The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, (...) and the Americas Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar. (shrink)

Although no one unified anarchist theory exists, educational approaches can be taken to support the full liberation of the self and the construction of an interconnected community that strives to rid itself of eco-sociocultural oppressions. An anarchist pedagogical approach could be one that is rooted in a love/rage unit of analysis occurring along a spectrum of various types of actions and contributions within a community. Anarchism as a violent destruction of the state is a stereotypical view that has perhaps led (...) to its own early demise as a social movement. Anarchism that embraces adaptation through more inclusive forms of resistance, including a reconstruction for the K?12 classroom context, is one that stands a chance in evolving a society toward love, justice, and empowerment. This article explores those possibilities aiming for accessibility while still honoring core anarchist calls for strong, localized democratic participation and decision-making outside of permanent hierarchies. (shrink)

Through an extended discussion of the German higher education system in comparison with other European countries and the US, this paper suggests that academic freedom is not simply a consequence of institutional arrangements. It is a consequence of looking at what one is doing, at one's own professional responsibility. Academic freedom must be sustained and protected not only by the state or institutional arrangements of universities, but must also be protected by every academician. If professors do not resist intrusion on (...) their freedom in either collective or individual ways, academic freedom is in danger. If, for example, a faculty of medicine were to allow conflicts of interest to develop between the freedom of research and the commercial interest of cooperating enterprises, if it does not collectively sense that there may be an intrusion on academic freedom resulting from the influence on their research from pharmaceutical corporations, for example, academic freedom will be in endangered from within the university. In a society where professors act this way, simply granting academic freedom may be a fine thing, but it does not really fulfill freedom's promise. (shrink)

Cet article débute par quelques brèves considérations sur la notion même de l'économie dirigée et sur les limitations inévitables d'une économie dirigée du type capitaliste. Les auteurs cherchent ensuite à démontrer que dans les conditions actuelles une économie dirigée socialiste est parfaitement possible au point de vue économique. Ils étudient les principaux types d'essais de solutions, différenciant entre les deux types fondamentaux („Verwaltungssozialismus“ et „Marktsozialismus“) ainsi que pour chaque type entre les formes pures et les formes modifiées. Il n'y a (...) pas d'opposition irréductible entre ces deux types ; T article montre au contraire F existence de relations entre eux. Dans une exposition objective des problèmes essentiels, il examine en détail la question de savoir si et comment on peut établir des calculs économiques dans les différentes conditions et assurer un développement sans crises deFéconomie. L’analyse est complétée par des recherches sur la productivité d’une économie dirigée socialiste et sur les principes de l’intégration de l’individu, en tant que consommateur et bénéficiaire de revenus, dans l’économie planée. Il résulte de l’étude que les objections de principe soulevées par la critique libérale ne se justifient aucunement. Les différences existant entre les divers types sont purement de nature „technique“, et les véritables oppositions dans la théorie du socialisme ne résident pas du tout dans le mode d’organisation de l’économie dirigée, mais dans les conditions sociologiques et politiques préalables. Pour terminer, les auteurs critiquent sévèrement l’introduction dans le socialisme d’un „secteur d’économie privée“.After a short exposition of the concept of economic planning, and of the definite limits to capitalist planning, it is shown how on the basis of present-day suppositions, socialist planning is economically possible. A typology of the most important solutions offered distinguishes between „administrative“ and „market“ socialism, and between the pure and modified forms in both types. Between these two main types there does not exist an opposition that cannot be bridged — indeed passages of contact run from one to the other. A positive analysis of the main problems offered in reply to a criticism treats in detail of the problem of whether and how under several suppositions we can economically calcutate and ensure a planned economic society free from crises. There then follow investigations into the productivity of a socialistically planned society, and into the principles governing individuals as consumers and income receivers in the totality of economic life. It is seen that the basic objections raised by liberal criticism do not meet the case. The differences between the types are only of a technical nature. The essential antitheses in the theory of socialism is not to be sought in the kind of organization of the planned economy, but in fundamental sociopolitical suppositions. Finally concessions towards a private economy section under socialism receive a thorough criticism. (shrink)

Kurt Baier; II—Existence, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 61, Issue 1, 1 June 1961, Pages 19–40, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/61.1.19.

