A new study of the mathematical-physical mode of cognition.

Bd. 1. Kants Theorie der Erfahrung (3 v.) -- Bd. 2. Kants Begründung der Ethik -- Bd. 3. Kants Begründung der Ästhetik -- Bd. 4. Kommentar zu Immanuel Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft -- [Bd.] 5. Das Prinzip der Infinitesimal-Methode und seine Geschichte -- Bd. 6. System der Philosophie, 1. Teil -- Bd. 7. System der Philosophie, 2. Teil -- Bd. 8. System der Philosophie, 3. Teil, 1. Bd. -- Bd. 9. System der Philosophie, 3. Teil, 2. Bd. -- Bd. (...) 12. Kleinere Schriften I, 1865-1869 -- Bd. 15. Kleinere Schriften IV, 1907-1912. (shrink)

Impressions, energy radiated by phenomena in the momentary environmental scene, enter sensory neurons, creating in afferent nerves a data stream. Following Kant, by our inner sense the mind perceives its own thoughts as it ties together sense data into an internalized scene. The mind, residing in the brain, logically a Language Machine, processes and stores items as coded grammatical entities. Kantian synthetic unity in the linguistic brain is able to deliver our experience of the scene as we appear to see (...) it. Uniquely, the brain records its own history, synthesizing a Movie-in-the-Brain, called the Noumenal Cosmos. Attempting thereby to represent the actual Universe, this makes for a sovereign brain that governs itself. The brain is domicile of an Ego, with its selfhood at stake at all times. Yet, it can know itself only by its actions, in which it appears as an actor in its own movie. Phenomena enter garbled, as confused apparitions, and must be put in good form using top–down feedback control by Ego, so that each movie frame makes rational sense within the overall context of the Noumenal Cosmos. A stack of frames is processed typically in 40 Hz rhythm with 300 ms process time each, for about 12 in the stack at any time. Successive neural centers are processing the stack in the brain assembly line, based on data from increasingly global receptive fields. Ego stitches together the movie frames, but only the top frame is in consciousness for 25 ms. The top frame contains the whole scene where the Ego makes an appearance as the actor that imposes Kantian synthetic unity on the scene, merely an assembly of grammatical texts, in a system-internal coded process language, fitting the scene into the Noumenal Cosmos. But Ego observes Ego only to the extent permitted by the objectivity rule, only what it does and thinks, not its true face. From the Noumenal Cosmos, the Ego receives grammatical messages in the internal sense code. They are integrated into a whole in the reaction of the Ego to the momentary scene. The voluntary nature of Ego’s decisions is explained, based on its ability to code in advance its own actions sequentially in time, as it sees fit with a view to an orderly Noumenal Cosmos, records of code being arranged spatially in neural structures. (shrink)

The paper attempts to show that Kant's criticism of eudaemonism does not affect Plato's moral theory, because the kind of eudaemonism which Plato embraces is different from that rejected by Kant. Whereas the target of Kant's criticism is the view that virtuous actions are an instrumental means to becoming happy, Plato regards virtue as a constitutive part of happiness and is, thus, committed to what Gregory Vlastos has called a "noninstrumentalist form of eudaemonism".

The philosophical consequences of synergetics, the interdisciplinary theory of evolution and self-organization of complex systems, are being drawn in the paper. The idea of discreteness of evolutionary paths is in the focus of attention. Although the future is open, and there are many alternative evolutionary paths for complex systems, not any arbitrary (either conceivable or desirable) evolutionary path is feasible in a given system. There are discrete spectra of possible evolutionary paths which are determined exclusively by inner properties of the (...) corresponding systems. Synergetics allows us to reveal general laws of self-organization and, therefore, certain limits of arbitrariness of nature in choosing possible paths of evolution as well as in constructing of a complex evolutionary whole. A comparative analysis between the modern synergetic notions and a few ideas of the Western philosophy (F. Nietzsche, N. Hartmann, M. Heidegger) and of the Eastern teachings (Taoism, Buddhism) is made. (shrink)

In this theoretical study we explore the concept of intentional-ity. Intentionality is the specific reference that mental phenomena have with respect to objects, also termed the 'aboutness' of cognitive acts. We discuss intentionality on the basis of self-organized pattern formation, a ubiquitous phenomenon in complex open systems. Dynamical systems theory provides an understanding of how emergent variables originate from microscopic variables. Control parameters comprise those external parameters and gradients that drive the systems they represent environmental inuences. The relationship between pattern (...) formation and control parameters therefore addresses the functioning of a system in its environment. Our hypothesis is that self-organizing systems exhibit intentionality-like capabilities in their responses to environmental inuences. This is modelled using differential calculus, by which we demonstrate how pattern formation reduces control parameters in an efficient manner. These ideas are applied to the complex system brain, using the Wilson-Cowan equations of axonal pulse rates in neural networks. (shrink)

