Kann es dabei bleiben, dass das Kontinuum und das Unendliche noch bis heute zwei ungeloste Ratsel sind? Denn immerhin ist nicht einmal geklart, ob sie tatsachlich zwei sind oder nicht vielmehr nur eins. Und das obwohl doch feststeht: Auftreten kann unsere Welt als Inbegriff des Endlichen nur im Kontinuum von Zeit und Raum als dem Unendlichen. Nur ist nicht klar, ob es auf seinem Grund denn in der Tat kontinuierlich ist und nicht vielmehr diskret, wozu man bisher neigt. Befragt man (...) es bisher doch nur reduktionistisch nach der blossen Vielheit seiner Elemente: philosophisch ebenso wie mathematisch. Notig fur die Ratsellosung aber konnte sein, dass man auch noch holistisch nach der inneren Einheit dieser Vielheit fragt, wie es nicht einmal Aristoteles und Kant tun. Schliesslich ist es fur uns bedeutsam, wenn als Grundgestalt der Welt, zu der wir, die Subjekte, mit hinzugehoren, das Kontinuum als das Unendliche auftritt. Womoglich ist es dadurch nicht nur mathematisch oder philosophisch, sondern auch noch theologisch von Bedeutung. All dem Ungeklarten gilt es jedenfalls noch weiter nachzugehen. (shrink)

Kann Spaltung oder Abgrund zwischen Subjekt und Objekt das letzte Wort sein? Nicht, wenn beides doch von dieser Welt ist als der einen. Und auch nicht, wenn jene Sachen selbst, mit denen Kant gerungen hatte, wie mit Zeit und Raum oder Bewusstsein, immer ratselhafter werden, auch fur Mathematiker und Physiker: Warum denn ausgerechnet solche zwei wie Zeit und Raum der einen Welt? Warum nicht mehr, doch auch nicht weniger? Warum der Raum als Ausdehnung denn ausgerechnet drei-, die Zeit jedoch anscheinend (...) eindimensional? Warum nicht mehr, doch auch nicht weniger? Sind Zeit und Raum als Ausdehnung auf ihrem Grund diskret oder kontinuierlich? Geht es an, sie kurzerhand zur Punktmenge diskret zu machen, nur um ihre Ausdehnung durch Zahlen berechenbar zu machen? Kann verwundern, dass Mathematik und mathematische Physik mit dem Kontinuum von Ausdehnung in Schwierigkeiten kommen, wenn sie demgemass punktmengentheoretisch mit ihm umgehen mussen? Steht laut Quantentheorie nicht langst schon fest, auf seinem Grund gehorche unser Kosmos nicht der Mengentheorie? In welchem Grundverhaltnis stehen Punkt und das Kontinuum von Ausdehnung ursprunglich zueinander? Und was ist denn Zeit- und Raum-Bewusstsein, wenn Objekte von Subjekten als Bewusstsein abhangig sind, wie nach Kant und nach der Quantentheorie? Ist es vielleicht verfehlt, wenn Mathematiker und Physiker, doch auch so manche Philosophen die Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft verabschieden, weil sie als solche angeblich etwas Unmogliches wie Ursprungs- oder Erste Philosophie sei? Zumindest gilt es, allen diesen ratselhaften Sachen selbst mit Kant noch einmal auf den Grund zu gehen. (shrink)

Metaphysics is sensitive to the conceptual tools we choose to articulate metaphysical problems. Those tools are a lens through which we view metaphysical problems; the same problems look different when we change the lens. There has recently been a shift to "postmodal" conceptual tools: concepts of ground, essence, and fundamentality. This shift transforms the debate over structuralism in the metaphysics of science and philosophy of mathematics. Structuralist theses say that patterns are "prior" to the nodes in the patterns. In modal (...) terms this would mean that the nodes cannot vary independently of the pattern. But its postmodal meaning is unclear. Does it mean, e.g., that a fundamental account of reality somehow speaks only of patterns? What would that mean? Three structuralist positions are examined through a postmodal lens: nomic/causal/dispositional essentialism, structuralism about individuals (e.g., structural realism, e.g., ante rem mathematical structuralism), comparativism about quantities. The question of when theories are equivalent, and how that impacts the debate over structuralism, is also discussed. (shrink)

