The author argues that the new digital possibilities in scientific communication do not imply, by any means, that many old requirements are becoming dispensable. The essential elements of the system, such as quality assurance, authenticity, orientation and navigation will still demand considerable expense. The overall system costs will rather be higher in a hybrid system. In the second part of his lecture, the author discusses the two fundamentally different open access models, the Golden Road, which is supposed to be able (...) to operate, eventually, without any publishers, and the Green Road, whose functioning is based on primary publication through publishing houses. Finally, the basic issue of the indispensable qualitative stratigraphy of scientific documents is addressed. For this, the published journals, which also provide topical focus and, thus, orientation as well as active marketing in terms of optimal diffusion, still are a very capable tool. It is questionable to what extent these tasks could be fulfilled by university-based repositories. The publishing houses, on the other hand, have a proven track record of providing a wide range of useful value-adding services in digital publishing. (shrink)

1. Bd. Dialoge. De proidentia. De constantia sapiensis. De ira. (Liber 1/3) Ad Marciam de consolatione. Über d. Standhaftigkeit d. Weisen. Über d. Zorn. (Buch 1/3) Trostschrift an Marcia. Lat. Text v. A Bougery u. R. Waltz. --2. Bd. De vita beata. De otio. De tranquillitate animi. De brevitate vitae. Ad Polybium de consolatione. Über das glückliche Leben. Über die Musse. Über die Seelenruhe. Über die Kürze des Lebens. Trostschrift an Polybius. Trotschrift an die Mutter Helvia. Lat. Text v. A. (...) Bourgery und R. Waltz. --3. Bd. Ad Lucilium epistulae morales I-LXIX. An Lucilius Briefe über Ethik 1-69. Lat. Text von F. Préchac. -- 4. Bd. Ad Lucilium epistulae morales LXX-CXXIV, [CXXV]. An Lucilius Briefe über Ethik 70-124, [125]. Lat. Text von F. Préchac.--5. Bd. Über die Milde. Über die Wohltaten. Lat. Text von F. Préchac. (shrink)

This paper addresses the silence about the Haitian revolution in the oeuvre of Karl Marx. He, who regarded revolutions as “locomotives of world history,” ignored the history of the revolution in Haiti and remained silent about its protagonists. In a brief approach to this paradox, I argue that the main reason for this blank space was Marx’s deficient analysis of contemporary racism. This is made clear in relation to 1) his acceptance of the biological meaning of race, 2) his involvement (...) in two main racisms of the time, antisemitism and colonial racism, and 3) his differentiation and gradation of historical subjects. The consequences were dramatic not because of Marx’s involvement in the racist zeitgeist but insofar as his learning process with regard to the relevance of anti-colonial movements and his awareness of negative societalization as well as its significance were not reflected in a theory of racism. This was to prove a debacle for subsequent attempts at a Marxist analysis of racism and has had effects that are still evident today. (shrink)

As a young scholar, Eric Voegelin wanted to prove whether the ‘race idea’ could function as a means of political integration. He published two books on race that, after his flight to the USA, were eventually passed off as an early critique of racism. This is a complete misinterpretation and inversion of his endeavor. In his tracts, Voegelin only criticized a certain direction of race thinking that he identified as a materialistic biological approach to the problem. At the same time, (...) he advocated another spiritual and metaphysical attempt, represented by the examples of Carl Gustav Carus, Othmar Spann, and Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß. Both versions of race thinking were abundant in different types of fascism and also in Nazi Germany. That is why Voegelin could publish his books in Germany—and one of them even at the recommendation of a Nazi philosopher, with a publisher close to völkisch and fascist ideology. The revaluation of his racist texts was only possible on the basis of their affirmative or superficial and uncritical reading against the backdrop of the development of a one-dimensional conception of racism. (shrink)

Recent research has relied on trolley-type sacrificial moral dilemmas to study utilitarian versus nonutili- tarian modes of moral decision-making. This research has generated important insights into people’s attitudes toward instrumental harm—that is, the sacrifice of an individual to save a greater number. But this approach also has serious limitations. Most notably, it ignores the positive, altruistic core of utilitarianism, which is characterized by impartial concern for the well-being of everyone, whether near or far. Here, we develop, refine, and validate a (...) new scale—the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale—to dissociate individual differences in the ‘negative’ (permissive attitude toward instrumental harm) and ‘positive’ (impartial concern for the greater good) dimensions of utilitarian thinking as manifested in the general population. We show that these are two independent dimensions of proto-utilitarian tendencies in the lay population, each exhibiting a distinct psychological profile. Empathic concern, identification with the whole of humanity, and concern for future generations were positively associated with impartial beneficence but negatively associated with instrumental harm; and although instrumental harm was associated with subclinical psychopathy, impartial beneficence was associated with higher religiosity. Importantly, although these two dimensions were independent in the lay population, they were closely associated in a sample of moral philosophers. Acknowledging this dissociation between the instrumental harm and impartial beneficence components of utilitarian thinking in ordinary people can clarify existing debates about the nature of moral psychology and its relation to moral philosophy as well as generate fruitful avenues for further research. (shrink)

