En 1869, le jeune Brentano (1838-1917) consacre une étude à Auguste Comte (1798-1857), dans laquelle il rend un vibrant hommage au fondateur du positivisme. La question de la métaphysique mise à part, l’étude fait apparaître des affinités profondes entre le positivisme comtien et la philosophie de Franz Brentano : chez les deux penseurs on rencontre en fait le même refus de séparer la philosophie de la science. Au-delà de ces affinités qui existent au départ, la lecture de Comte aura durablement (...) marqué la pensée de Brentano. Tout ceci explique pourquoi l’héritage de Brentano a pu jouer un rôle certain dans l’avènement du néo-positivisme dans la Vienne des premières décennies du XX e siècle. La position particulière que Brentano occupe aussi bien par rapport au positivisme ancien qu’au néo-positivisme soulève deux problèmes majeurs. Le premier a trait au rôle que Brentano a pu jouer dans la transmission de l’idéal positiviste. Le second, plus fondamental, se rapporte aux liens généralement sous-estimés qui existent entre le néo-positivisme et la philosophie positiviste de Comte. (shrink)

This contribution gives an overview of Einstein's work on unified field theory. It characterizes this work from four perspectives, by looking at its conceptual, representational, biographical, and philosophical dimensions.

Die Zusammenhänge die zwischen G. Freges und R. H. Lotzes logischen Lehren bestehen, sind, wie die gemeinsame Beurteilung der Gebrauchssprache zeigt, noch tiefer als allgemein angenommen. Insbesondere die von Frege konzipierte logische Sprachkritik ist in drei Punkten von Lotze beeinflußt. Lotze fordert nämlich die strenge Trennung von Logik und Gebrauchssprache. Daneben spielt der Begriff des Logischeinfachen eine zentrale Rolle in seiner Logik. Schließlich unterscheidet er den objektiven Gedanken von seiner Färbung. The connexions that exist between the logical doctrines of G. (...) Frege and R. H. Lotze are, as shows their common treatment of natural language, deeper than is generally admitted. In particular, the logical criticism of language conceived by Frege is influenced in three points by Lotze. Firstly, Lotze postulates the strict separation of logic and natural language. Furthermore, the idea of logical simplicity plays an important role in his logic. Finally, he distinguishes objective thought from its tone. (shrink)

Die Beurteilung von Handlungen als ethisch erlaubt gehort zum moralischen Bewusstsein und zur moralischen Verstandigung. In der theologischen Ethik gab es jedoch Kritik an der Kategorie des ethisch Erlaubten, am grundsatzlichsten bei Friedrich Schleiermacher. Die Kritiker vertraten die These, dass sich alle moglichen Handlungen als entweder moralisch geboten oder verboten ausweisen liessen und dass eine mittlere Kategorie des bloss Erlaubten die Klarheit ethischer Verbindlichkeit trube. Fuss analysiert die Argumentationen reprasentativer evangelischer Ethiker vor allem des 19. und fruhen 20. Jahrhunderts, die (...) einerseits fur die Kritik am Begriff des Erlaubten und andererseits fur seine Rehabilitierung stehen. Dabei wird das Erlaubnisproblem in seiner Beziehung zu anderen ethischen Kontroversthemen gesehen, wie etwa den Problemen des supererogatorischen Handelns oder der Adiaphora. Das Schlusskapitel beschreibt den Begriff des Erlaubten im Kontext einer Lehre von elementaren Pflichten. (shrink)

In der Wissenschaftslehre Bolzanos (1837) spielt der Begriff der Auslegung eine nicht unwesentliche Rolle. Seine Hauptfunktion besteht in der Explikation der logischen Elemente im Satz und in der Reduktion der sprachlichen Sätze auf das Grundmuster,,A hat b". Die Herausbildung und die Behandlung der Auslegungsproblematik bei Bolzano sind stark vom neuzeitlichen Gedankengut, aber auch von der mittelalterlichen Philosophie und Logik beeinflußt. Obwohl sein Auslegungsbegriff der logischen Tradition weitgehend verpflichtet bleibt, weist er doch andererseits tiefgehende Parallelen mit der von Frege und Wittgenstein (...) entwickelten Methode der logischen Analyse auf, sodaß Bolzano auch in diesem Punkt als ein Vorläufer der analytischen Philosophie gelten kann. (shrink)