Kurt Baier; II—Existence, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 61, Issue 1, 1 June 1961, Pages 19–40, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/61.1.19.

Abstract“Victories of Freedom which Humans Achieved by Research in the Foundation of Things”. ‐ This article analyzes the political self‐conception of leading representatives of the natural sciences in 19th century Germany. It is argued that the main feature of this self‐conception which remained constant over the time consisted in a strong “rationalization‐imperative”, i.e. the postulate that state and society have to be reshaped on the basis of natural science. On the other hand, this imperative was put forward in very (...) different forms and with different political content: it shifted from revolutionary aspirations in the period of 1848 to moderate and sometimes even reactionary positions in the last decades of the century. (shrink)

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th Kurt Gödel Colloquium on Computational Logic and Proof Theory, KGC '97, held in Vienna, Austria, in August 1997. The volume presents 20 revised full papers selected from 38 submitted papers. Also included are seven invited contributions by leading experts in the area. The book documents interdisciplinary work done in the area of computer science and mathematical logics by combining research on provability, analysis of proofs, proof search, and complexity.

Until quite recently, the virtually unchallenged position of those scientists who studied the way people acquire their morality was cultural and ethical relativism. The central tenet of that position is this: although all societies have a morality, that is, a set of general authoritative norms and standards to which its members are expected if not compelled to conform, these norms and standards not only vary enormously from one society to another, but there is no objective way of ranking them. (...) In particular, there is no single ideal objective moral order, to which these various social moralities can be seen as less or more successful approximations, and which enables us to appraise them, on the basis of the degree of that approximation, as less or more advanced, sound, or valid. The whole of morality is thus construed as “agent-morality”: a measure of a person’s concern to conform his behavior to “objective” norms and standards; on the relativist view those dominant in the group to which he belongs. On this view, the role of moral education would be confined to assisting and making more efficient the informal processes by which the current moral norms and standards of the group become internalized in its members. Socialization is conceived as a purely one-way process: that of moulding the individual so that he will conform to the group mores. (shrink)

The article reports on some preliminary findings of an ongoing research initiative investigating the pragmatics of daily interaction, cross-culturally and trans-nationally. Phase one of the initiative looks into the specifics of how cultural differences impact on cultural values, social categories and, ultimately, communicative styles, focusing initially on address forms. More specifically, the article looks into the current status of the ideology-based address form comrade, its pragma-semantic profile and rules governing its usage in post-Communist Eastern-European societies, looking primarily into selected instances (...) of public communication and media language in modern-day Serbia. Having identified and contextualised key usage patterns of the ideology-based forms of address clustering around the title comrade and the set of options associated with it, the article concludes by suggesting future parameters of research. (shrink)

In loving memory of Herbert Marcuse, who in the 1920s heard Husserl and in the 1960s came to be the voice of the rebelling students.

Two distinct attitudes have been adopted by investigators in the field of the sociology of knowledge. One of them may be called speculative; the other, empirical. The central interest of an investigator having the speculative attitude lies in developing a theory of the sociology of knowledge. The central interest of investigators having the empirical attitude lies in finding out or explaining concrete phenomena; the theory is employed, implicitly or explicity, for this purpose. The existence of the two attitudes may be (...) in part explained, as far as the German sociology of knowledge is concerned, by reference to the history of this school, which has grown out of and has been determined by a Marxist and materialistic philosophy, and especially by the use of this philosophy as a political instrument in the struggle of the emerging proletariat against the bourgeoisie. This statement, however, must be supplemented by a short location of the four most important contributors to the theory of the German sociology of knowledge. Max Scheler approaches the problem phenomenologically; he was the first and only one to ask the fundamental question, “What is knowledge?” Karl Mannheim, though markedly influenced by the Marxist viewpoint, particularly by Lukács, seems to me more adequately characterized by stressing his development from a more exclusively speculative to a more decidedly empirical attitude, which latter is especially evident in his most recent book, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction. Alexander von Schelting's main contribution is his thorough logical analysis of Mannheim's theory in the light of Max Weber's methodology. Ernst Grünwald has given the most complete survey of the forerunners, the history, and the various contributions of the sociology of knowledge. These four thinkers are indirectly dependent on the historically determined emphasis of the movement on ideology in that they remain on the level of a theoretical discussion without arriving at factual research. (shrink)

This volume features the complete text of all regular papers, posters, and summaries of symposia presented at the 16th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science ...

