The major theoretical framework relative to the perception of illusory figures is reviewed and discussed in the attempt to provide a unifying explanatory account for these phenomena.

Following the pioneering studies of the receptive field (RF), the concept gained further significance for visual perception by the discovery of input effects from beyond the classical RF. These studies demonstrated that neuronal responses could be modulated by stimuli outside their RFs, consistent with the perception of induced brightness, color, orientation, and motion. Lesion scotomata are similarly modulated perceptually from the surround by RFs that have migrated from the interior to the outer edge of the scotoma and in this way (...) provide filling-in of the void. Large RFs are advantageous to this task. In higher visual areas, such as the middle temporal and inferotemporal lobe, RFs increase in size and lose most of their retinotopic organization while encoding increasingly complex features. Whereas lowerlevel RFs mediate perceptual filling-in, contour integration, and figure–ground segregation, RFs at higher levels serve the perception of grouping by common fate, biological motion, and other biologically relevant stimuli, such as faces. Studies in alert monkeys while freely viewing natural scenes showed that classical and nonclassical RFs cooperate in forming representations of the visual world. Today, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the RF is undergoing a quantum leap. What had started out as a hierarchical feedforward concept for simple stimuli, such as spots, lines, and bars, now refers to mechanisms involving ascending, descending, and lateral signal flow. By extension of the bottom-up paradigm, RFs are nowadays understood as adaptive processors, enabling the predictive coding of complex scenes. Top-down effects guiding attention and tuned to task-relevant information complement the bottom-up analysis. (shrink)

The following conjecture is due to Shelah–Hasson: Any infinite strongly NIP field is either real closed, algebraically closed, or admits a non‐trivial definable henselian valuation, in the language of rings. We specialise this conjecture to ordered fields in the language of ordered rings, which leads towards a systematic study of the class of strongly NIP almost real closed fields. As a result, we obtain a complete characterisation of this class.

This major work covers almost all that has been learned about the acoustics of stringed instruments from Helmholtz's 19th-century theoretical elaborations to recent electroacoustic and holographic measurements.Many of the results presented here were uncovered by the author himself over a 20-year period of research on the physics of instruments in the violin family. Lothar Cremer is one of the world's most respected authorities on architectural acoustics and, not incidentally, an avid avocational violinist and violist.The book - which was published (...) in German in 1981 - first of all meets the rigorous technical standards of specialists in musical acoustics. But it also serves the needs and interests of two broader groups: makers and players of stringed instruments are expressly addressed, since the implications of the mathematical formulations are fully outlined and explained; and acousticians in general will find that the work represents a textbook illustration of the application of fundamental principles and up-to-date techniques to a specific problem.The first - and longest - of the book's three parts investigates the oscillatory responses of bowed strings. The natural nonlinearities that derive from considerations of string torsion and bending stiffness are deftly handled and concisely modeled.The second part deals with the body of the instrument. Special attention is given to the bridge, which transmits the oscillations of the strings to the wooden body and its air cavity. In this case, linear modeling proves serviceable for the most part - a simplification that would not be possible with lute - like instruments such as the guitar.The radiation of sound from the body into the listener's space, which is treated as an extension of the instrument itself, is the subject of the book's final part.Lothar Cremer is Professor Emeritus at the Technical University of Berlin, where he served as director of the Institute for Acoustical Engineering. (shrink)

Gilt das Verbot der Tötung Unschuldiger absolut oder darf selbst diese fundamentale Moralnorm unter Ausnahmebedingungen verletzt werden? Wir leben in einer Welt voller Gefahren. Das Leben von Menschen wird bedroht durch verbrecherische Diktaturen, terroristische Anschläge, technische Havarien und Katastrophen verschiedener Art. Dürfen solche Gefahren notfalls auch dann bekämpft werden, wenn dabei Unschuldige getötet werden oder ihr Tod in Kauf genommen werden muss? Das Buch gibt eine moralphilosophische Antwort auf diese politisch, ethisch und rechtlich umstrittene Frage. Lothar Fritze analysiert das (...) Rechtsdogma der Nichtabwägungsfähigkeit menschlichen Lebens und fragt, wie sich das Verbot der Tötung Unschuldiger mit der verbreiteten moralischen Intuition vereinbaren lässt, wonach in Extremfällen durchaus einige wenige unschuldige Menschen geopfert werden dürfen, um sehr viele andere Unschuldige zu retten. (shrink)

