As a whole these essays take their cue from the later Wittgenstein in an effort to get beyond the verifiability/falsifiability cul-de-sac and to "get clear" on some religious concepts by exploring religious language at work. The opening two essays, by E. Heller and P. Holmer, are the only two that deal directly with Wittgenstein. Heller shows some interesting parallels between Wittgenstein and Nietzsche, but largely these essays are for introductory purposes. Although Wittgenstein's presence is felt in the remaining essays, (...) his name is seldom mentioned. Ian Ramsey has two contributions, one on paradox and one on religion and science. He is up to his usual method of making plausible suggestions by means of careful distinctions, always with a careful eye on the phenomenology of the religious universe of discourse. F. Ferré explores the notion of "models" as it works in science and sees how this concept can work in the examination of religious language. T. McPherson uses a distinction between literal, semiotic, and symbolic meaning to explore religious assertions and analogy. R. C. Coburn suggests that a neglected use of theological statements is to answer the limiting questions of religion in a manner that is logically complete. B. Mitchell talks about justifying religious belief in answer to MacIntyre's charge that such a project reveals a basic misunderstanding of religious discourse. There are two intriguing essays by Wm. Poteat, one of which draws an analogy between birth and suicide to build a doctrine of creation. C. B. Daly writes on metaphysics and the limits of language. Although there is same familiar wrangling over tired issues, the book does manage to collect some refreshing although not strikingly original essays.--S. O. H. (shrink)

Neste estudo, busca-se historicizar os primeiros tempos do Colégio de Aplicação, importante espaço educativo em Porto Alegre/RS, Brasil, considerando seus entrelaçamentos às Faculdades de Filosofia e de Educação, valorizando o papel de Graciema Pachedo e Isolda Holmer Paes, professoras idealizadoras da instituição na década de 1950. A produção de memórias de instituições de ensino permite que se teçam interconexões entre as diferentes histórias vividas pelos sujeitos em termos políticos, sociais e educacionais, fomentando assim reflexões sobre as condições materiais nas (...) quais se produziram determinados processos educativos. Duas instituições de ensino imbricadas, ocupando o mesmo prédio por muitos anos, uma formando crianças e adolescentes, a outra formando professores. As relações entre o Colégio de Aplicação e a Faculdade de Educação são fortes, aqueles que frequentaram a Faculdade nos anos 1980 ainda a reconhecem como o “Aplicação”. Atualmente, a “FACED”, expressão que identifica a instituição, constitui-se em um espaço ocupado por jovens e adultos, em que se estuda sobre infâncias, mas quase não se vê por lá crianças. A investigação insere-se no campo de pesquisas da História da Educação e identifica-se com os pressupostos teóricos da História Cultural, corrente historiográfica que valoriza os sujeitos em uma perspectiva que os coloca como partícipes e fazedores da História de seu tempo. Para desenvolver a pesquisa, elegeu-se a memória enquanto documento e, como metodologias, a História Oral e a análise de outros documentos relevantes para um maior entendimento dessas histórias. Em um processo de escavar camadas de memórias, entrevistaram-se professores que carregam as trajetórias da Faculdade e do Colégio de Aplicação. Entendemos que a produção desses testemunhos se faz necessária para evitar o apagamento das práticas relativas a um tempo e lugar. Portanto, investigar as memórias institucionais é uma forma de reconstruir os processos identitários dessas duas instituições de ensino. Palavras-chave: História de instituições educativas. Memórias docentes. Formação docente. (shrink)

Time is a neglected subject in recent, especially analytically minded reflections on the good life. The article highlights the fundamental role of time and temporality for an adequate understanding of the good life. Time functions both as an external factor with which we have to reckon in our practical deliberations and as an internal structure of living our lives. It is argued that striving for a good life also means striving for being in harmony with the time of one's life. (...) The exploration of this idea allows to link analytical with phenomenological approaches to time and good life. (shrink)

Die Selbstbestimmung des Patienten wird in liberalen und individualisierten Gesellschaften zu Recht hochgehalten. Doch die Handlungsfreiheit des Einzelnen in einer hochkomplexen, von wissenschaftlich-technischen Rationalitäten durchstrukturierten Welt wächst nur in dem Maße, wie Personen- und Systemvertrauen ermöglicht wird. Denn mit den Handlungsmöglichkeiten der modernen Medizin wachsen auch Verletzlichkeit und Verunsicherung der Akteure. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes aus den Bereichen Philosophie, Medizinrecht, Theologie, Medizinethik und Medizin untersuchen, inwiefern interpersonelles Vertrauen bzw. Systemvertrauen und Selbstbestimmungspraktiken zusammenhängen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk gilt dabei Institutionen wie dem (...) Krankenhaus sowie Kollektivakteuren wie Familien oder Patientengruppen. (shrink)

