Current EEG research emphasizes gamma band coherence as a signature of functional integration, that is, the solution to the binding problem. We note that spatial patterns of coherent neural activity are also observed at other EEG frequencies. If these oscillations reflect Nunez's resonant modes, they offer a solution to the binding problem that emerges naturally from the architecture of cortical connections.

Spacetime as we know and love it is lost in most approaches to quantum gravity. For many of these approaches, as inchoate and incomplete as they may be, one of the main challenges is to relate what they take to be the fundamental non-spatiotemporal structure of the world back to the classical spacetime of GR. The present essay investigates how spacetime is lost and how it may be regained in one major approach to quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity.

Unlike the relativity theory it seeks to replace, causal set theory has been interpreted to leave space for a substantive, though perhaps ‘localized’, form of ‘becoming’. The possibility of fundamental becoming is nourished by the fact that the analogue of Stein’s theorem from special relativity does not hold in causal set theory. Despite this, we find that in many ways, the debate concerning becoming parallels the well-rehearsed lines it follows in the domain of relativity. We present, however, some new twists (...) and challenges. In particular, we show that a novel and exotic notion of becoming is compatible with causal sets. In contrast to the ‘localized’ becoming considered compatible with the dynamics of causal set theory by its advocates, our novel kind of becoming, while not answering to the typical A-theoretic demands, is ‘global’ and objective. (shrink)

The idea that there is such a thing as a human right to health has become pervasive. It has not only been acknowledged by a variety of international law documents and thus entered the political realm but is also defended in academic circles. Yet, despite its prominence the human right to health remains something of a mystery - especially with respect to its philosophical underpinnings. Addressing this unfortunate and intellectually dangerous insufficiency, this book critically assesses the stipulation that health is (...) a human right which - as international law holds - derives from the inherent dignity of the human person. Scrutinising the concepts underlying this stipulation, it shall conclude that such right cannot be upheld from a philosophical perspective. (shrink)

An experiment is proposed to test Bell’s theorem in a purely macroscopic domain. If realized, it would determine whether Bell inequalities are satisfied for a manifestly local, classical system. It is stressed why the inequalities should not be presumed to hold for such a macroscopic system without actual experimental evidence. In particular, by providing a purely classical, topological explanation for the EPR-Bohm type spin correlations, it is demonstrated why Bell inequalities must be violated in the manifestly local, macroscopic domain, just (...) as strongly as they are in the microscopic domain. (shrink)

Can economics, which is based on the notion of individual optimization, really model individuals who have a sense of exteriority? This question, derived both from Marcel Mauss's sociological analysis of the social norm of gift-giving and from Emmanuel Levinas's phenomenological analysis of the idea of 'otherness,' leads to the problem of whether it is possible to model altruism with the tool of optimization. By investigating the ways in which economic theory can address this challenge, and by introducing a postulate of (...) methodological altruism following Levinas's theory of the constitution of subjectivity through otherness, this paper uncovers an alternative foundation for the very notion of optimizing calculation - no longer as a self-centered initiative, but rather as an other-centered response. This makes it possible to clarify the implicit content of usual economic individualism, and to see on the basis of which ethical arguments the economic method of optimization may be upheld. The paper studies the consequences of this renewed foundation of optimization for the organization of a fair and efficient interaction between altruists. (shrink)

There exists a growing literature on the so-called physical Church-Turing thesis in a relativistic spacetime setting. The physical Church-Turing thesis is the conjecture that no computing device that is physically realizable can exceed the computational barriers of a Turing machine. By suggesting a concrete implementation of a beyond-Turing computer in a spacetime setting, Istvan Nemeti and Gyula David have shown how an appreciation of the physical Church-Turing thesis necessitates the confluence of mathematical, computational, physical, and indeed cosmological ideas. In this (...) essay, I will honour Istvan's seventieth birthday, as well as his longstanding interest in, and his seminal contributions to, this field going back to as early as 1987 by modestly proposing how the concrete implementation in Nemeti and D\'avid might be complemented by a quantum-information-theoretic communication protocol between the computing device and the logician who sets the beyond-Turing computer a task such as determining the consistency of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. This suggests that even the foundations of quantum theory and, ultimately, quantum gravity may play an important role in determining the validity of the physical Church-Turing thesis. (shrink)

Deleuze and the Unconscious shows how these tendencies combine in Deleuze's work to engender a wholly new approach to the unconscious, for which active relations to the unconscious are just as important as the better known pathologies of ...

