On the Genealogy of Morals is a book about the history of ethics and about interpretation. Nietzsche rewrites the former as a history of cruelty, exposing the central values of the Judaeo-Christian and liberal traditions - compassion, equality, justice - as the product of a brutal process of conditioning designed to domesticate the animal vitality of earlier cultures. The result is a book which raises profoundly disquieting issues about the violence of both ethics and interpretation. Nietzsche questions moral certainties by (...) showing that religion and science have no claim to absolute truth, before turning on his own arguments in order to call their very presuppositions into question. (shrink)

`Anyone who wants to gain a quick idea of how before me everything was topsy-turvy should make a start with this work. That which is called idol on the title-page is quite simply that which was called truth hitherto. Twilight of the Idols - in plain words: the old truth is coming to an end...' Nietzsche intended Twilight of the Idols to serve as a short introduction to his philosophy, and as a result it is the most synoptic of all (...) his books. Continuing in the spirit of its immediate predecessors On The Genealogy of Morals and The Wagner Case, it is a masterpiece of polemic, targeting not only `eternal idols' like Socratic rationality and Christian morality but also their contemporary counterparts, as Nietzsche the `untimely man' goes roaming in the gloaming of nineteenth-century European culture. He allies philosophy with psychology and physiology, relentlessly diagnozing the symptoms of decadence, and his stylistic virtuosity is such that the sheer delight he takes in his 'demonic' mischief-making communicates itself on every page. A brilliant new translation, this edition provides detailed commentary on a highly condensed and allusive work. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. (shrink)

Two representative and important works in one volume by one of the greatest German philosophers. The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was Nietzsche's first book. Its youthful faults were exposed by Nietzsche in the brilliant "Attempt at a Self-Criticism" which he added to the new edition of 1886. But the book, whatever its excesses, remains one of the most relevant statements on tragedy ever penned. It exploded the conception of Greek culture that was prevalent down through the Victorian era, and it (...) sounded themes developed in the twentieth century by classicists, existentialists, psychoanalysts, and others. The Case of Wagner (1888) was one Nietzsche's last books, and his wittiest. In attitude and style it is diametrically opposed to The Birth of Tragedy. Both works transcend their ostensible subjects and deal with art and culture, as well as the problems of the modern age generally. Each book in itself gives us an inadequate idea of its author; together, they furnish a striking image of Nietzsche's thought. The distinguished translations by Walter Kaufmann superbly reflect in English Nietzsche's idiom and the vitality of his style. Professor Kaufmann has also furnished running footnote commentaries, relevant passages from Nietzsche's correspondence, a bibliography, and, for the first time in any edition, an extensive index to each book. (shrink)

Scientific Philosophy: Origins and Development is the first Yearbook of the Vienna Circle Institute, which was founded in October 1991. The book contains original contributions to an international symposium which was the first public event to be organised by the Institute: `Vienna--Berlin--Prague: The Rise of Scientific Philosophy: The Centenaries of Rudolf Carnap, Hans Reichenbach and Edgar Zilsel.' The first section of the book - `Scientific Philosophy - Origins and Developments' reveals the extent of scientific communication in the inter-War years between (...) these great metropolitan centres, as well as presenting systematic investigations into the relevance of the heritage of the Vienna Circle to contemporary research and philosophy. This section offers a new paradigm for scientific philosophy, one which contrasts with the historiographical received view of logical empiricism. Support for this re-evaluation is offered in the second section, which contains, for the first time in English translation, Gustav Bergmann's recollections of the Vienna Circle, and an historical study of political economist Wilhelm Neurath, Otto Neurath's father. The third section gives a report on current computer-based research which documents the relevance of Otto Neurath's `Vienna method of pictorial statistics', or `Isotypes'. A review section describes new publications on Neurath and the Vienna Circle, as well anthologies relevant to Viennese philosophy and its history, setting them in their wider cultural and political perspective. Finally, a description is given of the Vienna Circle Institute and its activities since its foundation, as well as of its plans for the future. (shrink)

Research conducted on Brain-Computer Interfaces has grown considerably during the last decades. With the help of BCIs, users can gain a wide range of functions. Our aim in this paper is to analyze the impact of BCIs on autonomy. To this end, we introduce three abilities that most accounts of autonomy take to be essential: the ability to use information and knowledge to produce reasons; the ability to ensure that intended actions are effectively realized ; and the ability to enact (...) intentions within concrete relationships and contexts. We then consider the impact of BCI technology on each of these abilities. Although on first glance, BCIs solely enhance self-determination because they restore or improve abilities, we will show that there are other positive, but also negative impacts on user autonomy, which require further philosophical and ethical discussions. (shrink)

