In this paper, I present a conception of individual religiousness in terms of religious experience. Using ideas of the early Friedrich Schleiermacher, I will claim that religious experiences are contemplative experiences of the totality of being. This understanding of religious experiences presents an alternative to how religious experience is often epistemologically thought about in the more contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Furthermore, it has systematic advantages: It can construe religious plurality in terms of different ways to experience the totality of (...) being, it stays neutral to metaphysical and moral debates such as whether there is a God whose laws we should obey, and it allows for an explanation of how religious intuitions and religious emotions relate to one another as well as of why religiousness and art often go hand in hand. Even though understanding religiousness in terms of contemplative experience also bears revisionary potential, I will discuss how more doxastic elements of religious people’s lives can be reintegrated into this picture. (shrink)

United States of America demographic profiles illustrate a nation rich in cultural and racial diversity. Approximately 29% of the population are minorities and demographic projections indicate an increase to 50% by the year 2050. This creates a highly mobile and constantly changing environment, revealing the need for new levels of cultural awareness and sensitivity. These issues are particularly critical in the medical community where medical professionals must understand the impact cultural differences and barriers can have on evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation. (...) During times of stress, such as when injury strikes, problems associated with lack of cultural sensitivity are intensified. Cultural diversity is of particular concern when standard measures for diagnosis and prognosis are derived from established norms for responding, because culture defines norms. This paper details a ten point checklist designed to facilitate cultural awareness and sensitivity in medical settings to ensure maximum successful recovery and outcomes for all patients. (shrink)

: The Cuddeback Letter Book contains approximately two-hundred letters sent to Charles Peirce between 1859 and 1861. In the front of the book Peirce compiled a list of sixty-one correspondents. Many of them are key figures in Peirce's life, and the Cuddeback has long been recognized as an important source for biographical research. However, some years ago the owner of the Cuddeback blocked scholarly access because of its fragile condition, among other reasons. Fortunately, the Cuddeback has recently been conserved and (...) a digital image of each sheet has been made. This recent development is described below. Scholarly research on this area of Peirce's biography may now resume. (shrink)

Charles S. Peirce frequently mentioned reading Richard Whately's Elements of Logic when he was 12 years old. Throughout his life, Peirce emphasized the importance of that experience. This valorization of Whately is puzzling at first. Early in his career Peirce rejected Whately's central logical doctrines. What valuable insight concerning logic was robust enough to survive these specific rejections? Peirce recommended a biographical approach to understanding his philosophy. This essay follows that suggestion by considering Peirce's reading of Whately in a larger (...) life context. Surprisingly many factors in Charles Peirce's personal and intellectual development were at play when he read Whately. His father, Benjamin Peirce, oversaw rigorous home schooling intended to train young Charley for a brilliant intellectual career. Laboratory experience with qualitative chemical analysis exposed the boy to the logic of scientific investigation, specifically to the hypothetico-deductive method of inquiry. However, tensions between father and son developed over Charles' wish to devote his life to studying the logic of science. The two also disagreed upon the value of formal science. Against this background we will review relevant logical doctrines of Whately's book, as well as his innovative formalizing practice of logical inquiry. Then we will see that it was Whately's lessons about formal science that were of such importance to Peirce. (shrink)

As a youngster of perhaps 8 years, Charles S. Peirce was given a chemistry laboratory in which he probably did experiments in qualitative analysis. These experiments were modeled on the hypothetico-deductive method of inquiry. I argue that this laboratory experience initiated Peirce’s life-long interest in logic and the logic of science, and flowered in his “pragmaticism.”.

The Cuddeback Letter Book contains approximately two-hundred letters sent to Charles Peirce between 1859 and 1861. In the front of the book Peirce compiled a list of sixty-one correspondents. Many of them are key figures in Peirce's life, and the Cuddeback has long been recognized as an important source for biographical research. However, some years ago the owner of the Cuddeback blocked scholarly access because of its fragile condition, among other reasons. Fortunately, the Cuddeback has recently been conserved and a (...) digital image of each sheet has been made. This recent development is described below. Scholarly research on this area of Peirce's biography may now resume. (shrink)