Suppose you perform two actions. The first imposes a risk of harm that, on its own, would be excessive; but the second reduces the risk of harm by a corresponding amount. By pairing the two actions together to form a set of actions that is risk-neutral, can you thereby make your overall course of conduct permissible? This question is theoretically interesting, because the answer is apparently: sometimes Yes, sometimes No. It is also practically important, because it bears on the moral (...) status of practices such as offsetting personal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this article we propose a criterion for distinguishing between cases where pairing risk-increasing and risk-reducing actions makes each action permissible, and those where it does not: the Principle of Aggregate Risk-Imposition. We work towards this by considering a range of examples that illustrate various illegitimate ways of pairing risk-increasing actions with risk-reducing ones, and asking what goes wrong in each case. We then use this criterion to evaluate GHG offsetting. Is offsetting a legitimate way of removing the risk-imposition associated with GHG emissions, or not? Controversially, we argue that this turns out to depend on the form that the offsetting takes. (shrink)

We agree with MacNeilage's claim that speech stems from a volitional vocalization pathway between the cingulate and the supplementary motor area (SMA). We add the vocal self- monitoring system as the first recruitment of the Broca-Wernicke circuit. SMA control for “frames” is supported by wrong consonant-vowel recurring utterance aphasia and an imaging study of quasi-reiterant speech. The role of Broca's area is questioned in the emergence of “content,” because a primary motor mapping, embodying peripheral constraints, seems sufficient. Finally, we reject (...) a uniquely peripheral account of speech emergence. (shrink)

Moral relativism comes in many forms. Most discussed of these are metaethical ideas that make claim to some form of relativity regarding the truth, meaning and/or knowledge of moral judgements. Notwithstanding the vast differences that exist between more precise versions of metaethical relativism (MR), they all have one basic feature in common: A moral judgement can only be true (or have a certain meaning, or be known) relative to a person or some group of persons. However, a moral judgement to (...) which this applies need not be true (or have the same meaning or be known) relative to some other person or group of persons. This, in turn, is allegedly due to the actual existence or possibility of substantial differences between people when it comes to moral opinions, language and general belief systems. Obviously, such ideas tell us nothing about what is right or wrong, good or bad (not even relatively so) – in itself they lack all normative content. However, in philosophical discussions they are not seldom connected to normative ideas that in a similar manner position themselves with regard to the fact that people actually do or may have very different ways of thinking about moral matters and the world in general. (shrink)

Technologies of “artificial intelligence” and machine learning are increasingly presented as solutions to key problems of our societies. Companies are developing, investing in, and deploying machine learning applications at scale in order to filter and organize content, mediate transactions, and make sense of massive sets of data. At the same time, social and legal expectations are ambiguous, and the technical challenges are substantial. This is the introductory article to a special theme that addresses this turn to AI as a technical, (...) discursive and political phenomena. The opening article contextualizes this theme by unfolding this multi-layered nature of the turn to AI. It argues that, whereas public and economic discourses position the widespread deployment of AI and automation in the governance of digital communication as a technical turn with a narrative of revolutionary breakthrough-moments and of technological progress, this development is at least similarly dependent on a parallel discursive and political turn to AI. The article positions the current turn to AI in the longstanding motif of the “technological fix” in the relationship between technology and society, and identifies a discursive turn to responsibility in platform governance as a key driver for AI and automation. In addition, a political turn to more demanding liability rules for platforms further incentivizes platforms to automatically screen their content for possibly infringing or violating content, and position AI as a solution to complex social problems. (shrink)

The human relationship to trees is arguably as complex as human experience itself. We cohabitate intimately with them as they regulate the systems that sustain us. We use them instrumentally to tra...