This article aims to identify new moral dilemmas generated by technological progress and its consequence - the phenomenon of technological alienation in modern society. It examines the relationship between the phenomenon of alienation, technological progress and moral dilemmas they cause in modern society. In addition to the emergence of new moral and existential issues that arises as the consequence of the direct “collision” of a person and technologies as a result of their widespread introduction into our lives, we consider moral (...) dilemmas arising from technological progress in such areas of life as politics, economics and education. Each of them poses a deeper problem for the person - an alienation from other people, from the species essence and from oneself, which allows us to designate this question not only as social problem, but also affecting existential questions. (shrink)

The article discusses a key issue for Russian and international Max Weber Studies: the epistemological possibilities and place of Weberian sociology in modern social theory. Discussion articles by well-known Russian scientists — who sharply criticized the actualizing direction of Weberian studies in general, and the religious, cultural, and sociological orientation in particular — are contrasted with the re-actualization and rethinking of key Weberian themes in the “New Critical Theory” of the influential German sociologist Hartmut Rosa. Such a projection will make (...) it possible, on the one hand, to thematize the axiomatic assertion about the heuristic rather than concrete-content relevance of the classics; on the other hand, it will provide an opportunity to read Weber as a macrosociologist. In the original, criticized, and often rejected sociology of Rosa, Weber appears not only as a predecessor whose mention enhances the relevance of the new theoretical framework, but, above all, as an analyst and diagnostician of early modernity. Weber’s main ideas and theoretical constructions are organically built into Rosa’s methodological framework: analysis-diagnosis-praxis. The analysis of rationalization as a universal historical process of modernity in Weber’s sociology is rethought by Rosa as expansion and acceleration; disenchantment becomes a diagnosis of modernity and is recoded into alienation, while the concept of charisma is transformed into the key concept of resonance. (shrink)

One of the traditional ways mathematical ideas and even new areas of mathematics are created is from experiments. One of the best-known examples is that of the Fermat hypothesis, which was conjectured by Fermat in his attempts to find integer solutions for the famous Fermat equation. This hypothesis led to the creation of a whole field of knowledge, but it was proved only after several hundred years. This book, based on the author's lectures, presents several new directions of mathematical research. (...) All of these directions are based on numerical experiments conducted by the author, which led to new hypotheses that currently remain open, i.e., are neither proved nor disproved. The hypotheses range from geometry and topology (statistics of plane curves and smooth functions) to combinatorics (combinatorial complexity and random permutations) to algebra and number theory (continuous fractions and Galois groups). For each subject, the author describes the problem and presents numerical results that led him to a particular conjecture. In the majority of cases there is an indication of how the readers can approach the formulated conjectures (at least by conducting more numerical experiments). Written in Arnold's unique style, the book is intended for a wide range of mathematicians, from high school students interested in exploring unusual areas of mathematics on their own, to college and graduate students, to researchers interested in gaining a new, somewhat nontraditional perspective on doing mathematics. In the interest of fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life, MSRI and the AMS are publishing books in the Mathematical Circles Library series as a service to young people, their parents and teachers, and the mathematics profession. Titles in this series are co-published with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). (shrink)

Tijdens zijn bewogen leven schreef Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert (1522-1590) vele teksten en voerde hij talloze gesprekken. Zijn doel: zijn medemensen overtuigen van het belang om niet slaafs achter anderen aan te lopen maar zélf na te denken. Want elk mens heeft voldoende redelijke vermogens om het leven zelfstandig vorm te geven en het goede te doen. De Kruidhofjes bevat twee bundels met dialogen – gesprekken die Coornhert zelf voerde of onderweg heeft gehoord. De dialogen zijn te zien als medicijnen tegen (...) wat Coornhert zag als de ziekte van zijn tijd: onnadenkendheid en religieuze scherpslijperij. Enerzijds probeert Coornhert obstakels voor een goed en gelukkig persoonlijk leven weg te halen. Hier gaat het vooral om het bestrijden van onbegrip en onwetendheid. Anderzijds probeert Coornhert obstakels voor vreedzaam samenleven op te ruimen. Dat is de reden waarom nogal wat dialogen ingaan op religieuze kwesties als kerkbezoek, de mis en kerkelijke ceremonies; onenigheid over deze onderwerpen vormde immers de belangrijkste oorzaak van de heftige onderdrukking, vervolging en oorlog in de zestiende eeuw. Dit verklaart ook de felheid van veel van de dialogen. Discussies over religieuze denkbeelden en gebruiken waren niet zomaar interessant tijdverdrijf voor bij de borrel. Het ging ergens om: om de waarheid, je zielenheil en de inrichting van de maatschappij. In 45 dialogen probeert Coornhert zo zijn medemens te motiveren tot eerlijkheid naar zichzelf en verdraagzaamheid naar de ander. (shrink)

