Karl Buhler (1879-1963) was one of the leading theoreticians of language of the twentieth century. This is an English translation of Buhler's theory that begins with a survey on 'Buhler's legacy' for modern linguistics (Werner Abraham), followed by the Theory of Language, and finally with a special 'Postscript: Twenty-five Years Later!'.

First of all, and above all, a sign is expected to be significant. A sign without significance is like a hollow husk. It is chaff without seed. Sign and significance are correlative terms like parent and child. Just as no one is a parent who has not begotten or borne a child so nothing which does not have significance can be a sign. On this point the English and the Latin words are self-explanatory. In English the words “sign” and “significance” (...) contain the same root. In the Latin words “significans” – that which signifies – and “significatum” – that which is signified – the correlation is even more obvious. In German, however, there is no such ready evidence of the correlation in the terms themselves. Indeed at first blush the terms “Zeichen” and “Bedeutung” seem so unrelated that philosophers have felt themselves constrained to write volumes of explanations on the term “Bedeutung”. (shrink)

The meaning of the term logagogy is elucidated, and logagogic practices are outlined in the history of medicine. It is shown how the traditional medicine of India, Ayurveda, shows signs of logagogic practices(sattvavajaya), and that not only Ayurveda but also the famous Greek physician Galenus emphasize a philosophical approach to medicine. As Galenus’s logagogic practices have their roots in the tradition of practical philosophy in Greek antiquity, the most important Greek schools of thought that are relevant to logagogic approaches are (...) sketched. It is shown that the Stoics created a rationalistic system emphasizing the importance of the logos for human beings, and that Epicurus made advances in psychoeducation and cognitive reframing that are important for logagogic practices. These logagogic approaches of antiquity have been taken up by modern counseling in philosophical practices. The article closes with an outline of a clinical logagogy. (shrink)

Many common arguments for physicalism begin with the principle that the cosmos is “causally closed.” But how good are the arguments for causal closure itself? I argue that the deductive, a priori arguments on behalf of causal closure tend to beg the question. The extant inductive arguments fare no better. They commit a sampling error or a non-sequitur, or else offer conclusions that remain compatible with causal openness. In short, we have no good arguments that the physical world is causally (...) closed. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to examine the contribution of evaluative conditioning (EC) to attitude formation theory in social psychology. This aim is pursued on two fronts. First, evaluative conditioning is analysed for its relevance to social psychological research. We show that conditioned attitudes can be acquired through simple co‐occurrences of a neutral and a valenced stimulus. Moreover, we argue that conditioned attitudes are not confined to direct contact with a valenced stimulus, but can be formed and dynamically (...) reformed indirectly, through association chains. Second, social research is examined in an effort to identify evaluative learning mechanisms. We suggest that several important phenomena in social psychology (e.g., ingroup favouritism, prejudice, name letter effect) are at least partly due to simple mechanisms of evaluative learning. The implications for attitude formation theory and for applied settings are discussed. (shrink)

Im vorliegenden Aufsatz unterscheide ich verschiedene Weisen, in denen Interpretationen richtig oder falsch sein können. Ich komme zu dem Resultat, dass Interpretationen richtig oder falsch sind, sofern ihr deskriptiver Inhalt hinreichend bestimmt ist. Die Richtigkeit oder Falschheit der Interpretation hängt dabei davon ab, ob der deskriptive Inhalt wahr oder falsch ist.

Since the emergence of in-vitro fertilization, a specific set of technologies has been developed to address the problem of the ‘biological clock’. The medical extension of fertility time is accompanied by promissory narratives to help women synchronize conflicting biological and social temporalities. This possibility also has a transgressive potential by blurring one of the biological landmarks – the menopause – by which reproductive lives are organized and governed. These new ways of managing, measuring and controlling reproductive time have renewed debates (...) on the age limits of motherhood and the moral legitimacy of medical intervention into age-related fertility decline. Building on Amir’s feminist concept of biotemporality, this paper questions what happens when the ontological foundations of age-limited motherhood are disrupted by technologies which allow fertility to be extended. It discusses the reconfigurations of the ontological boundaries of the facts of life in the light of literature on reproductive technologies and temporality. Through the Swiss experience, the paper shows how medical experts are drawn into negotiating the ontological boundaries of age-limited motherhood along the binaries of the normal/pathological and the biological/social. Questioning the purpose of medical interventions in what are seen as facts of life, they produce different configurations of moral reasoning where what is natural undergoes shifts which both reinforce the normative order and subvert it. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This paper analyses ethical training in neuroscience curricula at universities in Australia, Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. The main findings are that 52 % of all courses have ethical training available, while in 82 % of those cases, the training is mandatory. In terms of specific contents of the teaching, ethical issues about ‘animal subjects and human participation in research’, ‘scientific misconduct’, and ‘treatment of data’ were the most prominent. A special emphasis during the research was (...) placed on the prevalence of dual-use bioethics. In total, only 3 % of all courses mention it in any of their modules. One of the major findings of the survey was the trend towards ‘mainstreaming’ ethics education particularly in the UK, which is to disperse ethics among the various modules within the education instead of relying on a single ethics module. The paper discusses the utility of this approach for science education as well as describes the overall difficulties that course coordinators face when trying to teach ethics based on the responses to the qualitative part to the survey. (shrink)

Sont présentés les cinq tomes récemment publiés (2021) du Stoffe-Projekt, un immense chantier littéraire (30 000 pages dans les archives) qui a occupé Dürrenmatt pendant plus de vingt ans, jusqu’à sa mort. Tout en réfléchissant aux difficultés que cela représente, le dramaturge et penseur y développe une sorte d’autobiographie intellectuelle, où les souvenirs personnels alternent avec des considérations philosophiques et d’anciens matériaux littéraires qui continuent de l’habiter, réécrits et évalués du point de vue de leur signification pour son œuvre, mais (...) aussi de leur valeur existentielle et humaine. (shrink)

Thema dieses Buchs ist die Sprachkritik, vor allem, wie sie sich als Teil der offentlichen Sprachdiskussion darstellt, aber auch, welche Position sie in der linguistischen Fachwissenschaft einnimmt. In einer allgemeinen Orientierung im ersten Teil werden der Begriff der Sprachkritik, ihre Erscheinungsformen, Ziele und Bewertungskriterien analysiert. In einem weiteren Abschnitt erlautert der Autor seine Sicht auf die Rolle der Sprachkritik innerhalb der Sprachwissenschaft und ihre mogliche Wirkung auf den offentlichen Bereich des Nachdenkens uber Sprache. Die metakritischen Analysen des zweiten Teils behandeln (...) zunachst zwei methodologische Schwachstellen der popularen Sprachkritik und nehmen dann eine Reihe bevorzugter Gegenstande der Sprachkritik - u.a. Sprachwandel als Sprachverfall, Fremdworter, Unworter, Nazi-Worter - auf. Mit der exemplarischen Behandlung der gleichen Gegenstande versucht der Autor, der offentlichen Sprachkritik von linguistischer Seite ein Korrektiv zu bieten. (shrink)