How we live our lives depends on how we relate to our past, present and future. The article focusses on the relation to our future. The target of my critique is a “planning conception” that imagines the future as a realm that we can rationally plan and form in light of our ends. In the first section I present an outline of the planning conception, building on Bratman’s planning theory and Rawls’ idea of a life plan. The second section highlights (...) the attractions of the planning conception. I argue that this conception offers a prima facie intriguing view of the temporality of human life. It promises a life in which we can control the passage of time. The third section reveals severe limitations of the planning conception. I question the claim that plans are central to our self-understanding and to a good life. The planning conception tends to distort the temporality of human life with respect to past, present and future. Given this diagnosis, I sketch an alternative in the last section of the paper. I explore the temporal specifics of ways of understanding oneself as a person and argue that both the formation and the very form of these ‘ways of being’ do not follow the logic of planning. (shrink)

In current meta-ethical debates, many authors believe that there is a close relation between emotions and values. Some think emotions help to constitute moral and non-moral values. Others see emotions as epistemic devices to gain knowledge of values. Both views have roots reaching well back into the history of philosophy, and both can be developed to either support or undermine realistic and anti-realistic theories of value. The article aims to clarify a complicated dialectical situation. In addition, it makes a constructive (...) proposal towards a better understanding of the connection between emotions and values. Though anti-realistic in spirit, this proposal is designed to integrate some important realistic intuitions as well. (shrink)

Die Frage, was ein gutes, gelingendes oder glückliches Leben ist, galt vielen Philosophen von der Antike bis in die Neuzeit als die zentrale Frage der Philosophie überhaupt. Spätestens seit der Aufklärung ist sie aber aus der Mitte der Philosophie an deren Ränder gedrängt worden. Was ein gutes Leben ist, schien fortan abhängig zu sein von den individuellen Neigungen der jeweiligen Person und sollte ganz ihrer Automomie überlassen bleiben. Infolgedessen hat sich die Philosophie, sofern sie sich praktischen Lebensfragen zuwendet, weitgehend zu (...) einer eng verstandenen Moralphilosophie gewandelt. Heute wird diese Sicht wieder zunehmend in Zweifel gezogen. Vor allem Kritiker der modernen aufgeklärt-liberalen Moral fordern eine erneute philosophische Besinnung auf die Thematik des guten Lebens. Dabei lassen sie allerdings allzuoft im unklaren, was sich heute überhaupt noch zum Problem des guten Lebens im Rahmen einer Philosophie sagen läßt, die die Einsichten der Aufklärung nicht einfach übergeht. Die im vorliegenden Band enthaltenen Beiträge wollen auf je eigene Weise die Spielräume ausloten, die einer systematischen Beschäftigung mit der Frage nach dem guten Leben verbleiben, wenn auf vorschnelle Lebensempfehlungen im Namen der Philosophie verzichtet wird. (shrink)

Definition of the problem In light of the ubiquitous role of time in human life, the importance of time for medical practices and for the ethical reflections of these practices seems all too obvious. However, the growing number of ethical reflections on temporal implications of medical practices all too often lack a systematic understanding of time. Aim of the article This article therefore aims to provide a map of temporal distinctions which should be both of theoretical interest and of practical (...) and ethical relevance. Procedure Starting with the fundamental distinction between time and temporality, four temporal dimensions will be discussed: linear time as chronological order of events, intersubjective time of social interactions, the cyclical temporal structure of biological rhythms and social routines, and the biographical time of the past, present and future of a single life, its finiteness and irreversibility. The article elucidates these distinctions from the perspective of different philosophical approaches and outlines how temporal distinctions may help to better understand the ethical importance of time in the realm of medicine. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Angesichts der zentralen Bedeutung, die die spezifische Zeitlichkeit unserer Existenz für Fragen der Lebensführung hat, liegt es auf der Hand, dass gerade auch im Bereich von Medizin und Medizinethik zeitliche Dimensionen eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Das Feld der dabei zu beachtenden temporalen Phänomene wird jedoch schnell unübersichtlich. Vor deren medizinethischer Bewertung erscheint deswegen eine philosophische Vorklärung relevanter Zeitunterscheidungen angezeigt. Eine solche Vorklärung nehmen wir in diesem Aufsatz in Angriff. Ziel ist die Entwicklung einer Matrix von temporalen Differenzierungen, die auch (...) zur ethischen Orientierung medizinischer Praktiken herangezogen werden sollten. Auf der Basis der grundlegenden Unterscheidung zwischen der Zeit, in der sich unser Leben wie andere Prozesse auch abspielt, und der Zeitlichkeit, die dieses Leben wesentlich ausmacht, arbeiten wir vier Zeitfelder heraus: die lineare Zeit der chronologischen Ordnung von Ereignissen, die intersubjektive Zeit sozialer Interaktionen, die zyklische Zeit biologischer und sozialer Rhythmen und die biographische Zeit, in der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft existenzielle Bedeutungen annehmen und Endlichkeit und Irreversibilität von Lebensprozessen verhandelt werden. Zur Erläuterung dieser viergliedrigen Matrix greifen wir auf verschiedene Zeitphilosophien zurück, etwa auf solche aus der phänomenologischen Tradition oder aus der neueren analytischen Diskussion. (shrink)