Cette étude examine la philosophie naturelle de Nicolas Malebranche et son devenir au cours du XVIIIe siècle. Des savants énoncent ou discutent des principes, des lois et des méthodes explicatives dont l'origine est à chercher dans De la recherche de la vérité. La présence de Malebranche se manifeste alors par un occasionnalisme physique et par une critique de la force des corps au repos de Descartes, ce qui conduit à une conception nomologique de la causalité et à un rejet de (...) la force d'inertie, et par une interprétation des phénomènes physico-chimiques à l'aide de la théorie des petits tourbillons. Malebranche est ainsi à l'origine d'une des formes prises par la philosophie mécanique dont ce livre établit les caractéristiques essentielles."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Alfred Tarski a joué un rôle déterminant dans la déconstruction du clivage classique de l’analytique et du synthétique alors même que les ouvrages consacrés à ce chapitre de la philosophie restent, en général, relativement discrets au sujet de son rôle au profit de W. V. O. Quine. La critique de Tarski, qui s’articule dès 1930, s’organise le long de deux axes principaux. Le premier a trait à la difficulté de définir objectivement la notion de logicité ; le second, qui s’appuie (...) sur une conception holiste de la science, admet la possibilité d’une rectification des principes logiques au nom de l’expérience. Sur ce point, les objections ponctuelles de Tarski anticipent la critique plus systématique que Quine adressera à la notion de l’analyticité. L’analyse des principales étapes de la critique de Tarski révèle toutefois que sa pensée n’est pas toujours exempte de tensions internes. Alfred Tarski has played a decisive role in the refutation of the classic cleavage between analytic and synthetic truths, though the studies which deal with this chapter of philosophy generally stress the role of W. V. O. Quine in this question and omit to mention Tarski’s name. Tarski’s critique, which has been expressing itself since 1930, is developed along two main lines. The first concerns the difficulty of giving an objective definition of logical notions ; the second, based on a holistic conception of science, maintains the possibility of the refutation of logical principles by experience. In this question the selective objections of Tarski anticipate the more systematic critique of analyticity by Quine. However, the analysis of the different steps in Tarski’s critique shows that his way of thinking is not free of inner tensions. (shrink)

Sowohl in seiner Habilitationsschrift Das Wesen der Wahrheit nach der modernen Logik (1910) als auch in Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre (1918) setzt Moritz Schhck sich kritisch mit der Phänomenologie Husserls auseinander. Im Zentrum der Kritik steht neben dem Anschauungsbegriff die Hypostasierung der logischen Bedeutungen. Es läßt sich zeigen, daß die Auseinandersetzung mit Husserl eine wesentliche Rolle in der Herausbildung der lingualistischen Bedeutungstheorie Schlicks spielt.

Amidst the current profusion of research on consciousness, discussions of the historic origins of the topic are frequently overlooked. At the beginning of the nineteenth century in the West, the nature of consciousness was barely understood, nor differentiated from its esoteric and religious contexts. By the end of the century, however, novel ideas about the structure of consciousness were proposed by Janet, James, and the Society for Psychical Research. This article proposes that these discoveries were intrinsically linked to popular nineteenth-century (...) explorations of unorthodox religious experiences and trance states. Operating outside mainstream religious, medical, and academic settings, alternative spiritual and medical sub-cultures such as Mesmerism, Mind Cure, Spiritualism, Transcendentalism and Orientalism provoked scientific discourse about consciousness that advanced the field. Examining these developments sheds light on the current renaissance in consciousness research and its relation to popular interest in states of consciousness, meditation and powers of mind. (shrink)