This book features papers on the history and philosophy of science. It also includes related reviews of recent research literature on Rudolf Carnap, Eino Kaila, Ernst Mach, and Otto Neurath. The central idea behind this volume is that this distinctive field is both historical and philosophical at the same time. Good history and philosophy of science is not just history of science into which some philosophy of science may enter. On the other hand, it is neither philosophy of science into (...) which some history of science may enter. The founding insight of this modern research discipline is that history and philosophy have a special affinity and one can effectively advance both simultaneously. The selection of contributions collected in this volume are good examples and best practices for these claims. In addition, it includes illuminating case studies. It will appeal to scholars in the history of and philosophy of science, especially history and philosophy of physics and biology, as well as economics, extended evolution, and the history of knowledge. (shrink)

Using a short excerpt from Anselm's Responsio as an example, this paper tries to present logical reconstruction as a special type of exegetical interpretation by paraphrase that is subject to (adapted) hermeneutic maxims and presumption rules that govern exegetical interpretation in general. As such, logical reconstruction will be distinguished from the non-interpretative enterprise of formalization and from the development of theories of logical form, which provide a framework in which formalization and reconstruction take place. Yet, even though logical reconstruction is (...) dependent on methods of formalization, it allows us to use formal methods for the analysis and assessment of natural language texts that are not readily formalizable and is thus an important tool when it comes to applying the concepts and methods of formal logic to such texts. (shrink)

Logische Studien - Ein Beitrag zur Neubegrundung der formalen Logik und der Erkenntnisstheorie ist ein unveranderter, hochwertiger Nachdruck der Originalausgabe aus dem Jahr 1894. Hansebooks ist Herausgeber von Literatur zu unterschiedlichen Themengebieten wie Forschung und Wissenschaft, Reisen und Expeditionen, Kochen und Ernahrung, Medizin und weiteren Genres.Der Schwerpunkt des Verlages liegt auf dem Erhalt historischer Literatur.Viele Werke historischer Schriftsteller und Wissenschaftler sind heute nur noch als Antiquitaten erhaltlich. Hansebooks verlegt diese Bucher neu und tragt damit zum Erhalt selten gewordener Literatur und (...) historischem Wissen auch fur die Zukunft bei.". (shrink)

History and Philosophy of Science. Between Description and Construction. Taking into consideration the huge amount of programs and departments in ‘History and Philosophy of Science’ (HPS), partly including also technology and sociology of science, the rather weak theoretical conceptualization of this field seems surprising. HPS is conceived of neither as a mere addition of history of science and philosophy of science, nor as a good will parallel action. Therefore, the question arises about the genuine subject and method of this trans‐ (...) and interdisciplinary field of research and teaching. The recent postulate of an “integrated HPS” indicates the need of a closer and more intrinsic cooperation and interaction between history of science and philosophy of science (covering also the social and cultural sciences) from a theoretical and practical point of view. In addition, there should be no more privileging of any part in this joint scholarly enterprise by overcoming the context of discovery and the context of justification. Some best practices and desiderata are mentioned together with the forgotten history of the philosophy of science itself. Based on the description of the scholarly field an ideal‐typical model of HPS is offered. (shrink)

Pioneering molecular work on chelicerate visual system development in the horseshoe crabLimulus polyphemussurprised with the possibility that this process may not depend on the deeply conserved retinal determination function ofPax6transcription factors. Genomic, transcriptomic, and developmental studies in spiders now reveal that the arthropodPax6homologseyelessandtwin of eyelessact as ancestral determinants of the ocular head segment in chelicerates, which clarifies deep gene regulatory and structural homologies and recommends more unified terminologies in the comparison of arthropod visual systems. Following this phylotypic stage, chelicerate visual (...) system development differs fundamentally from other arthropods during the compartmentalization of the ocular segment in that eye and optic neuropil primordia originate independently from each other. Comparative analyses of this phase identified further gene regulatory homologies but also major differences, most notably the possibly compensatory replacement ofPax6byPax2in lateral eye specification. Also see the video abstract here:https://youtu.be/Hdfr3z5kEXU. (shrink)

