. In logic, diagrams have been used for a very long time. Nevertheless philosophers and logicians are not quite clear about the logical status of diagrammatical representations. Fact is that there is a close relationship between particular visual (resp. graphical) properties of diagrams and logical properties. This is why the representation of the four categorical propositions by different diagram systems allows a deeper insight into the relations of the logical square. In this paper I want to give some examples.

In this paper the Hurwicz decision rule is applied to an adjustment problem concerning the decision whether a given action should be improved in the light of some knowledge on the states of nature or on other actors' behaviour. In comparison with the minimax and the minimin adjustment principles the general Hurwicz rule reduces to these specific classes whenever the underlying loss function is quadratic and knowledge is given by an ellipsoidal set. In the framework of the adjustment model discussed (...) in this paper Hurwicz's optimism index can be interpreted as a mobility index representing the actor's attitude towards new external information. Examples are given that serve to illustrate the theoretical findings. (shrink)

In his critique of rational choice theory, Amartya Sen claims that committed agents do not (or not exclusively) pursue their own goals. This claim appears to be nonsensical since even strongly heteronomous or altruistic agents cannot pursue other people's goals without making them their own. It seems that self-goal choice is constitutive of any kind of agency. In this paper, Sen's radical claim is defended. It is argued that the objection raised against Sen's claim holds only with respect to individual (...) goals. Not all goals, however, are individual goals; there are shared goals, too. Shared goals are irreducible to individual goals, as the argument from we-derivativeness and the argument from normativity show. It is further claimed that an adequate account of committed action defies both internalism and externalism about practical reason. (shrink)

Dieses Buch ist eine Open Access Publikation.Der lange gehegte Traum von künstlicher Intelligenz wird in unserer Alltagswelt zunehmend Realität. Damit verbinden sich hohe gesellschaftliche Erwartungen, aber auch Sorgen hinsichtlich einer schleichenden Entmündigung des Menschen. Am Beispiel des Forschungssektors lotet dieser Band die Optionen, Entwicklungschancen und Risiken von KI-Techniken für die Zukunft des wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisprozesses und der darauf beruhenden technischen Entwicklungen aus. Zu diesem Zweck wird zunächst der Stand der KI-Technik und ihrer Anwendungen dargestellt. Es folgen wissenschaftsphilosophische Untersuchungen zur Frage der (...) Ersetzbarkeit des forschenden Menschen durch KI und zu erwartenden Veränderungen in der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Weitere Abschnitte widmen sich den Folgen für die Arbeitswelt von Forschern/Forscherinnen sowie den durch KI erzeugten neuen Herausforderungen für die rechtliche Regulierung im Spannungsfeld von Wissenschaftsfreiheit und Datenschutz. Der Band schließt mit Empfehlungen für die verantwortlichen Akteure in Wissenschaft, Forschungspolitik und Gesellschaft aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive. (shrink)

The precarious rights of senior citizens, especially those who are highly educated and who are expected to counsel and guide the younger generations, has stimulated the creation internationally of advocacy associations and opinion leader groups. The strength of these groups, however, varies from country to country. In some countries, they are supported and are the focus of intense interest; in others, they are practically ignored. For this is reason we believe that the creation of a network of all these associations (...) is essential. The proposed network would act as a support for the already-existing policies of the United Nations’ High Commission for Human Rights, of independent experts, and of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Older People. All three have long ago recommended the creation of a recognized instrument for uniting presently scattered efforts. The proposed network, therefore, will seek to promote the international exchange of relevant expertise, and it will reinforce the commitments and actions that single countries are currently taking to meet these objectives. For example, informative public events can be organised to promote particular support initiatives and to provide an opportunity for new members of the network to be presented. The network will promote health for senior citizens, disease prevention, senior mobility, safe free time for seniors, alimentary education, protection against new risks and dangers, as well as equity in the services necessary for seniors to adopt new information and communication technologies. In the case of retired academic members, the network will promote equality with respect to continuing use of digital technologies (particularly email), continuing access to research libraries, and the guaranteed ability for seniors to fund their own research programs and to deliver free seminars. (shrink)

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first published attempt at a rigorous logical formalization of a passage in Leibniz's Monadology. The method we followed was suggested by Johannes Czermak.

Regulations designed to prevent global inequalities in the use of genetic resources apply to both commercial and non-commercial research. Conflating the two may have unintended consequences for collaboration between the Global North and biodiverse countries in the Global South, which may promote global injustice rather than mitigate it.

We live in a technologically mediated lifeworld and culture. Technologies either magnify or amplify human experiences. They can change the ways we live. Technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different cultures. German phenomenologist philosopher Bernhard Irrgang for than 2 decades engaging with the questions, what role does technology play in everyday human experience? How do technological artefacts affect people's existence and their relations with the world? And how do instruments, devices and apparatuses produce and (...) transform human knowledge? Along with Albert Borgmann, Larry Hickman, Don Ihde, Carl Mitcham, Hans Poser, Peter-Paul Verbeek, Walther Zimmerli, contemporary German philosopher of technology Bernhard Irrgang provides a useful vocabulary for understanding the ways we relate to technology and to the world through technologies in different cultures. (shrink)

