A reminder that to defend privacy is to defend democracy, individualism, and the good life, this book will interest anyone who has ever felt uneasy about how much governments and corporations know about us.

Theories of the nature of time offered by anthropology, science, and religion are not only numerous but also very different. This groundbreaking book cuts through the confusion by introducing a provocative new tripolar model of time that integrates the human, natural, and religious dimensions of time into a single, harmonious whole. Wolfgang Achtner, Stefan Kunz, and Thomas Walter begin by exploring the structures of time in anthropological terms. They discuss time phenomenologically, showing how it can be experienced in three (...) distinct ways -- the mythic-cyclic, the rational-linear, and the mystic-holistic -- and they root these experiences in the findings of modern neuroscience and trace these three forms of the perception of time within various cultures of antiquity. The second part of the book looks at time as it has been described by some of sciences most profound theories, including classical mechanics, the special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and chaos theory. The authors then bring religion into the equation by surveying how time is conceived in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. They distinguish time concepts in wisdom and apocalyptic literature from time concepts in prophetic literature, and they demonstrate the basic eschatological orientation of the Christian view of time. "Dimensions of Time culminates by tying together the various strands of the authors' multidisciplinary, tripolar model of time. Offering a fascinating application of their unique theory, Achtner, Kunz, and Walter show how the unhealthy acceleration of life in contemporary society needs to be balanced by a rediscovery ofthe mystical experience of time, leading to a greater, deeper sense of human fulfillment. (shrink)

Drawing on recent Aristotelian readings of Kant's notion of natural causality with an emphasis on substances as causes, I will try to explain how persons can make a difference in the world of appearances by virtue of their rationality. For Kant, the clue is that the peculiar mode of a substance's natural causality supervenes on in-itself features, among which is the mode or character of the person's rationality. Thus, a wedge can be driven between natural necessity and metaphysical necessity, opening (...) up space for a strategy both reminiscent of and superior to that of Leibniz. (shrink)

An International Symposium In Honor of the 90th Birthday Year of Charles Townes October 6-8, 2005, UC Berkeley.

Reconstruimos la teoría central de las redes bayesianas n-dimensionales de forma clara y completa en el marco estructuralista. Nuestra formulación también incluye los n espacios de probabilidad unidimensionales y un espacio de probabilidad n-dimensional. Explicamos los sistemas previstos y la afirmación empírica de la teoría de las redes bayesianas n-dimensionales. En nuestra formulación, se destaca el concepto de dimensión, y discutimos si los eventos o las oraciones (enunciados, proposiciones) podrían usarse como bloques de construcción básicos.

Einleitung. 1. Pantragismus - Panlogismus - 2. Der Begriff der Negativitat - 3. Zum methodischen Vorgehen der Arbeit Erster Teil: Der Systemansatz der ersten Jenaer Jahre. I. Der Tod Gottes, die griechische Tragodie und das absolute Nichts. 1. Bedrohungen der Freiheit - 2. Die Tragodie im Sittlichen - 3. Das Absolute als Nacht, Nichts und Abgrund - II. Grundlagen der Kritik an der Verstandesreflexion. 1. Die kritische Funktion von Logik und Skeptizismus - 2. Ansatze zu einer Geschichtsphilosophie - III. Kritik (...) an der neuzeitlichen Subjektivitats- und Reflexionsphilosophie. 1. F.H. Jacobis Philosophie der Subjektivitat - 2. Fichtes Ausgang vom reinen Selbstbewusssein - 3. Kants Antinomienlehre - IV. Der Begriff der Negativitat als Grundlegung spekulativen Denkens. 1. Die Durchfuhrbarkeit des spekulativen Ansatzes - 2. Die Ambivalenz der Aussagen der praktischen Philosophie - 3. Auseinandersetzung mit der philosophischen Tradition Zweiter Teil: Die Ausarbeitung und Umwandlung des Systemansatzes in den Jahren 1803-1806. I. Die Negativitat der modernen, neuzeitlichen Gesellschaft. 1. Kritik an den neuzeitlichen Naturrechtstheorien auf der Grundlage einer Theorie des Kampfes um Anerkennung - 2. Das Gefuge der Stande - 3. Der Staat - II. Negativitat und Selbstbewusstsein in den Jenaer Systementwurfen. 1. Die Rekon- struktion der absoluten Sittlichkeit im System der Sittlichkeit - 2. Die Bewusstseinslehre des Systementwurfs von 1803/04 - 3. Das Erkennen und die Metaphysik der Subjektivitat in der Logik und Metaphysik von 1804/05 - 4. Die Negativitat des Selbstbewusstseins in der Realphilosophie von 1805/06 - III. Das Verhaltnis der verschiedenen Formen von Negativitat zueinander. 1. Negativitat des Seins und Selbstbewusstseins - 2. Die Negativitat der Entzweiung in der modernen Gesellschaft - 3. Vorblick auf die Phanomenologie Dritter Teil: Der Begriff der Negativitat in der Phanomenologie des Geistes. I. Die Idee einer Geschichte des Selbstbewusstseins. 1. Pragmatische Ges". (shrink)

We prove optimal lower bounds on the computation time for several well-known test problems on a quite realistic computational model: the random access machine. These lower bound arguments may be of special interest for logicians because they rely on finitary analogues of two important concepts from mathematical logic: inaccessible numbers and order indiscernibles.

