ERNST BENZ DIE SCHÖPFERISCHE BEDEUTUNG DES WORTES BEI JACOB BOEHME I Wenn der diesjährige Eranos sich als Thema : „Mensch und Wort" gestellt hat, ...

Ernst Haeckel formulated his biogenetic law, famously stating that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, in 1872. The Russian evolutionist Alexei Sewertzoff, and the Swiss-born zoologist Adolf Naef were among those who revised Haeckel’s law, thus changing the course of evolutionary theory and of developmental biology. Although Sewertzoff and Naef approached the problem in a similar way and formulated similar hypotheses at a purely descriptive level, their theoretical viewpoints were crucially different. While Sewertzoff laid the foundations for a Darwinian evolutionary morphology and (...) is regarded as a forerunner of the modern synthesis, Naef was one of the most important figures in “idealistic morphology”, which is usually seen as a type of anti-Darwinism. Both Naef and Sewertzoff aimed to revise Haeckel’s biogenetic law and came to comparable conclusions at the empirical level. This paper is an attempt to explain how their fundamentally different theoretical backgrounds influenced their views on the relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny. (shrink)

The ArgumentBiology, understood in turn-of-the-century Germany to include psychology, held a central but enigmatic place in the philosopher Ernst Cassirer's work. From his earliest studies with Hermann Cohen through his long engagement with the theoretical biology of Jakob von Uexküll and Adolf Meyer-Abich, Cassirer consistently used the history and practice of biology to examine and delineate a set of characteristic tensions between the natural and cultural sciences. This paper examines Cassirer's treatment of this theme by addressing two contrasting interpretations (...) he gave — in hisPhilosophy of Symbolic Forms and in hisEssay on Man — to the benchmark case from empirical psychology of the “talking” horse “Clever Hans.” The original case involved the horse's ability to signal answers to remarkably complex questions by stamping its hooves, an ability that ultimately appeared to rest on a capacity to detect extremely minute unintentional movement cues in its auditors as it reached the appropriate answer. Due to both Cassirer's shifting description of the case within his philosophy and the case's inherent polyvalence, Cassirer's remarks provide a useful window onto the social, epistemological, and stylistic meaning of his “unified” philosophy of human culture and science. (shrink)

On September 12, 1949, the liberal politician Theodor Heuss, party leader of the „Freie Demokratische Partei“ (FDP), was elected by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention) as the first Bundespräsident, i. e. head of state, of the newly founded Bundesrepublik Deutschland. As a young man Heuss had been a close friend and political ally of Friedrich Naumann, the protestant pastor and left wing liberal politician, supported by Ernst Troeltsch. Heuss then working as a political journalist for liberal newspapers and Naumann’s weekly (...) journal Die Hilfe, was an admirer of Troeltsch, and since 1910 they often met in Heidelberg, at Villa Fallenstein, Ziegelhäuser Landstraße 17, where Max and Marianne Weber as well als the Troeltschs lived; Heuss frequently visited Max Weber’s Sunday jour fixe. When in 1915 Troeltsch became a professor at the Philosophical Faculty of Berlin University Heuss regularly kept in contact with him especially through Hans Delbrück’s „Mittwochabend“, a weekly gathering of liberal intellectuals, professors, politicians and journalists discussing political reforms and the ongoing war. Both Troeltsch and Heuss, 19 years younger, demanded the democratization of the Deutsches Reich, and after the end of the war and the revolution of 1918/19 they became members of the newly founded left wing liberal party „Deutsche Demokratische Partei“ (DDP). After Troeltsch’s sudden death on February 1st, 1923, Heuss wrote an obituary, and, together with his wife Elly Heuss-Knapp, attended the funeral service conducted by Adolf von Harnack. Heuss was a member of the „Demokratischer Klub Berlin“, founded in 1919 by liberal politicians, bankers and academics to regularly discuss the political situation of the new democratic state, the Weimar Republic. Unknown until now, seven weeks after Troeltsch’s death the „Demokratische Klub“ invited its members (the club only had male mebers!) to a memorial act for Troeltsch. On this occasion Heuss delivered a speech „Zu Ernst Troeltschs Gedächtnis“ („To the Memory of Ernst Troeltsch“) which is published here for the first time. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin has become a decisive reference point for a whole range of critical disciplines, as he constructed a unique and provocative synthesis of aesthetics, politics and philosophy. -/- Examining Benjamin’s contributions to cultural criticism in relation to the works of Max Ernst, Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier and Sigfried Giedion, this book also situates Benjamin’s work within more recent developments in architecture and urbanism. -/- This is a concise, coherent account of the relevance of Walter Benjamin’s writings to architects, (...) locating Benjamin’s critical work within the context of contemporary architecture and urbanism. (shrink)

