Since the Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series (KSMS) was first published in 1997, it has served as the authoritative book series in the field. Starting from 2011 the Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series will intensify the peer-review process with a new editorial and advisory board. KSMS is published on behalf of the S ren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen. KSMS publishes outstanding monographs in all fields of Kierkegaard research. This includes Ph.D. dissertations, Habilitation theses, conference proceedings and single author (...) works by senior scholars. The goal of KSMS is to advance Kierkegaard studies by encouraging top-level scholarship in the field. The editorial and advisory boards are deeply committed to creating a genuinely international forum for publication which integrates the many different traditions of Kierkegaard studies and brings them into a constructive and fruitful dialogue. To this end the series publishes monographs in English and German. Potential authors should consult the Submission guidelines. All submissions will be blindly refereed by established scholars in the field. Only high-quality manuscripts will be accepted for publication. Potential authors should be prepared to make changes to their texts based on the comments received by the referees. (shrink)

Der Autor rekonstruiert den Kierkegaardschen Handlungsbegriff und die begriffliche Grundlage seiner theologischen Ethik anhand einer textnahen Interpretation der großen Schrift Die Taten der Liebe aus dem Jahre 1847. Es wird der Versuch unternommen, die begriffliche Struktur von Kierkegaards Verständnis menschlichen Handelns herauszuarbeiten und zugleich auf Positionen gegenwärtiger philosophischer sowie theologischer Handlungstheorien zu beziehen. Als zentral für diesen Handlungsbegriff erweist sich die Kategorie des Expressiven.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDer Anlass ist ein hermeneutisch wie rhetorisch-homiletisch bedeutsames Phänomen, das jedoch meistens übersehen wird und auch in praktisch-theologischen Diskursen oftmals ungeklärt bleibt. Zur Klärung dieses Phänomens zieht der Aufsatz die Analysen Sören Kierkegaards heran. Kierkegaard entwickelt in mehreren Texten eine dichte Beschreibung des Anlasses und zeigt seine hermeneutische Bedeutung auf allen Ebenen: für die ästhetische Expressivität, für die ethische Reflexivität und für eine christliche Semiotik. Kierkegaards Analysen helfen dabei, sich von einem objektivistischen Verständnis des Anlasses zu verabschieden und ihn stattdessen (...) als ein dynamisches Element in der Selbstkommunikation des Evangeliums zu erkennen.SUMMARYThe paper outlines the notion of occasion [Andlegning] as it is to be found in the works of Sören Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard describes occasion as a rather mysterious but also powerful element in communication on all levels of human existence, i.e. in aesthetics, ethics, and religion. His analysis shows that occasion determines the function of aesthetic expressivity, ethical reflection and religious semiotics in human communication. By following Kierkegaard's interpretation the essay draws conclusions for the understanding of a theological hermeneutics that sees occasion as a dynamic element in the self-communication of the gospel rather than as a given objectivity that has to be interpreted. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer Aufsatz erforscht die Rolle der Rhetorik in dem Werk Kierkegaards, besonders in seinen theologischen Überlegungen. Die Art, in der Kierkegaard solche rhetorischen Konzepte wie die persuasive Rede, den öffentlichen Raum und den sensus communis begreift und anwendet, zeigt, dass er auf dem Boden der klassischen rhetorischen Tradition steht und vor allem auf dem von Aristoteles. Er passt diese Formen an sein Verständnis der ethisch-religiösen Kommunikation an, besonders an seine wohlbekannte Theorie indirekter Kommunikation. Dennoch dürfen die rhetorischen Spuren in seinen (...) Texten nicht mit seiner Theorie indirekter Kommunikation identifiziert oder unter diese klassifiziert werden. Statt dessen spielt die rhetorische Tradition eine komplementäre Rolle in dem Versuch, religiöse Kommunikation zu verstehen. Und sie ermöglicht zu begreifen, wie Kierkegaard das Thema negativer Kommunikation als ein Beispiel der Resonanz christlicher Rede in der Welt interpretiert.SummaryThe essay explores the role of rhetorics in Kierkegaard's work, especially in his theological thought. The way in which Kierkegaard employs and understands rhetorical concepts such as persuasive speech, public space, and sensus communis shows that he stands firm within the classical rhetorical, explicitly Aristotelian, tradition. He adapts those concepts to his understanding of ethical-religious communication, especially to his well known theory of indirect communication. However, the rhetorical traits in his texts must not be identified with, nor classified, under the theory of indirect communications. Rather, the rhetoric tradition functions complementarily in order to understand religious communication. And it provides a way to see how Kierkegaard interprets the issue of negative communication as an example of the wordly resonance to Christian speech. (shrink)

