In der Reihe werden herausragende monographische Untersuchungen und Sammelbände zu allen Aspekten der Philosophie Kants veröffentlicht, ebenso zum systematischen Verhältnis seiner Philosophie zu anderen philosophischen Ansätzen in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Veröffentlicht werden Studien, die einen innovativen Charakter haben und ausdrückliche Desiderate der Forschung erfüllen. Die Publikationen repräsentieren damit den aktuellsten Stand der Forschung.

The scientific advances made in the last two centuries have drastically improved the quality and structure of human existence. Exploring the history of that technological progress, and the numerous and complex elements that propelled its development, the _Encyclopedia of Technological Progress_ attempts to comprehensively classify the theories and hypotheses proposed in modern human history on the effects, meaning, and control of these advances. This massive and learned reference work draws on a wide range of disciplines in its study of technological (...) development, including philosophy, sociology, theology, history, and literature, as well as writings found in newspapers, political speeches, letters, and sermons, among other sources. “It is exceedingly important... that we should seek to understand more deeply the nature of technological development and very timely that this book should have appeared now to give distance and perspective to our efforts in this direction.”—Alexander King, president of the Club of Rome. (shrink)

In this interview with Jan Hendrik van den Berg, the Dutch phenomenologist and psychiatrist addresses the origins of his work, his most significant influences, and the purpose of metabletic phenomenology in the modern age. In the course of the interview. Dr. Van den Berg provides a basic overview of his work, and highlights the central finding of his metabletic analyses: a loss of wonder before nature, which results from the more fundamental loss of genuine spirituality in the modern world.

This volume contains a selection of papers from the International Conference on Argumentation by prominent international scholars of argumentation theory. It provides an insightful cross-section of the current state of affairs in argumentation research. It will be of interest to all those working in the field of argumentation theory and to all scholars who are interested in recent developments in this field.

Editors van Ditmarsch, Hendriks and Verbrugge of this special issue of topiCS on lying describe some recent trends in research on lying from a multidisciplinary perspective, including logic, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, they outline the seven contributions to this special issue.

Linguistic category learning has been shown to be highly sensitive to linear order, and depending on the task, differentially sensitive to the information provided by preceding category markers (premarkers, e.g., gendered articles) or succeeding category markers (postmarkers, e.g., gendered suffixes). Given that numerous systems for marking grammatical categories exist in natural languages, it follows that a better understanding of these findings can shed light on the factors underlying this diversity. In two discriminative learning simulations and an artificial language learning experiment, (...) we identify two factors that modulate linear order effects in linguistic category learning: category structure and the level of abstraction in a category hierarchy. Regarding category structure, we find that postmarking brings an advantage for learning category diagnostic stimulus dimensions, an effect not present when categories are non‐confusable. Regarding levels of abstraction, we find that premarking of super‐ordinate categories (e.g., noun class) facilitates learning of subordinate categories (e.g., nouns). We present detailed simulations using a plausible candidate mechanism for the observed effects, along with a comprehensive analysis of linear order effects within an expectation‐based account of learning. Our findings indicate that linguistic category learning is differentially guided by pre‐ and postmarking, and that the influence of each is modulated by the specific characteristics of a given category system. (shrink)

This paper presents a study of the effect of working memory load on the interpretation of pronouns in different discourse contexts: stories with and without a topic shift. We discuss a computational model (in ACT‐R, Anderson, 2007) to explain how referring expressions are acquired and used. On the basis of simulations of this model, it is predicted that WM constraints only affect adults' pronoun resolution in stories with a topic shift, but not in stories without a topic shift. This latter (...) prediction was tested in an experiment. The results of this experiment confirm that WM load reduces adults' sensitivity to discourse cues signaling a topic shift, thus influencing their interpretation of subsequent pronouns. (shrink)

Journal Name: Cognitive Linguistics Issue: Ahead of print.

The Netherlands does not have any specific legislation pertaining to human biological materials and data collection by biobanks. Instead, these issues are governed by a patchwork of laws, codes of practices, and other ethical instruments, where special emphasis is given to the right to privacy and self-determination. While draft legislation for biobanking was scheduled to enter into force in 2007, as of mid-2015 such legislation was still under consideration, with the intent that it would focus particularly on individual self-determination, the (...) interests of research, the use of bodily materials collected by biobanks for criminal law purposes, and dilemmas around results that are clinically relevant for biobank participants. Under the current framework, the amount of privacy protection afforded to data is linked to its level of identifiability. International sharing of personal data to non-EU/European Economic Area countries is allowed if these countries provide adequate protection. (shrink)

Belgian physicians recently reported on organ donation after euthanasia. In patients suffering mainly from a neurodegenerative disorder, the organ donation procedure starts after cardiac death due to euthanasia. The Church condemns the act of euthanasia. The act of procuring organs after euthanasia cannot be approved either, since those who procure the organs must cooperate closely with those who perform the euthanasia. Although the act of organ donation itself can be an act of charity, participation in organ donation after euthanasia suggests (...) approval of euthanasia. A patient may, because of a difficult medical situation, choose to accept an organ obtained after euthanasia but should dissociate himself explicitly from the act of euthanasia itself. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 12.3 (Autumn 2012): 431–437. (shrink)