L'écologie cherche à connaître les conditions d'existence des organismes par rapport à leur milieu physique et biotique.D'une part elle étudie les exigences des organismes envers le milieu et leurs adaptations à celui-ci; d'autre part, elle recherche comment le milieu influe sur les organismes. Or, puisque chaque être vivant fait partie du milieu des autres et que sa présence et son activité modifient le milieu physique et biotique pour lui-même comme pour les autres, l'écologie est amenée à considérer en général les (...) interactions entre les facteurs constitués par les organismes ainsi que par les agents inorganiques.Toutefois, la complexité de ces interactions est telle qu'à leur analyse physico-chimique s'opposent des difficultés partiellement insurmontables. La raison en est que les multiples facteurs écologiques n'agissent pas isolément, mais en combinaison dans l'espace et dans le temps. Il en résulte des états d'équilibre relatif dont seule l'expérience multiséculaire de la nature nous révèle l'aboutissement avec certitude. Aussi bien l'écologiste qui veut en tenir compte commence-t-il ses recherches par le relevé qualitatif et quantitatif des groupements biologiques spontanés. Le chercheur les reconnaît à la constance relative de leur composition, dans les divers endroits où ils sont réalisés, constance résultant de l'équilibre relatif entre les facteurs. C'est exactement pour de tels groupements queMöbius à créé le terme de biocénose. Ainsi la biocénotique peut être considérée comme la propédeutique d'une écologie justement conçue; elle ne serait que préparatoire et provisoire si la Science pouvait un jour entièrement éclaircir le jeu des forces écologiques.Enfin en essayant de bien situer l'écologie dans le cadre des disciplines biologiques voisines, il est utile d'avoir présent à l'esprit l'ébauche suivante d'un nouveau système de la biologie:Dans mes „Analyses et synthèses biocénotiques” , j'ai discuté la conception d'Agrell, qui se base sur des stations-types préétablies. Depuis,Agrell a consacrédeux articles polémiques à soutenir que ses „Bestandestypen” s'identifient aux groupements écologiques tels que je le conçois.Il n'en est rien.Dans l'idée d'Agrell, tous les relevés provenant d'un même type de stations font a priori partie d'un même „Bestandestyp”. La conséquence en est que certaines espèces en réalité vicariantes, c'est-à-dire ne cohabitant jamais -Tetracanthella wahlgreni etFolsomia brevicauda, par exemple — se trouvent réunies, sur le papier, dans une même „communauté”. Au contraire, dans mon système, les relevés faits dans un certain type de stations sont classés tantôt dans un groupement , tantôt dans un autre , d'après leur composition faunistique servant d'indicateur. Cette différence explique amplement les discordances qu'Arell relève entre mes indices d'abondance-fréquence et les siens, discordance prouvant une fois de plus que les „Bestandestypen” et les groupements ne sont pas la même chose.Agrell qualifie de résidu l'un de mes groupements. Or, rien n'est plus résiduel queson Bestandestyp 2, qui représente l'ensemble de 7 stations sur 10, celles qui restent après avoir retranché les 3 stations de milieux extrêmes.Agrell reproche à ma méthode de laisser inclassables certains relevés dépourvusd'espèces vicariantes. Cela n'est-il pas préférable au classement de force de relevés, fragmentaires et aux calculs hasardeux basés sur des unités hétérogènes?Enfin,Agrell estime que le choix des espèces caractéristiques est subjectif. J'ai: montré qu'il ne l'est ni plus ni moins que celui des caractères spécifiques en taxonomie.Oekologie, Ethologie, Biogeographie und Biocoenotik werden noch häufig miteinander verwechselt. Diese Disziplinen lassen sich an Hand des Schemas unterscheiden, das in vorstehenden Schlussfolgerungen wiedergegeben ist. Dieses Schema ist zugleich ein Beitrag zu einem neuen, dreidimensionalen System der Biologie.Speziell wird auf den methodischen Unterschied zwischen Oekologie und Biocoenotik eingegangen. Die Biocoenotik kann als eine unentbehrliche Vorstufe der Oekologie angesehen werden, insofern sie die natürliche Vergemeinschaftung der Organismen als ein grossartiges, von der Natur selbst eingesetztes Experiment betrachtet. Ihre Aufgabe ist es, dass Ergebnis dieses Experiments zu beschreiben. Die Lebensgemeinschaften, die sie dabei unterscheidet, sind gekennzeichnet durch ihre häufig wiederkehrende, einigermassen konstante Zusammensetzung, entsprechend den relativen Faktoren-Gleichgewichten, welche sich im Laufe der Jahrhunderte einstellen. Die Lebensgemeinschaften sind aber viel leichter zu erfassen als die Faktoren-Gleichgewichte und deren biologische Bedeutung. Ihre Abgrenzung erfolgt, — wie in der Taxonomie diejenige der Arten — auf Grund objektiver Diskontinuitäten. Letztere gründen sich in der Biocoenotik auf die sich ökologisch ersetzenden Arten. Sie sind die Prüfsteine für die Grundeinheiten der Biocoenotik: die Biocoenosen.] Soweit die Organismen einer Biocoenose aufeinander einwirken, stellen sie gleichzeitig einen Konnex dar; und soweit sie in ihren Ansprüchen oder Anpassungen übereinstimmen, gehören sie auch zum gleichen Lebensformen-Typ. Es ist praktisch, drei Grössenordnungen von Biocoenosen zu unterscheiden: Synusien, Assoziationen und Biome. (shrink)

