Open peer commentary on the article “Homeostats for the 21st Century? Simulating Ashby Simulating the Brain” by Stefano Franchi. Upshot: The target article proposes that Ashby’s investigations of the homeostat and ultrastability lead to a view of living systems as heteronomous, passive “sleeping” machines and thus are in fundamental conflict with concepts of autonomy developed by Jonas, Varela and others. I disagree, arguing that (1) the maintenance of essential variables within viability limits is not a passive process for living systems (...) and (2) the purpose of Ashby’s investigations of the homeostat was to investigate adaptivity, a subject that is related to, but clearly distinct from, autonomy. As such, I find Ashby’s work on adaptivity to be neither in opposition to nor in direct support of modern concepts of biological autonomy and suggest that a productive way forward involves the investigation of the intersection between these two fundamental properties of living systems. (shrink)

In this work, the papers are presented which, on the basis of L.M. de Rijk's monumental 'Logica modernorum' (1962-1967), sketch the development of medieval theories on meaning and reference from the beginnings well into the 17th century. The book also presents studies of these theories from a modern point of view.

One vivid description of folktale research, still applicable although more than a half century old, reads, “Folktale study is like a desert journey, where the only landmarks are the bleached bones of earlier theories.” Because theories have proven to be so ephemeral in comparison with the tales themselves , it might seem prudent to place more stock in the tales and less in the theories or at least to take an eclectic approach toward theorizing so as to hedge bets; but (...) not all scholars of folktales exercise more circumspection now than their predecessors did fifty years ago. For example, in Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook Alan Dundes — one of the most prominent American folklorists of our day — adduces no material dated from before 1697 that is related to the tale “Little Red Riding Hood” but manages nonetheless to question sharply the very notion of valuing early written evidence. By scrutinizing a short Latin poem written in the first quarter of the eleventh century, I hope to refute Dundes's dismissal of literary evidence and to underscore the pertinence of studying medieval literature in coming to grips with that beautiful and elusive phenomenon to which English-speakers give the name “fairy tale.”. (shrink)

In the last number of years scholars have discovered many new “parallels”2 to Francis of Assisi’s Admonitions.3 In this article I will provide more new parallels that I have uncovered not only in ecclesiastical contexts, but also in non-ecclesiastical ones.4 While almost all students of Francis’ Admonitions are acquainted with the general ecclesiastical contexts, most are unfamiliar with the non-ecclesiastical contexts evidenced by Cato’s Distichs, Daniel of Beccles’ Urbanus Magnus, Egbert of Liège’s The Well-Laden Ship, the Facetus, and a (...) fourteen-volume collection of medieval proverbs. From these parallels I will argue that the Admonitions of Francis of Assisi belong to the literary genre of Conduct Literature... (shrink)

It has been a long time ago since Professor De Rijk first drew our attention to an important Parisian manuscript containing two treatises on logic, both connected with the School of the 'Montani'. The school was established in the twelfth century on the Mont Sainte Genevieve (which is situated in what is nowadays known as the Quartier Latin). It was dominated by master Alberic (Albericus) of Paris. The 'Montani' were the heirs (faithful or not) of Pierre Abelard, Robert of Melun (...) and this master Alberic. The present work aims to provide a first working edition of one of the treatises in the manuscript, the 'Introductiones Montane Maiores'. This introductory work on logic contains a wealth of information about the way in which logic was taught and practiced in the schools of Paris of the twelfth century. It also gives insight into the vicissitudes of the teachings of different Parisian masters. The edition is preceded by an extensive introduction, with information about the origins and contents of the text and discussions of some interesting doctrinal elements. (shrink)