Et filosofisk værk der i form af aforismer, æstetiske afhandlinger og små romaner skildrer livets stadier.

Vorwort von G. v. Mutius.--Einleitung des Herausgebers.--Die Unzulänglichkeit des Nur-menschlichen.--Der höchste Wert--Das religiöse Verhältnis.--Das religiöse Leben.--Wahrheit und Leben müssen sich decken.--Persönliches.--Nachweise.

Die neue deutsche Kierkegaard-Übersetzung beruht auf der dänischen Edition Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, die seit 1994 im Søren Kierkegaard Forschungszentrum in Kopenhagen erstellt wird. Sie beginnt mit der Übersetzung der auf elf Bände angelegten Journale und Aufzeichnungen, aus denen bislang auf deutsch nur Auszüge auf einer philologisch teilweise unzuverlässigen Textgrundlage bekannt sind. Die dänische Ausgabe hat hier neue Maßstäbe in der Editionsphilologie gesetzt, indem etwa die von früheren Herausgebern aufgebrochenen ursprünglichen Texteinheiten wiederhergestellt und deren Eingriffe in die Manuskripte durch Verwendung von (...) Licht- und Elektronenmikroskopie von Kierkegaards eigenem Text unterschieden werden. Durch diese Technik lassen sich auch von Kierkegaard selbst unleserlich gemachte Eintragungen entziffern. Die räumliche Anordnung der Aufzeichnungen wird in einem aufwendigen zweispaltigen Druckbild annähernd wiedergegeben. Die einleitenden Editionsberichte geben Auskunft über Überlieferungsverhältnisse, Chronologie und Inhalt der Bände. Daneben bietet DSKE eine Fülle von Realkommentaren, die zusammen mit zahlreichen Abbildungen ein neues und tieferes Verständnis von Kierkegaards Gesamtwerk ermöglichen. (shrink)

Progressive supranuclear palsy is a movement disorder with prominent tau neuropathology. Brain diseases with abnormal tau deposits are called tauopathies, the most common of which is Alzheimer's disease. Environmental causes of tauopathies include repetitive head trauma associated with some sports. To identify common genetic variation contributing to risk for tauopathies, we carried out a genome-wide association study of 1,114 individuals with PSP and 3,247 controls followed by a second stage in which we genotyped 1,051 cases and 3,560 controls for the (...) stage 1 SNPs that yielded P ≤ 10-3. We found significant previously unidentified signals associated with PSP risk at STX6, EIF2AK3 and MOBP. We confirmed two independent variants in MAPT affecting risk for PSP, one of which influences MAPT brain expression. The genes implicated encode proteins for vesicle-membrane fusion at the Golgi-endosomal interface, for the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response and for a myelin structural component. © 2011 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Bei den von Ingenieuren verwendeten Dezisionsmechanismen wird aufgrund der Fortentwicklung der Technik die methodologische Sicherung der Objektivität der Bewertungsverfahren immer dringlicher. Der Stand der Debatte zu diesem Problem wird knapp wiedergegeben. Besonders wird auf die Entwicklung in der DDR hingewiesen . Nach der Kritik der Hauptpositionen der Debatte wird der Charakter von Werturteilen anhand eines dreiteiligen Klassifikationsschemas näher analysiert. Als Bewertungshilfe wird auf dem Wege einer Analogiekonstruktion der Webersche Idealtypus für die methodologische Diskussion der Technik vorgeschlagen und seine potentielle Funktion (...) erörtert. (shrink)

