In the second half of the nineteenth century, France was the main site of the controversy around the so-called eoliths, supposedly human-made tools of Tertiary Europe. In contrast to the more common situation where scientists have to make sure that an object stabilized in a laboratory is not an artifact of the lab but a natural object, in the eoliths debates the opposite was the case. The eolith proponents tried to render plausible the object's artificial, that is human, origin. In (...) their case, the objects would only be of scientific interest if they were artifacts not geofacts (naturally flaked stones). The paper ties in with existing literature on the French eoliths movement and investigates the successive eoliths debates in Britain. In Bruno Latour's terms, eoliths as archaeological evidence for Tertiary Man in Europe could gain in reality through a successful enlisting of the collaboration of human and non-human actors such as scientists, theories, publications, taxonomies, technologies, institutions, etc. Indeed, networks were established among scientists, preferably of powerful institutions, the 'tools' were integrated or denied a place in existing taxonomies of prehistoric artifacts, experiments were carried out to demonstrate their chance or designed origin, and their convergence or incompatibility with a certain theoretical framework was discussed. Arguments often revolved around questions of negative evidence, since both proponents and opponents of eoliths as tools were aware of the fact that the eoliths' strongest tie to reality would be evidence of the toolmakers themselves. Several known hominid fossils, among them those of doubtful age, were thus proposed as Tertiary shapers of the 'tools'. These hypothetical 'Englishmen' and their supposed artifacts were enmeshed in particular theories of human evolution, marked as they were by the racism and nationalism widespread at the time. (shrink)

Nietzsche stellt alles in Frage. Sein Denken gehört zu den einschneidenden intellektuellen Erfahrungen der Moderne. Entsprechend vielgestaltig fielen und fallen die Versuche aus, auf dieses Denken und auf die Person dahinter zu reagieren. Was kann von den eigenen Überzeugungen noch bleiben angesichts von Nietzsches Einsicht, dass alle Überzeugungen Gefängnisse sind? Dieses Buch will erschließen, welche Rollen Nietzsche auf so unterschiedlichen Feldern wie der Literatur und der bildenden Kunst oder der Religion und der Politik bis heute spielt. Dazu wird es nötig (...) sein, ein eigenständiges Verständnis seines Denkens zu entwickeln, das sich emanzipiert von den populären Schlagworten, die man mit Nietzsche gemeinhin verbindet, wie „Wille zur Macht“, „Übermensch“ oder „Ewige Wiederkunft des Gleichen“. Das Kaleidoskop seiner Folgen verhilft zu einem neuen Zugang zu Nietzsche selbst – und zur Moderne. Die 2. Auflage wird um den Anhang "Fake Nietzsche. Vom Nutzen und Nachteil falscher Nietzsche-Zitate" sowie ein Personenregister ergänzt. (shrink)

In the first half of the 15ᵗʰ century there was a coherent philosophical system of teaching at the Jagiellonian university, so-called ars vetus, concerning the interpretation of three treatises: Aristotle’s Categories and Hermeneutics and Porphyry’s Isagoge. The question-commentaries on the Categories that have been preserved in several manuscripts show astonishing similarity in solving individual problems – there are three copies of Benedict Hesse’s commentary and one copy of Paul of Pyskowice’s work, moreover, in BJ 1941 there is an anonymous commentary (...) on the Categories that is also very close to the ones mentioned before, to prove that fact. This paper, discussing the four-fold division of opposition in those Polish commentaries on Aristotle’s Categories, is part of the studies on the manuscript material that has not been critically edited yet. The main goal is to show the philosophical views on contraries, contradictories, relatives and possession and privation in a wider perspective, comparing the Polish commentaries’ doctrine with the authoritative text itself. (shrink)

Zur Genealogie der Moral ist das in der gegenwärtigen Philosophie wohl am meisten diskutierte Werk Friedrich Nietzsches. Es stellt alle moralischen Gewissheiten in Frage und wirkt so dauerhaft als Provokation. Der vorliegende Kommentar erschließt zum ersten Mal diese Schrift umfassend und in ihrem Kontext.

The relative strengths of first-order theories axiomatized by transfinite induction, for ordinals less-than 0, and formulas restricted in quantifier complexity, is determined. This is done, in part, by describing the provably recursive functions of such theories. Upper bounds for the provably recursive functions are obtained using model-theoretic techniques. A variety of additional results that come as an application of such techniques are mentioned.

