We present select examples of how visual phenomena can serve as tools to uncoverbrain mechanisms. Specifically, receptive field organization is proposed as a Gestalt-like neural mechanism of perceptual organization. Appropriate phenomena, such as brightness and orientation contrast, subjective contours, filling-in, and aperture-viewed motion, allow for a quantitative comparison between receptive fields and their psychophysical counterparts, perceptive fields. Phenomenology might thus be extended from the study of perceptual qualities to their transphenomenal substrates, including memory functions. In conclusion, classic issues of Gestalt (...) psychology can now be related to modern. (shrink)

"The time-honored dualism of the mutually exclusive systems of thought, mechanistic biology on the one hand and vitalism on the other, expresses a pair of theoretical approaches which are both inadequate. We shall show how they can be replaced by an abstractly descriptive system of a different type that is far better adapted to the nature of biology"--Preface.

Although a very recent topic in contemporary logic, the subject of combinations of logics has already shown its deep possibilities. Besides the pure philosophical interest offered by the possibility of defining mixed logic systems in which distinct operators obey logics of different nature, there are also several pragmatical and methodological reasons for considering combined logics. We survey methods for combining logics (integration of several logic systems into a homogeneous environment) as well as methods for decomposing logics, showing their interesting properties (...) and applications. (shrink)

Der Kardinal Nikolaus von Kues bzw. Nicolaus Cusanus (1401 - 1464) war der bedeutendste Philosoph des 15. Jahrhunderts und zugleich einer der einflussreichsten Kirchenpolitiker seiner Zeit. Neben seiner rastlosen Tätigkeit als Advokat von Fürsten und Päpsten, als Fürstbischof von Brixen und Kurienkardinal verfasste er philosophisch-theologische Schriften von historischem Rang. Ihn interessierten die großen Köpfe der europäischen Geistesgeschichte und die Intellektuellen seiner Zeit genauso wie die Alltagsprobleme der Gläubigen seines Tiroler Bistums. Besondere Beachtung verdient zudem die Tatsache, dass er einen Großteil (...) seiner Schriften in Dialogform verfasste. Die 14 Beiträge dieses Bandes zeigen in exemplarischer Weise, dass Nikolaus von Kues sowohl ein Denker im Dialog als auch ein dialogischer Denker war. (shrink)

In this radical reinterpretation of Aristotle's Metaphysics, Walter E. Wehrle demonstrates that developmental theories of Aristotle are based on a faulty assumption: that the fifth chapter of Categories is an early theory of metaphysics that Aristotle later abandoned.

Lorsque commença en 1933 la dispersion des savants allemands, il n’y avait aucun domaine dont la connaissance familière aurait pu leur conférer un prestige exclusif. Pourtant, les regards de l’Europe étaient tournés vers eux, et il s’y lisait plus que de la sympathie. C’étaient des regards interrogateurs, comme les font naître des gens qui ont été confrontés à un danger inhabituel,..

Argument for the role of the human conscience in determining right and wrong, good and evil.