Ernst Mach was already an international successful experimental physicist and scientist, when he, after professorships for Mathematics and Physics in Graz and Experimental Physics in Prague, took over the chair for “Philosophy, particularly for the History and Theory of the Inductive Sciences”, at the University of Vienna in 1895. This turn from the natural sciences to philosophy was really an exception in the academic field.Given his strong as well as controversial history of influence in philosophy and in the sciences Mach’s (...) own pessimistic statement about the emergence of aprioristic currents at the beginning of the twentieth century is surprising and in need of an explanation.The article deals with Mach’s appointment in Vienna and Mach’s autobiographical fragments on his relation to academic philosophy from a today’s point of view. It appears that Mach can be regarded as a pioneer and predecessor of a topical “historical epistemology”, “history and philosophy of science”, and above all as a theorist and practitioner of inter- and transdisciplinarity. If he is to be regarded a philosopher, it is mainly in the context of naturalism, pragmatism and common sense philosophy – as general theory of research. (shrink)

Überwindet Technik das unheimlich Unbeherrschbare? Oder wird sie uns selbst unheimlich? Zwei scheinbar widersprüchliche Narrative prägen die Geschichte und auch die Theorie der Technik: Das Narrativ der Entzauberung beschreibt, wie eine als fremd und gefährlich erfahrene Natur durch Verwissenschaftlichung und Technisierung gezähmt wurde. Das Narrativ der Verzauberung schildert, wie uns Artefakte und technologische Möglichkeiten unheimlich werden, insbesondere wenn sie sich zu verselbständigen scheinen oder mit „autonomem“ Eigensinn gegenübertreten. In den heutigen Debatten um selbstlernende, ubiquitär verteilte, im Assistenzmodus unsichtbare, dabei opake (...) Techniken schwingt das unheimliche Moment einer „Verselbständigung“ von Technik mit – und trägt im Anschluss an die Mechanisierungs- und Automatisierungsdiskurse des 20. Jahrhunderts zur „Dämonisierung“ der Technik bei. Technik macht Welt einerseits vertraut und nachvollziehbar: Paradigmatisch wird dies in der Idee, dass etwas dann verstanden wird, wenn es technisch rekonstruiert werden kann. Andererseits wird die technische Reproduktion von Welt – oder deren radikale Umgestaltung zu einer entfremdeten – als etwas Verstörendes erlebt. Spätestens, wenn Artefakte zu tun scheinen, „was sie wollen“ oder technische Großsysteme die Lebenswelt nach ihren „Eigenlogiken“ prägen, ist eine schon von Freud benannte Grenze erreicht, an der wir verunsichert werden, ob wir überhaupt noch in der modernen Welt leben. (shrink)

1. Stück. David Strauss, der Bekenner und der Schriftsteller -- 2. Stück. Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben -- 3. Stück. Schopenhauer als Erzieher -- 4. Stück. Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.

Most of the processes subsumed under »digitalization« have in common that they permit switching and simultaneity of sender and recipient roles over a broad range of communications. Preeminently, such communications provide and process information. However, the progress of digitalization in modern lifeworlds is not primarily driven by the development of digital technology. Digital technology is but the appropriate medium for enabling the exchange of the respective formats of information. Its thrust is embedded in a cumulative history of translation of analogue (...) world-relations into such formats of information and, moreover, the progressive transformation of reality in data-structures that can be digitally mapped and controlled. Such structures are attractive because they render our access to and handling of reality more secure and more predictable. Yet they also engender increasing helplessness and discontentment at the boundaries of the digitally controllable world. (shrink)

Frontmatter -- Inhalt -- Vorwort -- Kants Leben -- Persönlichkeit -- I. Der Weg zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Versuch einer Strukturanalyse -- II. Begründung der kritischen Transzendentalphilosophie im Bereich der theoretischen und praktischen Vernunft -- III. Weiterführung des transzendentalen Systemgedankens und die Vermittlung von Freiheit und Erscheinung -- IV. Programm und Methode der neuen Metaphysik und die Weiterentwicklung im Opus Postumum -- Schriften Kants -- Literatur -- Personenregister -- Sachregister.

