"Rechtsphilosophie zwischen Ost und West" ist das erste Buch, das systematisch das frA1/4he Werk des bedeutenden chinesischen Rechtsgelehrten, Richters, Diplomaten und Schriftstellers John C.H. Wu (1899-1986) behandelt. Die Arbeit setzt sich in chronologischer Reihenfolge kritisch mit den VerAffentlichungen Wus im Zeitraum von 1921 bis 1936 auseinander. Wu, spAter Verfechter einer dynamischen Naturrechtslehre, versucht, die mehr pragmatisch-funktionale Rechtsauffassung der fA1/4hrenden amerikanischen Rechtsgelehrten mit dem von Kant geprAgten Denken R. Stammlers zu einer inneren Begegnung zu bringen. Gleichzeitig ist die Thematik chinesischen Rechtsdenkens (...) und Philosophierens immer gegenwArtig. Die Arbeit legt ein besonderes Augenmerk auf den EinfluA von Wus kulturellem Hintergrund auf die Auseinandersetzung mit westlichem Denken und umgekehrt auf den EinfluA seiner westlichen Ausbildung auf seine Analyse der chinesischen Gedankenwelt. Das Buch will verstArkt auf diesen wichtigen Denker aufmerksam machen und den Grundstein fA1/4r eine wissenschafliche Auseinandersetzung mit ihm legen. Der Leser bekommt nicht nur einen interessanten Einblick in die zeitgeschichtlichen, rechtsphilosophischen Auseinandersetzungen, er bekommt auf einem wenig begangenen Weg Zugang zur chinesischen Kultur. (shrink)

Mit dem «Catalogue raisonné» von Oskar Wulff: „Altchristliche und mittelalterliche Bildwerke“ (1909 bzw. 1911) war die Erforschung und Präsentation der in den Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin gesammelten einschlägigen Kunst seinerzeit mit einem Schlage in die vorderste Reihe wissenschaftlicher Kataloge in Europa gerückt worden. Abgesehen von einer Neubearbeitung durch Wolfgang Fritz Volbach (1950) ist entsprechend Umfassendes für die ehemalige „Frühchristlich-Byzantinische Sammlung“ der Berliner Museen seither nicht wieder geleistet worden. Mit dem beträchtlichen zeitlichen Abstand zu den älteren Katalogen erscheint es verständlich und (...) begrüßenswert, wenn – nach der Zusammenführung der seit 1945 zwischen Ost und West geteilten musealen Bestände – eine neue Bestandsaufnahme unternommen wird. Das anspruchsvolle, dem Geleitwort von Arne Effenberger zufolge auf 10 Bände (mit Unterteilungen) angelegte Vorhaben verspricht noch umfassender und auf seine Art vorbildlich zu werden, wie es die Kataloge von Wulff waren. Inzwischen ist ein erster Teil von Band 1 über die Textiliensammlung erschienen. Wie dieser ist auch der 2. Band über „Werke der Alltagskultur“ auf mehrere Teilbände angelegt, deren eben erschienener erster Part ausschließlich den sog. Menasampullen gewidmet ist. Es handelt sich dabei um die bekannten Pilgerandenken aus dem unweit Alexandria in der Mariotis gelegenen Wüstenheiligtum des hl. Menas. Es geht freilich nicht um die erste Bearbeitung dieser kleinformatigen, auch von Privatsammlern hochgeschätzten Objekte: es sei verwiesen auf ältere Arbeiten von C.M. Kaufmann, dem Ausgräber von Abu Mina, sowie aus jüngster Zeit auf die Veröffentlichungen von C. Metzger zu den Sammlungen des Louvre (1981) und G. Kaminski-Menssen zu den Beständen des Liebieg-Hauses in Frankfurt (1997). Berlin nimmt mit 63 Menas-Ampullen immerhin einen bedeutenden Platz ein. (shrink)