When Nietzsche published his pamphlet The Case of Wagner in 1888 he succeeded in catching the attention of the reading public after many years of neglect. His radical critique of Wagner is viewed as influential in reception history. The Twilight of the Idols captures the essence of Nietzsche's late philosophy. The work shows Nietzsche at the high point of his creative powers and provides a vivid example of experimental philosophy in practice.

The last posthumous manuscripts from 1888 bear witness to an enormous stylistic and intellectual radicalization. The Antichrist purports to be a total "reevaluation of all values." In Ecce homo, Nietzsche explores the genealogy of his own thinking, opening up new dimensions of self-reflection. Nietzsche contra Wagner sums up the many years of Nietzsche's continuing critique of Wagner, while the Dionysian Dithyrambs seek to breathe new life into lyric poetry.

Largely unacknowledged by historians of the human sciences, late-19th-century psychical researchers were actively involved in the making of fledgling academic psychology. Moreover, with few exceptions historians have failed to discuss the wider implications of the fact that the founder of academic psychology in America, William James, considered himself a psychical researcher and sought to integrate the scientific study of mediumship, telepathy and other controversial topics into the nascent discipline. Analysing the celebrated exposure of the medium Eusapia Palladino by German-born Harvard (...) psychologist Hugo Münsterberg as a representative example, this article discusses strategies employed by psychologists in the United States to expel psychical research from the agenda of scientific psychology. It is argued that the traditional historiography of psychical research, dominated by accounts deeply averse to its very subject matter, has been part of an ongoing form of ‘boundary-work’ to bolster the scientific status of psychology. (shrink)

My paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter deals with the concept of Nietzsche’s usage of “immanence;” I will be tracing his usage of this term. My second point is a more general one. I would like to focus on the question as to whether it is possible for Nietzsche to have a strong concept of immanence, particularly when we recall that Nietzsche clearly formulates his strong opposition to all ideas of transcendence. Might any immanence at all be retained (...) here? The third chapter contains an in-depth examination of two sections of Beyond Good and Evil, Sections 3 and 6. I think we are able to note some important aspects in these passages as we seek to understand whether Nietzsche has any kind of idea or concept of immanence. (shrink)

You were one of the noblest, the most genuine people, who have ever walked this earth. And though both friend and foe know this, I don't think it unwarranted to verbally bear witness to it before your grave. For we know the world, we know Spinoza's fate. For the world could lay shadows around Nietzsche's memory as well. And therefore I conclude with the words: Peace to your ashes! Holy be thy name to all those to come!1The only historical person (...) Peter Gast puts in relation to his much-revered master in these closing words of the funeral oration he delivered in front of Friedrich Nietzsche's open grave in Röcken on August 28, 1900, is Baruch de Spinoza.2 His intentions are clear: Nietzsche is to avoid the fate of .. (shrink)

From the 1960s, mathematical and computational tools have been developed to arrive at human population trees from various kinds of serological and molecular data. Focusing on the work of the Italian-born population geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, I follow the practices of tree-building and mapping from the early blood-group studies to the current genetic admixture research. I argue that the visual language of the tree is paralleled in the narrative of the human diasporas, and I show how the tree was actually (...) mapped onto the surface of the earth. This visual and textual structure is mirrored in the liberal discourse of unity in diversity that has been criticized as running counter to the socio-political effects of human population genetics. From this perspective, one may ask how far the phylogenetic diagram in its various forms is a manifestation of the physics of power that according to Michel Foucault consists in mechanisms that analyse distributions, movements, series, combinations, and that uses instruments to render visible, to register, to differentiate and to compare. It is one among other disciplinary technologies that ensure the ordering of human diversity. In the case of intra-human phylogenetic trees, population samples and labels are one issue. Another is that the separated branches seem to show groups of people, who have in reality been interacting and converging, as isolated. Often based on so-called isolated peoples, molecular tree diagrams freeze a hierarchical kinship system that is meant to represent a state before the great historical population movements. (shrink)