An exponential $\exp $ on an ordered field $$. The structure $$ is then called an ordered exponential field. A linearly ordered structure $$ is called o-minimal if every parametrically definable subset of M is a finite union of points and open intervals of M.The main subject of this thesis is the algebraic and model theoretic examination of o-minimal exponential fields $$ whose exponential satisfies the differential equation $\exp ' = \exp $ with initial condition $\exp = 1$. This study (...) is mainly motivated by the Transfer Conjecture, which states as follows:Any o-minimal exponential field $$ whose exponential satisfies the differential equation $\exp ' = \exp $ with initial condition $\exp =1$ is elementarily equivalent to $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$.Here, $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$ denotes the real exponential field $$, where $\exp $ denotes the standard exponential $x \mapsto \mathrm {e}^x$ on $\mathbb {R}$. Moreover, elementary equivalence means that any first-order sentence in the language $\mathcal {L}_{\exp } = \{+,-,\cdot,0,1, <,\exp \}$ holds for $$ if and only if it holds for $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$.The Transfer Conjecture, and thus the study of o-minimal exponential fields, is of particular interest in the light of the decidability of $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$. To the date, it is not known if $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$ is decidable, i.e., whether there exists a procedure determining for a given first-order $\mathcal {L}_{\exp }$ -sentence whether it is true or false in $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$. However, under the assumption of Schanuel’s Conjecture—a famous open conjecture from Transcendental Number Theory—a decision procedure for $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$ exists. Also a positive answer to the Transfer Conjecture would result in the decidability of $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$. Thus, we study o-minimal exponential fields with regard to the Transfer Conjecture, Schanuel’s Conjecture, and the decidability question of $\mathbb {R}_{\exp }$.Overall, we shed light on the valuation theoretic invariants of o-minimal exponential fields—the residue field and the value group—with additional induced structure. Moreover, we explore elementary substructures and extensions of o-minimal exponential fields to the maximal ends—the smallest elementary substructures being prime models and the maximal elementary extensions being contained in the surreal numbers. Further, we draw connections to models of Peano Arithmetic, integer parts, density in real closure, definable Henselian valuations, and strongly NIP ordered fields.Parts of this thesis were published in [2–5].Abstract prepared by Lothar Sebastian KrappE-mail: [email protected]: https://d-nb.info/1202012558/34. (shrink)

Rudolf Carnap gilt unbestritten als einer der eminentesten Vertreter des logischen Empirismus. Im Band 2 der Reihe "Texte zur Wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung" werden alle wesentlichen Aspekte seiner Philosophie zusammenhAngend dargestellt und kritisch analysiert. Lothar Krauth beurteilt dabei Carnaps Bedeutung vor einem breiten, philosophiehistorischen Hintergrund. Nicht nur sein EinfluA und seine Vordenkerrolle im Wiener Kreis werden diskutiert, sondern auch die mehrfache Wandlung in Carnaps Denken. So erklArt sich manche allzu groAe Vereinfachung, mancher Radikalismus als erster Ansatz, der spAter A1/4berarbeitet, zu einem (...) tragfAhigen Bestandteil kommender analytischer Sprachtheorie ausgebaut wurde. (shrink)

Alongside the 'critical theory' of the Frankfurt School, West Germany was also home to another influential Marxist current known as the Marburg School. In this volume, Marburg disciple Lothar Peter traces the school's history and situates it in the political discourse and developments of its time. The renowned political scientist Wolfgang Abendroth plays a large role, but unlike most histories of the Marburg School Peter also takes the sociologists Werner Hofmann and Heinz Maus into account as well as their (...) many students and successors. They were united by the conviction that teaching and scholarship must necessarily be tied to the practical goal of transforming society - an approach that met with considerable opposition in the harshly anti-Communist atmosphere of the period. (shrink)

I describe characteristic phenomena of quantum physics that suggest that reality appears to us in two domains: the open and well-known domain of empirical, material things—the realm of actuality—and a hidden and invisible domain of nonempirical, non-material forms—the realm of potentiality. The nonempirical forms are part of physical reality because they contain the empirical possibilities of the universe and can manifest themselves in the empirical world. Two classes of nonempirical states are discussed: the superposition states of microphysical entities, which are (...) nonempirical because observation destroys them, and the virtual states of material systems, which are nonempirical because they are empty. The non-empirical part to physical reality represents a predetermined and hidden order that exists before it is empirical, and the visible world is an emanation out of it. I discuss consequences for our understanding of human nature, the origin of life, and human values. Reality is an indivisible wholeness that is aware of its processes, like a Cosmic Spirit, and it reveals its awareness in the mindlike properties of elementary processes as well as in the human consciousness. Thus, one is led to G. W. F. Hegel's thesis that the Cosmic Spirit is thinking in us. (shrink)

