By means of a close reading of a single prayer on the Passion of Christ from the 14th century ‘Engelberg Prayerbook,’ this article analyzes three characteristic effects of reading medieval written prayers: first, the devotee assumes the role of the I constructed by the text. Secondly, this leads to an effect of immersion into a literarily constructed, imagined environment. Finally, these effects of reading aim at being surpassed by an immediacy of a divine answer that transcends the aesthetic and semantic (...) effects of the literary medium. (shrink)

Hybrid identities are sentences in a special second order language with identity. The model classes of sets of hybrid identities are called hybrid solid varieties. We give a Birkhoff-type-characterization of hybrid solid varieties and develop a hybrid equational logic.

We show that, in the partial ordering of the computably enumerable computable Lipschitz degrees, there is a degree a>0a>0 such that the class of the degrees which do not cup to a is not bounded by any degree less than a. Since Ambos-Spies [1] has shown that, in the partial ordering of the c.e. identity-bounded Turing degrees, for any degree a>0a>0 the degrees which do not cup to a are bounded by the 1-shift a+1a+1 of a where a+1 (...) that the elementary theories of the partial orderings and differ. (shrink)

Following Yik and Russell (1999) a judgement paradigm was used to examine to what extent differential accuracy of recognition of facial expressions allows evaluation of the well-foundedness of different theoretical views on emotional expression. Observers judged photos showing facial expressions of seven emotions on the basis of: (1) discrete emotion categories; (2) social message types; (3) appraisal results; or (4) action tendencies, and rated their confidence in making choices. Emotion categories and appraisals were judged significantly more accurately and confidently than (...) messages or action tendencies. These results do not support claims of primacy for message or action tendency views of facial expression. Based on a componential model of emotion it is suggested that judges can infer components from categories and vice versa. (shrink)

Immanuel Kant has built up a dualistic epistemology that seems to fit to the peculiarities of chemistry quite well. Friedrich Paneth used Kant’s concept and characterised simple and basic substances which refer to the empirical and to the transcendental world, respectively. This paper takes account of the Kantian influences in Paneth’s philosophy of chemistry, and discusses pertinent topics, like observables, atomism and realism.

ArgumentKuhnian phases of paradigmatic development correspond to characteristic variations of citation measures. These correlations can in turn be predicted from a simple model of human information processing when applied to the common environments of scientists. By combining a scientometric and a human information processing approach to the history of scientific thought, structures of disciplinary development, and in particular paradigmatic cycles, can be more reliably assessed than before. Consequently, the quantitative historian of science is liberated to some extent from the vagaries (...) of qualitative judgment, as exemplified by traditional narrative type approaches to the history of science. (shrink)

Emotion regulation, and in particular cognitive reappraisal. Gross has been booming in theory development and empirical research for the last two decades. A large number of publications have demonstrated the importance of these mechanisms for understanding and promoting well-being and mental health. It is thus timely for Cognition and Emotion to examine the current state of theory in this domain. The resultant invited article, authored by Uusberg, A., Ford, Uusberg, H., and Gross, aims to expand the scope of reappraisal theory (...) by extending their recent reAppraisal model by suggesting different forms of goal commitment and situation construals. Their suggestions are commented on by Kashdan and Goodman from a purpose in life perspective, Ehring, and Woud from a clinical psychopathology perspective. In this editorial, I briefly discuss the lack of specification of the goal construct, which is central to the reappraisal model. Moreover, I point to recent evidence showing that problems may arise because of appraisal biases, in the case of individuals prone to inappropriate evaluations of situations. I suggest that future work in this domain could benefit from increased interaction between theorists and researchers working on appraisal and reappraisal processes. (shrink)

Does the soul have parts? What kind of parts? And how do all the parts make together a whole? Many ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers discussed these questions, thus providing a mereological analysis of the soul. Their starting point was a simple observation: we tend to describe the soul of human beings by referring to different types of activities (perceiving, imagining, thinking, etc.). Each type of activity seems to be produced by a special part of the soul. But how (...) can a simple, undivided soul have parts? Classical thinkers gave radically different answers to this question. While some claimed that there are indeed parts, thus assigning an internal complexity to the soul, others emphasized that there can only be a plurality of functions that should not be conflated with a plurality of parts. The eleven chapters reconstruct and critically examine these answers. They make clear that the metaphysical structure of the soul was a crucial issue for ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers. (shrink)