The present article is devoted to the second part of chapter 10 of Aristotle’s De interpretatione (20 a 16-40), which mainly deals with the logical relations between statements whose predicate is finite (i. e., of the affirmative form “is P”) and statements whose predicate is infinite (i. e., of the negative form “is not-P”). I attempt to show that this part of the chapter contains both a section the text of which is corrupt (20 a 20-23) and a section which (...) is misplaced (20 a 37-40). In the former section the likely false reading of the manuscripts τῇ δὲ … ἡ ἀντι- κειμένη ὅτι … (“while from ‘…’ the opposite [statement follows] that …”) should be corrected into ἡ δὲ … τῇ ἀντικειμένῃ ὅτι … (“while ‘…’ [follows] from the opposite [statement] that …”), and the latter section should be placed immediately after the former, with which it is intimately connected. (shrink)

In this essay, our goal is to discover science in Martin Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, lecture notes for his 1935 summer semester course, because, after all, his subject is metaphysica generalis, or ontology, and this could be construed as a theory of the human brain. Here, by means of verbatim quotes from his text, we attempt to show that indeed these lectures can be viewed as suggestion for an objective scientific theory of human perception, the human capacity for deciphering phenomena, (...) ie. hermeneutics in its broadest sense. His added notes from the 1953 edition, all of which are comments, not corrections, imply that he never abandoned these thoughts on metaphysics, despite all of his utterances about a need to overcome it, and their popular interpretations to that effect. In his presentation, he further develops the colorful and intuitive style, an hermeneutic language, that he had created in his earlier work Being and Time. Of human existence he speaks in such expressions as being-there -- ``Dasein" -- and being-in-the-world, the latter term no longer explicit in the 1935 lectures. The lectures can be read as a pre-scientific analysis of how man, being-there, perceives his environment, artfully managing to deal with the manifold challenges posed by the phenomenal structures of the universe. Man attentively recognizes and deciphers their pre-linguistic contents and, while trying to make sense of it all, puts into words his awareness. There are numerous passages in Heidegger's work where he in fairly concrete terms provides us with hints for a perceptive science that, as it turns out and is demonstrated below in this essay, can be explained in terms of recent advances in neuroscience. It would be implausible, even unthinkable, unimaginable, for there not to be found essential agreement between on one hand his philosophical insights gained by hermeneutics of Dasein, into how our brain functions to let us know what's happening & on the other hand, scientific discoveries obtained through anatomy, EEG, fMRI, TMS, electrode implants, etc, of brain structures & functions employed in perception of the momentary scene. A nexus between science and philosophy is provided in Heidegger's definitive treatment of the Logos, here interpreted as a structural version of Platonic forms (Burchard, 2014). This allows for neurolinguistic brain functions to serve as meta-context for Heidegger's being-in-the-world. The logical functions of Dasein's anatomical brain are performed by the logos machine, formerly the human soul, using top-down processing based on a global context, the noumenal cosmos which humans maintain internally. Heidegger's 1942/43 winter semester lectures Parmenides extend in unbroken fashion his 1935 work, proving that he never abandoned, as is widely claimed, his metaphysical avenue of thought. (shrink)