Cette étude formule l'hypothèse critique d'une opération de remythologisation par une réactualisation théologico-politique de la tragédie chez Heidegger. Cette opération ne saurait simplement coïncider avec une revalorisation " irrationnelle " du mythe, car elle procède d'abord d'une mise en question, non moins problématique, de la dualité supposée entre muthos et logos pour culminer dans ce qu'une note des années 1950 appellera la " mytho-logie de l'événement ". La réélaboration de la notion de mythe s'accomplit à partir du poème de Hölderlin (...) qui doit préfigurer les dieux de l'" autre commencement " post-judéo-chrétien, selon le projet spéculatif d'une " religion " censée relier le peuple à ses dieux nouveaux via l'être comme événement. L'hypothèse d'une remythologisation théologico-politique doit ainsi permettre d'éclairer non seulement le rôle matriciel de Hölderlin pour la pensée de l'être, mais aussi le surinvestissement illusoire du national-socialisme censé donner lieu au " peuple de Hölderlin ". Pour interroger cette réactualisation théologico-politique du mythe, l'étude se concentre sur les cours que Heidegger consacra à Hölderlin, tout en sollicitant l'intégralité du corpus des années 1933-1945, c'est-à-dire les cours fribourgeois, les traités inédits rédigés dans le sillage des Contributions (Beiträge) et les Cahiers noirs (Schwarze Hefte). (shrink)

We evaluate the literature on the memorability of supernatural concepts, itself part of a growing body of work in the emerging cognitive science of religion. Specifically, we focus on Boyer’s Minimally Counterintuitive hypothesis according to which supernatural concepts tap a cognitively privileged memory-enhancing mechanism linked to violations of default intuitive inferences. Our assessment reveals that the literature on the MCI hypothesis is mired in empirical contradictions and methodological shortcomings which makes it difficult to assess the validity of competing theoretical models, (...) including the MCI hypothesis itself. In light of this fractured picture, we make the case for an account of the MCI effect which dispenses with a memory mechanism specific to supernatural concepts. This account has several desirable properties. First, it preserves Boyer’s pioneering insights regarding the ontological status of supernatural concepts and the cognitive mechanisms that give rise to their cultural prevalence. Second, our account is based on independently-motivated mechanisms that are well-established in the literature. Third, this account offers a principled resolution of the tension in the extant literature between studies that do replicate the MCI effect and those that seemingly fail to do so. Finally, because the proposed mechanisms are not specific to supernatural concepts, the scope of the MCI effect may be extended to account for a broader range of highly transmissible concepts than those it was originally intended to explain. We conclude with a set of theoretical and methodological prescriptions designed to guide future research on the memorability of supernatural concepts. (shrink)

The fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip can be taken to be allegorical of not only chance discovery (serendipity) but of other aspects of scientific discovery as well. Just as Horace Walpole coined serendipity, so can the term bahramdipity be derived from the tale and defined as the cruel suppression of a serendipitous discovery. Suppressed, unpublished discoveries are designated nulltiples. Several examples are presented to make the case that bahramdipity is an existent aspect of scientific discovery. Other examples of (...) non-ideal scientific research and discovery are provided in order to contrast and clarify the meaning and use of bahramdipity. Additional allegories of scientific discovery are taken from the tale and a hope for the strengthening of scientific integrity is expressed. (shrink)

The main purpose of this article is to explore the complex and multifarious condition of Nietzsche as a reader. Thus, in the first place the text clarifies the various character of informations about reading, not always reliable, expressed in his very work, in the notebooks, in the letters, by testimony of third parties, in his preserved library and in the not preserved library, in purchases and in borrowing from libraries. At a second moment, the article put forward reading phases since (...) the very young Nietzsche, reading strategies, his freeing process and his self-stilization as a reader. In the scope of reading spheres, the article adresses Nietzsche as a philology reader so much as a reader of scientific texts, and a reader of the world, of culture. Lastly, on questioning how Nietzsche became a reader of himself, the text nods to the question of how his attitude towards reading devolves into a way of thinking and reading his very work, in this manner asserting the initial claim, namely, to understand Nietzsche the philosopher we must bear in mind whom is he talking to. (shrink)