Heute dominieren vereinseitigende Selbstbeschreibungen des Menschen, die ihn gentechnologisch, radikalkonstruktivistisch oder hirnphysiologisch auf sein biologisches Substrat reduzieren. Die Polyphonie, die man noch um 1800 in der Beschreibung des Menschen als das Zugleich von Körper und Geist hören konnte, weicht einer Einstimmig- und Einsinnigkeit kraft einer nur noch naturwissenschaftlichen Selbstthematisierung. Hieran ist zu erinnern, wenn man für die Zeit um 1800 festhält, dass sich die Denker zwar um solch disziplinäre Grenzen zwischen Naturgeschichte, Philosophie und Literatur nicht kümmerten, aber gerade dadurch der (...) Vielstimmigkeit einen Raum eröffneten. Die Verwendung des „Bildungstriebes“ in unterschiedlichen Zusammenhängen ist hierfür ein beredtes Zeugnis. Die vorliegende Arbeit zum „Bildungstrieb“ will und kann bisherige Rekonstruktionen des Bildungsbegriffs keineswegs ersetzen, sondern bestenfalls ergänzen. Damit aber werden im „Bildungstrieb“ Wurzeln des Bildungsbegriffs wieder in Erinnerung gerufen, die jenseits einer rein kognitiven, mentalen, subjektivistischen Zurichtung von „Bildung“ liegen. ***** Today, the dominant feature of the self-description of humans is one that confines them to their biological substrate. Genetic engineering, radical constructivism or brain physiology are among those disciplines which advocate such a perspective. The polyphonic descriptions of human beings around 1800, pointing out the simultaneity of body and mind, fall silent in favour of a one-sided and limited purely scientific self-thematization. Around 1800, due to their non-compliance regarding disciplinary boundaries between natural history, philosophy and literature, thinkers opened up a space for polyphony. The use of the “Bildungstrieb” (nisus formativus) in various contexts is eloquent evidence for this. The present volume on the “Bildungstrieb” does not and cannot replace previous reconstructions of the concept of “Bildung”, but at best complements them by drawing the reader’s attention once again to the roots of the concept of “Bildung” in the “Bildungstrieb” that lie beyond a purely cognitive, mental, subjectivist understanding of “Bildung”. (shrink)

In this paper we try to identify the roots of the persistent contemporary problems in our modernized agriculture: overproduction, loss of biodiversity and of soil fertility, the risk of large animal disease, social controversies on the lack of animal welfare and culling of animals, etc. Attention is paid to the historical development of present-day farming in Holland as an example of European agriculture. We see a blinkered quest for efficiency in the industrialization of agriculture since the Second World War. Key (...) factor is the cultural mindset at the foundation of our modern society, originating from the ideas of the enlightenment. It makes people vulnerable to ideologies, causing them to focus on a certain goal without considering the consequences. Due to the overemphasis on efficiency, modern industrial agriculture has never been comfortably embedded in its ecological and social context, and as a result displays the characteristics of an ideology. The cause of the inability to solve today’s problems is therefore deeper than simply a failure to apply the right mix of standard remedies. Unless stakeholders in farming start to counter this very one-sided approach to efficiency, modernization will continue to cause all kinds of friction. The implications of the results for agricultural policy, farming and further research are discussed. (shrink)

Pork producers in Western Europe moreand more encounter a variety of societalconcerns about pork and pork production. Sofar, however, producers predominantly focusedon low consumer prices, therewith addressingjust one concern. This resulted in an intensiveand large-scale production system, decreasinglyrelated to the area of farm land, andaccompanied with increasing concerns aboutsafety and healthiness of pork, animal welfare,environmental pollution, and others.An overview was given of possible concernsabout West-European pork production with theconsumers, citizens, and producers, and thoseconcerns are traced back to the pork productionsystem. (...) The various kinds and qualities ofinformation about the pork production system onwhich possible concerns are based have beenworked out extensively in this paper. Knowledgeabout the aspects of pork production that cangive rise to concerns can be used in two ways.First, the communication about those aspectstowards consumers and citizens can be adjustedor extended to give them better possibilitiesto make food choices or to develop their ownopinions about pork production. Second,producers could change the pork productionsystem such that it better satisfies consumersand citizens. Such adaptations are wellpossible, as three pork quality schemes, whichhave been evaluated, illustrate. However, mostof these adaptations can only be carried out atthe cost of the present low consumer prices andwill not occur spontaneously on a large scale.Therefore, accounting for the type andrelevance of the concerns, legislation isnecessary to address societal concerns in abalanced way such that pork production systemsbecome acceptable for the majority of oursociety. (shrink)

Historische schets van de ontwikkeling van de natuurwetenschappen, gevolgd door een beschrijving van de huidige praktijk van het onderwijs in de natuur- wetenschap, met bespreking van de toegepaste onderwijsprojecten, en een pleidooi voor vernieuwing.