Hermeneutics can be understood on the one hand as the art of interpretation, and on the other hand as a medium for dealing with the past, for conveying events, contexts or even writings in new ways of speaking for new recipients. The interpretation of writings, however, places special demands on hermeneutics: it does not take place in a sterile vacuum, but is rather embedded in a social and cultural context that shapes the interpretation or mediation and is an expression of (...) a time, a fashion or a specific requirement of modernity. The question therefore arises as to what role reason and experience, science and/or social ideas, tradition(s) and/or community play in interpretation. Using Thomas More's masterpiece Utopia as an example, various resulting interpretative approaches to a concrete writing will be presented. Through the hermeneutic design of a historical horizon in relation to Thomas More's time as well as through the development of a historical awareness of the work, the possibility of an understanding of this world-famous, still controversial writing as well as the efficiency of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics will become recognisable. (shrink)

Weber's analysis of capitalism evolved in arguing against Marx's theory. It claims no less than giving a better account of modern capitalism, historically, as weil as categorially, than Marx himself. As a sociological theory of economy, based on an analytical theory ofhuman action, it also offers an approach to a critical ethics of the capitalist economy, which, after the self-induced end of socialism, has become an issue of greater urgency than ever before.

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie Jahrgang: 4 Heft: 1-2 Seiten: 49-85.

