"Presents the text of the 'Declaration' and a commentary on its evolution and significance.... The message of this book is very timely.

Les uns sont fascinés par la hardiesse et la constance de sa pensée, les autres la rejettent au motif que sa métaphysique est extravagante et son raisonnement obscur. Mais alors, quel profit tirer de la lecture de l'œuvre de Plotin? Mieux que tout autre, Plotin réussit à faire le point sur les doctrines philosophiques qui l'ont précédé, y compris le scepticisme. Et il y parvient avec une perspicacité et une originalité exceptionnelles, tout en restant un strict partisan du platonisme. Interpréter (...) Plotin dans sa confrontation avec ses prédécesseurs, c'est prendre part à un passionnant débat et soumettre à une évaluation les acquis et les limites de chacun. Telle est la démarche à laquelle invite ce livre qui est consacré à la théorie du savoir. Après que le doute sceptique ait ébranlé les théories antérieures, Plotin innove en faisant coïncider savoir objectif et connaissance de soi. Ce geste théorique, ses antécédents et ses conséquences sont au cœur de ce travail de recherche"--P. [4] of cover. (shrink)

Throughout the history of mankind, energy security has been always seen as a means of protection from disruptions of essential energy systems. The idea of protection from disorders emerged from the process of securing political and military control over energy resources to set up policies and measures on managing risks that affect all elements of energy systems. The various systems placed in a place to achieve energy security are the driving force towards the energy innovations or emerging trends in the (...) energy sector. Our paper discusses energy security status and innovations in the energy sector in European Union (EU). We analyze the recent up-to-date developments of the energy policy and exploitation of energy sources, as well as scrutinize the channels of energy streaming to the EU countries and the risks associated with this energy import. Moreover, we argue that the shift to the low-carbon production of energy and the massive deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) might become the key issue in ensuring the energy security and independency of the EU from its external energy supplies. Both RES, distributed energy resources (DER) and “green energy” that will be based on the energy efficiency and the shift to the alternative energy supply might change the energy security status quo for the EU. (shrink)

We argue that episodic remembering, understood as the ability to re-experience past events, requires a particular kind of introspective ability and understanding. It requires the understanding that first person experiences can represent actual events. In this respect it differs from the understanding required by the traditional false belief test for children, where a third person attribution (to others or self) of a behavior governing representation is sufficient. The understanding of first person experiences as representations is also required for problem solving (...) with images. In support of this argument we review developmental evidence that children's episodic remembering is independent of and emerges after mastery of the false belief task but emerges together with the use of imagery for solving visual rotation tasks. (shrink)

Volume 2 of Josef Pieper's three-part autobiography is here presented for the first time in English translation. The volume represents not just a simple continuation of a seamless story. The first volume dealt with Pieper's life from his birth in 1904 to the time of World War 2. The current volume deals with the post-war years, 1945-1964, offering a personal documentation of the institutional rubble through which an emerging academic and philosopher had to find his way. This included finding (...) work, re-establishing himself in the family home, completing his academic education, and beginning to teach philosophy in a climate of despair and disillusionment. In this context, the quintessential Pieper emerges. His positive philosophy of being, firmly based on Plato and Thomas Aquinas, finds extraordinary resonance with students, who flock to his lectures in surprising numbers -- seeking and finding a positive way forward. His dedication to training teachers sees him declining higher academic posts in Germany in favor of work which, though less lucrative and more obscure, he considered more fruitful. These years are also marked by his fiercely independent stance over against the Catholic hierarchy -- despite his staunch adherence to the tradition values of Christianity. His popularity as a philosopher and teacher quickly spread to America, where he was invited to teach at famous universities. His fame led to further travels -- to Switzerland, England, France, Spain, India, China, Saigon, and Thailand. Such travels enriched his thinking and nourished the open-mindedness of the Western philosopher. (shrink)

The notion of minimal, basic, pre-reflective or core self is currently debated in the philosophy of mind, cognitive sciences and developmental psychology. However, it is not clear which experiential features such a self is believed to possess. Studying the schizophrenic experience may help exploring the following aspects of the minimal self: the notion of perspective and first person perspective, the ‘mineness’ of the phenomenal field, the questions of transparency, embodiment of point of view, and the issues of agency and ownership, (...) considered as different and less fundamental than the feeling of mineness. Two clinical vignettes of patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia will be presented: the first one, illustrating early illness stages, and the second case, of chronic schizophrenia, symptomatically marked by persistent hallucinations. Through their analysis, we will discuss the experiential dimensions of minimal self. (shrink)

Zawiera wybór pism Jana Amosa Komeńskiego.