<b>Objectives:</b> To gather empirical data on how gender and educational level influence bioethical reasoning among medical students by analyzing their use of care versus justice arguments for reconciling a bioethical dilemma. <b>Setting:</b> University Departments of Medical Ethics, Social and Communication Psychology in Germany. Participants: First and fifth year medical students. Design and method: Multidisciplinary, empirical, 2-segment study of ethics in action: In intrapersonal Segment 1, the students were presented with a bioethical dilemma and then administered a 13-item questionnaire to survey (...) their individual preferences for care versus justice arguments in resolving the conflict. The survey questioned 6 justice, 6 care-related items and 1 socially critical item. Data were analysed by gender and year of medical school. In interpersonal Segment 2, the bioethical dilemma from Segment 1 was discussed in gender-mixed and gender-homogeneous groups. Coded transcripts were evaluated to identify prevalences in care versus justice reasoning. <b>Results:</b> Data on 462 medical students were evaluable (n=338 in Segment 1, n=168 in Segment 2, n=44 overlap). Gender and level of education had no effect on moral reasoning in intrapersonal Segment 1, but significantly affected reasoning in interpersonal Segment 2, where women significantly tended to use more care-orientated arguments. Justice arguments predominated the group discussions. <b>Conclusion:</b> Interpersonal contexts affect moral reasoning in medical students, probably by amplifying the socialisation relating to gender and educational level. Care orientation is associated with the female gender. Professional socialisation tends to reduce the diversity and richness of moral reasoning towards a more justice-weighted orientation. Medical ethics should teach both justice and care reasoning modes in order to broaden physicians' ability to reconcile bioethical dilemmas. (shrink)

Van Leeuwen’s Religion as Make-Believe, A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity argues that religious and political beliefs are fundamentally different from mundane, factual beliefs and represent a cognitive attitude more akin to imagining. To ground this difference, Van Leeuwen proposes four principles defining factual beliefs: ‘involuntariness’ mandates that people cannot choose what they believe; ‘no compartmentalization’ says that factual – but not religious – beliefs guide behavior in all domains; ‘cognitive governance’ requires that inferences be readily drawn from (...) factual beliefs; ‘evidential vulnerability' entails that beliefs are revised given contradictory evidence. While factual beliefs are supposed to meet these standards, Van Leeuwen marshals evidence that religious and tribal beliefs – or “credences” – fail to obey these four principles. In this commentary, I argue that beliefs – both factual and religious – are often much more complicated than Van Leeuwen assumes. This complexity makes perfect conformity to the four principles unlikely, even for factual beliefs. I review Van Leeuwen’s evidence for credences and suggest that this evidence is compatible with the null hypothesis: that religious beliefs are simply beliefs. (shrink)

Traditionell gelten Fragen der Ernährung nicht als seriöse philosophische Fragen: Dem reinen Geist darf demnach die physische Ernährung des von ihm temporär bewohnten Körpers herzlich gleichgültig sein. Im 18. und im 19. Jahrhundert wandelt sich allerdings das Bild: Mit der Problematisierung des Leib-Seele-Dualismus wird diese Gleichgültigkeit in Ernährungsfragen selbst zweifelhaft. Ludwig Feuerbach und Friedrich Nietzsche benutzen die für Philosophen scheinbar so abseitige Frage nach der Ernährung zu einer gezielten Destabilisierung philosophischer Grundüberzeugungen: Ludwig Feuerbach tut dies, um eine materialistische Ontologie an (...) die Stelle einer idealistischen zu setzen und egalitär-demokratische Folgerungen zu ziehen. Friedrich Nietzsche hingegen stellt Ontologie jedweder Ausrichtung zur Disposition und individualisiert die Ernährungsfrage radikal, um damit ein Exempel seines moral- und seines auto-genealogischen Verfahrens zu geben und zugleich elitäre Selbst-Selektion zu propagieren. Beide Denker reflektieren auf die angemessene Ernährung, um philosophische Wahrheits- und Geltungsansprüche insgesamt zu relativieren. Sie geben Beispiele einer neuen philosophischen Relativierungskunst. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Nihilism Skepticism Nihilism and Skepticism.

