In my essay I try to explore a parallel between Herder and Humboldt and some modern investigations into the origin of language. Herder favors a pan-psychistic account of nature, and he proposes a theory maintaining that only language can do the business to mediate between the abstract reasoning of man and the content delivered to him by his senses. Humboldt, in his turn, prefers a Kantian transcendental analysis of the form of language, the form being dependent on man’s mental activity (...) and therefore dynamical in character. We may summarize this result in the thesis that Herder is speculating on the origin of language whereas Humboldt attempts to give a theory of the origination of language by synthetic acts. Problems connected with a narrative style of theorizing can also be demonstrated by contrasting two modern authors, namely R. G. Millikan and M. Tomasello. (shrink)

Ist Intelligenz erblich? Karl-Friedrich Fischbach und Martin Niggeschmidt zeigen, dass „Erblichkeit“ in der biologischen Fachsprache etwas anderes bedeutet als in der Alltagssprache – was fast zwangsläufig zu Fehlinterpretationen führt. Die 2. Auflage dieses essentials wurde um Kapitel zur Aussagekraft von Zwillingsstudien und genomweiten Assoziationsstudien über IQ-Unterschiede erweitert. Wer sich die Logik der Modelle und Methoden vergegenwärtigt, stellt fest: Intelligenz als „erblich“ zu bezeichnen, ist unpräzise und irreführend. Die Autoren: Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Fischbach ist Entwicklungsbiologe und Neurogenetiker. (...) Er war von 1985 bis 2013 Professor für Biophysik und Molekularbiologie an der Universität Freiburg, davon zwei Jahre lang als geschäftsführender Direktor des Instituts für Biologie III. Martin Niggeschmidt ist Redakteur in Hamburg. Stimmen zur 1. Auflage: „... Das zugänglich geschriebene Werk erklärt faktenbasiert und anhand zahlreicher Abbildungen den komplexen Stoff, um so Missverständnisse, aber auch bewusste Falschaussagen aufzudecken.” „... wirklich lohnenswert, ja verdienstvoll...“. (shrink)

Este artigo discute tópicos fundamentais relativos à tensão interna entre os aspectos absolutista e liberal do pensamento de Hobbes.

Avec la première publication de sa philosophie de l' État De Cive, Hobbes réalise, d'une manière paradigmatique, la justification du contractualisme moderne en prenant la théorie de l' état de nature comme point de référence, à la fois déontologique et méthodique de la théorie de l' État et du droit. L'objet de cet article est de reconstruire le commencement de la philosophie politique et déterminer sa place à l'intérieur des Elementa philosophica. Hobbes' rechtsphilosophische Erstveröffentlichung De Cive löst in paradigmatischer Weise (...) das Begründungsprogramm des neuzeitlichen Kontraktualismus ein, indem es die Theorie des Naturzustandes zum normativen und methodischen Referenzpunkt der Theorie von Recht und Staat macht. Die vorliegende Studie versucht, den Begründungsgang dieses Anfangs der politischen Philosophie nachzuzeichnen und seinen Ort innerhalb der Elementa philosophica zu bestimmen. (shrink)

F.A. Staudenmaier (1800-1856), eine der Zentralfiguren der Kath. Tübinger Schule und einer Theologie der lebendigen Auseinandersetzung mit dem dt. Idealismus und der Romantik, hat gerade in der Gotteslehre kirchliche Tradition und Gedankengut seiner Zeit zu vereinen gesucht. Seine Lehre von Gott ist getragen vom Lebensgedanken, der - verknüpft mit dem Gedanken vom absoluten Geist - die dreipersonale Lebenseinheit Gottes gegenüber pantheistischen Tendenzen sichert. Orientierung an und Distanzierung von Hegel kennzeichnen St.s. reifende und reife Theologie, deren Weitschweifigkeit durch diese Arbeit prägnant (...) zusammengefasst wird. (shrink)

The standard microeconomic analysis of taxation suggests that excise taxes on goods with a price-inelastic demand are more efficient in that they lead to a lower deadweight loss than taxes on goods with price-elastic demand. This argument ignores secondary effects on the rest of the economy. By narrowly focusing on the primary effects on the market where the tax is raised, the overall deadweight loss is underestimated when demand is price-inelastic. Moreover, it is overestimated when demand is price-elastic. This puts (...) into question the validity of the standard textbook argument. In this paper we address this issue by considering how taxes affect consumer behavior in other markets. From this we can clearly see how the impact of an excise tax is not limited to one market in isolation, but is spread over all markets and affects the demand for cash balances. We suggest a simple way to incorporate this important insight into a standard textbook exposition. (shrink)

Band 1. Schriften, Dokumente, Briefe -- Band 2. Einleitung, Kommentar, Register.

This book is a collection of secondary essays on America's most important philosophic thinkers—statesmen, judges, writers, educators, and activists—from the colonial period to the present. Each essay is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of a noted American on the fundamental meaning of the American regime.

Excerpt from Charles Renouvier's Philosophie der Praktischen Vernunft Kritisch Beleuchtet Als die notwendigen und ausreichenden Grundlagen der Sittlichkeit gibt R. Im 1. Kapitel seiner "reinen rationalen Moral die zwei Tatsachen an: I. Der Mensch ist mit Vernunft begabt, 2. Der Mensch hält sich für frei. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct (...) the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

First published in French, Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy (1847) was composed during his years in Brussels, when he was developing his economic views and, through confrontations with the chief leaders of the working-class movement, establishing his intellectual standing. In this classic work, which laid the foundation of ideas later developed in Capital, Marx polemicized against then premier French socialist, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon wanted to unite the best features of such contraries as competition and monopoly. He hoped to save the (...) good features of economic institutions while eliminating the bad. Marx, however, declared that no equilibrium was possible between the antagonisms in any given economic system. Social structures were transient historical forms determined by the productive forces: "The handmill gives you society with the feudal lord; the stream mill, society with the industrial capitalist.". (shrink)

Originally published on the eve of the 1848 European revolutions, The Communist Manifesto is a condensed and incisive account of the worldview Marx and Engels developed during their hectic intellectual and political collaboration. Formulating the principles of dialectical materialism, they believed that labor creates wealth, hence capitalism is exploitive and antithetical to freedom. -/- This new edition includes an extensive introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones, Britain's leading expert on Marx and Marxism, providing a complete course for students of The Communist (...) Manifesto, and demonstrating not only the historical importance of the text, but also its place in the world today. (shrink)