Drosophila imaginal discs (appendage primordia) have proved invaluable for deciphering cellular and molecular mechanisms of animal development. By combining the accessibility of the discs with the genetic tractability of the fruit fly, researchers have discovered key mechanisms of growth control, pattern formation and long‐range signaling. One of the principal experimental attractions of discs is their anatomical simplicity — they have long been considered to be cellular monolayers. During larval stages, however, the growing discs are 2‐sided sacs composed of a columnar (...) epithelium on one side and a squamous ‘peripodial’ epithelium on the other. Recent studies suggest important roles for peripodial epithelia in processes previously assumed to be confined to columnar cell monolayers. BioEssays 23:691–697, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

When testing primates with cognitive tasks, it is usually not considered that subjects differ markedly in terms of emotional reactivity toward the experimenter, which potentially affects a subject’s cognitive performance. We addressed this issue in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), a monkey species in which males tend to show stronger emotional reactivity in testing situations, whereas females have been reported to outperform males in cognitive tasks. In a two-phase experiment, we first quantified the emotional reactivity of 14 subjects toward four different (...) experimenters performing a standardized behavioral action sequence and then assessed whether and how it affected the subjects’ participation and performance in a subsequent object permanence task. A test session was terminated if a subject refused to make a choice in four consecutive trials. Highly emotionally aroused individuals, particularly males, were less likely to participate in the cognitive task and completed fewer trials. However, whenever they did participate and were attentive to the task, their performance was not affected. Our results suggest that differences in emotional reactivity toward an experimenter have no major impact on cognitive performance if strict criteria are applied on when to abandon a test session and if performance is corrected for attention to the test procedure. Furthermore, they suggest that the reported sex differences in cognitive performance in marmosets may be owing to motivational and attentional factors, rather than a difference in cognitive ability per se. (shrink)

Comparative psychology assesses cognitive abilities and capacities of non-human animals and humans. Based on performance differences and similarities in various species in cognitive tests, it is inferred how their minds work and reconstructed how cognition might have evolved. Critically, such species comparisons are only valid and meaningful if the tasks truly capture individual and inter-specific variation in cognitive abilities rather than contextual variables that might affect task performance. Unlike in human test psychology, however, cognitive tasks for non-human primates (and most (...) other animals) have been rarely evaluated regarding their measurement validity. We review recent studies that address how non-cognitive factors affect performance in a set of commonly used cognitive tasks, and if cognitive tests truly measure individual variation in cognitive abilities. We find that individual differences in emotional and motivational factors primarily affect performance via attention. Hence, it is crucial to systematically control for attention during cognitive tasks to obtain valid and reliable results. Aspects of test design, however, can also have a substantial effect on cognitive performance. We conclude that non-cognitive factors are a minor source of measurement error if acknowledged and properly controlled for. It is essential, however, to validate and eventually re-design several primate cognition tasks in order to ascertain that they capture the cognitive abilities they were designed to measure. This will provide a more solid base for future cognitive comparisons within primates but also across a wider range of non-human animal species. (shrink)

The presence of general intelligence poses a major evolutionary puzzle, which has led to increased interest in its presence in nonhuman animals. The aim of this review is to critically evaluate this question and to explore the implications for current theories about the evolution of cognition. We first review domain-general and domain-specific accounts of human cognition in order to situate attempts to identify general intelligence in nonhuman animals. Recent studies are consistent with the presence of general intelligence in mammals (rodents (...) and primates). However, the interpretation of a psychometricgfactor as general intelligence needs to be validated, in particular in primates, and we propose a range of such tests. We then evaluate the implications of general intelligence in nonhuman animals for current theories about its evolution and find support for the cultural intelligence approach, which stresses the critical importance of social inputs during the ontogenetic construction of survival-relevant skills. The presence of general intelligence in nonhumans implies that modular abilities can arise in two ways, primarily through automatic development with fixed content and secondarily through learning and automatization with more variable content. The currently best-supported model, for humans and nonhuman vertebrates alike, thus construes the mind as a mix of skills based on primary and secondary modules. The relative importance of these two components is expected to vary widely among species, and we formulate tests to quantify their strength. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Erscheinung bei Kant" verfügbar.

