The founder of modern logic and grandfather of analytic philosophy was 70 years old when he published his paper 'Der Gedanke' (The Thought ) in 1918. This essay contains some of Gottlob Frege's deepest and most provocative reflections on the concept of truth, and it will play a prominent role in my lectures. The plan for my lectures is as follows. What is it that is (primarily) true or false? 'Thoughts', is Frege's answer. In §1, I shall explain and defend (...) this answer. In §2, I shall briefly consider his enthymematic argument for the conclusion that the word 'true' resists any attempt at defining it. In §3, I shall discuss his thesis that the thought that things are thus and so is identical with the thought that it is true that things are thus and so. The reasons we are offered for this thesis will be found wanting. In §4, I shall comment extensively on Frege's claim that, in a non-formal language like the one I am currently trying to speak, we can say whatever we want to say without ever using the word 'true' or any of its synonyms. I will reject the propositional-redundancy claim, endorse the assertive-redundancy claim and deny the connection Frege ascribes to them. In his classic 1892 paper 'Über Sinn und Bedeutung' (On Sense and Signification) Frege argues that truth-values are objects. In §5, I shall scrutinize his argument. In §6, I will show that in Frege's ideography (Begriffsschrift) truth, far from being redundant, is omnipresent. The final §7 is again on truth-bearers, this time as a topic in the theory of intentionality and in metaphysics. In the course of discussing Frege's views on the objecthood, the objectivity of thoughts and the timelessness of truth(s), I will plead for a somewhat mitigated Platonism. (shrink)

Anti-reductionist philosophers have often argued that mental and linguistic phenomena contain an intrinsically normative element that cannot be captured by the natural sciences which focus on causal rather than rational relations. This line of reasoning raises the questions of how reasons could evolve in a world of causes and how children can be acculturated to participate in rule-governed social practices. In this paper I will sketch a Wittgensteinian answer to these questions. I will first point out that throughout his later (...) philosophy Wittgenstein draws a sharp distinction between "teaching" and "training": newly-born children are trained (conditioned) to react to specific stimuli in specific ways, which then allows them to acquire concepts and follow rules. I will then show that this picture presupposes a strong analogy between concepts and capacities, which is also present in Wittgenstein's later philosophy. In the last section I will point out that Wittgenstein only discusses the ontogenetic question of how individual children can acquire speech, but not the phylogenetic question of how rule-governed behavior could evolve in the first place. I will argue that this strategy should not be seen as a shortcoming, but rather as an expression of Wittgenstein's approach that can be characterized as naturalistic in a wide sense. (shrink)

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE BEGINNING Phenomenology begins in the work of Edmund Husserl; the first of his phenomenological publications ...

Section 1 contains a Kripke-style completeness theorem for arbitrary intermediate consequences. In Section 2 we apply weak Kripke semantics to splittings in order to obtain generalized axiomatization criteria of the Jankov-type. Section 3 presents new and short proofs of recent results on implicationless intermediate consequences. In Section 4 we prove that these consequences admit no deduction theorem. In Section 5 all maximal logics in the 3 rd counterslice are determined. On these results we reported at the 1980 meeting on Mathematical (...) Logic at Oberwolfach. This paper concerns propositional logic only. (shrink)

According to Frege the notion of judgement cannot be defined, but must be explicated by referring to natural language. Frege uses a subjective and an objective notion of judgement: on the one hand a judgement is an inner mental process, on the other hand judging is explained as advancing from the thought to the truth-value. The subjective notion of judgement logically depends on the objective conception of a judgement, but nevertheless remains indispensable. To clarify the objective notion of judgement, the (...) relation of thought and truth must be explicated by using Frege's theory of sense and reference. Only an intersubjective and action-guiding knowledge of the way in which the truth-value of a sentence is determined can make it possible to advance from the thought and the understanding of a sentence to the acknowledgement of its truth. Since by this advance a sentence receives a cognitive value, Frege's theory of sense and reference makes a contribution not only to semantics but also to epistemology. (shrink)

Bd. 1. Deutungen -- Bd. 2. Elicitive Konflikttransformation und die transrationale Wende der Friedenspolitik.