In seiner ‘Existenzerhellung der Freiheit’ reflektiert Jaspers, das Problemfeld der Freiheit in einem Kontrast zu den Begriffen, Phänomenen und Bedingungen der Unfreiheit und der Grenzen der Freiheit. Dem Problemfeld der Freiheit kann man im Denken und Handeln nur dann gerecht werden, wenn man nicht nur zwischen den verschiedenen Begriffen und Phänomenen der Freiheit unterscheidet, sondern auch zwischen den verschiedenen Begriffen und Phänomenen von Grenzen der Freiheit, wie z.B. durch die allgemeine Naturgesetzlichkeit und die menschliche Natur, durch besondere Bedingungen in Natur, (...) Kultur und Gesellschaft, durch gesundheitliches Befinden und individuelle Persönlichkeit, durch situative Begrenzungen, normative Forderungen und konkrete Grenzsituationen, wie z.B. von Leiden, Kampf, Schuld, Wagnis und Tod zeigen. Jaspers hat sich zum Problemfeld der Freiheit sowohl in seiner Allgemeinen Psychopathologie, in seinen pathographischen Untersuchungen, in seiner Psychologie der Weltanschauung und in einigen seiner philosophischen Schriften geäußert. Im zweiten Band seines frühen Hauptwerkes Philosophie mit dem Titel Existenzerhellung hat er jedoch eine umfassende Abhandlung zu dem komplexen Problemfeld der Freiheit verfasst. Dort behandelt Jaspers fast alle wesentlichen Begriffe und Phänomene der Freiheit bis hin zu seiner Konzeption einer existenziellen Freiheit. Jaspers geht anfangs von einem unbestimmten Begriff der Freiheit aus, dem kein bestimmtes Phänomen entspricht und der deswegen nur Illusionen erzeugen und einem ideologischem Denken dienen kann. Dann aber unterscheidet Jaspers zwischen verschiedenen Begriffen und Phänomenen der Freiheit. Dabei scheint er nicht nur wie die meisten zeitgenössischen Philosophen an Locke und Hume, Kant und Brentano, Wilhelm von Humboldt und John Stuart Mill anzuknüpfen, sondern auch an die Konzeptionen des Selbstbewusstseins bei Hegel, Fichte und Schelling. Da sich Jaspers nicht zuletzt auch mit den Schriften von Kierkegaard und Nietzsche auseinandergesetzt hat, gelangt er zu einer besonders umfangreichen und differenzierten Diskussion des ganzen Problemfeldes der Freiheit in der Moderne. Jaspers hat jedoch nicht nur verschiedene Freiheitsbegriffe und -phänomene unterschieden, sondern er hat auch zu den überlieferten Denkweisen im Form einer existenzphilosophischen Erhellung der Freiheit Stellung genommen. Dabei hat Jaspers’ Stellungnahme anders als viele zeitgenössische Beiträge über Freiheit und Determinimus den deutlichen und bewahrenswerten Vorzug, dass sie die unverfügbare und irreduzible Subjektivität der Willensfreiheit anerkennt. Damit knüpft Jaspers an Kants Einsicht an, dass der Freiheit des menschlichen Willens und ihrer praktischen Wirksamkeit immer nur die subjektive Evidenz inneren Erlebens zukommen kann. Dies unterscheidet sie von der Wahl- und Handlungsfreiheit, die man auch in konkreten Handlungssituationen objektiv feststellen kann. Der Freiheit des menschlichen Willens kommt damit weder die Objektivität empirischer Erkenntnis noch metaphysische Notwendigkeit zu. Die subjektive Evidenz des Erlebens eines freien Willens spricht nach Jaspers jedoch auch gegen einen weltanschaulichen, methodischen oder metaphysischen Determinismus, der sie aufgrund seiner Annahme einer kausal geschlossenen Wirklichkeit leichtfertig für eine bloße Illusion hält. Eine deterministische Weltanschauung oder Philosophie kann der condition humaine zumindest dann nicht gerecht werden, wenn sie die evidente Subjektivität eines freien Willens nicht auf eine plausible Art und Weise integriert. Jaspers’ wird der potentiellen Freiheit des menschlichen Willens dadurch gerecht, dass er ihre unverfügbare und irreduzible Subjektivität versteht und akzeptiert und erst gar nicht den abwegigen Versuch macht, sie durch eine objektivierende Einstellung zu objektivieren, wissenschaftlich zu erklären oder gar zu beweisen. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungIm Gespräch mit der neueren Naturwissenschaft und Naturphilosophie wird ein Weltbegriff erarbeitet, der sowohl theologisch als auch naturphilosophisch verantwortet ist. Notwendige, nicht hinreichende Bedingung, das freie Wirken Gottes in der Welt denken zu können, ist ein offener Weltbegriff. Jedoch hat die Welt, wie an den Problemkreisen Zeit, Naturgesetz und Materie aufgezeigt wird, nicht nur offene Ränder, sondern »offene Dimensionen« im Inneren. Die Zeit hat den indeterminierten Aspekt der unverfügbaren Gegenwart und der offenen Zukunft, den Naturgesetzen eignet wie allen Weltereignissen generelle (...) Kontingenz und die Materiestruktur ist ohne die Annahme von transzendenter »Kreativität« nicht zu verstehen. Gott kann somit als der das kontingente Weltgeschehen von innen wirkende Schöpfer, seine Transzendenz mithin als unverfügbares, räumliches und zeitliches Innen der Welt gedacht werden.SummaryIn dialogue with the natural sciences and with the philosophy of nature, this article expounds an understanding of “world” which is both rooted in theology and philosophy. The author suggests that an open concept of “world” is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for the possibility of imagining God's free action in the world. Such calls for the localisation of openness within the midst of the world, not just at its fringes. This will be discussed with regard to the laws of nature, and to the problems of time and matter. Due to the unavailable character of the present and of future, the author proposes to understand time as open and undetermined. Accordingly, both the laws of nature and the wordly events can be interpreted as contingent, while the structure of matter cannot be explained without reference to an inner-worldly “transcendent creativity”. The author concludes that God can be understood as a creator who effects all contingent worldly phenomena from within, and suggests to interpret God's transcendence as spatial and temporal inner side of the world. (shrink)

It is widely agreed that protestant scholasticism influenced Kant’s thinking on the question of Divine Providence. But the nature and extent of that influence have never been explored in detail. This is the scholarly lacuna the present volume seeks to fill.