Анотація. У статті розглянуто тісний зв´язок між зменшенням впливу Московського патріархату на суспільно-політичні процеси в Україні та відновленням українського культурно-цивілізаційного простору. А саме – поступове позбавлення православних віруючих проявів постімперського синдрому, зокрема установок, уявлень, поведінкових моделей тощо, пов´язаних із перебуванням українців у складі іншомовної та чужої за ментальністю й культурою імперії. Зазначено, що отримання православними віруючими України Томосу про визнання автокефалії і конституювання Православної Церкви України позитивно впливає не лише на розвиток самої ПЦУ, але й рівня патріотизму, відновлення і розвою (...) україномовного середовища, архетипних традицій, обрядів, поведінкових моделей тощо. Все це, у підсумку, сприяє українському поступу від азійської до європейської культурно-цивілізаційної моделі. (shrink)

Paul L. Holmer (1916-2004) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota (1946-1960) and Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School (1960-1987). Among his many acomplishments, Holmer was one of the most significant American students of Kierkegaard of his generation. Although written in the 1950s and 1960s, Holmer's theological and philosophical engagement with Kierkegaard challenges much in the contemporary scholarly discussions of this important thinker. Unlike many, Holmer refuses reductionist readings that tie (...) Kierkegaard to any particular "school." He likewise criticizes biographical readings of Kierkegaard, much in vogue recently, seeing Kierkegaard rather as an indirect communicator aiming at his reader's own ethical and religious capacities. Holmer also rejects popular existentialist readings of Kierkegaard, seeing him as an analyzer of concepts, while at the same time denying that he is a "crypto-analyst." Holmer criticizes the attempt to construe Kierkegaard as a didactic religious thinker, appreciating Kierkegaard's "cool" descriptive objectivity and his ironic and stylistic virtuosity. In his important reading of Kierkegaard on "truth," Holmer pits Kierkegaard against those who see "truth" empirically, idealistically, or relativistically. Holmer's carefully textured account of Kierkegaard's conceptual grammar of "truth" in ethical and religious contexts, fifty years after it was penned, addresses immediately current discussions of truth, meaning, reference, and realism versus antirealism, relativism, and hermeneutics. It will be of great interest to all interested in Kierkegaard and his importance for contemporary theology and philosophy. (shrink)

The processing of a language involves a neural language network including temporal, parietal, and frontal cortical regions. This applies to spoken as well as signed languages. Previous research suggests that spoken language proficiency is associated with resting-state functional connectivity between language regions and other regions of the brain. Given the similarities in neural activation for spoken and signed languages, rsFC-behavior associations should also exist for sign language tasks. In this study, we explored the associations between rsFC and two types of (...) linguistic skills in sign language: phonological processing skill and accuracy in elicited sentence production. Fifteen adult, deaf early signers were enrolled in a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study. In addition to fMRI data, behavioral tests of sign language phonological processing and sentence reproduction were administered. Using seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis, we investigated associations between behavioral proficiency and rsFC from language-relevant nodes: bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and posterior superior temporal gyrus. Results showed that worse sentence processing skill was associated with stronger positive rsFC between the left IFG and left sensorimotor regions. Further, sign language phonological processing skill was associated with positive rsFC from right IFG to middle frontal gyrus/frontal pole although this association could possibly be explained by domain-general cognitive functions. Our findings suggest a possible connection between rsFC and developmental language outcomes in deaf individuals. (shrink)