For Pieper, the study of tradition is anything but antiquarian. He begins with a consideration of tradition in a changing world and is well aware of the need to confront the all-too-common perception that "tradition" is nowadays irrelevant. On the basis of his profound knowledge of the Western philosophical tradition from Plato and Aristotle through Augustine, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes, to modern Existentialism and Marxism, Pieper is able to highlight the values established - and challenged - down through the (...) centuries. He sees the need to re-examine these values, to rid them of the false interpretations and misunderstandings that threaten to consign them to oblivion. He attempts to restate them in language which, in fact, not only reflects the clarity of his mind but also expresses his conviction that these values, freshly examined and understood, provide a sound basis for healthy living and for our survival against the dangers that pose a serious threat to the very existence of Western civilization. He illustrates these values by examining the contrast between an exponent of them, like Socrates, and an opportunist, like the Sophist Protagoras; between the man of principle and the nihilistic pragmatist. The book consists of a mixture of articles and speeches, produced by a man who, though often wooed by the academy, was not concerned with achieving personal status as an academic professor. He insisted, for the most part, in combining purely academic teaching with the education of teachers in teacher-training colleges. He would not be removed from close contact with "learners," and he remained a "learner" himself - from tradition. (shrink)

Vom Tafelbild über den Film bis zum 3D-Bild. Bilder überfluten uns in allen Bereichen der Gesellschaft, der Umgang mit digitalen Bildern wird immer wichtiger. Seit dem Pictorial oder Iconic Turn haben sich auch die Kulturwissenschaften des Themas angenommen und eine Wissenschaft vom Bild und der Bildwahrnehmung begründet. Das Handbuch gibt erstmals einen umfassenden Überblick, erläutert Grundlagen wie Semiotik, Phänomenologie und Ikonologie, analysiert verschiedene Einzelmedien und sich anschließende Bilddiskurse. Ein abschließender Teil beleuchtet die Bildtheorien verschiedener Disziplinen, und wie sich diese als (...) Bildwissenschaft verstehen. (shrink)

The distinction between rules and principles is highly controversial. This is due to its significant impact on almost every fundamental philosophy of law and legal theory issue, for instance, the application of legal norms, the concept of the legal system, the relation between law and morality, or the structure of basic rights. The actual debate is based on three main theses: the “strong separation” thesis, the “weak separation” thesis and the “conformity” thesis. The author concentrates on the development of the (...) “strong separation” thesis, first elaborated by Josef Esser, then developed by Ronald Dworkin and lately worked out by Robert Alexy. The several objections raised to Alexy´s thesis on principles as optimization commands will be discussed in detail. The author comes finally to his own formal description of principles as norms, with both an abstract and a concrete validity. (shrink)

Kant uses ‘wish’ as a technical term to denote a strange species of desire. It is an instance in which someone wills an object that she simultaneously knows she cannot bring about. Or in more Kantian garb: it is an instance of the faculty of desire’s (or will’s) failing insofar as a desire (representation) cannot be the cause of the realization of its corresponding object in reality. As a result, Kant originally maintained it to be antithetical to morality, which deals (...) with ‘ought implies can’. However, Kant’s notion of wish is not static. On the contrary, I argue in this article that Kant re-evaluated the capacity to wish as (to some extent) causally efficacious and, further, of moral relevance. This re-evaluation has not been discussed in the literature, yet has been lurking in plain sight in a subtle but decisive shift evident in two versions of a footnote from the *Critique of the Power of Judgement* (KU). (shrink)