In Intolerance, Polemics, and Debate in Antiquity scholars reflect on politico-cultural, philosophical, and religious forms of critical conversation in the ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, Graeco-Roman, and early-Islamic world. They enquire into the boundaries between debate, polemics, and intolerance, and address their manifestations in both philosophy and religion. This cross-cultural and inclusive approach shows that debate and polemics are not so different as often assumed, since polemics may also indicate that ultimate values are at stake. Polemics can also have a positive (...) effect, stimulating further cultural development. Intolerance is more straightforwardly negative. Religious intolerance is often a justification for politics, but also elite rationalism can become totalitarian. The volume also highlights the importance of the fluency of minorities in the dominant discourses and of their ability to develop contrapuntal lines of thought within a common cultural discourse. Contributors are: Robbert van den Berg, Stefan Beyerle, George Boys-Stones, Reuven Firestone, Pieter B. Hartog, Paul Heck, Paulin Ismard, George van Kooten, Marjo C. Korpel, Dominik Markl, Steve Mason, Peter Franz Mittag, James C. Oleson, James Carleton Paget, Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Jacques van Ruiten, Diego R. Sarrió Cucarella, Clare Wilde. (shrink)

We can understand and act upon the beliefs of other people, even when these conflict with our own beliefs. Children’s development of this ability, known as Theory of Mind, typically happens around age 4. Research using a looking-time paradigm, however, established that toddlers at the age of 15 months old pass a non-verbal false-belief task (Onishi and Baillargeon in Science 308:255–258, 2005). This is well before the age at which children pass any of the verbal false-belief tasks. In this study (...) we present a more complex case of false-belief reasoning with older children. We tested second-order reasoning, probing children’s ability to handle the belief of one person about the belief of another person. We find just the opposite: 7-year-olds pass a verbal false-belief reasoning task, but fail on an equally complex low-verbal task. This finding suggests that language supports explicit reasoning about beliefs, perhaps by facilitating the cognitive system to keep track of beliefs attributed by people to other people. (shrink)

Brieven van de Nederlandse filosoof (1898-1955) uit de periode 1917-1927 aan een vriend.

Inleidend overzicht van de wetenschapsfilosofische basisproblemen van de rechtswetenschap.

De humanist Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) was een van de meest invloedrijke filosofen van de Italiaanse renaissance. Zijn wijsbegeerte is van groot belang geweest voor kunstenaars als Botticelli en Michelangelo. Dit boek besteedt uitvoerige aandacht aan Ficino's invloed op artistiek gebied. Fundamentele studies van Chastel, Panofsky en Gombrich passeren daarbij de revue. Ook de rol van de familie De' Medici in Ficino's professionele en persoonlijke leven wordt uiteengezet. Zo ontstaat een veelzijdig en samenhangend beeld van het milieu van de Platonisten in (...) Florence. De filosofie van Plato en zijn navolgers maakte een ware wedergeboorte mee in het Italië van de vijftiende eeuw. De intellectuele omwenteling die Ficino in gang zette, zou zich niet alleen over het Italië van de Renaissance maar over heel Europa verspreiden. Dit boek is opgebouwd uit een algemeen deel, gevolgd door twee traktaten van Ficino: 'De extase van Paulus' en 'Wat is licht?'. Deze verhandelingen zijn als het ware de kroongetuigen bij het algemene deel. Dit boek is voor allen die zich interesseren voor het Italië van de Renaissance."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This contribution is a review article on the three most important books by F. Gerrit Immink in practical theology. His approach to this discipline is studying faith praxis of the Protestantse Kerk in Nederland which is a church in the Reformed tradition. In his first book he explained his approach to practical theology in a discussion with the action theory and hermeneutical-communucative approaches. His choice for the study of faith praxis opens the way for a more theological approach to him (...) in which communication between God and people is an important aspect. His second book forms the central part of this article. He uses the concept performance in the liturgy which is adopted from the theater world. In the performance by means of the execution of the liturgy by the congregation they all get involved in the message from the Bible of that Sunday, they are touched by it, it has an effect on them, and they get a new perspective on the problems of everyday life. This is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. The epiclese prayers in the liturgy are prayers for the enlightening and work by the Spirit. He discusses singing, praying, preaching, baptism and Holy Communion in detail. The main idea is that the performance in the liturgy does something to you, it has an effect on you, something happens to you. To my mind there is no need to choose between the ritual approach and the approach he is putting on the table. The approaches can enrich each other. (shrink)

Since the regional level has become important in European politics, it is necessary to examine the specifity of the regions. This contribution is a first attempt to develop a model to measure 'regional specifity' for the ten criteria which are most often used to define regions in academic literature. A first application of the model makes clear the characteristics of those regions and gives an understanding of the process of regionbuilding as well. Most regions with a certain degree of political (...) autonomy do have a specificity on more criteria than those regions without any autonomy. These empirical data give a scientific basis to the thesis that regional specificity is constructed by regional authorities. (shrink)