Hermann Cohen, the founding father of Marburg neo-Kantianism, is known for criticising capitalism from a Kantian ethical perspective. Thus far, the role of the notion of humanity in this critique has been viewed as grounding what I shall call the ‘purposive labour reading’. This reading takes Cohen’s primary interest to lie in a reorganisation of work so that our humanity, which requires us to be treated as ends, remains intact. With the aim to better understand the relevant notion of humanity, (...) I contextualise the discussion within the overall framework of Cohens’ neo-Kantian account of ethical cognition and situate his ideas in the context of his contemporary interlocutors. Revisiting Cohen’s remarks on socialism and capitalism against this backdrop reveals that his discussion of labour serves as an exemplar, showcasing how ethical rationality manifests in the liberal socialists’ demands. I argue that his primary aim was not to prepare the ground for a prescriptive labour theory – though this is likely to follow – but to argue for a framework alternative to historical materialism, allowing us to perceive and interpret social practices in an ethical light. (shrink)

Part I. Space and Time in the History of Philosophy. The Concept of Space in Antiquity / Max Jammer. -- Aristotle and the Sea Battle / G.E.M. Anscombe. -- Questions About Time / St. Augustine. -- Space and Matter / Renè Descartes. -- Absolute Space and Time / Isaac Newton. -- The Relational Theory of Space and Time / Gottfried Leibniz. -- Place, Extension and Duration / John Locke. -- Transcendental Ideality of Space and Time / Immanuel Kant. -- Mirror (...) Images / Immanuel Kant. -- Newton's Views of Time, Space and Motion / Ernst Mach. -- The Unreality of Space and time / F.H. Bradley. -- Duration and Intuition / Henri Bergson. -- The Problem of Infinity Considered Historically / Bertrand Russell. -- Part II. Geomoetry and Physics. What is Geometry? / A.S. Eddington. -- Space and Geometry / Ernest Nagel. -- Non-Eucledian Spaces / Hans Reichenbach. -- Geometry and Definition of Congruence / Hans Reichenbach. -- Geometry as a Branch of Physics / H.P. Robertson. -- Part III. Space-Time and Relativity. Relativity / R.E. Peierls. -- Autobiographical Notes / Albert Einstein. -- The Four-Dimensional World / Moritz Schlick. -- Space and Time / H. Minkowski. The Philosophical Retention of Absolute Space in Einstein's General Theory of relativity / Adolf Grünbaum. -- Part IV. Recent Philosophical Analyses. Ostensible Temporality / C.D. Croad. -- Time : A Treatment of Some Puzzles / J.N. Findlay. -- Time and Language, and the Passage fo Time / Nelson Goodman. -- Time / W.V. Quine. -- Geometrical Objects / W.V. Quine. -- Spatial and Temporal Ananlogies and the Concept of Identity / Richard Taylor. -- Time, Irreversible Processes, and the Physical Status of Becoming / Adolf Grünbaum. (shrink)

