Appraisal theories of emotion have had a strong impact on the development of theory and experimental research in the domain of the affective sciences. While there is generally a high degree of convergence between theorists in this tradition, some central issues are open to debate. In this contribution three issues have been chosen for discussion: (a) varieties of relevance detection, (b) varieties of valence appraisal, and (c) sequential-cumulative effects of appraisal results. In addressing these issues, new theoretical ideas are suggested (...) and an update of recent research on the sequence of appraisal processes is provided. Special emphasis is placed on nonverbal signatures of appraisal processes. (shrink)

Although still young when he wrote this book, Voegelin already demonstrates his singular analytical capacity as well as his ability to put political phenomena into a new perspective.

This chapter first argues against the widely accepted “mentalist” interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of the perception of external objects. On that view, the perception of objects results from an act of synthesis of the diverse perceptual input provided by the different sense modalities. I argue that Aristotle’s conception of perception does not require such mental “construction” of external objects. For him, we unfailingly perceive external objects by way of modally specific perception: perception without qualification is primarily of external 3-D objects, (...) while modally specific perception is of perceptual qualities. As the special senses cannot operate in isolation from the perceptual system as a whole, it follows that we see colors, hear sounds, etc., and thereby perceive the objects whose colors and sounds they are. The second part offers a causal interpretation of Aristotle’s definition of perception as “reception of the form without the matter,” according to which the causal history of sensory affection fixes the content of the resulting act of perception: perception is cognitive in virtue of being the matterless presence of external things’ qualities in the perceiver. (shrink)

In diesem Band legt der bis zuletzt in Münster lehrende Philosoph und katholische Theologe Klaus Müller einen Gesamtentwurf seines Denkens und Schaffens vor. In seinem Plädoyer für einen kritischen Panentheismus präsentiert er nicht nur die große Bandbreite seiner Forschungsthemen, wie Subjektphilosophie und Selbstbewusstseinstheorie, das Verhältnis von Glauben und Vernunft, Medientheorie und Cyberphilosophie, sondern er spitzt sie hier auf die Gottesfrage zu, die immer schon sein Lebensthema war. Wie kann heute eine intellektuell redliche Rede von Gott gelingen, ohne sich solcher (...) Begriffe wie Schöpfer, Personalität Gottes oder Freiheit des Menschen zu entledigen? Ausgehend von einer Zeitdiagnose, die diese und andere Herausforderungen der christlichen Gottesrede aufdeckt, zeigt sich, dass der hier entfaltete Lösungsvorschlag unter dem Label "Panentheismus" bereits aus zahlreichen verschütteten oder vernachlässigten Quellen unterschiedlicher Epochen schöpfen kann. Ausführlich lotet der Band das theologische Wagnis dieser Denkform aus, insofern er die Konsequenzen eines kritischen Panentheismus und die einhergehenden Transformationsprozesse im Blick auf Trinität, Christologie, Pneumatologie, Schöpfungslehre, Theodizee, Ekklesiologie, Eschatologie entfaltet. Auf beeindruckende Weise legt Klaus Müller in diesem Werk das Potential eines kritischen Panentheismus für Philosophie und Theologie, aber auch für den persönlichen Glauben eines Einzelnen frei. (shrink)

In spite of their growing specialization, modern natural sciences intend to reduce their theories to some fundamental structures: Physics tries to unify the different physical forces in one fundamental force. Chemistry tries to explain the structure of chemical substances by the quantum mechanics of molecules. Biology tries to reduce the processes of life to biochemical and biophysical laws. Mathematically, the unification of natural science can be described by structures of symmetry, the specialization of science, the variety, and emergence of new (...) phenomena by symmetry breaking. In the following, the successes and lacks of the reductionistic program are shown in recent developments of physics, chemistry, and biology. Philosophical discussions on holism, reductionism, and unification of science can be clarified by structures of symmetry and symmetry breaking. Alternative non-reductionistic view-points are not only possible, but desirable for the lacks in the reductionistic program. Nevertheless, the categorical framework of symmetry and symmetry breaking supports interdisciplinary work and gives new insight in a common structure and theory of natural science. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is an interpretation of Aristotle's modal syllogistics closely oriented on the text using the resources of modern modal predicate logic. Modern predicate logic was successfully able to interpret Aristotle's assertoric syllogistics uniformly , that is, with one formula for universal premises. A corresponding uniform interpretation of modal syllogistics by means of modal predicate logic is not possible. This thesis does not imply that a uniform view is abandoned. However, it replaces the simple unity of the (...) assertoric by the complex unity of the modal. The complexity results from the fact that though one formula for universal premises is used as the basis, it must be moderated if the text requires . Aristotle introduces his modal syllogistics by expanding his assertoric syllogistics with an axiom that links two apodictic premises to yield a single apodictic sentence . He thus defines a regular modern modal logic. By means of the regular modal logic that is thus defined, he is able to reduce the purely apodictic syllogistics to assertoric syllogistics. However, he goes beyond this simple structure when he looks at complicated inferences. In order to be able to link not only premises of the same modality, but also premises with different modalities, he introduces a second axiom, the T-axiom, which infers from necessity to reality or - equivalently - from reality to possibility. Together, the two axioms, the axiom of regularity and the T-axiom, define a regular T-logic. It plays an important role in modern logic. In order to be able to account for modal syllogistics adequately as a whole, another modern axiom is also required, the so-called B-axiom. It is very difficult to decide whether Aristotle had the B-axiom. The two last named axioms are sufficient to achieve the required contextual moderation of the basic formula for universal propositions. (shrink)