Propositions are the result of hypostatization in accordance with the principle of the identification of indiscernibles wherever differences among inscribed or uttered statemental units are systematically ignored. Criteria for identity of propositions are, thus, to be found in each context of discourse about statemental units where qualitatively different units are treated as interchangeable. Ayer's notion of proposition as opposed to statement, Goodman's notion of replication, and the notion of constructional definition or reduction are discussed in the light of this thesis. (...) The so-called "problem of identifying propositions" is shown to be a bogus problem because the propositions simpliciter to be identified are incoherently conceived, though in the course of discussion the prospect appears that many different and limitedly applicable sets of criteria for identification of propositions relative to different discourses can be given. (shrink)

As is well known, Plotinus's philosophy served as the starting point for the development of all Neoplatonism. It created the basic schema that set the framework for the thought of all later representatives of this tendency from Porphyry to Damascius. The doctrine of the transcendence of the One, of the three original hypostases, the application of the categories of Plato's Parmenides in the construction of ontology—all this and much else besides became the property of the Neoplatonic schools, which were scattered (...) throughout the Roman empire, and was incorporated partly into the Christian theology, which was then in the process of formation. Naturally, as a result of its wide dissemination and the change in its cultural and social environment, Plotinus's legacy appeared in a different light and took on new forms; through these changes in form we can try to understand the difference in content. For this purpose Plotinus's treatise on the virtues is of special interest. The point is that Porphyry relies precisely on this treatise and at times even literally borrows large fragments from it in setting out the doctrine concerning the virtues in the thirty-second maxim . The same treatise serves as a basis for Marinus in his biography of Proclus. The aim of my lecture is to analyze the content of the treatise and its interpretations. (shrink)

The Hamilton–Jacobi (HJ) equation for the action function plays a fundamental role in classical mechanics. A known consequence of the HJ equation is a blow-up of a disturbed free-particle solution. Following the idea of Sivashinsky, we formulate an extension of the HJ equation in which perturbations eventually evolve into a finite autosoliton associated with an elementary particle. A novel element of the model is stability of the autosoliton. We link uncertainties in the position and momentum of a particle to a (...) width and amplitude of the autosoliton. We formulate restrictions on the coefficients of the model and compare the model with some existing theories of extended elementary objects. (shrink)

The concept of quantum principle is introduced as a principle whose formulation is based on specific quantum ideas and notions. We consider three such principles, viz, those of quantizability, local gauge symmetry, and supersymmetry, and their role in the development of the quantum field theory (QFT). Concerning the first of these, we analyze the formal aspects and physical contents of the renormalization procedure in QFT and its relation to ultraviolet divergences and the renorm group. The quantizability principle is formulated as (...) an existence condition of a self-consistent quantum version with a given mechanism of the field interaction. It is shown that the consecutive (from a historical point of view) use of these quantum principles puts still larger limitations on possible forms of field interactions. (shrink)

In an essay entitled ‘Cinna the Poet’ published in 1974, T. P. Wiseman forcefully countered the arguments of Monroe E. Deutsch and others against the identification of the ‘neoteric’ poet Cinna with the tribune Gaius Helvius Cinna, who after Caesar's funeral was torn to pieces by an enraged mob, mistaken by it for the praetor Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who had applauded Caesar's murder. The identification of the poet with the tribune is supported by Plutarch, Brutus 20.4, where the murdered (...) tribune is called a ποιητικ⋯ς ⋯ν⋯ρ. As Wiseman says, ‘there are six other ancient accounts of the murder, drawn from a source or sources unknown; five of them call the victim a tribune of the plebs, and none of them says he was a poet. Impressed by this, many scholars have thought that the victim was not in fact the poet Helvius Cinna, and M. E. Deutsch suggested in 1925 that either the phrase in the Brutus describing him as a poet is a gloss, or “the tribune also dabbled in verse but was not the famous poet”.’ Wiseman's refutation of the various arguments of Deutsch and his followers against the identity of the poet and the tribune seems to me quite cogent, but the debate shows no sign of having been brought to a close: G. V. Sumner concludes his review of Wiseman's essay with an argument that the tribune was probably somewhat younger than the poet, and the suggestion that the tribune may have been ‘the adoptive, and hence homonymous, son of the poet’. (shrink)