This paper details research which investigated a probable causal connection between taking an introductory logic course and significant improvement in logical skills. The authors first detail the setting (a two-year, open-access unit of the University of Cincinnati), the student body (the authors note that many students enter the college with several notable types of academic disadvantage), and the content of an introductory logic course. Following this, they summarize and defend their research protocol and the results of their study. Findings include (...) a statistically significant increase in students’ logical skills after enrollment in a one-quarter introductory logic course. After a statistical analysis of their findings, the authors discuss several possible applications, extensions, and improvements of their research protocol, concluding that the generalizability of their study is limited due to the myriad variables that attend teaching. (shrink)

Josiah Royce was undoubtedly one of the most interesting thinkers of classical American philosophy in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. His works cover a wide range of subjects from psychology and issues of social philosophy to metaphysics. Surrounded by philosophers such as William James or Charles Sanders Peirce, Royce developed a concept of pragmatism which he himself called "absolute pragmatism" and which was centred around a theory of community. The essays in this edited volume deal with (...) this pragmatistic approach in his work and discuss it from various points of view. Among other things, they explore Royce's relationship to German idealism, the foundation of his ethics as well as his philosophical doctrine of God and his philosophy of religion. This results in rather divergent assessments of his philosophy, each of which is evidence of the enduring relevance of his thinking for the world of today. (shrink)

Language plays a role in the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar and continues to shape their experiences in displacement, yet their linguistic rights are rarely discussed in relation to their human rights and humanitarian concerns. International human rights standards offer important foundations for conceptualizing the “right to language” and identifying how linguistic rights can be violated both in situ and in displacement. The Rohingya case highlights how language policies are weaponized to oppress unwanted minorities; their outsider status is (...) reinforced by the country’s language education policy and they face additional rights challenges in displacement—including obstacles to effectively accessing humanitarian aid. Moving forward, norms associated with self-determination and language rights offer a conceptual foundation for shifting attitudes and altering negative perceptions of Rohingya identity. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGWenn vom Glauben als einer Voraussetzung des Wissens gesprochen wird, so heißt das, dass er kein schlechthin Anderes des Wissens sein kann. Denn eine Voraussetzung steht in einem positiven Bezug zu dem Sachverhalt, dessen Voraussetzung sie bildet. Es ist dieser positive Bezug des Glaubens zum Wissen, der im Artikel näher untersucht werden soll. Das geschieht, indem der Glaube im Anschluss an David Hume zunächst als elementares, nicht durch Verstandesleistungen begründetes Regelvertrauen bestimmt wird. In einem zweiten Schritt wird in Aufnahme zentraler (...) Einsichten Michael Polanyis gezeigt, dass einem solchen Vertrauen Aspekte impliziten Verstehens eignen, die ihrerseits als unerlässliche Faktoren im Aufbau öffentlichen Wissens fungieren. Daran anknüpfend wird in einem letzten Gedankengang schließlich nach den realistischen Anlässen des Regelvertrauens gefragt, mit der Pointe, dass in einer Polanyischen Perspektive gesehen die Theorie des Glaubens auf eine Theorie der Offenbarung verweist.SUMMARYThis article explores the thesis that our knowledge about reality depends on elementary acts of faith. The argument proceeds in three steps: In a first step David Hume's concept of belief is interpreted in terms of a basic reliance on evolving regularities which cannot be accounted for by acts of reason. Following central insights of Michael Polanyi's epistemology this pre-reflective reliance is reconstructed as a form of tacit knowledge in a second step of the argument. It will be shown that processes of tacit knowing are constitutive for the development of public accessible knowledge. In the third part, the central question about the real causes of our basic reliance is raised. This question is answered with reference to the function that a theory of revelation has for our understanding of faith. This touches the realistic dimensions of the developed Polanyian perspective. (shrink)

There is an endless problem with waste concerning management, recycling and landfilling which can be understood as a moral problem, too. The text starts with the legal management of waste in statutes since the 19th century and the judgements of the late 20th. The legal regulations do not prevent the actual distribution of waste all over the world, as to developing countries like Malaysia and the Philippines or to the surface of the oceans as it is done within the Great (...) Pacific Garbage Patch. These real ways of pollution on one hand with the seemingly well formulated regulations on the other reveal the paradoxical nature of the attitudes on waste which are the main part of a new moral problem. In the end, those paradoxes are dealt with as a question of communication. (shrink)