Introduction: Kantian concepts, liberal theology, and post-Kantian idealism -- Subjectivity in question: Immanuel Kant, Johann G. Fichte, and critical idealism -- Making sense of religion: Friedrich Schleiermacher, John Locke, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and liberal theology -- Dialectics of spirit: F.W.J. Schelling, G.W.F. Hegel, and absolute idealism -- Hegelian spirit in question: David Friedrich Strauss, Søren Kierkegaard, and mediating theology -- Neo-Kantian historicism: Albrecht Ritschl, Adolf von Harnack, Wilhelm Herrmann, Ernst Troeltsch, and the Ritschlian school -- Idealistic ordering: Lux Mundi, (...) Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, Hastings Rashdall, Alfred E. Garvie, Alfred North Whitehead, William Temple, and British idealism -- The Barthian revolt: Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and the legacy of liberal theology -- Idealistic ironies: from Kant and Hegel to Tillich and Barth. (shrink)

Provides a thorough overview of historical and contemporary theories of evolution, discusses key concepts and terms, and argues that our understanding of evolution has changed the beliefs and values of modern humankind. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

This paper contrasts the London Olympics of 2012 with the St Louis Games of 1904 in the context of their cultural and historical context, especially the World’s Fair. What I suggest is that the 1904 World’s Fair, with its supporting academic congress at which Adolf von Harnack and Ernst Troeltsch lectured, played a modest part in the early phases of the deabsolutization of western culture, together with the Christianity upon which it was constructed. Despite the widespread patronizing and racialist (...) atti­tudes in St Louis, the sheer variety and breadth of cultures seen by millions demonstrated a cultural relativism that was emerging as a serious approach to anthropology and other branches of knowledge, including theology. The fruits of such a deabsolutization can perhaps be glimpsed in the gradual transformation of the absolutes of western religion through the twentieth century into the new universals of nationhood and sport, both of which clearly coalesce in the contemporary version of the Olympic Games. I conclude by suggesting that sport and national myths may be the only universals that will have the strength to survive into the future. Of the two, the modern Olympic ideal seems better suited to promoting harmony between peoples than most national myths. This article is based on a lecture given at the Catholic University of Leuven in December 2012. I would like to thank Professor Lieven Boeve and Johan Leemans for the invitation to speak. (shrink)

Cuando apareció Heidegger y el nazismo el mundo intelectual internacional habló de una «bomba», pese al tono mesurado y exacto del texto. El descubrimiento innegable de su vínculo con el nazi-fascismo, comprometía no sólo a su propio país, sino a toda la cultura del siglo XX. Esta discusión sigue viva. Por eso, Heidegger y su herencia: el neonazismo, el neofascismo y el fundamentalismo islámico compromete de modo sorprendente la proyección del pensamiento heideggeriano en el presente y el futuro. Con su (...) metodología estricta y sobria, su exposición clara, fundada siempre en hechos y textos, Víctor Farías pone de manifiesto la función vitalizadora que Heidegger tiene en las formas totalitarias y extremistas de la actualidad. Para todo lector será una sorpresa mayor descubrir su pensamiento en relación a la polémica antisemita y revisionista iniciada por su alumno Ernst Nolte, la función central de la filosofía heideggeriana en el programa y la praxis del NPD —el mayor partido neonazi alemán— y en el discurso teórico de los neofascistas más relevantes de Francia, Italia y Bélgica, fundamentando en él la xenofobia extrema y el antisemitismo. Aun los ecologistas fundamentalistas heideggerianos, con Rudolf Bahro a la cabeza, anhelan el advenimiento de un «Adolf verde». Sorprende también que los fundamentalistas islámicos vean en Martin Heidegger una suerte de icono en su lucha contra los «infieles», la modernidad y la democracia, se revela que Khomeini formó un grupo autodenominado «los heideggerianos» que recibieron la misión de articular la cultura y la legalidad islámica en Irán. Uno de sus miembros era Ahmadinezhad. El neomarxista populista Hugo Chávez, primitivo pero antisemita radical, tuvo como su asesor más importante a Norberto Ceresole, el neonazi heideggeriano más relevante de Argentina. Incluso los neoracistas indigenistas del Perú acuden a Heidegger para fundamentar su «lucha por su sangre inca y su suelo» en la autenticidad del «Ser-ahí» heideggeriano. (shrink)