The monistic worldview aims at a uniform description of nature based on scientific models. Quantum physical systems are mutually part of the other quantum physical systems. An aperture distributes the subsystems and the wave front in all possible ways. The system only takes one of the possible paths, as measurements show. Conclusion from Bell's theorem: Before the quantum physical measurement, there is no point-like location in the universe where all the information that explains the measurement is available. Distributed information is (...) possible. Movement of the particle and measuring process are deterministic. The oscillation between location uncertainty and momentum uncertainty leads photons to determine their own location at short intervals. The uncertainty principle focuses the systems. The fields of the surrounding matter influence the location of the new formation. The effect of all fields is based on a common mechanism. (shrink)

The prelims comprise: Introduction Basic Concepts of Systems Science Dynamical Systems, Chaos, and Other Attractors Dynamical Systems and Time‐series Analysis Dynamical Systems in Nature and Society Dynamical, Information, and Computational Systems.

‘Kontakion der reuigen Zerknirschung, gesungen auf jegliches Erdbeben und (jegliche) Feuersbrunst’ (ϰοντάϰιον ϰατανυϰτιϰòν ψαλλóμενον εις εϰαστον σεισμòν ϰαι εμπϱησμóν), so wird das Lied des Romanos 54 M.-Tr. in dem einzigen vollständigen Textzeugen bezeichnet und überdies dem Mittwoch der dritten Fastenwoche zugewiesen. Doch keines von Romanos' Liedern ist als ganzes so wenig zum wiederholten Gebrauch geeignet wie dieses. Paul Maas erkannte, daß hier auf die Nika-Revolte vom Januar 532 angespielt wird, in deren Verlauf die Kirche der Heiligen Weisheit und große Teile (...) der Stadt in Flammen aufgingen, und bei deren Unterdrückung nach zeitgenössischen Berichten mehr als dreißigtausend Angehörige der Demen von den Truppen der kaiserlichen Feldherren Belisar und Mundus im Hippodrom von Konstantinopel wehrlos niedergemacht wurden. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's habilitation under the title: Endlichkeit und Vernunftanspruch. Zur Deutung eines fundamentalen Spannungsverhèaltnisses im Selbstverstèandnis des Menschen.

When Max Weber made use of the terms ?Vergemeinschaftung? and ?Vergesellschaftung? in the first chapter of ?Economy and Society?, he was among other things alluding to Ferdinand Tönnies' well- known usage of ?Gemeinschaft? and ?Gesellschaft?, as well as to related conceptions in the work of Georg Simmel. However, Weber's usage not only differed from the senses in which Tönnies and Simmel used these terms; he had himself altered his own usage since the early draft of this chapter, published in 1913 (...) as ?On some Categories of Interpretive Sociology?. The tangled resonances that result from this are carefully identified and separated, and in so doing light is shed upon the nature and status of Weber's intentions in writing his important chapter on ?Basic Sociological Categories? (shrink)