English description: We live in a time where the old mechanisms of order have lost their grip on society, leading to numerous infractions and confrontations. In this religious-philosophical study, Kurt Wuchterl develops an epistemic perception of contingency that re-interprets the tense relationship between natural sciences and religion. Contingency always includes the "option of being different," which exacerbates pivotal problems such as chance, chaos, and unavailability. If we as individuals are not able to cope with these contingencies, we encounter (...) the edge of reason; acknowledging this edge, however, poses the question of the otherness of reason. German text. German description: Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der die alten Ordnungsgaranten ihre Orientierungskraft verloren und die Ordnungsbrueche zu vielfaltigen Konfrontationen gefuehrt haben. Kurt Wuchterl entwickelt in seiner religionsphilosophischen Studie einen epistemischen Kontingenzbegriff, mit dem das gespannte Verhaltnis der Naturwissenschaft zur Religion eine neue Deutung erfahrt.Kontingenz beinhaltet immer die Moglichkeit des Anders-sein-konnens. Und damit stellen sich zentrale Probleme wie Zufall, Chaos und Unverfuegbarkeit in verscharfter Form. Wenn es uns als Individuen nicht gelingt, diese Kontingenzen zu bewaltigen, wird die Grenze der Vernunft erreicht. Mit deren Anerkennung aber stellt sich die Frage nach dem Anderen der Vernunft. Wird dies als Chiffre des Religiosen interpretiert, zeigt sich dahinter nicht das Nichts, sondern eben gerade: ein ganz Anderes. In der Kontingenzbegegnung, wie diese Moglichkeit bezeichnet wird, scheiden sich die Geister; ihre Unbestimmtheit ist der Tribut an unsere Endlichkeit. (shrink)

Inhalt: I. AUSEINANDERSETZUNG MIT GRUNDPOSITIONEN DER KRITISCHEN GESELLSCHAFTSTHEORIE DER FRANKFURTER SCHULE. Hans ALBERT: Dialektische Denkwege. Jürgen Habermas und der Kritische Rationalismus. William D. FUSFIELD: Some Pseudoscientific Features of Transcendental-Pragmatic Grounding Projects. Evelyn GRÖBL-STEINBACH: Reflektierte versus naive Aufklärung? Kritische Theorie und Kritischer Rationalismus - Versuch einer Bestandsaufnahme. Kurt SALAMUN: Befriedetes Dasein und offene Gesellschaft. Gesellschaftliche Zielvorstellungen in Kritischer Theorie und Kritischem Rationalismus. II. DAS LEIB-SEELE-PROBLEM UND DIE KONZEPTION DER OFFENEN GESELLSCHAFT. Volker GADENNE: Ist der Leib-Seele-Dualismus widerlegt? Arpad SÖLTER: Der europäische (...) Sonderweg zur offenen Gesellschaft. Miroslav PROKOPIJEVIC: Justice in the "Open Society". Wojciech DOMALEWSKI: Zwei Toleranzbegriffe. III. VON DER TOTALITÄREN DER OFFENEN GESELLSCHAFT IN DER EHEMALIGEN SOZIALISTISCHEN LÄNDERN. Dieter WITTRICH: Alltagserfahrung als Politikum. Dariusz ALEKSANDROWICZ: Die sich öffnende Gesellschaft und ihre Feinde. Andreas PICKEL: Schocktherapie als rationale Reformstrategie? Eine Kritik der theoretischen Grundlagen radikaler Marktkonzepte und ein Plädoyer für Reformgradualismus. IV. METHODISCHE PROBLEME DER GESELLSCHAFTSWISSENSCHAFTEN. Herbert KEUTH: Sozialwissenschaften, Werturteile und Verantwortung. Michael SCHMID: Die Logik institutioneller Analyse aus der Sicht des Kritischen Rationalismus. Peter V. ZIMA: Framework ist kein Mythos. Zu Karl R. Poppers Thesen über wissenschaftliche Kommunikation. (shrink)

