Steady-state visual evoked potentials are commonly used for functional objective diagnostics. In general, the main response at the stimulation frequency is used. However, some studies reported the main response at the second harmonic of the stimulation frequency. The aim of our study was to analyze the influence of the stimulus design on the harmonic components of ssVEPs. We studied 22 subjects using a circular layout. At a given eccentricity, the stimulus was presented according to a 7.5 Hz square wave with (...) 50% duty cycle. To analyze the influence of the stimulus eccentricity, a background luminance of 30 cd/m2 was added to suppress foveal stray light effects; to analyze the influence of simultaneous foveal and peripheral stimulations, stimulations are performed without stray light suppression. For statistical analysis, medians M of the amplitude ratios for amplitudes at the second harmonic to the first harmonic and the probability of the occurrence of the main response at the second harmonic P are calculated. For stimulations with foveal stray light suppression, the medians were M0–1.6° = 0.45, M1.6–3.5° = 0.45, M3.5–6.4° = 0.76, M6.4–10.9° = 0.72, and M10.9–18° = 0.48, and the probabilities were P0–1.6° = 0.05, P1.6–3.5° = 0.05, P3.5–6.4° = 0.32, P6.4–10.9° = 0.29, and P10.9–18° = 0.30. For stimulations without foveal stray light suppression, the medians M were M0–1.6° = 0.29, M1.6–3.5° = 0.37, M3.5–6.4° = 0.98, M6.4–10.9° = 1.08, and M10.9–18° = 1.24, and the probabilities were P0–1.6° = 0.09, P1.6–3.5° = 0.05, P3.5–6.4° = 0.50, P6.4–10.9° = 0.55, and P10.9–18° = 0.55. In conclusion, the stimulus design has an influence on the harmonic components of ssVEPs. An increase in stimulation eccentricity during extrafoveal stimulation leads to a transition of the main response to the second harmonic. The effect is enhanced by a simultaneous foveal stimulation. (shrink)

In many European countries, the explicit discussion of race as a biological phenomenon has long been avoided. This has not meant that race has become obsolete or irrelevant all together. Rather, it is a slippery object that keeps shifting and changing. To understand its slippery nature, we suggest that race in Europe is best viewed as an absent presence, something that oscillates between reality and nonreality, which appears on the surface and then hides underground. In this special issue, we explore (...) how race has been configured in different practices and how race-based identities and technologies are entwined in various European settings. (shrink)

Un phénomène intéressant apparaît dans de multiples cultures juridiques : afin de concilier la lettre de la loi et son esprit, certaines lois sont contournées – légalement. Ce contournement, qui consiste à vider la loi de son esprit tout en faisant mine de respecter sa formulation (un loophole en anglais), pose d’un point de vue éthique la question de savoir s’il n’y a pas là hypocrisie. La loi juive est ici étudiée car les contournements qu’elle autorise sont critiqués par ses (...) détracteurs, mais également de l’intérieur : tous les contournements ne sont pas approuvés, loin s’en faut. Le présent texte, qui se veut seulement exploratoire, essaie de montrer quels contournements sont autorisés et pour quelles raisons. (shrink)

The Approximate Number System (ANS) is a system that allows us to distinguish between collections based on the number of items, though only if the ratio between numbers is high enough. One of the questions that has been raised is what the representations involved in this system represent. I point to two important constraints for any account: (a) it doesn’t involve numbers, and (b) it can account for the approximate nature of the ANS. Furthermore, I argue that representations of pure (...) magnitude with vehicles that have an imprecision in the value of the unit of measurement (further clarified through a formal model from measurement theory) fit both these requirements. (shrink)

The connection between the probabilities of conditionals and the corresponding conditional probabilities has long been explored in the philosophical literature, but its implementation faces both technical obstacles and objections on empirical grounds. In this paper I ?rst outline the motivation for the probabilistic turn and Lewis’ triviality results, which stand in the way of what would seem to be its most straightforward implementation. I then focus on Richard Jeffrey’s ’random-variable’ approach, which circumvents these problems by giving up the notion that (...) conditionals denote propositions in the usual sense. Even so, however, the random-variable approach makes counterintuitive predictions in simple cases of embedded conditionals. I propose to address this problem by enriching the model with an explicit representation of causal dependencies. The addition of such causal information not only remedies the shortcomings of Jeffrey’s conditional, but also opens up the possibility of a uni?ed probabilistic account of indicative and counterfactual conditionals. (shrink)