Was ist der Mensch? Was ist Sprache, Geist, Bewusstsein, Selbstbewusstsein, Seele, Absicht, Wille, Freiheit, Subjektivität? Wie hängt dies alles mit der Natur, der es entstammt, zusammen? Wer stellt diese Grundfragen der Philosophie heute noch, und wer gibt Antworten darauf? Gerold Prauss deckt einen bisher noch nicht gesehenen Zusammenhang auf, der philosophisch weiterführt. Ein philosophisches Grundlagenwerk, das als eine Erneuerung systematischen Philosophierens aus dem Geist der großen drei Kritiken Immanuel Kants begrüßt worden ist. Das Werk besticht durch die rhetorische Brillanz, (...) mit der Gerold Prauss seine Leser in den Dialog mit dem Autor einbezieht. (shrink)

Beck, L.W. Können Kants synthetische Urteil in analystische umgewandelt werden?--Ebbinghaus, J. Kants Lehre von der Anschauung a priori.--Mittelstrass, J. Spontaneität.--Prauss, G. Zum Wahrheitsproblem bei Kant.--Henrich, D. Die Beweisstruktur von Kants transzendentaler Deduktion.--Kaulbach, F. Schema, Bild und Modell nach den Voraussetzungen des Kantischen Denkens.--Frede, M. und Krüger, L. Über die Zuordnung der Quantitäten des Urteils und der Kategorien der Grösse bei Kant.--Weizsäcker, C.F. von. Kants "Erste Analogie der Erfahrung" und die Erhaltungssätze der Physik.--Beck, L.W. Die Zweite Analogie und das Prinzip der (...) Unberstimmtheit.--Tuschling, B. Kants "Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft" und das Opus postumum.--Hilbner, K. Leib und Erfahrung in Kants Opus postumum.--Patzig, G. Die logischen Formen praktischer Sätze in Kants Ethik.--Henrich, D. Der Begriff der sittlichen Einsicht und Kants Lehre vom Faktum der Vernunft.--Schwemmer, O. Vernunft und Moral.--Ebbinghaus, J. Die Formeln des kategorischen Imperativs und die Ableitung inhaltlich bestimmter Pflichten. (shrink)

This article concerns the unsolved riddle of the continuum of the extension of time and space. It becomes solvable if one takes the two different relationships that can exist between extension and point as a basis: the primary relationship in the synthetic continuum and the secondary relationship in the analytical continuum. Time and space can then be deduced from the primary relationship between extension and point as each special extension. And this deduction corresponds exactly to the synthesis of time and (...) space that Kant seeks to develop. (shrink)

Kann es dabei bleiben, dass das Kontinuum und das Unendliche noch bis heute zwei ungeloste Ratsel sind? Denn immerhin ist nicht einmal geklart, ob sie tatsachlich zwei sind oder nicht vielmehr nur eins. Und das obwohl doch feststeht: Auftreten kann unsere Welt als Inbegriff des Endlichen nur im Kontinuum von Zeit und Raum als dem Unendlichen. Nur ist nicht klar, ob es auf seinem Grund denn in der Tat kontinuierlich ist und nicht vielmehr diskret, wozu man bisher neigt. Befragt man (...) es bisher doch nur reduktionistisch nach der blossen Vielheit seiner Elemente: philosophisch ebenso wie mathematisch. Notig fur die Ratsellosung aber konnte sein, dass man auch noch holistisch nach der inneren Einheit dieser Vielheit fragt, wie es nicht einmal Aristoteles und Kant tun. Schliesslich ist es fur uns bedeutsam, wenn als Grundgestalt der Welt, zu der wir, die Subjekte, mit hinzugehoren, das Kontinuum als das Unendliche auftritt. Womoglich ist es dadurch nicht nur mathematisch oder philosophisch, sondern auch noch theologisch von Bedeutung. All dem Ungeklarten gilt es jedenfalls noch weiter nachzugehen. (shrink)