Despite decades of research, we still lack a clear explanation for the emergence and persistence of inequality. Here we propose and evaluate a marginal utility of inequality hypothesis that nominates circumscription and environmental heterogeneity as independent, necessary conditions for the emergence of intragroup material inequality. After coupling the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample with newly generated data from remote sensing, we test predictions derived from this hypothesis using a multivariate generalized additive model that accounts for spatial and historical dependence as well as (...) subsistence mode. Our analyses show that the probability a society will be stratified increases significantly as a function of proxies of environmental heterogeneity and environmental circumscription. This supports the hypothesis that increasing environmental heterogeneity and circumscription drives the emergence and persistence of inequality among documented societies across the globe. We demonstrate how environmental heterogeneity and circumscription produce situations that limit individuals’ options so that some may find it in their best interest to give up some autonomy for material gain, while others may find it in their best interest to give up some material resources for another individual’s time or deference. These results support the marginal utility of inequality framework and enable future explorations of the ecological conditions that facilitate the emergence of intragroup inequality through time and across the globe. (shrink)

The cross-cultural study of the words defining social values are of particular importance in interdisciplinary contexts, as the knowledge of their culture-specific semantic as well as discursive characteristics contributes to a better understanding of how people think and act in a society. The paper focuses on the English lexeme tolerance and its translation equivalents in Russian and Serbian. It aims to specify linguacultural characterizations of the notion of tolerance in British, Russian and Serbian cultures. The data were taken from (...) dictionaries, British National Corpus (BNC), Russian National Corpus (RNC), Corpus of Contemporary Serbian (SrpKor), as well as media and Internet resources. The combined methodology (pragma-semantic, discourse and lingua-cultural analysis) enabled us to reveal that the dictionary equivalents of the English lexeme tolerance are not complete, but partial. The findings show that in Russian and Serbian the words of Latin etymology tolerantnost’ and tolerancija seem to invoke both positive and negative attitudes, reflecting cultural norms and values. The paper contributes to the understanding of tolerance in the observed linguacultures and confirms that it is important to consider interdisciplinary approaches to language studies. (shrink)

The Marxian critics of ideologies is an important stage within the process of demystification of history. This near relationship to positivism does not alter the main difference between both points of view which consists in answering the question to which objects the method of criticism of ideologies should refer. While most of the positivistic theories neglect the psychological and the sociological sources of ideologies, Marx too reflects on the concrete social conditions to which he imputes the causation of « false (...) consciousness » . While Comte supposes that history also is ruled by natural laws, Marx emphasizes the difference between natural laws and the laws of history. Only in this way it is possible to him to assume that « Naturwüchsigkeit » of history could be overcome by human activity.First in the latest positivism, history is eliminated from sociological analysis . Finally with R. Dahrendorf there is to be found an attempt to include the consistency of social change in society and in sociological theory. (shrink)

Luhmann’s argument that human dignity is socially defined – that it depends upon the person’s achievement and his roles in society – has often been criticised as incompatible with our moral intuitions. According to the present essay, presentation of the self in society is an important element in notions of dignity, both in the latter’s traditional form and in its modern form . In order to avoid morally counter-intuitive results, however, it is suggested that dignity should not be (...) related to actual social achievements, but rather to the person’s being empowered to achieve different modes of self-presentation. (shrink)

THE ECONOMICS OF TIME AND IGNORANCE by Gerald P. O'Driscoll, Jr. and Mario J. Rizzo, with a contribution by Roger W. Garrison. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985. $34.95.