When Charles Darwin (1859, 482) wrote in the Origin of Species that he looked to the “young and rising naturalists” to heed the message of his book, he likely had in mind individuals like Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), who responded warmly to the invitation (Haeckel, 1862, 1: 231-32n). Haeckel became part of the vanguard of young scientists who plowed through the yielding turf to plant the seed of Darwinism deep into the intellectual soil of Germany. As Haeckel would later observe, (...) the seed flourished in extremely favorable ground. The German mind, he would write (1868), was predisposed to adopt the new theory. The great philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804), for instance, was on the verge of accepting a transmutational view in his Third Critique (1790; 1957, 538-39), though he stepped gingerly back from the temptation. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), about the same time, dallied with transmutational ideas, at least Haeckel would convince Darwin that the Englishman had an illustrious predecessor. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck’s (1744-1829) conceptions had taken hold among several major German thinkers in the first few decades of the nineteenth century in a way they had not in England and France. Among those ready to declare themselves for the new dispensation was Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), Haeckel’s teacher at Würzburg—though, this very political scientist would prove Haeckel’s nemesis later in the century. So Haeckel’s estimate of the ripeness of German thought was not off the mark. Darwinism took hold in the newly unified land, though not without some struggle; but at last it became the dominant view in the biological sciences. But with its success did it foster the malign racist ideology that transfixed Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)? (shrink)

Poetisierende Musikbeschreibungen werden von der Wissenschaft, von Musikern und Konzertbesuchern heute mehr belächelt als ernst genommen. Durch das Ansprechen von Einbildungskraft und Gefühl haben sie aber eine Unmittelbarkeit, die der kompositionstechnischen Analyse in der Regel fehlt. Die Wurzeln einer metaphorischen Musikbeschreibung um die Wende zum 19. Jahrhundert sind dabei gleichermaßen historisch wie systematisch zu fassen. Zahlreiche Zitate aus den Fachzeitschriften bis zur Jahrhundertmitte dokumentieren die Herausbildung eines festumrissenen Bildervorrats, um musikalische Eindrücke zur Sprache zu bringen. Der kreative Umgang mit (...) Beschreibungskonventionen ist für die Musikkritiken von E.T.A. Hoffmann, Adolf Bernhard Marx, Ludwig Rellstab und vor allem Robert Schumann kennzeichnend. (shrink)

The existence of objective knowledge and the possibility of communicating it by means of language have traditionally been taken for granted by educators. Recent developments in the philosophy of science and the historical study of scientific accomplishments have deprived these presuppositions of their former plausibility. Sooner or later, this must have an effect on the teaching of science. In this paper I am presenting a brief outline of an alternative theory of knowing that takes into account the thinking organism''s cognitive (...) isolation from reality. This orientation was proposed by Vico at the beginning of the 18th century, disregarded for two hundred years, and then propounded independently by Piaget as a developmentally grounded constructivist epistemology. The paper focuses specifically on the adaptive function of cognition, Piaget''s scheme theory, the process of communication, and the subjective perspective on social interaction. In the concluding section it then suggests some of the consequences the shift of epistemological presuppositions might have for the practice of teaching. (shrink)

This book represents a unique attempt to reconcile the traditional oppositions of the natural law and social utopian traditions, providing basic insights into the meaning of human rights in a socialist society.

The big question at the end of Feferman is: Is it possible to find a foundation for unlimited category theory? I show that the answer is no by showing that unlimited category theory is inconsistent.

