Among the many acid-base concepts, the theory of Usanovich is one of the least known despite the most general scope including almost all chemical reaction types and even redox chemistry. Published 1939 in a Soviet journal in Russian language, it gained little immediate attention, and was later criticized mainly as being too broad in scope. Although several articles recently remembered Usanovich and his acid–base theory, one major inconsistency again was overseen: the electron is put in a row along with anions. (...) Chemical history probably correctly puts this concept aside, also because it added little explanation capabilities beyond the elaborated considerations of the simultaneously published acid–base theory of Gilbert N. Lewis which was later refined by Pearson (hard and soft acids and bases, “HSAB”). A modified version of the core of Usanovich' concept is finally discussed. It combines the classic protic and aprotic acid–base concepts on the foundations of Lewis’ and Pearsons ideas. (shrink)

Normativität hat in den Sozialwissenschaften noch immer etwas Anrüchiges, fast Abschreckendes. Es gibt eine lange Traditionslinie in den Sozialwissenschaften, die versucht, ihre Disziplin gegenüber normativen Argumenten „sauber“ zu halten. Das wird in der Regel damit begründet, dass im wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisprozess Gesinnungsmotive nicht hilfreich sind und im Extremfall Ergebnisse verzerren. Befürworter normativer Sozialwissenschaften halten dagegen, dass die fehlende Thematisierung etwa von sozialen Ungleichheits- und Herrschaftsverhältnissen die Welt, so wie sie gerade ist, einmal mehr bestätigt – und das ist eben auch nicht (...) normfrei und kann es auch nicht sein, weil, so eine zentrale These des vorliegenden Bandes, Theorien notwendig mit normativen Bezügen behaftet sind. Damit ist das Spektrum der Positionen angedeutet, die in diesem Sammelband zu finden sind. Er hat einerseits das Ziel, normative Verwicklungen auch in den sozialwissenschaftlichen Ansätzen aufzuspüren, die stärker auf die Idee einer wertfreien Wissenschaft verpflichtet sind. Andererseits werden Ansätze, die explizit herrschaftskritische Positionen vertreten, auf die Plausibilität ihrer normativen Setzungen hin überprüft. Die normativen Hintergründe sozialwissenschaftlicher Theoriebildung aufzuzeigen und eine Debatte über die normativen Bezüge der Sozialwissenschaften anzuregen ist das Anliegen dieses Bandes. (shrink)

La présentation ambiguë de la χώρα dans le Timée a donné lieu à une grande diversité d’interprétations, dont la plupart se sont inspirées de la critique aristotélicienne du discours de Timée. Depuis l’Antiquité, ceux qui ont voulu sauver l’analyse de Platon face aux objections formulées par Aristote se sont servis des notions et des présuppositions que celui‑ci a imposées au débat. Or, il importe d’essayer de dépouiller de ces présupposés la question de la χώρα, en cherchant à identifier les questions (...) que Platon lui‑même s’est posé, et qu’il a voulu résoudre en établissant la notion de χώρα. Vu que, en Tim. 52d‑53b, Platon indique que la χώρα contenait des qualités avant l’intervention démiurgique, il faut accepter que ce réceptacle qui reçoit les éléments n’est pas sans forme et, dès lors, qu’il ne correspond pas à la notion aristotélicienne de la matière. Il s’agit plutôt d’une masse corporelle douée d’une motion déséquilibrée, et dont la nature n’est pas changée lors de l’imposition de la forme. La matérialité de cette masse corporelle ne faisant l’objet d’aucune conceptualisation, ce passage sur la χώρα, comme d’ailleurs l’analyse des éléments en Tim. 53b‑61c, montre que Platon n’a pas élaboré une theorie de la matière. (shrink)

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior as well as more complex mental processes. Previous cue-priming experiments demonstrated that masked cues can modulate endogenous shifts of spatial attention as measured by choice reaction time tasks. Here, we applied a signal detection task with masked luminance targets to determine the source and the scope of effects of masked stimuli. Target-detection performance was modulated by prime-cue congruency, indicating that prime-cue congruency modulates signal enhancement at early levels of target processing. These effects, however, (...) were only found when the prime was perceptually similar to the cue indicting that primes influence early target processing in an indirect way by facilitating cue processing. Together with previous research we conclude that masked stimuli can modulate perceptual and post-central levels of processing. Findings mark a new limit of the effects of unconscious stimuli which seem to have a smaller scope than conscious stimuli. (shrink)

