Der kommunikativen Alltagspraxis müssen kognitive Deutungen, moralische Erwartungen, Expressionen und Wertungen einander durchdringen. Die Verständigungsprozesse der Lebenswelt bedürfen deshalb einer kulturellen Überlieferung auf ganzer Breite, nicht nur der Segnungen von Wissenschaft und Technik. So könnte die Philosophie ihren Bezug zur Totalität in einer der Lebenswelt zugewandten Interpretenrolle aktualisieren. Sie könnte mindestens dabei helfen, das stillgestellte Zusammenspiel des Kognitiv-Instrumentellen mit dem Moralisch-Praktischen und dem Ästhetisch-Expressiven wie ein Mobile, das sich hartnäckig verhakt hat, wieder in Bewegung zu setzen.

The core of this book is a set of five lectures delivered by Habermas at Princeton in 1971 under the title 'Reflections on the Linguistic Foundation of Sociology'. These lectures offer a preliminary view of what would become The Theory of Communicative Action, and they form an excellent introduction to Habermas's ideas about communication and society. They lay out the general parameters of Habermas's project in an accessible way, and situate his work in relation to other theories of society, particularly (...) those of Edmund Husserl, Wilfrid Sellars, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Two additional essays elaborating the themes of the lectures are also included in this volume. 'Intentions, Conventions, and Linguistic Interactions' is an essay in the philosophy of action that focuses on the validity of social norms and examines the conceptual connections between rules, conventions, norm-governed action, and intentionality. 'Reflections on Communicative Pathology' addresses the question of deviant processes of socialization and contains an analysis of the formal conditions of systematically distorted communication. This book was designed as a companion to On the Pragmatics of Communication (1998), which took pieces from Habermas's later work to create a systematic introduction to his theory of formal pragmatics. (shrink)

The “global success” of nation states is currently brought into play by the new requirements of multicultural differentiation and globalization. After commenting on the common concepts of “state” and “nation” and discussing the formation of nation states, the author explains the particular achievement of the national state and the tension between republicanism and nationalism built into it. The challenges that arise from the multicultural differentiation of civil society and from trends towards globalization throw light on the limitations of this historical (...) type. (shrink)

Ellsberg's (1961) famous paradox shows that decision-makers give events with ‘known’ probabilities a higher weight in their outcome evaluation. In the same article, Ellsberg suggests a preference representation which has intuitive appeal but lacks an axiomatic foundation. Schmeidler (1989) and Gilboa (1987) provide an axiomatisation for expected utility with non-additive probabilities. This paper introduces E-capacities as a representation of beliefs which incorporates objective information about the probability of events. It can be shown that the Choquet integral of an E-capacity is (...) the Ellsberg representation. The paper further explores properties of this representation of beliefs and provides an axiomatisation for them. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the question: Do persisting disagreements in constitutional interpretation affect the legitimacy of “the democratic system as a whole”? According to both Michelman and Waldron, the epistemic indeterminacy of interpretation—that is, the fact that principles do not possess stable meanings beyond, and independent of, their application to concrete cases—puts its finger on a point of the contractualist and prevailing political theory. But, if neither the legitimacy of any democratic order nor the standard of internal criticism can be (...) founded on a broad background consensus on constitutional essentials, “what else makes a deliberative process of legislation and adjudication a generator of legitimacy so that citizens are induced to accept controversial results as ‘worthy of respect’?” The route pursued goes beyond all views that require legitimacy to be based on sharing a set of “thick” ethical beliefs. In this perspective, the author argues that the performative meaning of constitution‐making “provides a thin yet sufficiently strong base,” which corresponds to the minimal requirements inherent in the very practice of framing a constitution. (shrink)

J.L. Austin has demonstrated that people can “do things”—bring about social facts — with words. Here we describe how some people do things with things. This is a study of the symbolic use and situated history of material objects during a business negotiation between two German entrepreneurs: of the practical transformation of things-at-hand from objects of use into exemplars, or into forms-at-hand that can be used for the construction of transitory symbolic artifacts. Arranging boxes in a particular fashion can be (...) the equivalent of an illocutionary act, but unlike words things remain on the scene as indexical monuments to prior interactional arrangements. (shrink)