This article discusses Archibald Campbell’s (1691-1756) early writings on religion, and the reactions they provoked from conservative orthodox Presbyterians. Purportedly against the Deist Matthew Tindal, Campbell crucially argued for two claims, namely (i) for the reality of immutable moral laws of nature, and (ii) for the incapacity of natural reason, or the light of nature, to discover the fundamental truths of religion, in particular the existence and perfections of God, and the immortality of the soul. In an episode that had (...) its peak in 1735 and 1736, a Committee for Purity of Doctrine of the Church of Scotland scrutinised Campbell’s writings. It attacked the second claim as contradicting Calvinist doctrines concerning the universal guilt of mankind after the Fall, and the first claim as contradicting doctrines concerning justification and salvation, and as supporting Deism. The study of this episode reveals new aspects of how the struggle to define orthodoxy crystallised in philosophical and theological debates in Scotland at the dawn of the Enlightenment, and before the rise of the Moderates. (shrink)

The discipline of parallelization in the manifold of all possible measurement results is shown to be responsible for the existence of all quantum correlations, with the upper bound on their strength stemming from the maximum of possible torsion within all norm-composing parallelizable manifolds. A profound interplay is thus uncovered between the existence and strength of quantum correlations and the parallelizability of the spheres S^0, S^1, S^3, and S^7 necessitated by the four real division algebras. In particular, parallelization within a unit (...) 3-sphere is shown to be responsible for the existence of EPR and Hardy type correlations, whereas that within a unit 7-sphere is shown to be responsible for the existence of all GHZ type correlations. Moreover, parallelizability in general is shown to be equivalent to the completeness criterion of EPR, in addition to necessitating the locality condition of Bell. It is therefore shown to predetermine both the local outcomes as well as the quantum correlations among the remote outcomes, dictated by the infinite factorizability of points within the spheres S^3 and S^7. The twin illusions of quantum entanglement and non-locality are thus shown to stem from the topologically incomplete accountings of the measurement results. (shrink)

The exposure of scientific scandals and the increase of dubious research practices have generated a stream of studies on Questionable Research Practices (QRPs), such as failure to acknowledge co-authors, selective presentation of findings, or removal of data not supporting desired outcomes. In contrast to high-profile fraud cases, QRPs can be investigated using quantitative, survey-based methods. However, several design issues remain to be solved. This paper starts with a review of four problems in the QRP research: the problem of precision and (...) prevalence, the problem of social desirability bias, the problem of incomplete coverage, and the problem of controversiality, sensitivity and missing responses. Various ways to handle these problems are discussed based on a case study of the design of a large, cross-field QRP survey in the social and medical sciences in Sweden. The paper describes the key steps in the design process, including technical and cognitive testing and repeated test versions to arrive at reliable survey items on the prevalence of QRPs and hypothesized associated factors in the organizational and normative environments. Partial solutions to the four problems are assessed, unresolved issues are discussed, and tradeoffs that resist simple solutions are articulated. The paper ends with a call for systematic comparisons of survey designs and item quality to build a much-needed cumulative knowledge trajectory in the field of integrity studies. (shrink)