This volume includes nineteen articles by scholars from Asia, North America, and Europe on Chinese thinkers from the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries. Included here are intellectual biographies of literati such as Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, Zhu Xi, Zhang Shi, Hu Hong, Wang Yangming, and Dai Zhen. Essays are arranged chronologically, and most begin with a biographical sketch of their subject. They provide variety rather than uniformity of approach, but all in all these essays are remarkably rich and offer (...) much new material on both familiar and lesser-known thinkers. (shrink)

" C'est Luther qui m'a accompagné dans mes recherches, écrit Heidegger en 1923, et mon modèle était Aristote. " Ce livre propose de lire Être et Temps, élaboré entre 1922 et 1926, à la lumière de ces deux sources fondamentales, en exhumant les strates du texte qui renvoient au laboratoire du premier Heidegger, particulièrement à la transformation du corpus aristotélicien opérée dans les cours de Fribourg et de Marbourg. Car, si cette opération de destruction critique de l'ontologie d'Aristote comme " (...) sagesse de ce monde " est essentiellement guidée par la théologie de la croix de Luther, elle permet, en retour, d'aristotéliser les théologoumènes luthériens afin de conceptualiser, phénoménologiquement, les expériences humaines fondamentales du Nouveau Testament. Cette analyse exégétique des conditions opératoires d'Etre et Temps entend ouvrir la possibilité d'interpréter le premier Heidegger dans le sens d'une phénoménologie radicale du vivant humain sous l'horizon d'une interprétation de l'être comme temps : il apparaît ainsi que la problématique décisive de l'ouvrage inachevé de 1927 tient à la mutabilité du Dasein, capable de saisir son excellence propre dans la performance même de son philosopher. (shrink)

This textbook emphasises a hands-on, multimethod, interdisciplinary approach to behavioural research. This edition uses particularly strong observational approaches.

Texto presentado en el Congreso Internacional “Recepciones de Ortega y Gasset en Chile” celebrado en el Centro Cultural de España en Santiago durante los días 30 y 31 de mayo de 2018, en Santiago de Chile. Forma parte de la compilación recogida en número especial de la Revista de Filosofía Otrosiglo, en junio del 2023.

This article looks at Adorno’s negative dialectics by focusing on the concepts of negativity and utopia. Against later Critical Theory and social theories similarly oriented towards emancipation, which tend to discredit the concept of utopia in favor of an orientation towards pragmatic goals, I want to show that Adorno’s negative dialectics formulates a position that surpasses the antithesis of realism and utopia by presenting us with pragmatic goals while still retaining a strong concept of utopia.

We argue that probability effects on P300 amplitude are the product of an automatic frequency detector not subject to voluntary control and relatively inaccessible to consciousness. related to P300 therefore appear to be passive, perceptual ones. If probability-based expectancies do become conscious, they are inversely related to P300, supporting the view of Donchin & Coles (1988).

This contribution discusses the problem of translating Heidegger. Heidegger’s „reiterative destruction“, the core of his phenomenological method in the 20s, is operating as an over-interpretative translation of a traditional text to reveal what is unwritten and unsaid in it. What does it mean, therefore, to translate Heidegger, i.e. to translate a translation? In the second part we briefly present a survey of French translations from Heidegger’s works in the last twenty years and discuss the problematic editorial situation in France.

For centuries, westerners have referred to China's numerous traditions of spiritual expression as "religious"--a word born of western thought that cannot completely characterize the passionate writing that fills the pages of this pathbreaking anthology. The first of its kind in well over thirty years, this text offers the student of Chinese ritual and cosmology the broadest range of primary sources from antiquity to the modern era. Readings are arranged chronologically and cover such concepts as Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and even communism. (...) A large number of the selections concern the role of the female in Chinese religion, and are either by or about women. Through invocations, poetry, drama, philosophical texts, religious treatises, and modern fiction, students hear the voices of numerous Chinese masters expounding on the movements and traditions that inspired them: the mysterious Tao-te ching of Lao Tzu, cloaked in the mists of deepest antiquity; the Analects of stately, reverent Confucius; "Nailing a Stick into Empty Space," from The Recorded Conversations of Ch'an Master I-hsuan, and many others, including the work of Mencius, Pan Chao, Han Shan, Chang Tsai, Wang Yang-ming, Lu Hsun, and Mao Tse-tung. Fully one third of the translations are new, and each reading is preceded by an introduction that explains its importance and salient features. Complete with a helpful chronology of dynasties and list of possible video sources, this remarkable volume collects under one cover the most significant and influential works of China's dynamic spiritual tradition, making a fundamental contribution to courses in Chinese religion, literature, and history. (shrink)