English summary: Schleiermacher acknowledged the Moravian influence on his works. This survey analyses his theological and secular writings between 1788-1796. german description: F.D.E. Schleiermacher bezeichnete sich als einen Herrnhuter hoherer Ordnung. Diese Untersuchung analysiert Schriften vom Beginn seines Theologiestudiums in Halle (1788) bis zu seinem Amtsantritt an der Berliner Charite (1796). Schleiermachers von gleichzeitiger Wertschatzung und Kritik gepragte Haltung gegenuber dem Herrnhutertum wird anhand der Motive Erfahrung und Gemeinschaft herausgearbeitet. Schleiermachers Auseinandersetzung mit seiner Erziehung und Pragung durch die Brudergemeine findet (...) ihren Niederschlag auch in seinen nicht-theologischen Jugendschriften und fruhen Predigten. (shrink)

Im Artikel wird Max Schelers phänomenologischer Zugang zur Realität des Moralischen gegenüber rein prozeduralistischen Begründungsmodellen der Moral profiliert. Dabei steht Schelers Zuordnung von Vernunft und Gefühl im Zentrum. Die Interpretation hebt vor allem zwei Punkte hervor: Zum einen zeigt sie, inwiefern Scheler den Akzent auf die erlebten Sinnzusammenhänge lenkt, die dem Versuch einer rein argumentativ-rationalen Begründung von Moral nicht nur unweigerlich vorausliegen, sondern ihn selbst erst als einen sinnvollen Versuch erscheinen lassen. Zum anderen lenkt sie den Blick auf eine theorie-immanente (...) Spannung, die schließlich dazu Anlass ist, an einer bestimmten Stelle über Schelers Ansatz hinauszugehen. Und so schließt der Artikel mit der These, dass dem Wertfühlen zwar eine fundamentale Rolle im Erschließungsprozess des Moralischen zuzuerkennen ist, es aber nicht mit dem Prozess im Ganzen identifiziert werden kann.The article explores Max Schelers phenomenological approach to the sphere of morality as an alternative to an understanding of the moral world in exclusively procedural terms. For this purpose it focuses on the relation of reason and feeling. The interpretation highlights mainly two points: On the one hand it shows to what extent Scheler accentuates the immediate experience of moral meanings as the necessary condition of every rational moral discourse. On the other hand it elaborates on a problem within Schelers theory itself and finally comes to the conclusion that although the immediate feeling of values plays a decisive role in the process of our moral experience, it must not be identified with the entire process. (shrink)

In 1966-67 Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink conducted an extraordinary seminar on the fragments of Heraclitus. _Heraclitus Seminar_ records those conversations, documenting the imaginative and experimental character of the multiplicity of interpretations offered and providing an invaluable portrait of Heidegger involved in active discussion and explication. Heidegger's remarks in this seminar illuminate his interpretations not only of pre-Socratic philosophy, but also of figures such as Hegel and Holderllin. At the same time, Heidegger clarifies many late developments in his own understanding (...) of truth, Being, and understanding. Heidegger and Fink, both deeply rooted in the Freiburg phenomenological tradition, offer two competing approaches to the phenomenological reading of the ancient text-a kind of reading that, as Fink says, is "not so much concerned with the philological problematic... as with advancing into the matter itself, that is, toward the matter that must have stood before Heraclitus's spiritual view.". (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDer Essay setzt in seinem ersten Teil bei der Beobachtung von zwei scheinbar alternativen Projekten des modernen religionsphilosophischen Diskurses ein: Während in dem einen Religion vornehmlich intellektualistisch aufgefasst und eine öffentliche Rechtfertigung religiöser Überzeugungen gefordert wird, bestreitet das andere ihren epistemischen Wert, und zwar mit der Konsequenz, sie ausschließlich unter dem Gesichtspunkt ihres privaten Nutzens zu begreifen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird im zweiten Teil des Essays eine Überlegung entwickelt, die auf die Überwindung jener Alternative anhand einer Analyse der Entstehungsbedingungen von (...) Überzeugungssystemen zielt. In Anknüpfung an die Tradition des klassischen Pragmatismus, vor allem an William James und John Dewey, werden dabei Grundstrukturender Erfahrungssituation skizziert und schließlich die Konzeption eines »ursprünglich Gegebenen« entwickelt, die dem Vorrang unmittelbaren Erlebens ebenso Rechnung trägt wie auftretenden Vermittlungszumutungen. Auf dieser Gedankenlinie kommt es im dritten Teil schließlich zu einer Bestimmung der Funktion von Religion innerhalb des menschlichen Erfahrungszusammenhanges. Dies führt zu der These, dass eine sorgfältige Analyse der Entstehungsbedingungen religiöser Überzeugungen einen Weg eröffnet, die Wirklichkeit von Religion zu verstehen, ohne in die Fallen des Intellektualismus oder Privatismus zu geraten.SUMMARYThe essay begins with the observation of two seemingly alternative projects within the modern discourse in the philosophy of religion. While one project approaches religion in intellectual terms and calls for a public justification of its beliefs, the other denies the epistemic value of religious beliefs altogether and tries to understand religion solely in terms of its private use. Against this backdrop the essay engages in its second part in an argument, which aims to overcome the mentioned alternative by exploring the experiential conditions of our belief-systems. With reference to the classical tradition of pragmatism, especially to William James and John Dewey, it sketches general features of our human experience and develops a conception of the “given” which accounts for the primacy of immediate experience as well as for the obligation for mediation. Following this line of thought, the third part broadly defines the function of religion within human experience. This leads to the thesis that a careful study of the experiential conditions of religious beliefs presents a third way of approaching the reality of religion without being caught in the traps of intellectualism or privatism. (shrink)