In bisher einzigartiger Weise fasst dieser Band über die Grenzen der Disziplinen hinweg, aber auch Theorie und Praxis übergreifend die aktuelle Debatte zu den Emotionen in den Künsten zusammen. Die Aufsätze ermöglichen Fachleuten und interessierten Laien einen profunden Einblick in die Frage, was unter Affekt und Gefühl verstanden werden kann und wie Emotionen in den Künsten wirksam werden. Mit Beiträgen u. a. von den Architekten Peter Eisenman und Daniel Libeskind, dem Dichter und Büchner-Preisträger Thomas Kling, dem Komponisten Dieter Schnebel, (...) den Philosophinnen Agnes Heller und Brigitte Scheer, dem Psychologen Rainer Krause unddem Kunsthistoriker Werner Hofmann. Verkaufsargumente: - interdisziplinärer Sammelband, der Theorie und Praxis verbindet - bekannte Namen unter den Beiträgern, u.a. die Architekten Peter Eisenmann und Daniel Libeskind - umfassender überblick über die Debatte zu Emotionen in den Künsten, für interessierte Laien sowie für Fachleute. (shrink)

Abstract The specter of the ?group mind? or ?collective subject? plays a crucial and fateful role in the current debate on collective intentionality. Fear of the group mind is one important reason why philosophers of collective intentionality resort to individualism. It is argued here that this measure taken against the group mind is as unnecessary as it is detrimental to our understanding of what it means to share an intention. A non-individualistic concept of shared intentionality does not necessarily have to (...) get stuck with some collectivist super-agent. Rather, the specter of the group mind arises from a deep-seated ?Cartesian? preconception concerning intentionality, which we should try to overcome. *I am greatly indebted to Raimo Tuomela for his comments. Also, I wish to thank Michael Bratman, Fabienne Peter, Richard Raatzsch and Katrin Meyer. (shrink)

According to an often repeated definition, economics is the science of individual choices and their consequences. The emphasis on choice is often used – implicitly or explicitly – to mark a contrast between markets and the state: While the price mechanism in well-functioning markets preserves freedom of choice and still efficiently coordinates individual actions, the state has to rely to some degree on coercion to coordinate individual actions. Since coercion should not be used arbitrarily, coordination by the state needs to (...) be legitimized by the consent of its citizens. The emphasis in economic theory on freedom of choice in the market sphere suggests that legitimization in the market sphere is “automatic” and that markets can thus avoid the typical legitimization problem of the state. In this paper, I shall question the alleged dichotomy between legitimization in the market and in the state. I shall argue that it is the result of a conflation of choice and consent in economics and show how an independent concept of consent makes the need for legitimization of market transactions visible. Footnotes1 For helpful comments and suggestions I am most grateful to Marc Fleurbaey, Alain Marciano, Herlinde Pauer-Studer, Thomas Pogge, Hans Bernhard Schmid, to seminar or conference participants in Aix-Marseille, Tutzing, Paris, and Amsterdam, and to two anonymous referees. (shrink)

Joseph Eckhel was the most influential numismatic scholar of the Enlightenment. Eckhel’s key contribution was the creation of the ‘system’ named after him: a novel arrangement of ancient Greek and Roman coins that was swiftly adopted in major international collections and publications and largely still stands today. This article presents and discusses a previously unknown manuscript in Latin written by Eckhel in 1775, the Animadversiones in methodum, secundum quam nunc digestum est Museum numismaticum Magni Ducis (‘Observations on the Method according (...) to which the Coin Collection of the Grand Duke is Now Arranged’). This new source is the earliest attested methodological text by Eckhel. It sheds light on a crucial phase in the development of his system for the first time and demonstrates how Eckhel shaped his ideas while ordering the coin collection of Grand Duke Peter Leopold in Florence in 1773, together with Raimondo Cocchi. (shrink)

"Angeleitet durch Marx’ Thesen über Feuerbach untersucht der Artikel die linkshegelianischen Triebgründe des Programms der ›Operativen Ontologien‹. Bernhard Siegerts Versuch, »ontologische Unterscheidungen« auf »ontische Operationen« zurückzuführen, findet eine überraschende Parallele in Feuerbachs Unternehmen, »die religiöse Welt in ihre weltliche Grundlage aufzulösen«. Zugleich lässt sich im Postulat einer Vorgängigkeit kulturtechnischer Operationen ein technisch verstärktes Echo der Marxschen Rede vom Primat der Praxis vernehmen. Directed by Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach, the article examines the Left Hegelian motives of the agenda of ‘operational (...) ontologies.’ Bernhard Siegert’s attempt to attribute “ontological distinctions” to “ontical operations” finds a surprising parallel in Feuerbach’s enterprise “to dissolve the religious world into its secular foundation.” At the same time, a technically amplified echo of Marx’s idea of the primacy of practice can be perceived in the postulate of a precedence of cultural technological operations.". (shrink)

(No abstract is available for this citation).

As I write this, in November 1971, people are dying in East Bengal from lack of food, shelter, and medical caxc. The suffering and death that are occurring there now axe not inevitable, 1101; unavoidable in any fatalistic sense of the term. Constant poverty, a cyclone, and a civil war have turned at least nine million people into destitute refugees; nevertheless, it is not beyond Lhe capacity of the richer nations to give enough assistance to reduce any further suffering to (...) very small proportions. The decisions arid actions of human beings can prevent this kind of suffering. Unfortunately, human beings have not made the necessary decisions. At the individual level, people have, with very few exceptions, not responded to the situation in any signihczmt way. Generally speaking, people have not given large sums to relief funds; they have not written t0 their parliamentaxy representatives demanding increased government assistance; they have not demonstrated in the streets, held symbolic fasts, or done anything else directed toward providing thc refugees with the means to satisfy their essential needs. At thc government level, no govcrmmcnt has given the sort of massive aid that would enable the refugees to survive fm: more than a few days. Britain, for instance, has given rather more than most countries. It has, to date, given £14,750,000. For comparative purposes, B1~itain’s share of thc nonreccverabla development costs of the Anglo-French Concorde project is already in excess of £275,000,000, and on present estimates will reach £440,000,¤00. The implication is that the British government values a supersonic transport more than thirty times as.. (shrink)