One of America’s most influential social critics, Thorstein Veblen authored works deeply rooted in evolutionary biology and American philosophical naturalism—both of which help explain his institutional economics and radical sociology. Now, one of today’s preeminent Veblen scholars ranges widely over the man’s writings to show how evolutionary naturalism underlies his social theory and criticism, shapes his satire, and binds his work together. Rick Tilman’s study focuses on the intersections of social theory and social psychology, political economy and political theory, (...) and modern philosophy and intellectual history in Veblen’s thinking. It links evolutionary naturalism for the first time to Veblen’s aesthetics, secular humanism, sociology of control, sociobiology, and sociology of knowledge, and it makes groundbreaking observations regarding the relationship of Veblen’s own life to his thinking; his place as a cultural lag theorist; and his analysis of sports, gambling, and religion. Drawing on textual exegesis of Veblen’s work, unpublished correspondence, and selected archives, Tilman argues that only evolutionary naturalism could provide the philosophical foundations of Veblen’s thought. He also emphasizes Veblen’s role in the enhancement and embellishment of the social sciences and cultural studies, as well as his insights into the processes of change in the sociopolitical order. Veblen’s evolutionary naturalism, with its unflattering evaluation of America’s self-selected special place in the international arena, casts doubt on today’s foreign interventions, and it also provides a much-needed antidote to the resurgence of creationist thought in American culture. Tilman shows that Veblen’s ideas are still valuable to contemporary social scientists—indeed, that his method of analysis and values are sorely needed to help us avoid wasteful consumption, predation, and the persistence of religious superstition. This work offers readers a new appreciation of Veblen and the many issues he addressed, and of Tilman’s own masterful facility in bringing them to light. (shrink)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become indispensable in our lives. The development of a quantitative scale for AI ethics is necessary for a better understanding of public attitudes toward AI research ethics and to advance the discussion on using AI within society. For this study, we developed an AI ethics scale based on AI-specific scenarios. We investigated public attitudes toward AI ethics in Japan and the US using online questionnaires. We designed a test set using four dilemma scenarios and questionnaire items (...) based on a theoretical framework for ethics, legal, and social issues (ELSI). We found that _country_ and _age_ are the most informative sociodemographic categories for predicting attitudes for AI ethics. Our proposed scale, which consists of 13 questions, can be reduced to only three, covering ethics, tradition, and policies. This new AI ethics scale will help to quantify how AI research is accepted in society and which area of ELSI people are most concerned with. (shrink)

While principle-based ethics is well known and widely accepted in psychiatry, much less is known about how decisions are made in clinical practice, which case scenarios exist, and which challenges exist for decision-making. Protocols of the central ethics committee responsible for four psychiatric hospitals over 7 years (N=17) were analysed. While four cases concerned suicide risk in the case of intended hospital discharge, the vast majority (N=13) concerned questions of whether the responsible physician should or should not initiate the use (...) of coercion in patients lacking mental capacity. The committee’s recommendations were non-uniform. Forced feeding and electroconvulsive therapy were endorsed in each one case. In two cases of intermittent loss of capacity due to heavy drinking or intermittent severe suicidal ideation, a self-binding contract was recommended and the use of coercion was considered as justified for a very limited period. In all other cases, most of which involved involuntary treatment, the use of coercion was not endorsed. Without exception, the recommendations were accepted with relief by the physicians and their treatment teams, who feared liability in the event of harm to the patient. Eventually, a model of a decision algorithm was derived from the ethical arguments in the protocols. (shrink)

A formulation by Einstein of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen incompleteness argument found in his scientific manuscripts is presented and briefly commented on. It is the only known version in which Einstein discussed the argument for spin observables. The manuscript dates, in all probability, from late 1954 or early 1955 and hence also represents Einstein's latest version of the incompleteness argument and one of his last statements on quantum theory in general. A puzzling formulation raises the question of Einstein's interpretation of space quantization (...) and the non-classical spin degree of freedom. (shrink)

In this note, we point attention to and briefly discuss a curious manuscript of Einstein, composed in 1938 and entitled “Unified Field Theory,” the only such writing, published or unpublished, carrying this title without any further specification. Apparently never intended for publication, the manuscript sheds light both on Einstein′s modus operandi as well as on the public role of Einstein′s later work on a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism.