Logiker würden doch nur Tautologien und Trivialitäten produzieren. Mit dieser Kritik werden Logiker an philosophischen Instituten oft konfrontiert. Es wird ebenfalls eingewendet, daß mathematische Methoden in der Philosophie unangemessen seien, daß man durch die Verwendung dieser Methoden auf eine bestimmte philosophische Position festgelegt sei und daß der philosophische Gewinn den mit einem logischen Apparat verbundenen Aufwand nicht rechtfertige. In der Arbeit wird dargelegt, inwieweit diese vier Vorwürfe berechtigt sind und inwieweit sie auf Mißver- ständnissen beruhen. Dazu werden folgende Fragen beantwortet: (...) Was sind formale Sprachen und formale Systeme? Was ist die Aufgabe logischer Untersuchungen in der Philosophie? Sollten philosophische Texte formalisiert werden? Inwieweit ist Logik nützlich? Gibt es Beispiele für philosophisch fruchtbare logische Resultate? Legt Logik auf eine bestimmte Philosophie fest? Logik, so wird gezeigt, dient der Überprüfung philosophischer Argumente und als Medium zum Philosophieren. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag stellt eine differenzierungstheoretische Perspektive auf Sportbeteiligung und Sportinteresse der Erwachsenenbevölkerung vor. Zugrunde liegen empirische Daten aus einer eigenen repräsentativen Bevölkerungsumfrage in Deutschland vom Herbst 2003, in der die Inklusion der Erwachsenen in sämtliche gesellschaftlichen Teilsysteme ermittelt wurde. Die Inklusion in den Sport wird mit Bezug auf die sekundäre Leistungsrolle des Breitensportlers und die Publikumsrolle des Sportzuschauers betrachtet; sodann wird möglichen Zusammenhängen zwischen der Ausprägung der Inklusion in den Sport mit ungleichheitstheoretisch geläufigen Merkmalen sozialer Lage, darüber hinaus dann (...) auch mit der Ausprägung anderer Inklusionsverhältnisse nachgegangen. (shrink)

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior but also more complex mental processes. Recent research has gradually extended the limits of effects of unconscious stimuli. One field of research where such limits have been proposed is spatial cueing, where exogenous automatic shifts of attention have been distinguished from endogenous controlled processes which govern voluntary shifts of attention. Previous evidence suggests unconscious effects on mechanisms of exogenous shifts of attention. Here, we applied a cue-priming paradigm to a spatial cueing task with (...) arbitrary cues by centrally presenting a masked symmetrical prime before every cue stimulus. We found priming effects on response times in target discrimination tasks with the typical dynamic of cue-priming effects indicating that central symmetrical stimuli which have been associated with endogenous orienting can modulate shifts of spatial attention even when they are masked. Prime–Cue Congruency effects of perceptual dissimilar prime and cue stimuli suggest that these effects cannot be entirely reduced to perceptual repetition priming of cue processing. In addition, priming effects did not differ between participants with good and poor prime recognition performance consistent with the view that unconscious stimulus features have access to processes of endogenous shifts of attention. (shrink)