Probabilistic inference forms lead from point probabilities of the premises to interval probabilities of the conclusion. The probabilistic version of Modus Ponens, for example, licenses the inference from \({P(A) = \alpha}\) and \({P(B|A) = \beta}\) to \({P(B)\in [\alpha\beta, \alpha\beta + 1 - \alpha]}\) . We study generalized inference forms with three or more premises. The generalized Modus Ponens, for example, leads from \({P(A_{1}) = \alpha_{1}, \ldots, P(A_{n})= \alpha_{n}}\) and \({P(B|A_{1} \wedge \cdots \wedge A_{n}) = \beta}\) to an according interval for (...) P(B). We present the probability intervals for the conclusions of the generalized versions of Cut, Cautious Monotonicity, Modus Tollens, Bayes’ Theorem, and some SYSTEM O rules. Recently, Gilio has shown that generalized inference forms “degrade”—more premises lead to less precise conclusions, i.e., to wider probability intervals of the conclusion. We also study Adam’s probability preservation properties in generalized inference forms. Special attention is devoted to zero probabilities of the conditioning events. These zero probabilities often lead to different intervals in the coherence and the Kolmogorov approach. (shrink)

When can or should citizenship be granted to prospective members of states? When can or should states withdraw citizenship from their existing members? In recent decades, political philosophers have paid considerable attention to the first question, but have generally neglected the second. There are of course good practical reasons for prioritizing the question of when citizenship should be granted—many individuals have a strong interest in acquiring citizenship in particular political communities, while many fewer are at risk of denationalization. Still, loss (...) of membership in a political community is a practice with a long history that continues to take place today. -/- Concerns about national security have recently led several liberal democratic states to pass, strengthen or consider legislation that would empower their governments to denationalize certain persons.] At the international level, formal norms governing denationalization are vague and generally toothless, and there are no international legal norms that restrict denationalization to citizens who hold another citizenship or wish to take up citizenship elsewhere (Worster, 2009). So it is important to determine whether there are conditions under which denationalization can be morally justified and, if so, what those conditions are. We shall argue that while denationalization is ordinarily impermissible, there is a class of crime committed by citizens that may render it not only permissible, but a fitting response on the part of the state. (shrink)

This book marks the beginning of a new phase in the philosophical investigation of classical and contemporary accounts of the self: canonical boundaries have been crossed and doctrinal justification abandoned in favor of a cosmopolitan ideal of syncretic, theoretically perspicuous, and historically informed systematic reflection. That such reflection bears on so central a concept as the self is only fitting given its implications for a broad range of questions concerning agency, the mind-body problem, and self-knowledge that are now pursued across (...) a number of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. But Ganeri is not simply interested in bringing the wealth of Indian speculations on the self to bear on contemporary discussions, in the hope of supplying a much-needed corrective lens, fill in some important lacunae, or bring another voice to the table. Rather, the goal is to think with these classical Indian thinkers (of which, no less than 21 are debated at length .. (shrink)

In einer philosophischen Inhaltsangabe und Interpretation versuche ich, die Doppeldeutigkeit der Vergeltungsmetapher im Ijob-Buch herauszuarbeiten. Entgegen den geläufigen theologischen oder pessimistischen Deutungsvarianten ist dabei streng zwischen einer vorreflexiv-moralischen und metaphysischen Sinnebene zu unterscheiden. Während Ijobs Freunde über das Referat einer noch nicht vernünftig angeeigneten Tradition nicht hinauskommen, entwickelt sich der ,,Angefeindete" zweifelnd und philosophisch suchend zu einem geistigen Individuum, indem er die Einschränkungen eines endlichen Daseins letztlich als ermöglichende Bedingungen seiner Freiheit erkennt, sich aus dem Seinsgrund der Gerechtigkeit Gottes selbst (...) zu gestalten. (shrink)