Enquiring the sources and the legitimacy of Derrida’s statement “Law {droit) is not justice” from his essay “Force of Law: The ‘Mystical Foundation of Authority’ ” (1990), the paper analyses the three notions of “justice”, “equity” and “concordantia” (in Cusanus). Part I explains historically how the difference between the limited and changing human laws and the eternal justice of God was gradually being perceived and acknowledged in Antiquity. Part II illustrates how the virtue of equity was called upon to compensate (...) for the insufficiencies and contradictions of human laws, mainly by Aristotle. Part III explores the conditions how and argues for the possibility that the notion of “concordantia” as developed by Nicolaus Cusanus for the Council of Basle could work as a mediating principle of legislation among conflicting interests and thus provide for temporary justice by means of an equitable procedure of legislation. (shrink)

All speech is a form of self-presentation, a performance on the stage of life, and since antiquity this has been accepted as much as lamented and rejected on moral grounds. Do we today, once again, live in times that justify this complaint? So-called ‘fake news’ are, first and foremost, simply ‘news,’ that is, information whose truth claims everyone needs to judge according to their own prejudices. Nietzsche’s skepticism about truth, at least since the early essay Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im (...) aussermoralischen Sinne, draws radical conclusions from this apparently nihilistic diagnosis of our cognitive abilities which never reach their goal, that is, truth. But Nietzsche does not despair about the fact that our thinking has no power over truth; rather, he transforms lying into a product of the creative intellect that seeks to serve life. As such, we have to rethink truth’s relationship to lying. Both, truth and lying, thus lose their respective meaning. Against the background of Kant’s famous distinction between opining, believing, and knowing as three different modes of holding-to-be-true, I argue that Nietzsche does indeed provide a both timely and constructive answer to the question how to think about ‘lying.’. (shrink)

Many accounts of analogy based on sentential semantics owe their continued popularity more to a lack of theoretical specificity than to their superior explicative power. I examine a recent attempt to remedy this situation.Conclusion: Once the sentential semantics account of analogy is spelled out in sufficient detail to permit its systematic application to a variety of cases, it quickly becomes apparent why it must fail, and why we should give preference to a multi-constraint theory of cognitive process instead.

Despite their importance to the history of economics and social theory, social scientists and historians pay little heed to the structural similarities as well as the important divergences in the work of French-man Emile Durkheim (1858—1917) and American Thorstein Veblen (1857—1929). Consequently, this article places Durkheim and Veblen in their social and historical context, and then (1) their epistemologies are related to their use of cultural lag to explain the persistence of atavistic continuities in the existing order, (2) their theories (...) of social bonding and integration are compared to explain the meaning as well as the structural differences in their collectivism, and (3) these are linked with the predictive power of their broader socioeconomic theories to forecast the future of Western society. The two men made major contributions to the human sciences and a historical retrospect by way of comparative analysis illuminates these contributions. (shrink)

Understanding causation in social-ecological systems (SES) is indispensable for promoting sustainable outcomes. However, the study of such causal relations is challenging because they are often complex and intertwined, and their analysis involves diverse disciplines. Although there is agreement that no single research approach (RA) can comprehensively explain SES phenomena, there is a lack of ability to deal with this diversity. Underlying this diversity and the challenge of dealing with it are different causal reasonings that are rarely explicit. Awareness of hidden (...) assumptions is essential for understanding how the causal reasoning of an RA is constituted, and for promoting the integration, translation, or juxtaposition of different RAs. We identify the following elements as particularly relevant for understanding causal reasoning: methods, frameworks and theories, accounts of causation, analytical focus, and causal notions. We begin with the idea that one of these elements typically figures as an entry point to an RA. This entry point is particularly important because it generates a path dependence that orients causal reasoning. In a subsequent step, when an approach is applied, causal reasoning concretizes as a result of a particular constellation of the remaining elements. We come to these insights by studying the application of four different RAs to the same social-ecological case (the collapse of Baltic cod stocks in the 1980s). On the basis of our findings we developed a guide for the analysis of causal reasoning by raising awareness of the assumptions, key elements, and the relations between these key elements for a given RA. The guide can be used to elicit the causal reasoning of RAs, facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and support disclosure of ethical/political dimensions that underlie management/governance interventions that are formulated on the basis of causal findings of research studies. (shrink)