Evans developed a classical unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism on the background of a spacetime obeying a Riemann-Cartan geometry. This geometry can be characterized by an orthonormal coframe ϑ α and a (metric compatible) Lorentz connection Γ α β . These two potentials yield the field strengths torsion T α and curvature R α β . Evans tried to infuse electromagnetic properties into this geometrical framework by putting the coframe ϑ α to be proportional to four extended electromagnetic (...) potentials $\mathcal{A}^{\alpha }$ ; these are assumed to encompass the conventional Maxwellian potential A in a suitable limit. The viable Einstein-Cartan (-Sciama-Kibble) theory of gravity was adopted by Evans to describe the gravitational sector of his theory. Including also the results of an accompanying paper by Obukhov and the author, we show that Evans’ ansatz for electromagnetism is untenable beyond repair both from a geometrical as well as from a physical point of view. As a consequence, his unified theory is obsolete. (shrink)

Le centre de l’article est consacré à la psychologie de la pensée élaborée par l’école de Würzbourg au début du XXe siècle. Il s’agit ici de montrer que cette école articule deux mouvements contemporains: le projet d’une psychologie d’un point de vue empirique de Brentano, et l’emploi de l’expérimentation au-delà de la sphère des perceptions. À partir des travaux de Karl Bühler est mise en question la légitimité de l’approche du psychologisme appliquée à toutes les écoles psychologiques participant à cette (...) époque au débat sur la nature de la pensée. L’idée bühlerienne d’un savoir actuel ayant pour but d’éviter un mentalisme localisationniste, si attirant pour une psychologie de la pensée, est également discutée. (shrink)

This paper reevaluates wolf management through a relational ethics lens, highlighting the inadequacy of traditional wild versus domesticated categorizations. Recognizing the complexity of historical and ongoing human-wolf interactions, it proposes a nuanced, context-sensitive approach to ethical responsibilities toward wolves. By introducing an assessment process based on the examination of mutual impacts in human-wolf relations, this study advocates for a more informed and morally conscious management strategy that acknowledges wolves’ complex existence within human-affected landscapes.

As is shown in the introduction of the book, the notion "illocutionary act" is used with quite a number of essentially different meanings; consequently, it is quite unclear what an "illocutionary act" is actually supposed to be. This problem is the starting point of the thesis. An argument is stated, to the effect that the introduction and use of scholarly terms like, for instance, "illocutionary act", or "performative sentence", is not entirely arbitrary. It is argued that technical terms should not (...) be re-defined without a reason, but in the absence of reasons to the contrary should be used in the way in which they have originally been introduced. This argument is applied to the notion "illocutionary act". John L. Austin is the one who introduced this notion. Consequently, his conception of these acts should be adopted unless there are good reasons to the contrary. Therefore the book provides a detailed analysis of Austin's account, and his original conception of these acts is reconstructed. The most popular alternative account of "illocutionary acts" is John R. Searle's. Therefore, secondly, the book provides an analysis of Searle's famous account of "illocutionary acts" - the first really detailed one available, including Searle's own work. It is shown that what Searle presents is in fact extremely sketchy, and can certainly not be viewed, as it often is, as an elaborated theory. It is further argued that the fundamental assumptions about language which Searle intends to illustrate with his account of "illocutionary acts" are mistaken, so that in general a theory following the lines Searle suggests is doomed to failure. Finally it is shown that Searle's account of "illocutionary acts", as far as it goes, is not an adequate adoption of the conception Austin introduced. Hence Searle's account is no reasonable alternative to Austin's account. (shrink)

Design of information systems, on the one hand, is often dominated by pure technical considerations of performance, correctness or reliability. On the other hand, sociological analysis of the social impact of information technology is not transfered to operationalised design criteria and to practice. The paper discusses this contradiction and tries to overcome the gap between computer science and social sciences in design by analysing the history of design in architecture and fine arts as well as the approaches of contemporary design-oriented (...) disciplines. Based on this analysis and on the broad discussion about human-centredness, foundations of a new Design Science are outlined. Consequences for the education of computer scientists and software designers are discussed. (shrink)

Coldness is integral to modernity—our reality is based on its control. The quest to conquer extreme cold spurred the polar expeditions and the scientific race to absolute zero; with cryotechnology, cold became a fundamental cultural condition. Modern cryogenic cultures have gained the power to profoundly manipulate the temporality of life. However, since this power comes at the expense of those who suffer most from global warming, our cultural relationship to artificial cold must be reconsidered.