Die Arbeit des Bundesverfassungsgerichts hat Ausstrahlungswirkung auf alle drei Staatsgewalten. Während sich das Interesse der Öffentlichkeit wie der Medien im Wesentlichen auf spektakuläre Einzelurteile fokussiert, bemüht sich die Rechtswissenschaft, die Rechtsprechung des BVerfG in ihrer gesamten Breite zu erfassen, zu analysieren und zu strukturieren. Die wissenschaftlichen MitarbeiterInnen nehmen als Erste Tendenzen und Rechtsprechungslinien wahr und begleiten sie mit ihrer Arbeit. Aus dieser Nahsicht herauswird in dem vorliegenden Bandder Versuch unternommen, zentrale, charakteristische und bedeutsame Themen und Fragestellungen aufzugreifen und auf wissenschaftlichem (...) Niveau zu erörtern. Die Beiträge gehen dabei über bloße Entscheidungsbesprechungen ebenso hinaus wie über Rechtsprechungsübersichten. Im Aufzeigen sowohl von Hintergründen als auch von Tendenzen der Verfassungsrechtsprechung und ihrer aktuellen und praktischen Bezüge zur Tätigkeit der anderen Staatsgewalten gerade durch Mitarbeiter des Gerichts liegt der besondere Wert dieses Sammelbandes. (shrink)

This article uses the idea of resilience as a point of departure for analysing some contemporary challenges to the climate justice movement posed by social-ecological sciences. Climate justice activists are increasingly rallying for a system-change, demanding fundamental changes to political bureaucracy and the economy, which would put ecology, biodiversity and climate change first for all future political decisions. Since the concept of resilience has taken up a central role in recent developments in ecological sciences, it has also become part of (...) the activist debate. The article’s main argument is that the scientific framework behind resilience is not politically neutral and that this framework tends to weaken the activist’s demands for a just transition and place more emphasis on technical and bureaucratic processes. (shrink)

This article investigates corporate governance reform in South Africa in the context of the country’s international links with Anglo-American corporate governance and domestic pursuit of socioeconomic development. Two key questions are evaluated. (a) How has divergence within the Anglo-American model influenced corporate governance reform in South Africa? (b) Can South Africa’s historical closeness to the Anglo-American model be combined with increasing attention to stakeholder issues to produce a hybrid “African model” of corporate governance? Evaluating these questions, the following issues are (...) explored in turn: the contrast between shareholder and stakeholder models, divergence between U.S. and U.K. approaches to corporate governance as exemplified by Sarbanes-Oxley, locating a South African approach in context of the Anglo-American model, the King reports and an emerging “African” model of corporate governance, and the role of international and domestic factors in shaping South Africa’s ongoing reform process. (shrink)

Dans le Sermon 74 sur le Cantique des Cantiques, Bernard de Clairvaux fait part de son expérience, exprimée en termes de « visites du Verbe ». De son propre aveu, il vise le dévoilement d’une ontologie de la personne qui se réalise pleinement par l’expérience immédiate du Verbe. La construction de la théologie bernardine est reprise dans cet article à partir du mouvement alternatif entre expérience et expression. La capacité humaine de produire de nouvelles formes de langage ne s’épuise pas (...) dans la mise en œuvre de la langue. Pour mettre en exergue cette idée, les termes d’inoperosità (désœuvrement) et d’inappropriable, forgés par Giorgio Agamben, sont utilisés pour montrer dans quelle mesure le cistercien emploie l’art des paroles pour produire l’effet de son expérience personnelle avec Dieu. L’article tente ainsi de montrer que les mots bernardins entrent dans un mode de désœuvrement, afin de nous introduire dans la contemplation du Verbe en tant que forme de vie et transformation intérieure. (shrink)

Given a graph G whose set of vertices is a Polish space X, the weak Borel chromatic number of G is the least size of a family of pairwise disjoint G -independent Borel sets that covers all of X. Here a set of vertices of a graph G is independent if no two vertices in the set are connected by an edge.We show that it is consistent with an arbitrarily large size of the continuum that every closed graph on a (...) Polish space either has a perfect clique or has a weak Borel chromatic number of at most ℵ1. We observe that some weak version of Todorcevic's Open Coloring Axiom for closed colorings follows from MA.Slightly weaker results hold for Fσ-graphs. In particular, it is consistent with an arbitrarily large size of the continuum that every locally countable Fσ-graph has a Borel chromatic number of at most ℵ1.We refute various reasonable generalizations of these results to hypergraphs. (shrink)