Did Aristotle, with his categories, classify only expressions or also something extralinguistic? In the second case his classification seems to be not exclusive, at least if the usual universes of discourse are considered. However, if we use certain enlarged universes, which may have more than one individual for each individual of the usual universes, we may construct exclusive general classifications that approach the aristotelian categories. The latter ones should then be considered second order classes that classify classes of individuals. If (...) the individuals are taken from one of the indicated enlarged universes, we can obtain the exclusivity that we do not have for the usual universes. (shrink)

In the seventeenth century, the Jewish mystical tradition which is known as Kabbalah was integrated into the curriculum of studying the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. Kabbalah became popular in these times in the wake of the dissemination of Isaac Luria’s teachings, in particular within the Jewish communities in Prague and Amsterdam, where members of the Horowitz family took a leading role. Kabbalistic psychology was applied to the whole Jewish lifestyle then, and to the understanding of Jewish tradition. Kabbalistic intentions (...) of prayer intensified the expectation of redemption, and during the messianic movement initiated by Shabtai Zvi, the kabbalistic meaning of repentance was also adapted in prayer books composed for so-called Conversos, who had to familiarize themselves with Jewish tradition. The article exemplifies this process by a Spanish anthology of prayers, Libro entitulado ensenha à pecadores, and shows the historical impact of Kabbalah in the field of Jewish education. (shrink)

Kann Spaltung oder Abgrund zwischen Subjekt und Objekt das letzte Wort sein? Nicht, wenn beides doch von dieser Welt ist als der einen. Und auch nicht, wenn jene Sachen selbst, mit denen Kant gerungen hatte, wie mit Zeit und Raum oder Bewusstsein, immer ratselhafter werden, auch fur Mathematiker und Physiker: Warum denn ausgerechnet solche zwei wie Zeit und Raum der einen Welt? Warum nicht mehr, doch auch nicht weniger? Warum der Raum als Ausdehnung denn ausgerechnet drei-, die Zeit jedoch anscheinend (...) eindimensional? Warum nicht mehr, doch auch nicht weniger? Sind Zeit und Raum als Ausdehnung auf ihrem Grund diskret oder kontinuierlich? Geht es an, sie kurzerhand zur Punktmenge diskret zu machen, nur um ihre Ausdehnung durch Zahlen berechenbar zu machen? Kann verwundern, dass Mathematik und mathematische Physik mit dem Kontinuum von Ausdehnung in Schwierigkeiten kommen, wenn sie demgemass punktmengentheoretisch mit ihm umgehen mussen? Steht laut Quantentheorie nicht langst schon fest, auf seinem Grund gehorche unser Kosmos nicht der Mengentheorie? In welchem Grundverhaltnis stehen Punkt und das Kontinuum von Ausdehnung ursprunglich zueinander? Und was ist denn Zeit- und Raum-Bewusstsein, wenn Objekte von Subjekten als Bewusstsein abhangig sind, wie nach Kant und nach der Quantentheorie? Ist es vielleicht verfehlt, wenn Mathematiker und Physiker, doch auch so manche Philosophen die Philosophie als strenge Wissenschaft verabschieden, weil sie als solche angeblich etwas Unmogliches wie Ursprungs- oder Erste Philosophie sei? Zumindest gilt es, allen diesen ratselhaften Sachen selbst mit Kant noch einmal auf den Grund zu gehen. (shrink)

Kant has been the only author who has attempted a deduction of ethical and legal obligations. He namely tried to deduce the ought from the free will. The fact that he finally resorted to the fact of reason proves that he did not succeed in the former deduction. In order to do so, he should have found an additional ground to add to the free will, for the relationship between morality and free will cannot be analytic. It is argued that (...) the addition of such a ground would have not invalidated the argument, neither does it involve any naturalistic fallacy, since the free will is not a natural fact, but rather something intentional. The article shows how far Kant would have gone had he reflected further upon the intentional character of the will. (shrink)

Prauss (philosophy, Albert Ludwing U., Freiburg, Germany) restates the relation of theory and praxis derived from an analysis of Heidegger's approach. He shows how an understanding of the relationship between theory and practices, based on the ideals of transcendental philosophy and carried out with.