The fundamental tenet of contemporary sociobiology, namely the assumption of a single process of evolution involving the selection of genes, is critically examined. An alternative multiple-level, multiple-process model of evolution is presented which posits that the primary process that operates via selection upon the genes cannot account for certain kinds of biological phenomena, especially complex, learned, social behaviours. The primary process has evolved subsidiary evolutionary levels and processes that act to bridge the gap between genes and these complex behaviours. The (...) subsidiary levels are development, individual animal learning, and socioculture itself. It is argued that individual learning is pivotal to the derivation and biological analysis of culture. The differences between cultural and noncultural societies are stressed. It is concluded that such a multiple-level model of evolution can form the basis for reconciling opposing sides in the sociobiology debate. (shrink)

Quand dire, c’est faire... Quand dire le droit, c’est faire justice... Mais quel droit, et quelle justice? Comment saisir le rôle du juge, au terme de décennies d’évolution profonde qui ont entraîné à la fois la transformation de son office et une formidable montée en puissance de ses décisions? François OST, observateur attentif de ces évolutions, tente de répondre à cette question dans la dizaine d’études ici rassemblées, échelonnées sur vingt ans. S’il n’est plus (et n’a jamais été) la simple (...) «bouche de la loi», le juge n’a pas pour autant pris l’ancienne place du législateur au sommet de la pyramide normative. Au carrefour du réseau juridique, régulateur des divers pouvoirs qui s’y exercent, le juge combine les fonctions d’«arbitre» et d’«entraîneur» ; son pouvoir se cherche entre les rôles de Jupiter (l’impérieux), d’Hercule (l’infatigable Providence) et d’Hermès (le communicateur). Le lecteur retrouvera notamment dans cet ouvrage ces typologies devenues incontournables dans le débat sur le rôle et le statut du juge. (shrink)

In this book Professor Baldry describes this development from Homer to Cicero when, although the traditional divisions and prejudices still remained string, the ...

There are many passages in ancient literature which depict an imaginary existence different from the hardships of real life-an existence blessed with Nature's bounty, untroubled by strife or want. Naturally this happy state is always placed somewhere or sometime outside normal human experience, whether ‘off the map’ in some remote quarter of the world, or in Elysium after death, or in the dim future or the distant past. Such an imaginary time of bliss in the past or the future has (...) become known as the ‘golden age’. This is the name which modern scholars generally give to the ancient belief. The phrase is often echoed by modern poets. The same language has been transferred from the unknown to the known, and it has become a commonplace to describe an outstanding period of history or literature as a ‘golden age’. (shrink)

The extent of the dependence of early Greek cosmogony on mythical conceptions has long been a prolific source of controversy. Views on the subject have varied from Professor Cornford's claim that ‘there is a real continuity between the earliest rational speculation and the religious representation that lay behind it’ to Professor Burnet's extreme statement, ‘it is quite wrong to look for the origins of Ionian science in mythological ideas of any kind.’ The solution of the problem that I wish to (...) suggest is one which should satisfy those who insist on ‘the scientific character of the early Greek cosmology,’ while retaining a direct connection with pre-scientific beliefs—namely, that some, at least, of the earliest philosophers founded their doctrines of the beginning of the universe on a deliberate rationalization of earlier and contemporary mythical ideas. The appearance of notions like the ‘world-egg’ in a number of passages, too well known for quotation, shows that primitive cosmogony assumed an analogy between the generation of the world and the generation of animate creatures. I believe it can be proved that, so far from the ‘renunciation of sexual imagery’ which even Professor Cornford has recently attributed to Anaximander, he and other philosophers retained the habit of regarding cosmogony and anthropogony as parallel phenomena, only substituting for the mythical ‘world-egg’ a more scientific view of the embryo and its development. They looked at the world through the same spectacles as their predecessors, but after wiping from them the rose tint of mythological fancy. (shrink)

What credentials does evolutionary epistemology have as science? A judgement based on past performance, both in terms of advancing an empirical programme and further ng theory construction, is not much. This paper briefly outlines some of the research areas, both theoretical and empirical, that can be developed and that might secure for evolutionary epistemology a future in evolutionary biology.

Branner, H.C. Humanismens krise.--Hansen, Martin A. Eneren og massen.

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 150-152.