I strongly endorse many of the suggestions made by the authors of the extremely useful reviews in this issue. In particular, the need to identify the complex causal mechanisms underlying the major health risk factors requires urgent attention of the research community. I suggest considering the important role of emotional disturbances as contributors to health risks given the empirically established comorbidity between mental and somatic illness. Better knowledge of these mechanisms is an essential prerequisite to develop tailored personalized prevention and (...) intervention programs, including reliable and valid assessment of deficits. (shrink)

Here I try a new synthesis of personalism and materialism leading to new concepts of sense. Beginnig with the analysis of the correlations between matter, personality, language, understanding, cognition, knowledge, and the problem of truth, followed by a critique of pragmatism, personalism and "new realism" as well as by ontological concretisations in different fields of philosophy, i.e. in logical order from cosmology to anthropology, ethics, history and political philosophy (including globalization, digital revolution amd ecocide), aesthetics, and philosophy of religion, leading (...) to new concepts of sense and value. Of immediate political relevance is my new concept of a democratic eco-socialism, drawing conclusions of the failure of the socialist experiences in the world up to nowadays. Not giving up the Marxian vision of a realm of Freedom, Justice and Solidarity, that of a "free association of free individuals". (shrink)

This chapter first argues against the widely accepted “mentalist” interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of the perception of external objects. On that view, the perception of objects results from an act of synthesis of the diverse perceptual input provided by the different sense modalities. I argue that Aristotle’s conception of perception does not require such mental “construction” of external objects. For him, we unfailingly perceive external objects by way of modally specific perception: perception without qualification is primarily of external 3-D objects, (...) while modally specific perception is of perceptual qualities. As the special senses cannot operate in isolation from the perceptual system as a whole, it follows that we see colors, hear sounds, etc., and thereby perceive the objects whose colors and sounds they are. The second part offers a causal interpretation of Aristotle’s definition of perception as “reception of the form without the matter,” according to which the causal history of sensory affection fixes the content of the resulting act of perception: perception is cognitive in virtue of being the matterless presence of external things’ qualities in the perceiver. (shrink)

Der Hallenser Theologe Klaus Tanner verortet die Theologie programmatisch im Kontext der Kulturwissenschaften. Christliche Theologie hat ein eigenstandiges Fundament in den Texten eines Grundbuches unserer Kultur: in der Bibel und ihrer breiten Rezeptions- und Wirkungsgeschichte. Die Wirkmachtigkeit christlichen Gedankengutes dokumentiert sich dabei immer auch als seine Transformation durch andere kulturelle Wirkgrossen. Exemplarisch zeigen das die in diesem interdisziplinaren Band versammelten Beitrage anhand des Liebesbegriffs. Das Spektrum der Untersuchungen reicht von exegetischen und theologiegeschichtlichen Darstellungen christlicher Liebestheologien uber Analysen zu nicht-christlichen (...) Leitvorstellungen von Liebe bis hin zu Beitragen institutioneller und diskursiver Einsatze des Liebesbegriffs. Auf diese Weise spannen die Autoren einen eindrucksvollen Bogen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. (shrink)

This article attempts a reinterpretation of Aeschylus’ Persians as primarily a warning about the instability of democracy following a major military victory against an overpowering totalitarian enemy. It discusses the historical and our contemporary ideas of the democratic principles of government versus the constant tendency towards a strongman regime. I argue that the play’s underlying philosophy is based on the Heraclitan idea of constant flux, which predates our modern ideas of the relativity of time and space, and the core concept (...) underpinning any democracy that the only constant thing about it is continuous change. A short retrospective of modern productions of The Persians reveals the relationship between history and current events that can or cannot be associated with the play. By treating the thorny issue of translations and adaptations and the temptations of simplistic patriotic or antiwar interpretations of the play, the article also addresses the challenging task of determining what constitutes a just war and why a democracy is necessarily engaged in a continuous defensive battle against the forces of totalitarianism. (shrink)

This book brings key authors in anthropology together to debate and transgress anthropological expectations.

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag verfolgt das Ziel, Mechanismen der Inklusion und Exklusion in Sportvereinen zu identifizieren, die die Partizipation von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund am organisierten Sport erklären können. Im Lichte von theoretischen Überlegungen zur „symbolischen Grenzziehung“ und „Zugehörigkeit“ werden Ergebnisse aus Fallstudien in Nordrhein-Westfalen und Baden-Württemberg präsentiert.