Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 106 Heft: 2 Seiten: 286-325.

T. 1. Wortschatz -- T. 2. Überlieferung, Textkritik, Grammatik.

The history of western philosophy provides many occasions for verifying a general experience: theoretical innovations gain immediate appreciation only if they do not demand too much of the ability of contemporaries to integrate them into their worldview. If they emerge hastily and lack clear connection to their epoch’s expectations about meaning, they will be dismissed as an “untimely growth.” This is, of course, easy enough to understand. What is remarkable, though, is that even subsequent generations that have come to accept (...) the innovation will often continue to regard its originator as taboo. (shrink)

In this article, various objections will be discussed that have been put forward against ethical relativism, but which haven’t been considered seriously enough on the part of relativists and have been overrated on the part of their opponents. The objections will be concentrated into three arguments: the action-theoretic, the epistemological and the truth-theoretic argument. The article will discuss whether they can be rebutted by proponents of the two main types of relativism: indexical relativism and truth-relativism. The conclusion will be as (...) follows: one version of indexical relativism, the analytical version, gets into serious troubles by the action-theoretic argument, while its revisionary version will remain unaffected, the epistemological argument fails with respect to indexical relativism and stands on shaky ground as regards truth-relativism, the truth-theoretic argument puts considerable pressure on truth-relativism. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractThe origins of asexuality in plants as well as animals have long puzzled researchers. In article 2000111, Diego Hojsgaard and Manfred Schartl integrate old ideas with recent molecular and genomic data and provide a single mechanistic model for this phenomenon. They highlight two usually overlooked conditions to understand the molecular nature of clonal organisms to explain asexuals' developmental diversity and biologically vague cases such as automixis and polyploidy.

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral).

SummaryIn a theory of representational or intentional states content is generally supposed to play various roles. It has to be the bearer of a truth‐value, it has to determine the way a representation is about something , and finally it has to 6e used in order to give intra‐ and interpersonal psychological explanations. It has been argued that no unique kind of content can play all these roles. What criterion should one adopt in order to draw the dividing line? We (...) suggest that the divide be based on ontological considerations related to the way content depends on external factors. There is a fundamental difference, we submit, between object‐dependent and property‐dependent contents. The requirements concerning modes of presentation as well as cognitive significance can be met by one kind of content. This content, it will appear, is property‐dependent, but never object‐dependent. (shrink)

Der "Orient" in Amerika läßt sich auf zwei Begegnungsrichtungen festlegen, wie ich hier anhand einiger Beispiele zu zeigen versuchte: Zunächst finden wir den Weg der Missionare, die versuchten, die für sie buchstäblich "Neue" Welt mit ihrem biblischen Instrumentarium zu deuten: Die heidnischen Götter sind vergleichbar den Götzen, die das Alte Testament kennt, und nichts anderes als Vorspiegelungen des Teufels. Einzelne indianische Anschauungen können dabei überhaupt biblisch gedeutet werden, teils als teuflische Nachahmungen der wirklichen biblischen Geschichte, teils als fast in Vergessenheit (...) geratene Erinnerungen an einen ehemaligen Kontakt zur Alten Welt. Mit den ersten Erfolgen in der Missionierung finden wir aber auch eine andere Begegnungsrichtung : Die Indios selbst greifen auf biblische und somit orientalische Elemente zurück, um ihr Weltbild daran anzuknüpfen. Häufiger kann man aber beobachten, daß die eigene Mythologie nur formal mit biblischen Aussagen in Korrelation gebracht wird, so daß diese "Begegnung" eher oberflächlich bleibt. Beide Wege können dabei als Versuche gelten, das Fremde zu kategorisieren, mit dem "Orient" und "Okzident" durch den Zusammenprall der Kulturen im Gefolge der Conquista plötzlich zu leben hatten. Da diese Versuche jedoch in sich z.T. fragwürdig sind, haben sie letztlich bis heute kaum dazu geführt, das Weltbild des jeweils anderen auch zu verstehen. (shrink)

Summary In this article three dramas, quite subjectively picked out of the extensive literature, in which scientists play an important part and science constitutes a main subject, are analysed to find out, what are the underlying and implicit epistemological ideas.

Kant's philosophy, the peak, the culminating point of the European bourgeois Enlightenment, also represents the starting point of German classic bourgeois philosophy, leading through Fichte and Schelling to Hegel and Feuerbach. With the last-named, as we know, classic German philosophy, one of the theoretical sources of Marxism, "terminates.".