A direct path that has been missed for 100 years leads from the oldest paradoxes straight to mysticism, via (the concept of) logical and mathematical truth, since the purely formal truth is an absolutely univocal, absolutely timeless and absolutely unbounded reference. I present three theses in passing: (1) logicians fail to fully appreciate the basic mathematical idea of truth and consequently push the semantic paradoxes aside. Otherwise they would have come to adopt the reflexive logic LR* right after Cantor (more (...) on this briefly in Sect. 4. For a more precise elaboration see my Logik der Unbestimmtheiten und Paradoxien (Blau 2008)). (2) Mathematicians fail to fully appreciate the basic mathematical concept of number and push Zeno’s paradoxes aside. Otherwise they would have come to adopt linear arithmetic ${\mathbb{L}^{*}}$ right after Cantor (more on this briefly in Sects. 1 and 5, for further elaboration see my planned Grundparadoxien und grenzenlose Arithmetik. The technical parts are complete, yet philosophically it is as incomplete as Sect. 6). (3) Philosophers fail to fully appreciate the paradox of subject and object and push the Darwinian argument for Cartesian (mind–body)-interaction aside, otherwise they would have been en route towards mysticism since Darwin’s times (more on this in Sect. 6, for a little more precise elaboration see Blau in Die Logik der Unbestimmtheiten und Paradoxien. Synchron Publishers, Heidelberg, 2008, Ch. 1.5). (shrink)

Beside from the Collegio Romano, the Jesuit Province of Upper Germany with its universities at Dillingen and Ingolstadt was a centre of the intellectual dispute about Perera. Especially his pupil Anton Balduin and the theologian Gregorius de Valencia are central to the controversy. Despite the restraint of the Rector Theodoricus Canisius in the disputations of Balduinus about physics there are theses that show the influence of Balduinus: indeterminate dimensions of prime matter, the question of a maximum and minimum in the (...) natural species, the critics of the aristotelian definition of place, the persistence of forms in elementary mixture. Perera’s history of philosophy in book IV of his De communibus is used several times by Jacobus Pontanus in his discourses at Dillingen university and in his Progymnasmata Latinitatis. (shrink)

Despite the importance the monks had as carriers of programmatic Enlightenment ideas, few of their original texts are available in modern editions. This edition contributes to filling this lacuna by publishing Dom Beda Mayr’s ecumenical Catholic theology.

Concepts from the philosophy of science such as the concepts of theoreticity and empirical content have been initially applied primarily in the field of scientific theories. In the following paper, while focussing on several exemplary cases, I shall investigate whether or not such categories can also be meaningfully applied to philosophical theories. Plato's metaphysics of forms stands in the foreground, and, for this philosophical theory, such an application appears to be meaningful. Having established this, we may further explore the question (...) of the relative empirical content of Platonism as compared, say, with Aristotle's property-essentialism. The result of such an investigation is the following. Beginning with a supply of essences of properties, one can create a superstructure which would satisfy the central requirements of the metaphysics of forms ; to such an extent, Platonism, as compared to Aristotelianism, shows no surplus in content , or, to put it another way, Aristotle was not so far from Platonism as he himself believed. (shrink)

Language and History in Theodor W. Adorno's Notes to Literature explores Adorno’s essays on literature as an independent contribution to his aesthetics with an emphasis on his theory and practice of literary interpretation. Essential to Adorno’s essays is his unorthodox treatment of language and history and his elaboration of the links between the two. One of Adorno’s major but often-neglected claims is that truth is relative to its historical medium, language. Adorno persistently and creatively tries to narrow the gulf between (...) truth and expression, philosophy and rhetoric, and his essays on literature are practical examples of his effort to critically rescue the rhetorical dimension of philosophy. Rather than relying exclusively on aesthetic concepts inherited from his predecessors in the Western tradition (Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard), Adorno’s essays seek to transgress and transcend the conceptual limitations of aesthetic discourse by appropriating a non-conceptual, metaphorical vocabulary borrowed from the literary texts he investigates. Thus, Adorno’s interpretations of literature mobilize an alternative subterranean, primarily essayistic and fragmentary discourse on language and history that eludes the categories that tend to predominate his thinking in his major work, Aesthetic Theory. This book puts forth the claim that Adorno’s essays on literature are of central relevance for an understanding of his aesthetics because they challenge the conceptual limitations of philosophical discourse. (shrink)