Ziel der Untersuchung ist die Kritik der «existenzialen» Weltbestimmung aus Heideggers Sein und Zeit. Die phänomenologisch-hermeneutische Methode der Welt- und Umweltanalyse wird nachgezeichnet. Heidegger denkt bereits in seinem frühen Hauptwerk eine verhältnishafte Welt, die «zwischen» Mensch und Ding steht. Die Grenzen der bloß «existenzialen» Welt, deren Akzent auf dem Verstehen liegt, werden aber sichtbar durch eine hier erfolgende umgekehrte Betonung der leiblich gestimmten Befindlichkeit und Räumlichkeit des menschlichen In-der-Welt-seins.

This article reconstructs French readings and debates of German approaches to Vlkerpsychologie was a symptomatic approach during a transformative period in German, and indeed European, intellectual history: based on the idea of progressand on the belief in the primordial importance of the Volk, it represented the mindset of in an almost pure form. The relevance and importance of Vlkerpsychologie was not restricted to German academics: it was in France where central elements of VThlestin Bougle, Emile Durkheim, and Marcel Mausssocial sciencelkerpsychologie (...) was not a German oddity, but an integral part of the debates that led to the establishing of the modern social sciences, as its French reception shows. (shrink)

This paper discusses the distinction between the aorist and the imperfect in ancient Greek in terms of the temporality of classicism and "fame." The aorist, in focusing on its action's concrete results, can become a link between an achievement and its reception in the future: in the third grammatical person, it represents the voice of the reader who asserts the subject's accomplishment. Imperfects, by contrast, locate an event simply in the past. The article argues that Thucydides exploits to the full (...) the possibilities of this opposition and ends with a discussion of the ancient meaning of the term a-oristos, which has been lost in modern Greek grammar. (shrink)

This article introduces the Völkerpsychologie of the German psychologist and liberal politician Willy Hellpach. It shows how Hellpach used the once venerable approach of Völkerpsychologie, introduced by Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal in the nineteenth century, to adapt to the Third Reich and distract the authorities from his political career. The article provides a close reading of Hellpach's main text on the subject, the Einführung in die Völkerpsychologie published in 1938, and explains the ease with which he was able to (...) make this approach compatible with Nazi ideology. Hellpach's case thus illustrates the proximity of national-liberal thinking to ?Nazi ideology?. Moreover, on account of the post-war reception of Hellpach's Völkerpsychologie by scholars such as Ralf Dahrendorf, the article examines the uneasy and incomplete repudiation of Völkerpsychologie after 1945. It concludes that the origins of widely used concepts such as ?national habitus? or ?national identity? can be traced back to the tradition of Völkerpsychologie and related studies of national character. (shrink)

This article assesses interactions between American and German eugenicists in the interwar period. It shows the shifting importance and leading roles of German and American eugenicists: while interactions and exchanges between German and American eugenicists in the interwar period were important and significant, it remains difficult to establish direct American influence on Nazi legislation. German experts of race hygiene who advised the Nazi government in drafting the sterilization law were well informed about the experiences with similar laws in American states, (...) most importantly in California and Virginia, but there is little evidence to suggest they depended on American knowledge and expertise to draft their own sterilization law. Rather, they adapted a body of thought that was transnational by nature: suggesting that the Nazis’ racial policies can be traced back to American origins over-simplifies the historical record. Still, the ‘American connection’ of the German racial hygiene movement is a significant aspect of the general history of eugenics into which it needs to be integrated. The similarities in eugenic thinking and practice in the USA and Germany force us to re-evaluate the peculiarity of Nazi racial policies. (shrink)