The Chinese parallel to the Pali-Kutadantasutta marks one of the major turning points in Old Indian history of ideas: the transition from magic to ethics. In this sermon, the Buddha rejects the Vedic animal sacrifice and re-interprets it according to Buddhist ethics. He preaches sacrifices in a new sense of the word: the sacrifice of giving alms to Buddhist monks, or, even better, of building monasteries, of converting to Buddhism as a Buddhist layman, of obeying the five Buddhist rules for (...) laymen, or - finally and most meritorious - becoming a Buddhist monk. In Beginnings of Buddhist Ethics, Konrad Meisig translates the Buddhist Chinese text for the first time and contrasts it in synopsis with the Pali. The text is given in the original characters along with the Pinyin transcription. The text-critical introduction deals with the variae lectiones both of the Chinese and the Pali; the final analysis focuses on the literary stratification and criticism of forms, thus reconstructing the archetypical nucleus of the Kutadantasutta."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

Peu avant sa disparition, Michel Makarius (1948-2009) préparait une histoire du flou dans les arts visuels, en particulier dans la peinture et la photographie, qui prenait son point de départ à la Renaissance et se prolongeait dans le monde contemporain, celui des installations vidéo de Bill Viola et des photographies du tchèque Josef Sudek. Les trois premiers chapitres de cet ouvrage, que son auteur n'aura pas eu le temps de mener à bien, constituent un essai autonome et stimulant où (...) l'on retrouve la plume élégante de Michel Makarius. Forme souvent déconsidérée - vague ou indécise -, le flou n'est-il pas, suggère Makarius, comparable à la couleur dans le débat qui l'a longtemps opposé au dessin, soit une manière de déstabiliser notre perception pour exprimer ce qui échappe à la vision nette et à l'emprise de la rationalité? Son propos ressort en particulier de ces quelques lignes de sa "Mise au point" introductive : "Notre approche de l'art par le biais du flou a pour vocation de dépasser une problématique strictement picturale pour mettre l'accent sur le statut de la représentation. Or la vision floue nous semble placée sur une ligne de crête : D'un côté, elle avalise la représentation du visible ; d'un autre, elle décrète ce visible irreprésentable ou représentable seulement de manière approximative. Etat intermédiaire d'une réalité qui se donne et se dérobe à la fois, le flou est le lieu où s'exerce une critique de la représentation par les moyens même de la représentation. L'altération du lien visuel exprime ainsi un rapport problématique au monde. Cette faille qui ne cesse de grandir au sein de l'histoire de la peinture vise donc, au-delà du visible, le réel représenté. Telle est la fonction critique de l'art enfin retrouvée". (shrink)

In this paper, I argue for an account of metaphorical content as what is said when a speaker utters a metaphor. First, I show that two other possibilities—the Gricean account of metaphor as implicature and the strictly semantic account developed by Josef Stern—face several serious problems. In their place, I propose an account that takes metaphorical content to cross-cut the semantic-pragmatic distinction. This requires re-thinking the notion of metaphorical content, as well as the relation between the metaphorical and the (...) literal. (shrink)

Die MISCELLANEA MEDIAEVALIA pr sentieren seit ihrer Gr ndung durch Paul Wilpert im Jahre 1962 Arbeiten des Thomas-Instituts der Universit t zu K ln. Das Kernst ck der Publikationsreihe bilden die Akten der im zweij hrigen Rhythmus stattfindenden K lner Mediaevistentagungen, die vor ber 50 Jahren von Josef Koch, dem Gr ndungsdirektor des Instituts, ins Leben gerufen wurden. Der interdisziplin re Charakter dieser Kongresse pr gt auch die Tagungsakten: Die MISCELLANEA MEDIAEVALIA versammeln Beitr ge aus allen medi vistischen Disziplinen (...) - die mittelalterliche Geschichte, die Philosophie, die Theologie sowie die Kunst- und Literaturwissenschaften sind Teile einer Gesamtbetrachtung des Mittelalters. (shrink)

I anledning af Judith Butlers forelæsning om klimasorg på KU er jeg blevet bedt om at besvare spørgsmålet om, hvad man kan bruge Butlers tænkning til i dag og om den stadig er aktuel. Min første tanke var at besvare spørgsmålet med svaret: Man kan bruge Butlers tænkning til ALT! Men for at fokusere mit svar, har jeg besluttet mig for at gennemgå Butlers tænkning i forhold til spørgsmålet om prekære liv og vold og ikke-vold, og hvordan disse emner udspringer (...) af Butlers tænkning om køn i 1990’erne. /// In connection with Judith Butler's lecture on climate grief at KU, I have been asked to answer the question of how Butler's thinking could be used today and whether it is still relevant. My first thought was to answer the question with the answer: You can use Butler's thinking for EVERYTHING! However, to focus my answer, I have decided to review Butler's thinking in relation to the issues of precarious lives and violence and non-violence and how these issues stem from Butler's thinking on gender in the 1990s. (shrink)

