Why are negative emotions so central in art reception far beyond tragedy? Revisiting classical aesthetics in the light of recent psychological research, we present a novel model to explain this much discussed (apparent) paradox. We argue that negative emotions are an important resource for the arts in general, rather than a special license for exceptional art forms only. The underlying rationale is that negative emotions have been shown to be particularly powerful in securing attention, intense emotional involvement, and high memorability, (...) and hence is precisely what artworks strive for. Two groups of processing mechanisms are identified that conjointly adopt the particular powers of negative emotions for art's purposes. The first group consists of psychological distancing mechanisms that are activated along with the cognitive schemata of art, representation, and fiction. These schemata imply personal safety and control over continuing or discontinuing exposure to artworks, thereby preventing negative emotions from becoming outright incompatible with expectations of enjoyment. This distancing sets the stage for a second group of processing components that allow art recipients to positively embrace the experiencing of negative emotions, thereby rendering art reception more intense, more interesting, more emotionally moving, more profound, and occasionally even more beautiful. These components include compositional interplays of positiveandnegative emotions, the effects of aesthetic virtues of using the media of (re)presentation (musical sound, words/language, color, shapes) on emotion perception, and meaning-making efforts. Moreover, our Distancing-Embracing model proposes that concomitant mixed emotions often help integrate negative emotions into altogether pleasurable trajectories. (shrink)

Competitive courtship and aesthetic judgment/choice : Darwin's model of the arts -- The arts as promoters of social cooperation and cohesion -- Engagement in the arts as ontogenetic self-(trans-)formation -- A cooptation model of the evolution of the human arts : the special role of play behavior -- Technology, and symbolic cognition.

Die metaphysikferne oder metaphysikentfremdete Philosophie der Gegenwart ist gleichermaßen der Wahrheitsfrage fern oder entfremdet, da die neuzeitliche Philosophie – und darin vor allem die Erkenntniskritik – eine Infragestellung der objektiven Wahrheit eingeleitet habe. Descartes und Kant zweifelten an objektiver Wahrheit. Aber stimmt es, dass es keine objektive Wahrheit gibt? Birgt diese Behauptung nicht in sich selbst das Problem, dass sie sich als objektive Wahrheit annehmen muss, um nicht gegenstandslos zu werden? Dies führt jedoch zurück zur in der Moderne problematisch gewordenen (...) Metaphysik. In der Auseinandersetzung mit der neuzeitlichen Philosophie geht Winfried Weier dieser Frage nach, denn die Aufhebung der Metaphysik führt offensichtlich zu erheblichen Problemen der Möglichkeit wahrer Erkenntnis. (shrink)

Grundlegung einer dimensionalen Anthropologie Winfried Weier. gründigen für ein noch zu Erfragendes und so fort. Die nie zur Ruhe kommende Dynamik des Fragens kennt kein Stehenbleiben, keinen Stillstand, solange sie nicht durch ...

Winfried Weier ; Volltext // Exemplar mit der Signatur: München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek -- Z 47.281-39/40.

Many scholars of philosophy, aesthetics, religion, history or social science have ventured to offer a comprehensive explanation of music, one of the most intangible and elusive phenomena in the world. A palaeoanthropological approach, which places music into an evolutionary paradigm, can add important perspectives to our understanding of this phenomenon. To begin with, the question whether music is an adaptation that has survival value in the classical Darwinian sense is contemplated. Views on the origin of music in conjunction with the (...) emergence of language and as a domain for the expression of emotion, linked to music’s benefits for social coherence, are discussed. More recent views on the emergence of consciousness, on semiosis and on music as a manifestation of biocultural co-evolution, especially in conjunction with ritual, are then presented. Finally, the merit of exploiting the concept of play to help account for the systematicity of music’s semiosis is examined.Contribution: In line with the intent of this special collection of articles, the above considerations are placed into the context of materialist versus nonmaterialist perspectives on the emergence of the human mind. The overarching argument is that music contributes crucially to what it means to be human. (shrink)