This article focuses on maternal-fetal surgery (MFS) and on the concept of clinical equipoise that is a widely accepted requirement for conducting randomized controlled trials (RCT). There are at least three reasons why equipoise is unsuitable for MFS. First, the concept is based on a misconception about the nature of clinical research and the status of research subjects. Second, given that it is not clear who the research subject/s in MFS is/are, if clinical equipoise is to be used as a (...) criterion to test the ethical appropriateness of RCT, its meaning should be unambiguous. Third, because of the multidisciplinary character of MFS, it is not clear who should be in equipoise. As a result, we lack an adequate criterion for the ethical review of MFS protocols. In our account, which is based on Chervenak and McCullough's seminal work in the field of obstetric ethics, equipoise is abandoned. and RCT involving MFS can be ethically initiated when a multidisciplinary ethics review board (ERB), having an evidence-based assessment of the risks involved, is convinced that the value of answering the research hypothesis, for the sake of the health interests of future pregnant women carrying fetuses with certain congenital birth defects, justifies the actual risks research participants might suffer within a set limit of low/manageable. (shrink)

In describing the account of the εδη in the Phaedo, Burnet says, ‘they are explained in a peculiar vocabulary which is represented as that of a school. The technical terms are introduced by such formulas as “we say”’. Similarly Taylor has written of the ‘characteristic technical nomenclature’ used in the dialogues, of the ‘technicalities’ of the theory of εδη, of ‘the technical phrases of the Phaedo’ The validity of such language has been taken for granted by both these and many (...) other Platonic scholars. But the assumption which it represents—that Plato employed certain words in a significance peculiar to his use of them—carries such wide implications for the history and interpretation of his philosophy that it can hardly be accepted without further investigation. In this article I shall examine the evidence in fifth- and early fourth-century literature about these words which Plato or Socrates is alleged to have transformed into ‘technicalities’: first, εδος and δσ, which I shall assume to be more or less synonymous; second, the various terms used to describe the relation between εδη and particulars—,μετέχειν, κοινωνεν,παρεναι, νεναι,μιμησις,μοιωαις, and so on. (shrink)

In Philosophy for April 1961 Mr J. R. Lucas argues that Gödel's theorem proves that Mechanism is false. I wish to dispute this view, not because I maintain that Mechanism is true, but because I do not believe that this issue is to be settled by what looks rather like a kind of logical conjuring-trick. In my discussion I take for granted Lucas's account of Gödel's procedure, which I am not competent to criticise.

This article is a survey of familiar ground—those passages of the Poetics of Aristotle which throw light on the treatment of legend by the tragic poets. Although sweeping generalizations are often made on the use of the traditional stories in drama, our evidence on the subject is slight and inconclusive. We have little knowledge of the form in which most of the legends were known to the Attic playwrights, for the few we find in the Iliad and Odyssey appear there (...) in very different versions from those they take on in the plays, and the fragmentary remains of epic and lyric poetry between Homer and the fifth century B.C. present us with a wide field for speculation, but few certain facts; while vase paintings and other works of art supplement only here and there the scanty information gained from literature.The comments of ancient writers on this aspect of tragedy are surprisingly few, and carry us little farther. The Poetics stands out as the one source from which we can draw any substantial account of the matter. Even Aristotle, of course, is not directly concerned with the history of drama, and deals with it only incidentally in isolated passages; and in considering these it must constantly be borne in mind that he is discussing tragedy as he knew it in the late fourth century, for the benefit of fourth-century readers. But even so, his statements are the main foundation on which our view of the dramatists' use of legend must be built. (shrink)

Originally published in 1913, this book charts the development, growth and legacy of the schools of the Jansenists of Port-Royal based in Paris. The Port-Royalists used many innovative teaching methods in the years before they were closed down in the mid-seventeenth century, such as their use of the vernacular and their views on the role of the teacher, and Barnard examines the place that the Port-Royalists held in the context of French education more generally to illustrate their lasting influence on (...) other schools. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Jansenism and the history of education. (shrink)

We distinguish three different readings of the intuitionistic notions of validity, soundness, and completeness with respect to the quantification occurring in the notion of validity, and we establish certain relations between the different readings. For each of the meta-logicalnotions considered we suggest that the "most natural" reading (which is not the same for all cases) is precisely the one which is required by the recent intuitionistic completeness theorems for IPC.