In this paper I aim to re-think the question of the world of persons with schizophrenia from the perspective of the German phenomenologist Max Scheler and that of the Japanese psychiatrist Bin Kimura. So far, no comparison between these two authors has been made, even though there are several convergences and evidence of Scheler’s indirect influence on Bin Kimura through Viktor von Weizsäcker. In recent years, Dan Zahavi, Louis Sass, and Josef Parnas have interpreted the modus vivendi of schizophrenic (...) patients in relation to a disturbance on the level of the “minimal self”. Subsequently, the discussion has highlighted the importance of disorders on the level of intercorporeality and intersubjectivity (Thomas Fuchs) and on the level of “existential feelings” (Matthew Ratcliffe). This paper argues that Max Scheler and Bin Kimura allow us to focus on an aspect which has been neglected so far: that of a “relational self” that relates to the very foundation of intersubjectivity and intercorporeality and that can thus be reborn in the encounter with the other and may position itself differently in the world. In Scheler’s perspective, the world of persons with schizophrenia is the result of an axiological disorder (valueception) that impairs contact with the primordial life impulse (Lebensdrang). As a consequence, they are incapable of attuning emotionally and socially with others: this prevents the singularity from being reborn in the encounter with the other and forces them to position themselves in their own solipsistic universe. Moving in a similar direction, Bin Kimura interprets the world of persons with schizophrenia as the result of a disorder of aida (one of the central concepts of Japanese culture that indicates the space of being in between). The disorder of aida compromises the basic relationship (Grundverhältnis in the sense of Viktor von Weizsäcker) and hinders what Bin Kimura calls festum, i.e. the birth of subjectivity, so that it is experienced by persons with schizophrenia only as ante festum. Starting from these two perspectives, I argue the existence of an axiological and anthropogenetic dimension of psychopathology. I begin with a discussion of Zahavi’s concept of minimal self and the thesis that reveals the disorders on this level of subjectivity as the origin of the world of persons with schizophrenia. I, then, analyze Max Scheler’s position and its historic importance for the emergence of phenomenological psychopathology. Thereafter, I introduce the concepts of “disorder of aida” (Bin Kimura) and “disorder of ordo amoris” (Max Scheler). Finally, I develop the concept of a “psychopathology of ordo amoris” by also comparing it with Ratcliffe’s thesis of “existential feelings”. (shrink)

Diversität ist eines der zentralen Themen unserer Zeit. Sie durchdringt alle Lebensbereiche unserer Gesellschaften. Das Nachdenken über Diversität reicht von den Naturwissenschaften über die Geschichtswissenschaften, die Gesellschaftswissenschaften, die Philosophie bis zu den Künsten. Diversität ist zudem politisch und emotional beladen. Man denke an gesellschaftliche Minderheiten und ihre Rechte oder an das massive Artensterben unserer Tage. In diesem Buch wird nicht nur über Einzelaspekte von Diversität berichtet, es wird auch eine Synthese versucht. Drei einleitende Kapitel der HerausgeberInnen führen verständlich in komplexe (...) interdisziplinäre Problemzusammenhänge ein. Der Band versammelt 17 Beiträge namhafter Autorinnen und Autoren aus den Bereichen Kunst-, Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Medizin und Gesellschaftstheorie.00. (shrink)

This article discusses a relationship between the philosophical praxis of Ọ̀rúnmìlà and aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú (i.e., the costume of the living and the costume of the dead) in Saworoidẹ (dir. Túndé Kèlání’s, 1999). I construct the Yorùbá/Ọ̀rúnmìlà philosophical method of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in the contemporary Nigerian narrative film as case study of how contemporary African filmmakers, like their oral artiste counterparts, continue to articulate their inherited traditions via cinematic storytelling. In doing that I draw on what I call the (...) Ọ̀rúnmìliàn “parable of Eégún” (masquerade) to establish what I designate the philosophical/therapeutic questions of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú; and thus, argue that Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú gives “presence to non-presence” so that the living/present can dialogue with the dead/past as a way of healing, re-moralizing, and/or decolonizing the living through cinematic storytelling. I conclude that Ọ̀rúnmìliàn film does not solely rekindle, and teach us, a valuable aesthetic practice of self-reflection or self-reevaluation but also decolonize and de-westernize film-philosophy. (shrink)