Tugendhats Versuch, die Möglichkeit einer freien Handlung des Menschen in einer als deterministisch angenommenen Natur aufzuzeigen, war von Anbeginn zum Scheitern verurteilt. Denn ein kausaler Naturmechanismus lässt per definitionem zu jedem Zeitpunkt nur ein einziges reales Ereignis zu, dessen Ursache Natur und nicht der freie Mensch ist. Unter dieser Voraussetzung kann die gefühlte und im Moralurteil vorausgesetzte Wahlfreiheit des Menschen, hier und jetzt A und nicht-A tun zu können, nur noch als, wenn auch unvermeidlicher, moralischer Schein, der trügt, in den (...) Blick treten. Tugendhat spürt diese Konsequenz und gerät in den nihilistischen Sog eines Denkens, das aus ,,intellektueller Redlichkeit" nicht mehr an seine Verantwortlichkeit glauben kann. Ich zeichne diesen für das Individuum ,Mensch' verheerenden psychologischen Prozess in groben Zügen nach. Erst in einer Prinzipienreflexion, so meine These gegen Tugendhats Ansatz: ,,Anthropologie statt Metaphysik", werden die Einschränkungen einer wesenhaft nichtkausalen Natur als Möglichkeitsbedingung der Freiheit des Menschen, der im Text dieser Welt allein die auf endliche Weise sich selbst erwirkende Ur-Sache ,Grund' ist, evident. (shrink)

„Der sittliche Wert eines Menschen beginnt erst dort, wo er bereit ist, für seine Überzeugung sein Leben zu geben.“ [The moral worth of a human being emerges when she is willing to give her life for her convictions] - Henning von Tresckows -.

No presente artigo serão discutidas algumas abordagens e explicações comparativas dedicadas à moderna teoria da linguagem, que podem ser encontradas tanto no filósofo neokantiano do símbolo Ernst Cassirer como nos linguistas estruturalistas Nikolaj Trubetzkoj e Roman Jakobson, que frequentemente se referem a Ferdinand de Saussure. Com esta finalidade, recorreremos a conceitualizações inovadoras usadas em comum no pensamento filosófico da primeira metade do século XX, tais como forma, estrutura, sistema, sinal, sentido ou significação e expressão, que determinam as respectivas teorias da (...) linguagem. Entre outras coisas, as evidências provam que certos novos princípios de pensamento e terminologias são avanços em diferentes disciplinas científicas e meios culturais, sem que seus descobridores ou representantes se refiram uns aos outros, ou mesmo que conheçam uns aos outros. (shrink)

Standard versions of the requirement of informed consent state that patients who are offered to enter a clinical trial of a medical procedure should be informed about risks and possible benefits of this procedure (compared to available alternatives) in order to facilitate a rational decision whether or not to participate. However, in many real cases where new medical procedures are to be clinically tested for the first time the information available for such communication to prospective patients is very scarce, vague (...) and/or uncertain. This phenomenon is illustrated by the clinical introduction of new procedures in reproductive medicine, such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Regarding such procedures, it has ben argued that, in such cases, the quality of the available information may be too low for the obtaining of informed consent to be possible, even if it is successfully communicated. Others, instead, holds that informed consent may always be obtained regardless of the quality of the available information. Unfortunately, the standard litterature on informed consent give no clue as to which of these interpretations is correct. This issue is explored by connecting the concept of informed consent to ethical ideas of respect for autonomy and ideas of rational decision making. It is argued, first, that low quality of available information regarding the risks and possible benefits of a medical procedure may indeed make the obtaining of informed consent from patients to undergo this procedure impossible even in theory. However, it is also argued that whether or not this is the case must be relativized to the actual needs and deires of individual patients. Thus, regarding one and the same procedure, informed consent may be impossible to obtain from some patients due to the low quality of the available information regarding this procedure, but still be possible to obtain from other patients. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung1989/90 war die DDR ein ökologisch gescheiterter Staat. Doch während Eingaben aus der Bevölkerung und kritische Umweltgruppen im Laufe der 1980er Jahre immer offener gegen die vorhandenen Umweltprobleme protestierten, blieben die etablierten Wissenschaften merkwürdig stumm und waren allem Anschein nach nicht in der Lage, geeignete Konzepte zur Lösung der Umweltkrise zu entwickeln. Knapp 20 Jahre zuvor hatte jedoch in der DDR ein umweltpolitischer Aufbruch eingesetzt, der maßgeblich von wissenschaftlichen Reforminitiativen getragen wurde. Die Aufnahme des Natur- und Umweltschutzgedankens in die Verfassung (...) von 1968 und die Verabschiedung des Landeskulturgesetzes zwei Jahre darauf, waren Ausdruck eines gesellschaftspolitischen Konsenses in der Umweltfrage.Wie ist diese scharfe Diskrepanz zu erklären? Der Aufsatz fragt nach dem Einfluss wissenschaftlicher Umweltkonzepte auf den umweltpolitischen Aufbruch in der DDR. Am Beispiel des wissenschaftlichen Naturschutzes, der seit 1951 institutionell in der Deutschen Akademie der Landwirtschaftswissenschaften verankert war, wird gezeigt, dass Naturschützer in den 1950er Jahren eine Phase der „Normalisierung“ durchliefen, die eine wesentliche Voraussetzung dafür war, ihren Anliegen politische Legitimation zu verleihen. Dieser erzwungene Anpassungsprozess beeinflusste aber nicht nur die Konzepte und Ziele des ostdeutschen Naturschutzes, sondern eröffnete seinen Protagonisten auch Partizipationsmöglichkeiten.In diesem Aufsatz plädiere ich für eine Neubewertung der ostdeutschen Umweltgeschichte, die bislang einseitig vom Ende her blickt. Zudem schlage ich vor, das begriffliche Konzept der „partizipatorischen Diktatur“ (Fulbrook) auf die Wissenschaftsgeschichte der DDR zu übertragen und vorhandene Ansätze damit zu erweitern. (shrink)