Die Kulturgeschichte kennt eine Vielzahl an unterschiedlichen Variationen des Spiels. In einer bestimmten Hinsicht erweist sich die Form des Spiels als ein konstitutives Phänomen von Kultur. Unter der Voraussetzung, dass es sich bei Religion um ein kulturelles System handelt, kann zudem erwartet werden, dass auch sie den Impuls des Spielerischen in sich aufnimmt. Vor diesem Hintergrund zielen die Beiträge dieses Bandes darauf ab, einzelne Verflechtungen zwischen Spiel und Kultur aus theologischen und philosophischen Perspektiven zu untersuchen. Dabei geht es sowohl darum, (...) theoriegeschichtliche Hintergründe des Zusammenhangs sichtbar zu machen, als auch darum, die Verhältnisse zwischen Spiel, Religion und Ethik systematisch zu untersuchen."-- Back cover. (shrink)

Researchers are able to estimate what subjects attend to by using eye tracking systems. Existing approaches for analyzing eye movements are very useful to estimate attention to still objects. But they are inadequate to estimate attention to moving objects, although paying attention to moving objects is usual human behavior. Thus, we propose a novel approach and algorithm to estimate attention to moving objects more precisely. Our approach is to extract "eye tracking movements". We phrase both saccadic eye movements and smooth (...) pursuit eye movements as "eye tracking movements". Because previous works reveal that humans often track a moving object by the eye movements when they pay attention to the object, our approach seems to be appropriate. Our algorithm used for extracting eye tracking movements is called Path Stitching (PS) algorithm. The PS algorithm is a kind of Longest Common Subsequence (LCS) discovery algorithms using Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) as a similarity measurement procedure. Eye tracking movements can be regarded as a situation that a subsequence of eye movements' trajectory is similar to a subsequence of the target's trajectory with a small or no time-difference. Because humans track a moving object by the eye movements with locally fluctuated time difference, we think the use of DTW is very appropriate. In addition, to make outputs more comprehensible, we employ the LCS discovery approach for the PS algorithm. The experimental results show that the PS algorithm is more able to extract eye tracking movements than the fixation extracting approach. The fixation extracting approach is the most popular and the strongest approach to analyze eye movements. Therefore, we conclude that our novel approach will advance the analysis of human behavior by the eye movements and human-computer interaction systems they utilize user's eye movements. (shrink)

Après avoir situé la démonologie de l’Aquinate par rapport à son angélologie et au dogme, l’article étudie les notions de bonté et intégrité de la nature des anges déchus, que Thomas d’Aquin élabore en s’appuyant sur le quatrième chapitre du De divinis nominibus. L’enquête est conduite à partir de l’examen du riche dossier angélologique constitué à l’occasion de la rédaction du De substantiis separatis et vise à préciser le rôle que la (re)lecture de Denys joue dans l’élaboration de la pensée (...) démonologique thomiste. On montre ainsi comment, en suivant Denys, Thomas harmonise la notion aristotélicienne de nature comme essence figée et inaltérable avec celle augustinienne d’une nature susceptible par contre d’amoindrissement et défaillance. Le but étant moins de caractériser la démonologie thomiste comme dionysienne que d’observer l’interaction substantielle chez Thomas entre sources et doctrine, on évoque le triptyque formé par l’opuscule inachevé De substantiis separatis et les commentaires au Liber de causis et à la Métaphysique comme dernier exemple de la manière de travailler de l’Aquinate, entre philosophie et théologie, tradition et spéculation. (shrink)