The German theory of education refers mainly to what is called Bildung. The historical sense of Bildung is not cultivaion , but cultivation for inwardness. This concept has two sources, the neo-platonic inner soul on one hand, pietistic piety on the other hand. The article shows that these sources had been part of European discussions before the development of national cultures after 1750. So the German concept of Bildung, famous for the German Sonderweg in culture and politics, had been composed (...) out of non-German sources. The nationalizaiton of inwardness began at the end of the 18th century and was established in 19th century German Higher Education. (shrink)

Ingenieur- und Naturwissenschaften sind Knoten eines engen Beziehungsgeflechts, in dem Mensch und Gesellschaft, Natur und Kultur weitere Knoten sind. Entwicklungen in diesen beiden Bereichen haben somit stets Auswirkungen sowohl auf die anderen Knoten als auf das Beziehungsgeflecht als Ganzes. Ingenieur- und Naturwissenschaften sind als ars humana zudem stets eine Form menschlicher Handlung. Damit werden sie zu einem Schlüsselproblem der theoretischen und praktischen Philosophie. Denn der Mensch, seine Handlungen und seine Eingliederung in die Gesellschaft stehen ebenso wie die Natur und die (...) Kultur seit jeher im Zentrum philosophischer Untersuchungen. Die Philosophie vermag diese beiden Wissenschaftsbereiche zu fundieren und kritisch zu begleiten. Philosophie, Ingenieur- und Naturwissenschaften haben das Vermögen, sich gegenseitig zu befruchten. In Anbetracht der humanen, sozialen und ökologischen Probleme des 21. Jhds. ist die fachbereichsübergreifende und partnerschaftliche Zusammenarbeit dieser drei Schlüsselbereiche unabdingbar. Sie ist eine nicht hintergehbare Grundbedingung aller Entwicklungen, die den Anspruch erheben, nachhaltig zu sein und damit dem normativen Leitziel folgen, heutigen und zukünftigen Generationen bedingungslos ein menschenwürdiges Leben zu ermöglichen. Ingenieure und Naturwissenschaftler können dabei einen wesentlichen Beitrag leisten. Die folgenden zehn Thesen begründen die Bedeutung einer an Nachhaltigkeit orientierten philosophischen Grundbildung von Ingenieuren und Naturwissenschaftlern. (shrink)

Elf führende Neurowissenschaftler haben in einem Manifest, das große öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit erregt hat, das Konzept der Willensfreiheit in Frage gestellt. Der Autor verteidigt die Willensfreiheit. Er verortet sie im Sprachspiel verantwortlicher Urheberschaft, welches nur sichtbar wird aus der Teilnehmerperspektive, nicht jedoch aus dem naturwissenschaftlichen, objektivierenden Blickwinkel. Der epistemische Dualismus, der sich aus diesen beiden unterschiedlichen Perspektiven ergibt, erledigt allerdings nicht die ontologische Frage nach der monistischen Verfassung einer den Menschen als Naturwesen einschließenden Welt. Die szientistischen Lösungen dieses Problems werden erörtert. (...) Sie scheitern allesamt an der methodischen Fiktion eines exklusiven „Blicks von Nirgendwo”. Andererseits dispensiert auch die Reflexion auf die lebensweltlichen Grundlagen der naturwissenschaftlich konstituierten Gegenstandsbereiche nicht von der ungelösten Frage, wie der in soziokulturellen Lebensformen verkörperte Geist sich selbst als Produkt der natürlichen Evolution verstehen kann. (shrink)

This paper tries to show that Kim's strategy of preventing the problem of generalization of mental causation is not successful and that his original supervenience argument can be applied to cases of nonmental macrolevel causation, with the effect that nonmental macroproperties which only supervene on, but are not identical with, configurations of microproperties turn out to be epiphenomenal after all.

The favourable social conditions Fechner met at Leipzig with its university and its book industry as well as the close ties to the citizenship of that town were of outstanding importance for G.Th. Fechner (1801–1887), his scientific achievements as natural scientist and philosopher, as the founder of psychophysics and of experimental aesthetics. Since 1825 Fechner had been integrated into its social, scientific and art life in many different ways. His political and theoretical social ideas were obviously influenced by ist bourgeois (...) liberal circles. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Friedrich Engels und die wegweisende Bedeutung der Philosophie für die Naturwissenschaft" verfügbar.