Now in its third year, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine remains at the very top of the international security agenda. This conflict has largely refocused the West's attention away from the counterterrorism and counterinsurgency campaigns that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In February 2022, German chancellor Olaf Scholz went so far as to declare that the invasion signaled a zeitenwende, or “dawn of a new era.”1 Russia's aggression and the threat of having to fight a (...) peer or near-peer competitor raises difficult questions, many of which are ethical in nature. The essays gathered in this roundtable seek to provide answers to some of those questions. They are the result of a workshop I organized for the King's College London Centre for Military Ethics in October 2023. One of my ambitions for this workshop was to put leading academics working on the ethics of war into discussion with military practitioners, making sure to include Ukrainian voices. I was very fortunate to succeed in these objectives, and I am convinced that the published essays have benefited enormously from our conversations. (shrink)

The aim of the paper is to illuminate some core aspects of Leibniz’s conception of judgement and its place in his conception of the mind. In particular, the paper argues for three claims: First, the act of judgement is at the centre of Leibniz’s conception of the mind in that minds strive at actualising innate knowledge concerning derivative truths, where the actualising involves an act of judgement. Second, Leibniz does not hold a judgement account of predication, but a two-component account (...) that distinguishes between predication and alethic evaluation. Third, Leibniz understands the act of affirmative judgement in terms of establishing active dispositions, i.e. strivings, to make reasons available for future reasoning that aims at answering whether-questions. Correspondingly, he understands the act of negative judgement in terms of establishing dispositions to ban propositions from future reasoning that aims at answering whether-questions. In the final analysis, the acts of affirmative as well as of negative judgement turn out to be acts of changing memory dispositions. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Das Mittelalter Jahrgang: 20 Heft: 1 Seiten: 29-46.

En bannissant les poètes de la Cité, Platon inaugurait une longue querelle entre philosophes et artistes. De fait, les artistes ont aimé se proclamer " instaurateurs ", " éducateurs ", " voyants ", " tenants de l'avant-garde ". Depuis Hölderlin, qui n'a en tête le poète-philosophe, depuis Nietzsche le philosophe-artiste? Pourtant le philosophique ne peut, sans renoncer au concept, être réduit à une poétique... Il est décisif d'articuler, aujourd'hui, les places philosophiques et artistiques. Au cours de ce séminaire, celles-là se (...) sont ancrées chez le Suger du XIIè siècle, dans la religion de l'art du XIXè siècle, dans la religion de l'art du XIXè siècle, chez les futuristes, les musiciens dodécaphonistes, Brecht, Pessoa ou Manoel de Oliveira. Au fond, il s'agit de penser nos configurations actuelles. (shrink)