Cerro da Vila was founded as a Roman production and harbour settlement at the end of the Republican Age. It developed into a small seaside settlement, largely based on the exploitation of maritime resources, although it is unlikely that this exploitation exceededsubsistence level. The abandonment of the settlement probably resulted from violent attack and destruction at the end of the 11th / beginning of the 12th century AD. A hoard of 239 silver coins and fragments were discovered at the bottom (...) of an Islamic storage pit dug into the ground in an area of the former Roman site, where several remains of buildings and layers confirm settlement activity in the Visigothic and Islamic period. The latest coin is dated 270/883-4, but the hoard might have been buried some years later. It is likely that the hoard represents a small random sample of the coin circulation in Gharb al-Andalus. Most of the coins are fragmented. As it is typical for that period, a number are slotted and slashed coins; some of them are plugged with tiny pieces of silver. With the exception of two Carolingian deniers all the identifiable coins are from Cordoba, proving a tight control of the circulation of coins in al-Andalus. The hoard belongs to a horizon of similar hoards from southern and south-western al-Andalus which were buried in the 260s/870s and 270s/880s. Their composition is discussed in the article. They all belong to the period of the uprising of the muwallad landowner ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣūn between 267/880-1 and 303/915- 6, against the Emirate of Cordoba. (shrink)

This chapter describes the main themes of Dewey's approach. It examines some central philosophical topics from the impressive richness of Dewey's works and the comprehensive body of his writings, which fill thirty-seven volumes in the critical edition of the Collected Works. The chapter provides comments to a brief discussion of each topic, highlighting its importance as an element within Dewey's overall philosophical approach. The topics include “experience” as a philosophical core concept, theory of art, logic and theory of knowledge, anthropology (...) and social psychology, ethics and moral philosophy, social philosophy and political theory, theory of education and school, and theory of religion. (shrink)

I propose to show that any direct moral bioenhancement procedures that could be realized within a relatively short period of time are not realistic options. This does not have to worry us; however; because alternative options for promoting morality are available. Consequently; moral bioenhancement is not an option for dealing successfully with the increased potential destructiveness of contemporary technologies within a short-term framework; i.e. within this century. In what follows; I will explain why this is the case; and why; contrary (...) to Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu; I think this need not worry us too much. In section 1.; I will critically analyze moral bioenhancement by means of citalopram; aimed at reducing the tendency to harm others directly. I give this prominence because it could be a practical option for altering human emotions and dispositions – to my mind; it seems the most promising practical option in this field. In later sections; I will consider other means of realizing moral bioenhancement; since the first option does not do the job it is supposed to; and because Persson and Savulescu are concerned with alternative approaches. (shrink)

In this article I attempt to find out the appropriate understanding of “liberal education”. Firstly, I distinguish the two most important meanings of the notion “freedom” which I call momentary and lifelong freedom. Momentary freedom is a type of negative freedom, and lifelong freedom a type of positive freedom. Secondly, I show the consequences, which these two meanings of “freedom” have on the practice of a “liberal education”. Finally, I analyse which type of liberal education is the best.

The ways in which the sciences have been delineated and categorized throughout history provide insights into the formation, stabilization, and establishment of scientific systems of knowledge. The Dresdener school’s approach for explaining and categorizing the genesis of the engineering disciplines is still valid, but needs to be complemented by further-reaching methodological and theoretical reflections. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice is applied to the question of how individual agents succeed in influencing decisively a discipline’s changing object orientation, institutionalisation and self-reproduction. (...) Through the accumulation of social, cultural and economic capital, they succeed in realising their own organisational ideas and scientific programs. Key concepts for the analysis include the struggle for power and resources, monopolies of interpretation, and the degree of autonomy. A case study from the Aachener Technische Hochschule shows that the consolidation of ferrous metallurgy can be conceived as a symbolical struggle between Fritz Wüst, professor for ferrous metallurgy, and the German Iron and Steel Institute, leading to a construction of a system of differences in which scientists accepted being scientists rather than entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs accepted becoming entrepreneurs and renounced science. (shrink)

Seit dem antisemitischen Massaker am 7. Oktober 2023 durch die Hamas in Israel ist der Judenhass weltweit so sichtbar wie lang nicht mehr. Die Gewalt und der Wille zur Vernichtung äußern sich gegen Juden als Juden, projiziert auf Israel. Eine Auseinandersetzung, eine Kritik an antisemitischen Ressentiments, ihrer inhärenten Gewalt- und Vernichtungsbereitschaft, wird überlagert durch Legitimierungen, die die Grenzen der sozialen Ächtung des Antisemitismus neu verhandeln. Die individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Vorbehalte gegenüber einer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Antisemitismus sind enorm. Dieser Artikel erinnert (...) an die Kritische Theorie Theodor W. Adornos und Max Horkheimers, die im antisemitischen Ressentiment die Grenzen der Aufklärung beschrieben haben. Der Jahrtausende lang kultivierte Hass auf »die Juden« speist sich aus Projektionen und Rationalisierungen, die heute an Israel geheftet werden. Die Kontinuität des Antisemitismus verweist darauf, dass der antisemitische Hass und die Gewalt gesellschaftlich immer noch systematisch unterschätzt werden. Ein blinder Fleck kann den kursierenden Rationalisierungen und Legitimierungen entnommen werden, die die Ursache des Antisemitismus bei Juden oder bei Israel selbst suchen. (shrink)