In this article we contend that attempts to foster democratic education in the United States' public schools rarely include mathematics class in meaningful ways. We begin with Dewey's conception of democracy and then argue that current ways of thinking about mathematics do not provide adequate foundations for democratic mathematics education. Our reconceptualization of mathematics draws on Dewey's uniquely humanistic philosophy of mathematics. We conclude with some implications of democratic mathematics education for school and society. Thus, this project seeks to (...) blur the theory-practice dualism, developing a theoretical argument which draws sustenance from and seeks to contribute back to educational practice. (shrink)

Most people in the United States agree they want some income inequality but debate exactly how much is fair. High‐status people generally prefer more inequality than low‐status individuals. Here we examine how much preferences for inequality are (or are not) driven by self‐interest. Past work has generally investigated this idea in two ways: The first is by stratifying preferences by income, and the second is by randomly assigning financial status within lab‐constructed scenarios. In this paper, we develop a method that (...) combines both experimental control and the social experience of inequality—a simulated society experiment. Across two experiments (N = 138, observations = 690), participants voted on the distribution of rewards—first behind a veil of ignorance, and then when they were randomly assigned a status within a game of chance. Status varied repeatedly across five rounds, allowing us to measure dynamic preferences. Under the veil of ignorance, people preferred inequality favoring the top status. When the veil of ignorance disappeared, self‐interest immediately influenced inequality preferences. Those who randomly landed in top positions were satisfied with the status quo established under the veil of ignorance, whereas those who randomly landed in bottom positions wanted more equality. Yet these preferences were not stable; decisions about the optimal level of inequality changed according to changes in social status. Our results also showed that, when inequality grows in a society, preferences regarding inequality become polarized by social status. Individuals in low‐status positions, particularly, tend to demand more equality. (shrink)

Introduction: What is the critical spirit?--Utopianism, ancient and modern, by M.I. Finley.--Primitive society in its many dimensions, by S. Diamond.--Manicheanism in the Enlightenment, by R.H. Popkin.--Schopenhauer today, by M. Horkheimer.--Beginning in Hegel and today, by K.H. Wolff.--The social history of ideas: Ernst Cassirer and after, by P. Gay.--Policies of violence, from Montesquieu to the Terrorist, by E.V. Walter.--Thirty-nine articles: toward a theory of social theory, by J.R. Seeley.--History as private enterprise, by H. Zinn.--From Socrates to Plato, by H. Meyerhoff.--Rational (...) society and irrational art, by H. Read.--The quest for the Grail; Wagner and Morris, by C.E. Schorske.--Valéry; Monsieur Teste, by L. Goldmann.--History and existentialism in Sartre, by L. Krieger.--German popular biographies; culture's bargain counter, by L. Lowenthal.--The Rechtsstaat as magic wall, by O. Kirchheimer. (shrink)

Bibliographical footnotes. Introduction: What is the critical spirit?--Utopianism, ancient and modern, by M.I. Finley.--Primitive society in its many dimensions, by S. Diamond.--Manicheanism in the Enlightenment, by R.H. Popkin.--Schopenhauer today, by M. Horkheimer.--Beginning in Hegel and today, by K.H. Wolff.--The social history of ideas: Ernst Cassirer and after, by P. Gay.--Policies of violence, from Montesquieu to the Terrorist, by E.V. Walter.--Thirty-nine articles: toward a theory of social theory, by J.R. Seeley.--History as private enterprise, by H. Zinn.--From Socrates to Plato, by (...) H. Meyerhoff.--Rational society and irrational art, by H. Read.--The quest for the Grail; Wagner and Morris, by C.E. Schorske.--ValeÌ ry; Monsieur Teste, by L. Goldmann.--History and existentialism in Sartre, by L. Krieger.--German popular biographies; culture's bargain counter, by L. Lowenthal.--The Rechtsstaat as magic wall, by O. Kirchheimer. Revolution from above: some notes on the decision to collectivize Soviet agriculture, by E.H. Carr.--Winston Churchill, power politician and counter revolutionary, by A.J. Mayer.--Brahmins and business, 1870-1914; a hypothesis on the social basis of success in American history, by G. Kolko.--On the limits of professional thought, by M.R. Stein.--The limits of integration, by P. Mattick.--The society nobody wants; a look beyond Marxism and liberalism.--Marcuse as teacher, by W. Leiss, J.D. Ober and E. Sherover.--Marcuse bibliography, by W. Leiss, J.D. Ober and E. Sherover (p. 427-433). (shrink)