Excerpt from Die Systematischen Begriffe in Kants Vorkritischen Schriften: Nach Ihrem Verhaltniss zum Kritischen Idealismus Schriften aufgenommen hatte, heranzieht und in Rucksicht auf die Schrift vom Jahre 1763 der einzig mogliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseins Gottes beleuchtet. Ueber haupt hat er die Frage von der Beweisbarkeit Gottes durch Anfuhrung der vielen Beweis und Widerlegungsversuche ein gehend erortert. Zu einer literarischen Wichtigkeit hat aber erst Kuno Fischer die Frage uber den Werth der vorkritischen Schriften erhoben. Seine Untersuchungen werden uns (...) in der Folge viel fach beschaftigen. Doch erscheint es zur Orientirung uber die Methode, nach welcher wir selbst die Frage behandeln, zweck massig, uber das von K. Fischer geubte Verfahren, das spaterhin sehr im Einzelnen gepruft werden soll, vorlaufig nur, soweit es die Methode angeht, ein Urtheil zu fassen. Kuno Fischer sucht und macht Unterschiede. Dies muss vor Allem anerkannt werden. Auch gluckt es ihm, die Gedanken, welche er aus den Schriften vor dem Jahre 1770 heraushebt, in eine die spatere Entdeckung praedestinirende Beziehung zu einander zu setzen. Diese uberraschenden Zusammenhange werden oftmals und immer in neu erscheinenden Wendungen vorgefuhrt, so dass ein Bild von dem Entwickelurigsgange des Denkers entworfen wird. Ob dieses Bild treu ist, ob die Gedanken, aus denen es zusammengesetzt wird, genau aufgenommen und richtig geordnet sind, das wird an seinem Orte gepruft werden mussen. Hier fragen wir nur: Kann es den Lernenden, ge schweige den Nachforschenden fordern, wenn Einzelnes aus dem Systeme, wie der Ausdruck wiederholentlich gebraucht wird. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

1. T. 1. Häfte, Allgemeine Einleitung in die platonische Philosophie.--1. T., 2. Hälfte. Die Früdialoge -- 2. T., 1. Hälfte. Die Dialogue der Übergangszeit Gorgias, Meno, Euthydem, Menexenus Cratylus -- 2. T., 2. Hälfte. Die Dialogue der literarischen Meisterschaft Phädo, Symposium, Staat und Phädrus --3. T., 1. Hälfte. Die Spätdialoge Theätet, Parmenides, Sophist und Politicus -- 3. T. 2. Hälfte. Die Spätdialoge Philebus, Timäus, Critias und Gesetze .. 4. T. Register.

Zeit wird knapp und organisationsbed rftig. Die Folgen beschreibt der Autor in diesem einzigartigen Panorama der Zeit-Verfassung unserer modernen Kultur.

It is shown that the basic postulate of utilitarianism does not work when we must decide whether a person should be brought into existence. Utilitarianism must be supplemented by further axioms. Those proposed lead to the consequence that as far as the potential child's utility is concerned, it is morally preferable not to produce children at all. This consequence is accepted. It is still recommended when parents? utility is taken into account.

It cannot be stated with certainty that the process of enlightenment (Aufklärung) is irreversible. In many systems the tendency to dogmatize the ideologies by means of which political systems define their identity, invariably dominates the emancipatory tendencies of the intelligentsia. In recent years it has become clear that one has to add to this the fact that in the context of the international student youth movement, part of the intelligentsia is unmistakably fascinated by what dogmatism has been able to achieve (...) as far as integration and orientation are concerned; and thus actively ideological and political movements have been developed which are contrary to the process of enlightening clarification. It is obvious that philosophy plays an important part here.The present essay on the other hand stresses by way of compensation the traditional enlightening function of philosophy. The term “enlightening clarification” is understood here to mean that process in which the stock of assumptions in regard to reality about which one does not allow for discussion, and which thus, correspondingly, in its claim of validity, is morally and politically controlled and protected group-specifically, is reduced to a minimum. The process of clarification, thus, is a process by means of which our socially secured interestedness, namely that reality is in this way and not in any other way, gradually disintegrates. The institutional character of “universally accepted” truths as well as the hermeneutic and rhetorical technologies of man's enlightening clarification, whose function it is to dissolve this universal acceptance, are described in this essay in great detail. (shrink)