Kant's critical philosophy marks the end of a two-thousand year tradition of metaphysics. Against this older tradition, Kant proposes a new metaphysics of knowledge and human freedom with the autonomy of the subject as its principle. Led by the principle of subjectivity, it attempts to obtain a unified understanding of the whole world organized into a system of reason. In this way, the idea of classical metaphysics receives a new controversial interpretation still discussed today. In twelve contributions, the fifth volume (...) of the Yearbook pursues the different forms of grounding metaphysics after Kant. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Zweifelhaftes im Corpus Aristotelicum" verfügbar.

"Insgesamt betrachtet handelt es sich bei dem vorliegenden Werk um eine Festschrift, die der Jubliar wirklich verdient hat. SIe wird aufgrund der brillanten Beitrage nicht in den Regalen verstauben, sondern vielfach zur Hand genommen werden. DIe darin enthaltenen Aufsatze werden in der Zukunft sowohl in wissenschaftlichen Beitragen als auch in der praktischen Arbeit rege zitiert werden." Bernd Wolfl in: Goltdammer's Archiv fur Strafrecht 12/2009 "Insgesamt: Eine wurdige, eine gehaltvolle Festgabe. JEder Beitrag bietet Anlass zum Nachdenken, zum Weiterdenken und kann so (...) die wissenschaftliche Diskussion befruchten. WIssenschaft und Praxis in einem fruchtbaren Dialog: Kann sich Rainer Hamm eine schonere Festgabe wunschen?" Karl Heinz Gossel in: Juristische Rundschau 10/2009. (shrink)

This article is a translation of Eine politische Verfassung für die pluralistische Weltgesellschaf which is published in Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion: philosophische Aufsäze (2005). The article deals with the project of forming a cosmopolitan order and a harmonization of national policies by agreeing upon and implementing shared global politics which require an intergovernmental coordination. This project has its origin from Hobbes and Kant, and Habermas discuss Kant"s concept of a world republic and a constitution which apply to all the citizens (...) in the world. Habermas argues that the Kantian project must be understood in the international political situation today, and that we have to substitute the traditional and Kantian cosmopolitan ideal of a world republic by the project of a "constitutionalizationâ€? of international law. Habermas suggest that the world community need a political constitution for an emerging world society which allows for global governance without a global government. This solution Habermas denotes as a global extension of domestic politics. A presupposition for this argument is that it has been a shift that has taken place from the former national to the present post-national constellation. In order to realize this international coordination and transnational harmonization, the national states has to perceive themselves as members of an international community and to act accordingly. Such an arrangement requires first a change in the conception of state-sovereignty. Then citizens will enjoy, in addition to their national citizenship, the status of world-citizens. (shrink)

In the course of the long 18th century, medical theory and theories underwent profound changes. These in turn reflected discontinuities and often conflicting assumptions and premises, engendering divergent concepts of physiology and pathology. However, most theoretical considerations were only very inconsistently and partially reflected in therapeutic practice, which continued to be governed by experience with traditional and known medicinals and by patient expectations regarding provider practices. Additional factors in therapeutic decision making were economic considerations and preferences for particular therapies in (...) certain social and religious networks. The present volume deals with some aspects of this complex relationship between medical theory and therapeutic practice, using a transatlantic perspective. Individual essays reflect the current state of historical research in Germany, the US and Great Britain. (shrink)

The nature of the university is autonomous research and teaching within the framework of Bildung . Without Bildung, our open society, which expects and lauds innovation and mobility, will become paralysed by its own expectations, since it will be choked by reign of technological specialists unable to offer society any universal orientation.In this worst case scenario, the market becomes the measure of all things, and education is only valued insofar as it plays to market demands and knowledge is fragmented. But (...) our knowledge society needs strong education, especially strong universities, able to offer orientational Bildung.In turn, universities need the autonomy to plan their own organisation, as well as to systematise science. Reflecting the globalised economic and research practices, the university too must step beyond its own disciplinary boundaries, and see the future of research and learning in problem-driven transdisciplinarity.Failing this, the university will be replaced by the paradigm of the school, and the particularism that entails. But achieving this transdisciplinarity, universities will be able to foster the notion of science as a form of life, which in turn reveals itself to be the moral form of science and academic education. The credibility of the university depends on this achievement. (shrink)