To philosophize or not is a matter of conscious choice and option. But when we start with such a premise, we have to lay down what we understand by this activity. In the paper the author undertakes this task, distinguishing four-fold the philosophizing practice with regard to the domain of aesthetics. In the final section of the paper he considers the problem which seems to him fundamental, namely why today philosophizing via aesthetics in a definite way should be recommendable and (...) primary, as well as why it has to be bitter-juicy. (shrink)

Goodman's analytical treatment of art is most subtle as it unites the comprehending of a general theory of symbolic systems with doing justice to the peculiar characteristics of art symbolics. My only two reservations about his argumentation concern: a) the cognitive status of art and b) the cultural aspects as the exclusive framework of aesthetic experience. Goodman states that art's primary purpose is cognition but does not differentiate the meanings of the cognitive status of a work of art. I find (...) that he neglected the para-Philosophical kind of cognition and entirely left out of his scheme the empathic experiences and hermeneutic proceedings. My conclusion is then that the arts differ among themselves as to symbolic structures and are unequally outfitted with cognition. Moreover, In some arts (or some particular cases) the non-Cognitive elements can take priority over the cognitive ones. With respect to the second reservation I argue that although all symbolic systems are culturally made, It would be too hasty to reject some supracultural standards of artistic practice and aesthetic experience. I cite some concrete instances which provide counter arguments to goodman's thesis. (shrink)

An English double-embedded relative clause from which the middle verb is omitted can often be processed more easily than its grammatical counterpart, a phenomenon known as the grammaticality illusion. This effect has been found to be reversed in German, suggesting that the illusion is language specific rather than a consequence of universal working memory constraints. We present results from three self-paced reading experiments which show that Dutch native speakers also do not show the grammaticality illusion in Dutch, whereas both German (...) and Dutch native speakers do show the illusion when reading English sentences. These findings provide evidence against working memory constraints as an explanation for the observed effect in English. We propose an alternative account based on the statistical patterns of the languages involved. In support of this alternative, a single recurrent neural network model that is trained on both Dutch and English sentences is shown to predict the cross-linguistic difference in the grammaticality effect. (shrink)

Das vorliegende Themenheft „Ethik der Integrität“ der Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie vereint Beiträge aus der Rechts-, Moral- und Umweltphilosophie, die sich mit den deskriptiven und normativen Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von „Integrität“ beschäftigen. Die Untersuchung von Integrität nimmt dabei die Anwendung des Konzepts auf menschliche Personen und nichtmenschliche Naturwesen wie Tiere, Pflanzen und Ökosysteme in den Blick. Integrität impliziert im weitesten Sinne die Annahme, Wesen könnten und sollten als „ganze“ betrachtet, auch gegen innere und äußere Widerstände in der Lage sein, gemäß (...) ihrer eigenen „Zwecke“ zu verfahren. Zwar taucht integritas bereits bei Cicero in De officiis und bei Thomas v. Aquin in Summa theologiae vereinzelt auf, doch nimmt die Begriffsverwendung vor allem in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zu. Es scheint offenkundig ein Bedürfnis danach zu bestehen, z.T. recht unterschiedliche Phänomene als „Ganzheiten“ zu beschreiben und deren „Intaktheit“ positiv zu bewerten. Personen sollten hiernach in elementaren, ihre Identität dennoch im umfassenden Sinne betreffenden Aspekten in „Übereinstimmung“ mit sich selbst leben können. Die Integrität der Natur wird in wichtigen klimapolitischen Verträgen wie dem Abkommen von Paris sowie bei der Kodifizierung der Rechte der Natur z. B. in der Verfassung von Ecuador als Wert normativ vorausgesetzt. Das naturwissenschaftliche Paradigma des Anthropozäns verwendet ebenfalls eine umfassende Perspektive auf Mensch und Natur, die auch als Plädoyer für die Schutzwürdigkeit der Erde als „ganzer“ ausgedeutet wird. Noch wissen wir nicht, ob dem Konzept der Integrität im 21. Jahrhundert eine ähnliche „Karriere“ bevorsteht, wie sie der Begriff der Würde im 20. Jahrhundert erlebt hat. Dieses Heft ist ein Versuch, die verschiedenen Verwendungskontexte zu überblicken und einige stichprobenartig zu überprüfen. (shrink)

Rage like an Egyptian: Möglichkeiten eines kognitiv-semantischen Zugangs zum altägyptischen Wortschatz am Beispiel des Wortfelds [Wut]. By Ines Köhler. Beihefte zur Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur, vol. 18. Hamburg: Buske, 2016. Pp. xi + 442. €178.