In this paper which consists of two parts (Teil I and Teil II) we champion Diophantus of Alexandria and Isabella BaÅ¡makova against Norbert Schappacher. In two publications ([Schappacher 1998a] and [Schappacher 1998b]) he puts forward inter alia two propositions: Questioning Diophantus’ originality he considers affirmatively the possibility that the Arithmetica are the joint work of a team of authors like Bourbaki. And he calls BaÅ¡makova’s claim (in [BaÅ¡makova 1972]) that Diophantus uses negative numbers, a nonsense , reproaching her for her (...) thoughtlessness . Teil I: First, we disprove Schappacher’s Bourbaki thesis. Second, we investigate the semantic meaning and historical significance of Diophantus’ keywords $ λvarepsilon tildeιψιζ and ὕπαρξιζ. Next, we discuss Schappacher’s epistemology of the history of mathematics and defend BaÅ¡makova’s methods. Finally we analyse in detail three problems from Diophantus’ Arithmetica (and their solutions) given by Thomas Heath and Helmuth Gericke as proof of the their claim that Diophantus did not use negative numbers. Teil II: In this Part, we give 33 places where Diophantus uses negative quantities as intermediate results; they appear as differences a − b of positive rational numbers, the subtrahend b being bigger than the minuend a; they each represent the (negative) basis ( πλvarepsilonυρacuteα ) of a square number ( τvarepsilonτρacuteαγω ν o ζ ), which is afterwards computed by the formula (a - b) 2 = a 2 + b 2 - 2ab $ . Finally, we report how the topic Diophantus and the negative numbers has been dealt with by translators and commentators from Maximus Planudes onwards. Und er kommt zu dem Ergebnis: ≪Nur ein Traum war das Erlebnis. Weil≫, so schlieβt er messerscharf, ≪nicht sein k a n n, was nicht sein d a r f.≫ CHRISTIAN MORGENSTERN: Palmstrm. (shrink)

The literature on human ethos evinces terminological arbitrariness, which can in my opinion be overcome in only one way: through historical reflection of the meaning which the moral-philosophical concepts have expressed at the very beginning of European philosophy. The first part of the paper is therefore dedicated to the reflection on Greek notions and then its Latin translations. In this respect there appears a fundamentally historical and substantial difference between classical Greek “ethos” and modern “morality”. The second part begins with (...) the nowadays prevailing impression that “ethos” is foredoomed to disappearance for the sake of “morality”. Attempts at rehabilitating the ethos of virtues in contrast to modern morality, undertaken by communitarily inclined philosophers after the publication of Alisdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, have for the most part been justly criticized. By means of the phenomenological method of stepping back to originary experience, I would like to approach this matter from a different and new angle. My thesis is that “ethos” represents the normality of the world of experience. “Morality” of the modern world is based upon the borderline case of such “normality”, which is elevated to the level of a normal case. In conclusion, I will try to provide a phenomenological explanation of this historical development by interpreting it as the process of “idealization”. (shrink)

Alfred Jules Ayer zählt aufgrund seines Frühwerks Language, Truth and Logic zu den Gründungsfiguren des Logischen Positivismus. Ayers Eltern gehörten dem gehobenen Bürgertum an: Sein aus der Schweiz stammender Vater Jules Ayer arbeitete etwa als Privatsekretär des Bankiers Alfred Rothschild und seine aus den Niederlanden emigrierte Mutter Reine Citroën war die Nichte des gleichnamigen Autoherstellers. Dies ermöglichte Ayer eine erstklassige britische Ausbildung.

Der sogenannte ›Neue Atheismus‹ bezeichnet einen komplexen und vielschichtigen Phänomenbereich von philosophischen Debatten über gesellschaftliche Diskurse bis hin zu polemischen Kontroversen, deren gemeinsames Anliegen in einer Kritik an der Religion, deren argumentativer Konsistenz und gesellschaftlichem Stellenwert besteht. Das vorliegende Kapitel arbeitet an der Klärung dieses Phänomens. Dazu gilt es das religionskritische Material zu sichten, zu sondieren und zu bewerten.

Symmetrien werden in der Wissenschafts- und Kulturgeschichte als grundlegende Ordnungsmodelle verwendet. Damit stellt sich die Frage, ob sie von Menschen bloß ausgedacht wurden, um die Vielfalt der Erscheinungen zu ordnen, ob sie gar nur einem ästhetischen Bedürfnis entspringen oder ob es sich um Grundstrukturen der Natur handelt, die unabhängig vom Menschen existieren. In der Antike jedenfalls wurden Erkenntnis, Kunst und Natur aus einer gemeinsamen symmetrischen Grundordnung verstanden. In der Neuzeit bricht diese Einheit von Natur- und Humanwissenschaften auseinander. In der Kunst (...) werden Symmetrien und Symmetriebrechungen auf subjektive Geschmacksurteile bezogen. In Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften bleiben Symmetrien und Symmetriebrechungen fundamentale Annahmen der Naturbeschreibung, deren Anwendung von der Entstehung der Urmaterie bis zur Evolution des Lebens reicht. Tatsächlich hängen aktuelle Entdeckungen und Gesetze in Kosmologie, Physik, Chemie und Biologie mit Symmetrie und Symmetriebrechungen zusammen. Ob aber diese mathematischen Strukturen tatsächlich fundamentalen Naturgesetzen entsprechen, entscheiden wie immer in der Physik am Ende Beobachtung, Messung und Experiment. (shrink)