In reply to H. Bußhoff's paper I give another outline of Lakatos' approach to normative theories in order to reduce the misunderstandings Bußhoff seems to have fallen victim to. . In particular, I try to show that he is wrong in claiming there is a vicious circle in this approach or my interpretation of it . Finally, I expose for criticism his alternative methodology of political science which propagates a theory of a "third type", suggesting that he takes too little (...) seriously problems he calls academical although their importance has been shown not only by Lakatos but by political philosophers as Rawls and Nozick. (shrink)

Philosophy in the Islamic world is a comprehensive and unprecedented four-volume reference work devoted to the history of philosophy in the realms of Islam, from its beginnings in the eighth century AD down to modern times. In the period covered by this second volume (eleventh and twelfth centuries). Both major and minor figures of the period are covered, giving details of biography and doctrine, as well as detailed lists and summaries of each author’s works. This is the English version of (...) the relevant volume of the Ueberweg, the most authoritative German reference work on the history of philosophy ( Philosophie in der Islamischen Welt Band II: 11.–12. Jahrhundert. Zentrale und östliche Gebiete, Basel: Schwabe, 2021). (shrink)

The paper's aim is to contribute to a better understanding of Weber's methodology by clarifying the difference of Weber's concept of Verstehen from Dilthey's concept of Verstehen, and by answering the question of how Weber's claim to objectivity of his Verstehende Soziologie is compatible with his claim that the specific method of his Verstehende Soziologie, the idealtypical construction, is empirically irrefutable. My thesis is that there are three classes of ideal types in Weber: concepts of 'historical individuals', concepts of 'objective (...) possibilities' and idealtypical classifying concepts. Common to them is the end to grasp the individual character of a social phenomenon. Their different functions in realizing this end justify to describe Weber's Verstehende Soziologie as a system, in which social phenomena are presented as if they were the result of conscious human decisions. (shrink)

Summary Boltzmann's principle is part of classical physics, and one of the corner-stones of Planck's quantum theory. It is shown, why Planck's theory of radiation can be derived from this principle without abandoning classical physics, if due regard is taken of atomism. Finally, there is given an outline of a quantum theory completely based on statistical axioms without any appeal to nonclassical physical principles.

Boltzmann's principle is part of classical physics, and one of the corner-stones of Planck's quantum theory. It is shown, why Planck's theory of radiation can be derived from this principle without abandoning classical physics, if due regard is taken of atomism. Finally, there is given an outline of a quantum theory completely based on statistical axioms without any appeal to nonclassical physical principles.

It is argued that Plato views forms as the proper objects of mathematical research, in contrast to what Aristotle says about the ontologically intermediate state of math?matiká in Platonism. Plato’s particularistic conception of ideas is compared with the nowadays customary mathematical practice of studying types of structures by examining canonical representatives. The case is illustrated by considering the shift from a universalistic conception of natural numbers, in the Frege-Russell-tradition, to a particularistic conception, as in von Neumann. Finally, the characterization of (...) dialectical thinking ventured by Plato at the end of Politeia VI is related, by evaluating Gödel’s incompleteness result, to the Gödelian model of what can be recognized as a partial transcending of the limits of axiomatic systems. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie Jahrgang: 57 Heft: 2 Seiten: 179-199.