In the seventeenth century, the Jewish mystical tradition which is known as Kabbalah was integrated into the curriculum of studying the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. Kabbalah became popular in these times in the wake of the dissemination of Isaac Luria’s teachings, in particular within the Jewish communities in Prague and Amsterdam, where members of the Horowitz family took a leading role. Kabbalistic psychology was applied to the whole Jewish lifestyle then, and to the understanding of Jewish tradition. Kabbalistic intentions (...) of prayer intensified the expectation of redemption, and during the messianic movement initiated by Shabtai Zvi, the kabbalistic meaning of repentance was also adapted in prayer books composed for so-called Conversos, who had to familiarize themselves with Jewish tradition. The article exemplifies this process by a Spanish anthology of prayers, Libro entitulado ensenha à pecadores, and shows the historical impact of Kabbalah in the field of Jewish education. (shrink)

Brackets and tables, circles and maps, 1554-1872 -- Early botanical networks and trees, 1766-1815 -- The first evolutionary tree, 1786-1820 -- Diverse and unusual trees of the early nineteenth century, 1817-1834 -- The rule of five, 1819-1854 -- Pre-Darwinian branching diagrams, 1828-1858 -- Evolution and the trees of Charles Darwin, 1837-1868 -- The trees of Ernst Haeckel, 1866-1905 -- Post-Darwinian nonconformists, 1868-1896 -- More late-nineteenth-century trees, 1874-1897 -- Trees of the early twentieth century, 1901-1930 -- The trees of Alfred Sherwood (...) Romer, 1933-1966 -- Additional trees of the mid-twentieth century, 1931-1943 -- The trees of William King Gregory, 1938-1951 -- Hints of new approaches, 1954-1969 -- Phenograms and cladograms, 1958-1966 -- Early molecular trees, 1962-1987 -- Notable trees of the past four decades, 1970-2010 -- Primeval branches and universal trees of life, 1997-2010. (shrink)

The series, founded in 1970, publishes works which either combine studies in the history of philosophy with a systematic approach or bring together systematic studies with reconstructions from the history of philosophy. Monographs are published in English as well as in German. The founding editors are Erhard Scheibe (editor until 1991), Günther Patzig (until 1999) and Wolfgang Wieland (until 2003). From 1990 to 2007, the series had been co-edited by Jürgen Mittelstraß.

The correspondence between the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno and his politically active graduate student Elisabeth Lenk offers fresh insights into both Adorno's view of surrealism and its relation to the student uprisings of 1960s France and Germany. Written between 1962, when Lenk moved to Paris and persuaded an initially reluctant Adorno to supervise her sociology dissertation on the surrealists, and Adorno's death in 1969, these letters reveal a surprisingly tender side of the distinguished professor. The correspondence is accompanied by a (...) selection of documents that bring additional depth and context to the letters and their engagement with the art and politics of the period. Filling in the background of Adorno and Lenk's lively exchange, the volume includes new translations of classic essays by Walter Benjamin ("Surrealism: Last Snapshot of the European Intelligentsia") and Adorno ("Surrealism Reconsidered"), along with a collection of short prose readings by Adorno and the writer-scholar Carl Dreyfus and three original essays by Lenk: her afterword to Paris Peasant by Louis Aragon, her Introduction to the German edition of Charles Fourier's The Theory of the Four Movements and the General Destinies, and her incisive essay "Critical Theory and Surreal Practice." An Introduction by Lenk's student, the contemporary writer and critic Rita Bischof, points to the continuing challenge of surrealist politics. This remarkable body of correspondence appears here in English for the first time, as do Adorno and Dreyfus's surrealist readings and the essays by Lenk. Together, they provide a rich mine of critical material for reassessing the significance of the surrealist movement and its successors. (shrink)