Disgust (Ekel, dégoût) is a state of high alert. It acutely says "no" to a variety of phenomena that seemingly threaten the integrity of the self, if not its very existence. A counterpart to the feelings of appetite, desire, and love, it allows at the same time for an acting out of hidden impulses and libidinal drives. In Disgust, Winfried Menninghaus provides a comprehensive account of the significance of this forceful emotion in philosophy, aesthetics, literature, the arts, psychoanalysis, and (...) theory of culture from the eighteenth century to the present. Topics addressed include the role of disgust as both a cognitive and moral organon in Kant and Nietzsche; the history of the imagination of the rotting corpse; the counter-cathexis of the disgusting in Romantic poetics and its modernist appeal ever since; the affinities of disgust and laughter and the analogies of vomiting and writing; the foundation of Freudian psychoanalysis in a theory of disgusting pleasures and practices; the association of disgusting "otherness" with truth and the trans-symbolic "real" in Bataille, Sartre, and Kristeva; Kafka's self-representation as an "Angel" of disgusting smells and acts, concealed in a writerly stance of uncompromising "purity"; and recent debates on "Abject Art.". (shrink)

It is controversial whether ”Christian Philosophy’ is a useful or even consistent notion. After providing some historical background to the problem, I will distinguish and explicate two possible understandings of ”Christian Philosophy’ which should be kept apart: a ”Thomistic’ and an ”Augustinian’ one, of which the latter has garnered more attention in the recent literature. A sketch of the most prominent current ”Augustinian’ position leads to some considerations for why a ”Thomistic’ understanding of ”Christian Philosophy’ has more to recommend it, (...) if the term is regarded as useful at all. (shrink)

Die Beziehungen zwischen analytischer Philosophie und Armut sind ein Thema, dessen Existenz und Relevanz sich nicht auf den ersten Blick erschließen: Ein kanonisches Thema analytischer Philosophie ist ›Armut‹ nicht, am ehesten kommt sie noch als Seitenaspekt der Gerechtigkeitsthematik zur Sprache. Wenn Internetrecherchen sehr bald auch David Papineaus Antrittsvorlesung »The Poverty of Analysis« empfehlen, dann scheint es prima facie nicht allzu viel Einschlägiges zu geben. Für die analytische Philosophie – die überdies ihre Schwerpunkte eher im theoretisch-philosophischen Bereich hat – scheint nochmals (...) verstärkt das zu gelten, was für die Philosophie im Allgemeinen gilt : Gemessen am offensichtlichen sozialen und politischen Problemdruck in vielen Weltgegenden ist Armut bislang ein merkwürdig randständiges Thema, sogar in der politischen Philosophie. Entgegen diesem ersten Eindruck soll in diesem Kapitel gezeigt werden, dass die analytische Philosophie auf die gegenwärtigen Ansätze zur Philosophie der Armut de facto erheblichen Einfluss hatte, und dass sie auch pro futuro einiges Potenzial für sie bergen würde. (shrink)

- Diskussion von Epochenbegriff und Epochengrenzen - Autor, Markt und Publikum: Strukturwandel der literarischen Öffentlichkeit - Die Epoche im Spiegel der zeitgenössischen Debatten, z. B.: Nationalliteratur, Antike, Ästhetik, Religion - Popularisierung von Wissen und literarische Wissensvermittlung - Kulturtransfer und Fremderfahrung - Gattungsinnovationen und Gattungswandel: Drama, Roman, Publizistik und Literaturkritik, Fabel und Prosaerzählung, Dialog und Essay.

Ecosemiotics is the study of sign processes (semioses) in relation to the natural environment in which they occur. The paper examines the cultural, biological, and evolutionary dimensions of ecosemioses on the basis of C. S. Peirce's theory of continuity between matter and mind and investigates the ecosemiotic dimensions of natural signs. Ecosemiotics and the semiotics of nature are distinguished from pansemiotism, and the coevolution of sign processes with their natural enviromnent is discussed as a determining factor of ecosemiosis.

In this paper, I defend a moderately cognitive account of religious beliefs. Religious beliefs are interpreted as “worldview beliefs”, which I explicate as being indispensable to our everyday and scientific practice; my reading is nonetheless distinct from non-cognitivist readings of “worldview belief” which occasionally appear in the literature. I start with a brief analysis of a recent German contribution to the debate which on the one hand insists on the priority of epistemic reasons for or against religious beliefs, but on (...) the other hand contends that religious beliefs are worldview beliefs. This leads me to explicate a special sense of worldview beliefs, as well as their cognitive role. After that, I shed some light on a special epistemological characteristic of worldview beliefs, namely the strong involvement of “free certitude” in their acceptance. I explore the implications for the possible role of arguments for worldview beliefs, especially for worldview beliefs concerning theism. (shrink)