I propose to apply a version of contextualism about knowledge to the special case that represents the topic of this volume. I begin by motivating my preferred version of contextualism, which may be labelled as conventionalist contextualism; here I start from a well-known problem that besets epistemic internalism (section I). Following this, I pose a problem for conventionalist contextualism and argue that it can be solved by invoking, first, the idea of what I shall call the lifewordly background of epistemic (...) justifi cation, an idea originating from Husserl and Wittgenstein, and, secondly, the associated notion of normality, to be found in Husserl (section II). Finally, I apply the resulting conception of justification to philosophical knowledge, particularly focussing on the special role of intuitions (section III). (shrink)

In 1864, the first living Mexican axolotls were brought from Mexico to Paris. On arrival, the 34 animals were divided up between the two zoos in Paris, the Ménagerie of the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle and the Jardin d'acclimatation. From there, the animals and their descendants spread around the world as zoo and laboratory specimens, as well as pets. Today, a population of hundreds of thousands of axolotls live in aquariums, zoos, and laboratories around the globe. The fate of the axolotls (...) in the Ménagerie and their subsequent proliferation open a unique window into the culture and practices of keeping unknown animals in Europe in the 19th century, and their relation to experimental zoology. During the early years, the challenges were to keep the axolotls alive and to bring them to reproduction. The surprising transformation of some of these normally aquatic animals into a land-dwelling form prompted further investigations of their living conditions and mode of reproduction. The example of the axolotl offers a detailed look into the practices of handling unknown species, the ways in which this handling became research, and the kinds of knowledge produced in this context. I pay particular attention to the role of the animal keepers and the infrastructures, and the ways in which practical knowledge about the animals' living conditions triggered experimental research. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: The Concept of the Standard of Living The Diverse Purposes of the Concept of the Standard of Living The Importance of Disagreement about the Standard of Living The Role of Education in the Standard of Living Social Primary Goods The Capabilities Approach Conceiving and Applying the Standard of Living.

Ende der achtziger Jahre inspirierte die Kontroverse über Martin Heideggers Verhältnis zum Nationalsozialismus zahlreiche Untersuchungen, die sich der bis dahin gänzlich vernachlässigten Geschichte der Philosophie im Dritten Reich zuwandten. Diese bis heute anhaltende, auch durch den allgemeinen Aufschwung der Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte belebte Forschungskonjunktur förderte zahlreiche Studien zur Geschichte philosophischer Seminare zutage, zu Subdisziplinen wie der Philosophischen Anthropologie, vor allem aber zur intellektuellen Biographie repräsentativer Denker wie Heidegger, Jaspers, Scheler, Hartmann, Gehlen, Freyer, oder Cassirer, Plessner und Hönigswald, den Protagonisten der (...) deutschen Philosophie in der Emigration. Es fehlte jedoch an einer als Gesamtdarstellung konzipierten Disziplingeschichte der Philosophie, die den zeithistorisch-politischen Verflechtungen des Faches institutionell, biographisch und ideengeschichtlich nachgespürt hätte, so wie dies die vorliegende Untersuchung tut. Erstmals wird hier die philosophiehistorischen Erforschung des Zeitraums zwischen 1918 und 1945 auf eine breite empirische Basis gestellt. Die ergibt sich aus der Berücksichtigung der akademischen Philosophie an dreiundzwanzig Universitäten sowie zehn Technischen Hochschulen des Deutschen Reiches, so daß die weltanschaulich-politischen Positionen von fast 400 Philosophiedozenten thematisiert werden, überwiegend jenen minores zweiten oder dritten Ranges, die bisher im Schatten der "Meisterdenker" vergessen wurden, deren Anteil am wissenschaftspolitischen Geschick ihre Faches jedoch kaum zu überschätzen ist. (shrink)