.It is argued that the unquestioning acceptanceof the obesity discourses in physical educationhelps to construct anxieties about the body,which are detrimental to students and silencesalternative ways of thinking and doing physicaleducation.

Gutes und Guter, Leben, Leib, Tugend - in diesem Band werden die Vortrage der ersten vier Symposien der Mainz Moral Meetings aus den Jahren 2009-2011 zu diesen Themen zusammengefasst. Ein interdisziplinarer Zugang durch Bibelwissenschaft, Judaistik, Altphilologie, Philosophie, Patristik, Systematische Theologie und weiteren Disziplinen eroffnet einen Blick auf die ethischen Normen des fruhen Christentums. Die Autoren der Beitrage fragen nach den Moglichkeiten von Norm und Normbegrundung einer fruhchristlichen Ethik in ausgewahlten Bereichen sowohl im Kontext antiker Philosophie als auch in gegenwartiger Verantwortung. (...) Mit Beitragen von: Jochen Althoff, Frederick D. Aquino, Wilhelm Blumer, Maximilian Forschner, Christian Hengstermann, Christoph Horn, Friedrich W. Horn, David Horrell, Manfred Lang, Sebastian Moll, Maren Niehoff, Jorg Roder, Eckart David Schmidt, Nikolaus Schneider, Lorenzo Scornaienchi, Notger Slenczka, Mira Stare, Gerd Theissen, Ulrich Volp, Jan G. van der Watt, Werner Zager, Ruben Zimmermann. (shrink)

Die Philosophie Wilhelm Schapps findet aufgrund seines originären Ansatzes der Geschichtenphilosophie im transdisziplinären Austausch über ein narratives Lebensweltverständnis zunehmend Beachtung. Der vorliegende Band versammelt interdisziplinäre Beiträge, die sich zum ersten Mal nicht nur mit den von Wilhelm Schapp zu seinen Lebzeiten veröffentlichten Schriften, sondern auch mit seinen seit 2016 im Verlag Karl Alber veröffentlichten Nachlassschriften auseinandersetzen.

Die Autorinnen und Autoren dieses Bandes analysieren in kritischer Weise die Breite und Tiefe des Diskurses zu Neuro-Enhancement, der sich aber nicht nur durch ethische Fragen auszeichnet. Sie zeigen, dass es darüber hinaus grundlegende philosophische, anthropologische und gesellschaftstheoretische Aspekte sind, die im Steigerungsbedürfnis spätmoderner Leistungsgesellschaften zu Tage treten. So scheint eine neue Wunschwelt vor der Tür zu stehen: Doping fürs Gehirn! Der rasante Fortschritt der Neurowissenschaften hat das menschliche Gehirn erreicht. Die Möglichkeiten der Leistungssteigerung könnten bald auch das „Innerste“ des (...) Menschen essentiell betreffen: sein Denken und Fühlen, Entscheiden und Handeln. Die Herausgeber Prof. Dr. Nicola Erny ist Professorin für Philosophie an der Hochschule Darmstadt. Dr. Matthias Herrgen lehrte am Philosophischen Seminar der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität in Münster. Prof. Dr. Jan Cornelius Schmidt unterrichtet Philosophie, Ethik und Technikfolgenabschätzung an der Hochschule Darmstadt. (shrink)

This is a review of: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl. Die Möglichkeit des Guten. Ethik im 21. Jahrhundert, München. C. H. Beck 2006.

According to the Generality Constraint, mental states with conceptual content must be capable of recombining in certain systematic ways. Drawing on empirical evidence from cognitive science, I argue that so-called analogue magnitude states violate this recombinability condition and thus have nonconceptual content. I further argue that this result has two significant consequences: it demonstrates that nonconceptual content seeps beyond perception and infiltrates cognition; and it shows that whether mental states have nonconceptual content is largely an empirical matter determined by the (...) structure of the neural representations underlying them. (shrink)

In this new book, Ulrich Beck develops his now widely used concepts of second modernity, risk society and reflexive sociology into a radical new sociological ...

Building on Christopher Peacocke’s account of analog perceptual contentand my own account of analog perceptual vehicles, I defend three claims: that theperception of magnitudes often has analog contents; that the perception of magni-tudes often has analog vehicles; and that the first claim is true in virtue of the second—that is, the analog vehicles help to ground the analog contents.

This article examines ancient depictions of the death of Troilus in art and literature and challenges the widespread belief that the Iliad implies an alternative version of the myth in which Troilus dies in battle. In particular, it argues that the death-in-battle interpretation is both insufficiently supported by the internal evidence and incompatible with the external evidence. Given the evident popularity of the story of Achilles’ ambush of Troilus in the Archaic period, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that (...) the poet of the Iliad knew the story of Troilus’ death by ambush. That the poem's only reference to Troilus does not contradict this story, and possibly even alludes to it, should persuade critics of the strong likelihood that the popular story of Troilus’ ambush at the fountain was also the one in the poet's mind. (shrink)

Early-modern natural history has frequently been interpreted as a handmaid of natural philosophy. Mary Poovey, for example, has argued that seventeenth-century nuggets of information only became ‘m...

A comprehensive collection of essays by the philosopher Lewis White Beck.

Neurotechnological cognitive enhancement has become an area of intense scientific, policy, and ethical interest. However, while work has increasingly focused on ethical views of the general public, less studied are those with personal connections to cognitive impairment. Using a mixed-methods design, we surveyed attitudes regarding implantable neurotechnological cognitive enhancement in individuals who self-identified as having increased likelihood of developing dementia (n = 25; ‘Our Study’), compared to a nationally representative sample of Americans (n = 4726; ‘Pew Study’). Participants in Our (...) Study were additionally shown four videos showcasing hypothetical neurotechnological devices designed to enhance different cognitive abilities and were interviewed for more in-depth responses. Both groups expressed comparable degrees of worry and acknowledgement of potential ethical ramifications (all _ps_ > _0.05_). Compared to the Pew Study, participants in Our Study expressed slightly higher desire (_p_. (shrink)

A collection of Lewis White Beck's most important essays on Immanuel Kant's philosophy.

I show that centered propositions—also called de se propositions, and usually modeled as sets of centered worlds—pose a serious problem for various versions of Lewis's Principal Principle. The problem, put roughly, is that in scenarios like Elga's `Sleeping Beauty' case, those principles imply that rational agents ought to have obviously irrational credences. To solve the problem, I propose a centered version of the Principal Principle. My version allows centered propositions to be objectively chancy.