The starting point of the following considerations is a case study concerning the discovery of Halley's comet and the theoretical description of its path. It is shown that the set of objects involved in that system and the time interval during which their paths are observed are determined in a theory dependent way – thereby making use of the very theory later used for that system's theoretical description. Metatheoretical consequences this fact has with respect to the structuralist view of empirical (...) theories are discussed in detail. German Den Ausgangspunkt der folgenden Überlegungen bildet eine Fallstudie, die der Entdeckung und theoretischen Beschreibung des Halleyschen Kometen gewidmet ist. Es wird gezeigt, dass bei diesem System die Menge der involvierten Objekte und die Zeitintervalle, über die sich die Beobachtung der Bahnen dieser Objekte erstreckt, in theorieabhängiger Weise bestimmt werden – und zwar in Abhängigkeit von genau derjenigen Theorie, die anschließend zur theoretischen Beschreibung des Systems eingesetzt wird. Metatheoretische Konsequenzen, die sich aus diesem Umstand insbesondere für das strukturalistische Theorienkonzept ergeben, werden im Detail analysiert. (shrink)

In § 6 of his General Psychopathology (1st edition 1913) Jaspers distinguished between drives, wants and volitions as three different and irreducible kinds of motivational phenomena which are involved in human decision making and which may lead to successful actions. He has characterized the qualitative differences between volitions in comparison with basic vital drives and emotional wants such as being (a.) intentional, (b.) content-specific and (b.) directed towards concrete objects and actions as goals. Furthermore, Jaspers has presented and discussed three (...) kinds of pathological problems about motivation and willing. (1.) The first kind is impulsive action or impulsive behaviour, as e.g. in psychoses or personality disorders, which he compares with instinctive action which are both without any previous hesitation, deliberation and reflection of any presumable consequences, but still very different with respect to their motivational content. (2.) The second kind of pathological problems about motivation and willing are the inhibitions of the will and Jaspers is discussing two major kinds of them: (a.) the energetic or motivational inhibition of the will which is an inability of willing due to the mere lack of any drives and motives, as in the case of any severe and pathological depression; (b.) the cognitive inhibition of the will which is due to the pathological inability to be aware of and understand properly the complexity and difficulty of real life situations in order to solve some given tasks by appropriate decision making, as e.g. in some cases of schizophrenia. (3.) The third kind is a pathological weakness of the will which is extraordinary and not familiar to normal human adults. This pathological kind of weakness of the will consist in the complete causal ineffectiveness of the subjectively felt impulse of willing which is not leading to any inward and outward observable action, such as e.g. as a movement of the limbs or some verbal utterance. This pathological weakness of the will is a complete ineffectiveness of the volitional impulse and therefore different from what philosophers discuss under the heading of weakness of the will which presuppose some evaluation of the intended resp. realized action as ethically, morally or religiously right or wrong. Finally, there are three kinds of normal or non-pathological weakness of the will, as discussed by philosophers: (A.) ethical weakness of the will as in Aristotle’s disagreement about akrasia with the Platonic Socrates; (B) moral weakness of the will as in Kant’s analysis of the absence or failure of any specific moral reasoning by pure practical reason as opposed to mere strategic and pragmatic reason or as the occurrence of a self-deceptive “dialectics of the exception“; (C.) religious weakness of the will as in Pauls personal insight about the incoherence between his high spiritual aspirations and his factual ethical achievements. (shrink)

I distinguish between freedom of action, which is incompatible with determinism, and freedom of the will, which is not, following the Spanish scholastic Molina who defined freedom of the will as the power of affirming a proposition as well as of denying it. Reviewing the arguments for and against man's having this power I argue myself that man's capacity of acting for the sake of liberty shows that we must attribute freedom of the will to man, that it does not (...) imply indeterminism, is compatible with the laws of physics but not with determinism. (shrink)

This paper critically analyses two of Eckart Förster’s claims on the development of German idealism. The first claim is the following: In his writings on colour and on plant development, Goethe uses a method that is grounded in Spinoza’s third form of knowledge, scientia intuitiva. According to the second claim, Goethe’s methodology played a crucial role in establishing a developmental approach to knowledge in Hegel’s early Jena period. The paper assesses objections to both claims.