This volume re-examines traditional interpretations of the rise of modern aesthetics in eighteenth-century Britain and Germany. It provides a new account that connects aesthetic experience with morality, science, and political society. In doing so, the book challenges longstanding teleological narratives that emphasize disinterestedness and the separation of aesthetics from moral, cognitive, and political interests. The chapters are divided into three thematic parts. The chapters in Part I demonstrate the heteronomy of eighteenth-century British aesthetics. They chart the evolution of aesthetic concepts (...) and discuss the ethical and political significance of the aesthetic theories of several key figures, namely the third Earl of Shaftesbury, David Hume, and Adam Smith. Part II explores the ways in which eighteenth-century German thinkers examine aesthetic experience and moral concerns and relate to the work of their British counterparts. The chapters here cover the work of Kant, Moses Mendelssohn, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, and Madame de Staël. Finally, Part III explores the interrelation of science, aesthetics, and a new model of society in the work of Goethe, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, Friedrich Hölderlin, and William Hazlitt, among others. This volume develops unique discussions of the rise of aesthetic autonomy in the eighteenth century. In bringing together well-known scholars working on British and German eighteenth-century aesthetics, philosophy, and literature, it will appeal to scholars and advanced students in a range of disciplines who are interested in this topic. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Am Beispiel der häufig zum Symptom eines narzisstischen Zeitalters erklärten Selfie-Praxis wird in diesem Text das Verhältnis von Selbstdarstellung und Verkündigung bedacht. Das in den Sozialen Medien verbreitete Phänomen, sich selbst zum Bild zu machen und anderen Bilder von sich selbst zu präsentieren, tritt dabei als ein religiös grundiertes Unterfangen vor Augen. Eine Sehnsucht nach unvergänglicher Gegenwart lässt sich in der Selfie-Praxis ebenso artikuliert finden wie ein Bewusstsein für die undarstellbare Dimension des individuellen Selbst. Beide Aspekten werden zudem als (...) Versuch eines produktiven Umgangs mit herausfordernden Entwicklungen der Moderne verstanden: mit der durch den sozialen Beschleunigungsdruck hervorgerufenen Gegenwartsschrumpfung auf der einen und dem Zwang zur digitalen Selbstpräsentation auf der anderen Seite. Mithin lässt sich das im Selfie zum Ausdruck kommende Bewusstsein auf die Rede von Gott beziehen: auf Gott als Korrelat jener Sehnsucht nach unvergänglicher Gegenwart und als Inbegriff einer dem menschlichen Selbst unsichtbar eingeschriebenen Lebendigkeit. In dieser ihm innewohnenden Verweisstruktur lässt sich das Selfie selbst als verkündigungsförmig ansehen, was den auch in der Theologie verbreiteten Narzissmusvorwurf gegenüber religiösen Selbstdarstellungspraktiken nicht nur in der Predigtarbeit entkräften sollte. (shrink)

When people are asked to estimate the probabilities of uncertain events, they often neglect the additivity principle, which requires that the probabilities assigned to an exhaustive set of outcomes should add up to 100%. Previous studies indicate that additivity neglect is dependent on response format, self-generated probability estimates being more coherent than estimates on rating scales. The present study made use of eye-tracking methodology, recording the movement, frequency and duration of fixations during the solution of ten additivity problems and two (...) control tasks. Participants produced more non-additive estimates in the Scale format than in the Self-generated format. Self-generated estimates also led to longer decision time and a higher number of repeated inspections, suggesting a deliberate comparison process. In contrast, the Scale format seemed to encourage a case-based approach where each outcome is evaluated in isolation. (shrink)

W. V. Quine stands out as one of the foremost figures of twentieth-century analytic philosophy. This chapter aims to show that a significant part of his work’s enduring value lies in its contribution to metametaphysics, which will include showing how some more contentious aspects of Quine’s thought can be seen as indispensable to it; we will problematise the widespread belief that one can isolate basic elements of Quine’s metametaphysics without eroding their warrant. -/- §1 introduces the broad context. §2 examines (...) Quine’s most clearly metametaphysical work (and the desired backdrop for many analytic philosophers): ‘On what there is’. Finding the story incomplete here, we explore other elements of Quine’s corpus in turn. §3 analyses the nascent naturalism evident in ‘Two dogmas of empiricism’, §4 explores how the principle of charity becomes significant in Word & Object, and §5 shows how the eponymous principle of ‘Ontological relativity’ aims to defuse the puzzles of indeterminacy. In the process we will see how Quine’s concerns stemming from naturalism in general, and from the problems of indeterminacy in particular, make it hard to separate the basic picture from his more controversial fullblown approach – hard, that is, to avoid ontological relativity. This is bad news for those wishing to use Quine as a neutral backdrop to analytic metaphysical debate, but good news for those who value the distinctive philosophical tradition within which Quine’s work is a key development. (shrink)

A teoria da implicatura constitui o principal legado de Paul Grice aos modernos estudos da pragmática linguística. Embora associado à filosofia da linguagem ordinária, seu pensamento não se apresenta marcado pela aversão à sistematização teórica que, segundo se diz, caracterizou essa corrente filosófica. Pelo contrário, a obra do filósofo inglês, apesar de dispersa em artigos só postumamente reunidos em livro, constitui um esforço coerente e rigoroso de analisar os princípios que explicam o comportamento racional do homem. Este ensaio oferece uma (...) tentativa de interpretação da análise que ele propôs para o fenômeno da implicatura, buscando integrar tal análise, progressivamente, ao quadro mais geral de sua filosofia da linguagem e de sua psicologia filosófica. De passagem, é sugerida uma aproximação, quanto aos propósitos, entre o programa filosófico de Grice e certa ensaística crítica do poeta argentino Jorge Luis Borges, sugestão talvez surpreendente, mas que pode se mostrar instrutiva. (shrink)

An Imperial State at War: Britain from 1689 to 1815. Edited by Lawrence Stone (London: Routledge, 1994), 374 pp., £40.00 cloth.

There are, plainly, very many reasons why a controversy should be inconclusive and abortive, and yet constantly reviving. It might, for example, be one that interests only the very stupid or prejudiced; or one that interests everyone deeply, demanding an answer of everyone, yet not yielding any really decisive evidence; or the controversy might be one in which thesis and antithesis are natural expressions of opposed psychological types ; or it might be one that is commonly conducted in terms that (...) are vague, misleading, and question-begging. In this paper I shall confine myself to the last of these reasons: the use of language which makes it extremely difficult to understand what either of the parties are really asserting, and where, if at all, they contradict each other. I hope I shall not be thought to exaggerate the importance of this familiar factor, but I hope to show that in many important controversies the best will in the world and all the patience and tolerance a man can muster are not sufficient: special training and considerable independent reflection are necessary if the debate in question is not to prove as profitless as those described by Omar Khayyam of Naishapur: Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same Door as in I went. (shrink)