Die Logik, einst Grundbestand der Philosophie, hat sich in unserem J ahrhundert zu einer selbstandigen Wissenschaft ent 1 wickelt. Sie wird zur Abgrenzung gegeniiber friiheren Gestalten "neue Logik" oder "moderne Logik" genannt; auch sind Be zeichnungen wie "theoretische Logik", "mathematische Logik", "symbolische Logik", "formale Logik", "Logistik" gebrauch 2 lich, urn die Eigenart der grundlegenden Methoden anzudeuten. Die genannten Benennungen werden in dieser Arbeit gleichbe rechtigt gebraucht. Mit 1. M. BOCHENSKI und A. MENNE kann man unter Logistik in weiterem Sinne "die (...) Lehre vom Logikkalkiil, seinen Voraus 3 setzungen und Anwendungen" verstehen. Die Absicht dieser Arbeit ist eine philosophische; sie fragt nach dem, was die Aussage als Aussage zum Element positiver Logik werden laBt. In Frage ist daher die Aussagen- und (ele mentare) Pradikatenlogik, die in formaler Hinsicht "durch den Vollstandigkeitssatz (Go DEL I930) und den Unentscheidbarkeits- 1 Texte zur Geschichte der modernen Logik: I.M. BOCHENSKI, Formale Logik, Freiburg-Miinchen I956, S. 3II-477. 2 s. z.B.: B. JUH6s, Elemente der neuen Logik, Wien I954. G. HASEN]AEGER, Einfuhrung in die Grundbegritfe und Probleme der modernen Logik, Freiburg-Miinchen I962. D. HILBERT und W. ACKERMANN, Grundzi~ge der theoretischm Logik, 3. Aufl., B- lin-Gi:ittingen-Heidelberg I949. H. SCHOLZ und G. HASEN]AEGER, Grundzuge der mathematischen Logik, Berlin 1961. H. HERMES, Einfuhrung in die mathematische Logik, Stuttgart 1963. R. CARNAP, Symbolische Logik, Wien 1954. P. LORENZEN, Formale Logik. I.M. BOCHENSKI, GrundrifJ der Logistik, aus dem Franzi:isischen iibers., neubearb. und erweitert von A. MENNE, 2. erweiterte Auf I., Paderborn 1962. (shrink)

This article is about the post-history of Hobbes’s name for the state and thus about the history of the name ‘Leviathan’ insofar as this name has remained the catchword for the (modern) state to this day (from the late 17th century to the beginning of the 21st century), but above all for that of absolutist-despotic proportions. This story, told here for the first time, is particularly interesting because it ultimately reveals a continuity in the understanding of Hob-bes that suggests that (...) this post-history not only has something to do with Hobbes’s Leviathan itself, but at least as much with its pre-history - with the name ‘Leviathan’, which Hobbes gave the state in reference to the biblical monster of the same name. (shrink)

Inhalt: L. Eley: Vorwort - K. Dusing: Endliche und absolute Subjektivitat - H. F. Fulda: Idee und vereinzeltes Subjekt in Hegels Enzyklopadie - U. Rameil: Die Phanomenologie des Geistes in Hegels Nurnberger Propadeutik - B. Tuschling: Hegels Philosophie des Geistes nach Erdmann (1827/28) - G. Schmidt: Die zweite Phanomenologie des Geistes als philosophiehistorische Kritik - M. J. Petry: Vernunft und Anschauung in Hegels Kantkritik - U. Claesges: Zum Problem der enzyklopadischen Phanomenologie - L. Siep: Leiblichkeit, Selbstgefuhl und Personalitat in Hegels (...) Philosophie des Geistes - B. Merker: Uber Gewohnheit - V. E. Dusing: Genesis des Selbstbewusstseins durch Anerkennung und Liebe - A. Peperzak: Selbstbewusstsein - Vernunft - Freiheit - Geist - J. Simon: Intersubjektivitat bei Kant und Hegel? - L. Eley: Was ist der systematische Ort des Kampfes des Anerkennens und der Unterwerfung unter einen Herrn in Hegels Theorie des Geistes der Enzyklopadie - Hegels Werke - Personenverzeichnis - Sachverzeichnis. (shrink)

Die Apokalypse und apokalytische Denkbilder haben seit Jahren und Jahrzehnten Konjunktur. In einer immer neuen 'Lust am Untergang' wurden und werden in schöner Regelmäßigkeit Endzeiten beschworen und Katastrophen prognostiziert. Ganz augenfällig greifen diese Konjunkturen dabei auf Bildtraditionen zurück, die ihre Herkunft aus der biblischen Überlieferung kaum verbergen. Der Band versammelt die Vorträge einer Ringvorlesung, die an der Universität Koblenz-Landau in Landau veranstaltet wurde. Ziel war die Zusammenführung von Forschungsinteressen, die in den verschiedenen Fachrichtungen in der einen oder anderen Weise auf (...) das Themenfeld sowie im engeren Sinne auf die Johannesoffenbarung und die unterschiedlichen Wahrnehmungen dieses wirkungsmächtigen Kulturdokuments gerichtet waren. Besonderes Gewicht galt den Untergangsszenarien und deren Wahrnehmung in der Moderne. Aus dem Blickwinkel der Theologien werden die biblisch-antiken Grundlagen des apokalyptischen Denkens und deren Fortschreibung in der gelehrten Diskussion bis in die Gegenwart vorgestellt. Die Bildersprache der Johannesoffenbarung und die vielfältig anschließenden Bildtraditionen werden in literatur- und kunstgeschichtlichen Überblicksdarstellungen entwickelt und in Einzelstudien vertieft. Analysen zur produktiven Aufnahme und Verarbeitung der biblischen Muster in der Literatur, Musik, Graphik, im Film und nicht zuletzt in der jüngeren Klimadiskussion zeigen die Apokalypse und das Apokalyptische als Deutungsmuster, auf die bei der Beschreibung von Untergangsszenarien in der Moderne bis heute immer wieder zurückgegriffen wird. (shrink)