"Every professor knows his own area, but who is able to see the whole picture?" Based on the author's background and the wide-ranging areas she has studied in the university, Gila Gat-Tilman presents articles on science, psuedo-science and moral values from an all-encompassing perspective. The first article in this book represents an overview of science and academic knowledge. Articles that follow discuss moral values, the Sabbath, experiments on animals, and the philosophical questions of certainty. Additionally, she includes the biography (...) of two people whose influence has helped hone her viewpoint. Science has improved our lives, and pseudo-science has followed suit. But pseudo-science, built upon baseless, faulty and tendentious theories and assumptions, has won unjustified credibility, as if it was real science, and has only caused harm. In ancient times there were philosophers like Socrates who investigated the question of what is justice and what is the good. They said that one should know what is the good in order to be good. They clarified what are the values that one should hold dear. In the generations that followed, those values were sanctified by religions, were kept in a sanctified way, and improved the life of the society. In our days, the values in the Ten Commandments are not enough, because technology has markedly changed our life, increased our performance abilities, and created new layers of relationships between strangers. Inventions such as the engine, telephone, television, and the computer enable mass communication, with all the implications. For example, today, from birth to death, every person is registered and the authorities have records about them that areused to influence their educational and employment chances. The Ten Commandments are a start for establishing the basis of moral values in our day, but they are not enough. We therefore need additional basic values, which when observed in a sacrosanct way, will provide people with the ability to properly integrate their social life into our society for the good of everyone. The author has a broad, varied academic knowledge in many fields. Her keen ability to focus on what is happening to others and put herself in their position has enabled her to see the bigger picture in society and to understand which values are lacking and must be widely adopted. This book offers these moral values. (shrink)

The first thorough examination of C. Wright Mills's intellectual roots, this book also is the first to present Mills's full analysis in his unpublished as well as published writings of the work of his precursors, mentors, and critics. Mills' intellectual line of descent is traced from the American institutional economists, especially Thorstein Veblen and Clarence Ayres, and the American pragmatists, especially John Dewey and George H. Mead—an evolution influenced though not determined by ideas from Europe. Always the critic and gadfly, (...) Mills subjected all theories to his special brand of analysis and synthesis. For example, his books on U.S. social stratification are seen by Tilman as a trilogy updating Veblen with ideas from the pragmatists, spiced with a good bit of Max Weber but very little Man. Power, his other chief concern, also was subjected to his creative American eclecticism. As a lifelong seeker of knowledge, Mills studied the great European social thinkers—notably Marx, Mosca, Pareto, Michels, Weber, Mannheim, and Freud—until his untimely death. Explaining Mills's self-description as a "plain Marxist," Tilman writes that it "amounted to little more than a willingness to use Marx's values, vocabulary, and model when these seemed relevant and to ignore them when they did not." Regarding alleged affinities between Freud and Mills, Tilman argues these were "tenuous at best and, although the linkage with the neo-Freudians was stronger, Mills remained critical of Homey and Fromm because they had "not succeeded in entirely overcoming Freud's biological metaphysic." Although the American radical tradition is complex and varied, the heritage that most influenced Mills, Tilman contends, contains elements of evangelical Protestantism and of liberal pragmatism. "It was Charles Wright Mills more than any other thinker in recent years," he concludes, "who synthesized these strands of thought and then wove them into an authentic American radical theory.". (shrink)