Buridan endorsed the principles that any impossible, and a fortiori any self-contradictory, proposition entails each proposition. These principles are usually referred to as ‘Ex impossibili quodlibet’ (EIQ) and ‘Ex contradictione quodlibet’ (ECQ). Buridan further considered the instance ECCQ according to which any proposition follows from the conjunction of two contradictory propositions. Buridan showed how ECCQ can be proven by means the usual laws of conjunction and disjunction. Furthermore, he discovered that EIQ can be derived from ECCQ by means of the (...) principle that if a conclusion q follows from two premises, one of which is necessary, then q follows from the other premise alone. Buridan thought that this principle would be provable; but his proof turned out to be circular since it presupposed EIQ. Nevertheless, EIQ is validated by the definition of a ‘bona consequentia’. Somewhat more exactly, according to Buridan one may distinguish between inferences which are formally valid, ‘materially’ valid, and valid ‘as of now’. It is shown that formally valid inferences satisfy ECQ while ‘materially’ valid inferences satisfy EIQ. Furthermore, inferences which are valid ‘as of now’ satisfy the principle ‘Ex falso quodlibet’ saying that any false proposition ‘as of now’ entails every proposition. (shrink)

Human emotion,considered in its structure and functionality, can serve as a means of communication,interaction and cooperation in robots with humans.Emotions have to be analyzed as both intrasubjective and intersubjective processes in order to construct androids as human-like robots.Based on a cognitive modeling of emotions and the description of a 'language of mind 'we developed a methodological tool for the representation of situations and the elicitation conditions of emotions.

ZusammenfassungDie Mystik gilt im interreligiösen Dialog als diejenige Dimension von Religion, die gemäß dem Essentialismus den gemeinsamen Kern der Religionen darstellt. In Unterschied dazu vertritt der Kontextualismus die These, dass Mystik nur in spezifischen religiösen Kontexten entsteht und so seine unverwechselbare Eigenheit erhält. Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh vergleicht in seiner Arbeit Meister Eckhart und Rumi methodisch so miteinander, dass er die jeweiligen Stärken des Essentialismus und des Kontextualismus nutzt und ihre Schwächen vermeidet. Auf der Grundlage dieses methodischen Neuansatzes und eines weitgefassten Mystikbegriffs, (...) der Ethik, Praxis, Spekulation und Dogmatik umfasst, kommt er zu neuen Differenzierungen im religionsphänomenologischen Vergleich und legt zugleich erhebliche Differenzen im theologischen Deutehorizont der jeweiligen Mystiker offen. Darüberhinaus arbeitet er mit seiner Interpretation der. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEs werden aus der Theologiegeschichte vier Typen von Willensfreiheit erhoben: der Typus liberum arbitrium , der Typus des nominalistischen Willensbegriffs , der Typus des mystischen Willensbegriffs und der Typus der Rechtfertigungslehre. Die ersten drei Typen werden psychologisch interpretiert im Sinne der Ichentwicklung als präautonom, autonom und transautonom. Nach der Darstellung und Diskussion der gegenwärtigen neurowissenschaftlichen Debatte um die Willensfreiheit wird ein systemisch verstandener Personbegriff als Brückenkonzept vorgeschlagen.SUMMARYFour types of free will are identified from the history of theology: The type of (...) the liberum arbitrium, the type of nominalism, the type of mysticism and the type of justification. For the first three types a psychological interpretation in terms of pre-autonomy, autonomy, and trans-autonomy is offered, based on self-transcendence as a religious feature. Two basically opposing interpretations of the same empirical data favoring free will and favoring a non-free will are discussed and compared with the theological tradition. A new notion of the person, based on the system theory, is suggested as a bridging concept to link the theological and neuro-scientific ideas of free will. (shrink)

The article describes the way Wittgenstein tried to collect „all his good remarks“ within one book. The first such attempt is the Tractatus, the second attempt - which Wittgenstein could not complete - are the Investigations.The ‚Big Typescript’, however,was intended only as an instrument towards this latter aim. This aspect of Wittgenstein’s way of doing philosophy remained stable and it can help to throw light on various exegetical questions.

Some key problems of present-day astrophysics are critically revisited. Particular consideration is given to (1) supernova explosions, their mechanism, their progenitors, and their stellar remnants; (2) a radiation-transfer interpretation of supernova light curves; (3) the dearth of supernova-neutron star associations; (4) the central engines and jet-formation mechanisms of the four classes of bipolar-flow sources, in particular of the active galactic nuclei and the young stellar objects; (5) a critical discussion of the different ways in which cosmic rays are thought to (...) be generated, up to the highest energies, including the grindstone mechanism; and (6) an analysis of the ways in which the Earth, Sun, and Milky Way regenerate their magnetic fields. (shrink)