Musik ist eine Herausforderung für die Philosophie - die von dieser oft nicht angenommen wurde. In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat sich jedoch die Musikphilosophie im deutschsprachigen Raum als ein zunehmend dynamisches interdisziplinäres Feld zwischen Philosophie, Ästhetik und Kunsttheorie, Musikwissenschaft, Musiktheorie und musikalischer Praxis entwickelt. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes, u. a. von Daniel Martin Feige, Gunnar Hindrichs, Richard Klein, Cosima Linke und Matthias Vogel, ziehen erstmals ein Fazit und beleuchten die Perspektiven des mittlerweile ausdifferenzierten Diskurses über diese scheinbar unmittelbarste und zugleich (...) begrifflich am schwersten fassbare künstlerische Ausdrucksform. (shrink)

Praktiken der Bildverknüpfung sind basale Kulturtechniken, die Aufmerksamkeit stiften, unsere Blicke lenken und uns miteinander wie auch mit der Welt verbinden. Sie bestimmen unser Leben und durchdringen unsere Forschungen zunehmend. Vor diesem Hintergrund befragt der interdisziplinäre Sammelband den systematischen Ort der Assoziation im Umgang mit Bildern. Dazu stellt er der Assoziation als sprachlicher Verknüpfung und narrativer Bildverkettung die Ordnungen und Verbindungen visueller Assoziationen an die Seite. Letztere offenbaren eine andere, vielschichtige Weise medial gebahnter bildlicher Anschlüsse und Übergänge, die sich zum (...) Imaginären hin öffnen. In dieser Perspektive widmen sich die Autor*innen und Künstler*innen den visuellen Assoziationen aus unterschiedlichen Feldern und institutionellen Kontexten der Kunst und ihrer Vermittlung, der Philosophie und der Wissenschaft. Visuelle Assoziationen kommen dabei in ihrer Medialität und Performanz in den Blick, die sich zum einen als die je spezifischen Verfahren und Praktiken der Sichtbarmachung und Konstellation von Bildern und zum anderen als Movens eines visuellen Denkens zeigen.0. (shrink)

Purpose: To show that the idea of non-dualistic thinking is of great value for some of the core problems of media philosophy (which often lacks the radical approach of Josef Mitterer's concept). Method: Non-dualistic philosophy, introduced by Mitterer, has a lot in common with other thinkers' discontent with the traditional way of describing the subject-object relation. Their differences and the impasses of phenomenological, structuralist and psychoanalytic media theory shall be examined to show whether and to what extent non-dualism could (...) do better. Findings: As sociologists and some media-philosophers are already adopting some principles of non-dualism without a real framework, non-dualistic thinking offers a new insight into the way that consent/dissent is manufactured in a world where most descriptions are given in a mediated (i.e., non-interpersonal) form. Implications: If we re-establish the personal freedom of gathering knowledge individually instead of "getting nearer to the truth," the way of looking at the escapist power of media also has to be reinterpreted. The early distinction between Lumiére-like "documentation" (= truth) and Méliès-like "fiction" (= perception open to alternatives) could be another dualism, which should be expurgated by the application of Mitterer's concepts. (shrink)

This article wants to answer three questions: first, why is not only sensibility but visibility important for modern democracy? Second, why is art or aesthetic experience important for both democracy and visibility? And third, how is it possible that aesthetic experience generates effects that conduce to democracy? Answering these questions aims at highlighting an inner connection between democracy, feelings and aesthetics. For a democratic community, on the one hand, cannot exclude feelings from political discourse, but, on the other hand, cannot (...) accept them in their immediate and absolute form. Feelings need ‘transformation’, and the best popular medium for this is aesthetic experience. (shrink)

In this volume, Fr. Fuchs has brought together 12 exceptionally important essays which consider various aspects of the relationship between Christian morality ...