The subject of intercultural exchange is complex and demands that we keep the basic issues that shape our views of the world in mind. And one of these basic issues is what we mean by “European identity.” The ideological concerns over the norms of identity became necessarily entangled in the post-1989 interests and agendas of Europe’s various nations. So the great challenge for us as academics as well as for the policymakers in Brussels and Strasburg is to focus on these (...) dialectics. European identity is too varied to be a unitary and homogenous thing; indeed, one of the battles within it is between the advocates of a unitary identity and those who see the whole as a complex that is irreducible to a unified identity. In this article I explore how the theatre, in the aftermath of the Second World War, served as a laboratory for the investigation, analysis, and constuction of dramatic models that became a means of transcultural communication. As attested by the continuing success of the experimental approaches of Brecht, Grotowski, La Mama, and Suzuki, this endeavour reflected the struggle of people from different cultural backgrounds to understand and accept each other. One of the reasons the theatre continues to have the potentiality to promote transcultural integration is that it deals in concrete particulars with universal resonances. As I will demonstrate with examples from my own work in various countries, the production and directing of plays by these and other dramatists shows that it is only in the performance—by transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar, by making the habitual and customary seem strange and unexpected—that the motives, relationships, and events enclosed in the written play are released so as to stimulate the audience to re-examine their own contemporary realities. Transcultural theatre thus creates dramatic experiences that are adequate and responsive to the changing world of migration and mobility in which both practitioners and audiences actually live. As such it offers the kind of transcultural education that promotes communication and understanding and that fosters an open-eyed and open-hearted attitude to the changing realities of Europe. (shrink)

RNA can catalyse chemical reactions through its ability to fold into complex three‐dimensional structures and to specifically bind small molecules and divalent metal ions. The 2′‐hydroxyl groups of the ribose moieties contribute to this exceptional reactivity of RNA, compared to DNA. RNA is not only able to catalyse phosphate ester transfer reactions in ribonucleic acids, but can also show aminoacyl esterase activity, and is probably able to promote peptide bond formation. Bearing its potential for functioning both as a genome and (...) as a gene product, RNA is suitable for in vitro evolution experiments enabling the selection of molecules with new properties. The growing repertoire of RNA catalysed reactions will establish RNA as a primordial molecule in the evolution of life. (shrink)

Definition of the problem: Recent progress in the pharmacological sciences provides a first glimpse of the development of an individual, genotype-based drug therapy in order to improve the efficiency of drug utilization. Genotyping of genetic polymorphisms in genes involved in drug response promises to optimize drug therapy fundamentally by identifying patients for whom a pharmaceutical agent may be effective and safe or contraindicated because of expected adverse drug reactions. Arguments: The new pharmacogenomic treatment strategies raise complex bioethical issues, because genetic (...) screening for drug therapy may identify asymptomatic patients who are at risk for a particular adverse outcome. Thus, pharmacogenomics will affect the relationship between the treating physician and the patient which is traditionally based on privacy, confidentiality, beneficience and non-maleficience. Conclusion: In the article presented some ethical aspects of these new pharmacogenomic approaches concerning the physician-patient relationship are discussed. (shrink)

This book introduces the notions and methods of formal logic from a computer science standpoint, covering propositional logic, predicate logic, and foundations ...

At In Platonis Timaeum Commentarii II, 1.393.31–394.5 Diehl, Proclus follows Porphyry's inferences against the theory of Atticus, focussing more precisely on the fact that the latter's account of the principles does not correspond to the views expounded by Plato himself. In Diehl's text, based on a limited selection of primary manuscript-witnesses, the introductory phrase to this criticism contains a reference to the maker, which cannot easily be explained within the context. On the basis of a new examination of the manuscript (...) tradition, and of the context of the passage, we will present a new conjecture that allows one to avoid the problems involved in Diehl's reading of the text. (shrink)

Ethics of any kind basically assume that all human beings by nature aim at happiness. However, this general starting point has to be made concrete in order to be relevant for action, and hence suitable for moral appreciation. What does my happiness consist in? Contrary to what has often been taken for granted, the concrete aim is not instrumental or subsidiary to the overall aim of happiness. To me, my particular aim is rather identical with happiness. The choice I make (...) — if choice it is — indeed constitutes my happiness, i.e. the overall aim that directs my existential choices. This article is focused on the way Aristotelian ethics envisages the concreteness of this overall aim. This is not the concreteness of the means leading to the aim, which has often been discussed in Aristotelian scholarship, but happiness itself, taken as the specific but nevertheless universal aim that I seek to accomplish in my life. The main arguments are taken from Nicomachean Ethics VI and III. These texts, central to any discussion of Aristotle's views on the role of choice and deliberation in acquiring happiness, are re-interpreted, avoiding the deadlock of a debate between intellectualists and non-intellectualists. (shrink)