Die auf G. Frege zurückgehende logische Urteilslehre, die die universalen Aussagen im Sinne existenzfreier und die partikulären im Sinne existenzmitbehauptender Urteile deutet, hat ihren Ursprung in der nicht-mathematischen Logik des 19. Jahrhunderts. Bei J.F. Herbart findet sich die hypothetische Konzeption der Allaussage, die eine bedeutsame, Fregesche Gedankengänge antizipierende Verfeinerung durch Chr. Sigwart erfährt. Die genaue Struktur der partikulären Aussage bleibt vorerst noch im Dunkel. Erst F. Brentano gelingt es, die universalen wie die partikulären Aussagen in ihrer Eigenart herauszustellen. In dieser (...) Entwicklung spielen die Problematik fiktiver Gegenstände und leerer Begriffe, die apriorische Gesetzlichkeit sowie der Einfachheitsbegriff eine zentrale Rolle. (shrink)

Different or conflicting accounts of the same episode in the history of science may arise from viewing that episode from different perspectives. The metaphor suggests that conflicting accounts can be seen as complementary, constructing a multi-dimensional understanding, if the different perspectives can be coordinated. As an example, I discuss different perspectives on the Stern-Gerlach experiment. In a static interpretation, the SGE has been viewed as an experiment that allows the determination of the magnetic moment of silver atoms. Based on the (...) concept of magnetic momentum arising from orbital angular momentum, the original experiment was designed in 1922 as an experimentum crucis to decide between Bohr’s quantum theory and classical electromagnetic theory, and its outcome was interpreted as a confirmation of the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantum postulates. After the advent of quantum mechanics, the SGE was reinterpreted in terms of magnetic moment arising from the electron’s spin angular momentum. In a dynamical interpretation, physicists have asked for the physical mechanism responsible for the quantization of the angular momentum with respect to the direction of the magnetic field. Although different suggestions were explored, none was ever accepted as fully satisfactory. Today this difficulty is seen as a paradigmatic instance of the unsolved quantum measurement problem. (shrink)

In der Forschung wird der Koran viel zu oft als ein sich selbst genügender Text betrachtet. Von dieser Sicht machten sich die Teilnehmer des im Mai 2006 am Historischen Kolleg veranstalteten Kolloquiums über den Koran frei. Die in diesem Band veröffentlichten Beiträge zeigen auf bisweilen überraschende Weise, dass der Koran als ein erstrangiges Zeugnis der vorderasiatischen Religionsgeschichte der Spätantike zu gelten hat. Sie eröffnen hiermit neue Wege der Erforschung der frühesten Geschichte des Islams. Die Autoren zeigen die unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven auf, (...) widmen sich etwa Engelsdarstellungen in der frühchristlichen Kunst ebenso wie dem "Höllenbaum" oder den "rätselhaften Buchstaben" am Beginn einiger Suren. Beiträge von: Achim Arbeiter, Dieter Ferchl, Johannes Koder, Tilman Nagel, Mathias Radscheit, Bertram Schmitz, Jean-Michel Spieser, Harald Suermann, Martin Tamcke. (shrink)

Albert Einstein ist für seine Arbeiten in der Physik weltberühmt. Nur wenige wissen jedoch, dass Einstein selbst auch philosophische Arbeiten publiziert hat und seine Erkenntnisse weitreichende Folgen für die Philosophie haben. Oder haben „Raum“ und „Zeit“ nichts mit Wissen zu tun?

​„Plessner in Wiesbaden“ schildert das Leben und Werk eines Philosophen und Soziologen (1892-1985), der das 20. Jahrhundert durchlebt, durchlitten und durchdacht hat. Ausgangspunkt ist das jüngere Interesse seiner Geburts- und Heimatstadt an dem großen Sohn der Stadt, das sich in der Stiftung eines „Wiesbadener Plessner Preises“ manifestiert. Damit wird ein Schlüsseldenker der modernen Philosophischen Anthropologie gewürdigt. Neben einigen Beiträgen zu Plessner in Wiesbaden enthält der Band auch Beiträge zu Plessners anderen Lebens- und Wirkungsstationen wie Heidelberg, Erlangen, Köln, Groningen, Göttingen, New (...) York, Zürich. In diesen Stationen und ihren Facetten wird deutlich, warum Helmuth Plessner einer der maßgebenden Intellektuellen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland werden konnte.​. (shrink)