The article presents a full proof‐theoretic semantics for natural deduction based on an extended inversion principle: the elimination rule for an operator q may invert the introduction rule for q, but also vice versa, the introduction rule for a connective q may invert the elimination rule for q. Such an inversion—extending Prawitz' concept of inversion—gives the following theorem: Inversion for two rules of operator q (intro rule, elim rule) exists iff a reduction of a maximum formula for q exists. The (...) inversion theorem is specified to two logics, Lambek calculus (LC) and intuitionistic linear logic (ILL), with four propositional connectives: two multiplicatives (implication and conjunction) and two additives (conjunction and disjunction), with two quantifiers and two modals. LC is defined by using elimination rules by composition. ILL is defined by using usual general elimination rules. Elimination rules by composition are an exciting alternative to general elimination rules; in some cases, they do not need permutations. (shrink)

Modern Darwinism is an elaboration of Darwin's original theories. The misunderstandings of the synthetic theory, on which recent attacks are based, are analyzed in detail. Six areas are described in which current theory modifies or amplifies Darwin's thinking. The rejection of an inheritance of acquired characters, the greater role assigned to chance in the production of genetic variability, the knowledge of the total separation of genotype and phenotype, and the clearer recognition of the role of the individual as target of (...) selection, are among the modern amplifications of the Darwinian theory. Remaining gaps in our understanding of evolution are specified. (shrink)

A theory may be invalid, not owing to erroneous observations or the invocation of an inappropriate law, but because of the use of equivocal terms. This is demonstrated for Darwin's failed model of sympatric speciation through the principle of divergence.

Ausblick und Rückblick.--Grundlagen der autonomen Erziehungswissenschaft.--Die Erziehung.--Besondere Erziehungslehre. Die III. Dimension.--Die Humanität.

The use of placebo in clinical trials has been repeatedly challenged as being unacceptable from an ethical point of view. The present paper responds to this criticism by taking up the issue in the light of the pertinent provisions of the Helsinki Declaration. Examples from different therapeutic areas are given that highlight the importance of placebo in situations in which its use is acceptable according to the Declaration. Particular emphasis is given to the question of active control trials, which, under (...) conditions of low assay sensitivity, may become an ethically less acceptable approach than the use of a placebo control. (shrink)

Se puede decir, creo, que en cuanto a la moral nos encontramos hoy en una cierta desorientación, pues aunque casi todos tenemos convicciones morales bastante fuertes, en general no podemos decir en qué se basan. La razón de esta desorientación es que, mientras antes, tanto en nuestra propia cultura como en las demás, la moral siempre tenía su base en la religión o en la tradición, una tal justificación ya no nos convence. Morales anteriores tenían su base en una autoridad (...) que aceptaba, bien la autoridad de Dios o de la tradición o de ambos. Por consiguiente, la moral había sido heterónoma, no autónoma, ya que tenía su fundamento en la creencia y en la obediencia a Dios o a la tradición, no en un entendimiento y un querer propio. La desorientación en que nos encontramos hoy parece tener su raíz que por un lado una moral heterónoma ya no nos convence y en que, por otro lado, todavía no tenernos un entendimiento claro de lo que es una moral autónoma, pues la conciencia moral contemporánea se compone de una mezcla de factores de distintas proveniencias. (shrink)

Since Oneself as Another, Ricœur placed the notion of capability or of “I can” at the center of the hermeneutics of the self. While exploring the range of capabilities, the notion of capability itself nevertheless remains under-determined from a point of view that one may call “technical.” The claim that I defend in this article is that the hermeneutics of the capable human being requires a development of its technical dimension, in other words, a reflection on the competence and means (...) related to the “I can.” To support this claim, five dimensions of incapability of the capable human being are examined, in order to assert that incapability is the practical horizon of the action of the capable human being. Subsequently, the tension between ability and inability is described as the originary finitude of the human agent. This conclusion makes it possible to demonstrate that the capable-incapable human being reveals the technicity of the human being over the entire range of social interactions. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE. (shrink)