The aim of this article is to give an introduction to functional interpretations of set theory given by the authorin Burr (2000a). The first part starts with some general remarks on Gödel's functional interpretation with a focus on aspects related to problems that arise in the context of set theory. The second part gives an insight in the techniques needed to perform a functional interpretation of systems of set theory. However, the first part of this article is not intended to (...) be a complete survey of functional interpretations and here we recommend, for example, Avigad and Feferman (1998),Troelstra (1990) and Troelstra (1973). (shrink)

Stephan H. Pfürtner (1922-2012) was a Catholic theologian who in the last stage of his academic career taught Social Ethics in the Department of Protestant Theology at Philipps-University in Marburg. The text, originally a lecture in commemoration of Stephan Pfürtner and his work, shows the close connection between biography and theology, between ethical experience and ethical reflection in his case. Empathetic Courage is shown by him in his successful effort to save three young Jewish women from death in the Concentration (...) Camp of Stutthof near Danzig in 1944. Ecumenical Resistance is performed by a group of young Christians around four ministers who became sentenced to death in 1943. A Liberated Conscience is decisive for Pfürtner’s position in a deep conflict with the Roman-Catholic Church on the ethics of human sexuality. Ethics of Reponsibility is the conception that he develops in his Marburg years. Evangelical Catholicity characterizes the spiritual dimension of Stephan Pfürtner’s legacy. (shrink)

Em 1989, a era do realismo político chegou ao fim. &s condições foram modificadas de forma a substituir O modelo hobbesiano de paz pela intimidação que prevalecia até então, por um modelo consideravelmente mais desafiador, o modelo kantiano da paz pelo direito. Se, todavia, o paradigma de Huntington dadas civilizações em conflito estivesse correto, teríamos de esquecer Kant e lembrarmo-nos de Hobbes. A racionalidade pé-no-chão, a desconfiança sadia, a luta pela acumulação do poder e todos os demais instrumentos da caixa (...) realista de ferramentas da prudência política são muito adequados para facilitar a autoafirmação política numa época de culturas violentamente conflitantes. No entanto, um tal desamparo não é bem fundamentado. Considerando-se que, desde seu início, o liberalismo é uma teoria do pluralismo religioso e ético, e que é bem -testada no trato de problemas do multiculturalismo, é ao menos possível argumentar-se em favor de um universalismo liberal fraco que forneça fundamentos normativos para uma ordem global baseada na convivência pacífica. Naturalmente, modéstia conceitual e moral é crucial. Se a doutrina dos direitos humanos deseja defender sua alegação universal em face da diversidade cultural. ela terá de se restringir às condições pré-culturais e meramente naturais do ser humano e da coexistência humana. Essas limitações dão fundamento a sua força normativa. Nem políticas nacionais, nem concepções culturais do que seja a vida próspera e a importância existencial podem ser aceitas se contradizem os imperativos e as condições fundamentais do funcionamento puramente biológico do ser humano. (shrink)

Die Marktwirtschaft, wie sie bisher in Form der Neoklassik in der Geschichte Realisierung gefunden hat, ist als reduktionistische Konstruktion zuruckzuweisen bzw. ist fortgesetzt zu einem adaquaten Verstehen von Wirtschaft und ihrer Bedeutung vorzudringen. Dieses Vordringen, das die Marktwirtschaft nicht verlasst ( ), muss von einer konsequent philosophischen - dialektischen - Argumentation getragen sein, der es alleine zukommt, die Menschen ihrer Wurde gemass betrachten zu konnen. Die Neoklassik verweigert den Diskurs mit der dialektischen Philosophie, da sie anders ihre begrundungstheoretischen Defizite nicht (...) maskieren kann. In Form der Position J. M. Keynes' ist der bisher geschichtlich realisierten Marktwirtschaft ein Denken erwachsen, das den Weg zu dem adaquaten Verstehen der Bedeutung der Wirtschaft aus okonomischer Perspektive vorzeigt. Dieses Buch skizziert, wieso die Bedeutung der Wirtschaft notwendig aus einer philosophischen Argumentation heraus zu verstehen ist, wie diese aussieht, wie sie mit der fachwissenschaftlich-okonomischen Argumentation zu verknupfen ist und wieso es Keynes' Position ist, die hierbei mit der philosophischen Argumentation zu verflechten ist.". (shrink)

Eine semantische Analyse indexikalischer Audrücke muß klären, wie der Sinn dieser Ausdrücke aufzufassen ist und nach welchem Kriterium mit verschiedenen indexikalischen Sätzen dieselbe Proposition ausgedrückt werden kann. Der Sinn eines Indikators fällt nicht mit dem Sinn einer Kennzeichnung zusammen, Indikatoren sind aber auf Kennzeichnungen angewiesen. Zwei geäußerte indexikalische Sätze sind sinngleich, wenn mit ihnen dasselbe Potential von Umständen verbunden ist, unter denen ihre Behauptung berechtigt wäre, und sie in dieser Weise kognitiv gleichwertig sind. Die Festlegung des Referenzobjekts durch indexikalische Ausdrucksmittel, (...) die sich aus der linguistischen Bedeutung des Ausdrucks und seinem Äußerungskontext zusammensetzen, setzt die Fähigkeit von Sprecher und Hörer voraus, sich in einem objektiven Raum-Zeit-System zu orientieren. (shrink)