In einem Brief nennt Adorno die "Negative Dialektik" kurz nach ihrem Erscheinen unter seinen Schriften "das philosophische Hauptwerk, wenn ich so sagen darf“. Dieser herausgehobenen Bedeutung, die das Werk für Adorno hatte, entspricht nicht nur die lange Zeit, die er mit der Abfassung des Buchs beschäftigt war, sondern auch die lange Geschichte, die ihre zentralen Motive in seinem Denken haben. Philosophische Begriffsklärung, die Arbeit an "Begriff und Kategorien“ einer negativen Dialektik, versteht Adorno dabei als dialektischen Übergang in inhaltliches Denken – (...) und so betreibt er sie auch hier. Das hat Konsequenzen für die Form des kooperativen Kommentars, der in diesem Band versucht wird. Adornos "Negative Dialektik" zu kommentieren, kann nur in dem Bewußtsein der unüberbrückbaren Kluft gelingen, die den Kommentar von diesem Text trennt. (shrink)

This brief, affordable text helps students to think critically, using examples from the weird claims and beliefs that abound in our culture to demonstrate the sound evaluation of any claim. It explains step-by-step how to sort through reasons, evaluate evidence, and tell when a claim is likely to be true. The emphasis is neither on debunking nor on advocating specific assertions, but on explaining principles of critical thinking that enable readers to evaluate claims for themselves. The authors focus on types (...) of logical arguments and proofs, making How to Think about Weird Things a versatile supplement for logic, critical thinking, philosophy of science, or any other science appreciation courses. (shrink)

The Bhagavata Purana is one of the most important, central and popular scriptures of Hinduism. A medieval Sanskrit text, its influence as a religious book has been comparable only to that of the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Ithamar Theodor here offers the first analysis for twenty years of the Bhagavata Purana often called the (Fifth Veda) and its different layers of meaning. He addresses its lyrical meditations on the activities of Krishna (avatar of Lord Vishnu), the (...) central place it affords to the doctrine of bhakti religious devotion and its treatment of older Vedic traditions of knowledge. At the same time he places this subtle, poetical book within the context of the wider Hindu scriptures and the other Puranas, including the similar but less grand and significant Vishnu Purana. The author argues that the Bhagavata Purana is a unique work which represents the meeting place of two great orthodox Hindu traditions, the Vedic Upanishadic and the Aesthetic. As such, it is one of India's greatest theological treatises. This book illuminates its character and continuing significance. (shrink)

An intense and lively debate on literature and art between thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-century philosophy and literature.

What accounts for the prestige of quantitative methods? The usual answer is that quantification is desirable in social investigation as a result of its successes in science. Trust in Numbers questions whether such success in the study of stars, molecules, or cells should be an attractive model for research on human societies, and examines why the natural sciences are highly quantitative in the first place. Theodore Porter argues that a better understanding of the attractions of quantification in business, government, and (...) social research brings a fresh perspective to its role in psychology, physics, and medicine. Quantitative rigor is not inherent in science but arises from political and social pressures, and objectivity derives its impetus from cultural contexts. In a new preface, the author sheds light on the current infatuation with quantitative methods, particularly at the intersection of science and bureaucracy. (shrink)

Notes to Literature is a collection of the great social theorist Theodor W. Adorno’s essays on such writers as Mann, Bloch, Hölderlin, Siegfried Kracauer, Goethe, Benjamin, and Stefan George. It also includes his reflections on a variety of subjects, such as literary titles, the physical qualities of books, political commitment in literature, the light-hearted and the serious in art, and the use of foreign words in writing. This edition presents this classic work in full in a single volume, with a (...) new introduction by Paul Kottman. (shrink)

Hofstadter [1979, 2007] offered a novel Gödelian proposal which purported to reconcile the apparently contradictory theses that (1) we can talk, in a non-trivial way, of mental causation being a real phenomenon and that (2) mental activity is ultimately grounded in low-level rule-governed neural processes. In this paper, we critically investigate Hofstadter’s analogical appeals to Gödel’s [1931] First Incompleteness Theorem, whose “diagonal” proof supposedly contains the key ideas required for understanding both consciousness and mental causation. We maintain that bringing sophisticated (...) results from Mathematical Logic into play cannot furnish insights which would otherwise be unavailable. Lastly, we conclude that there are simply too many weighty details left unfilled in Hofstadter’s proposal. These really need to be fleshed out before we can even hope to say that our understanding of classical mind-body problems has been advanced through metamathematical parallels with Gödel’s work. (shrink)