Biologists studying short-lived organisms have become aware of the need to recognize an explicit temporal extend of a population over a considerable time. In this article we outline the concept and the realm of populations with explicit spatial and temporary boundaries. We call such populations “temporally bounded populations”. In the concept, time is of the same importance as space in terms of a dimension to which a population is restricted. Two parameters not available for populations that are only spatially defined (...) characterise temporally bounded populations: total population size, which is the total number of individuals present within the temporal borders, and total residence time, which is the sum of the residence times of all individuals. We briefly review methods to estimate these parameters. We illustrate the concept for the large blue butterfly (Maculinea nausithous) and outline insights into ecological and conservation-relevant processes that cannot be gained without the use of the concept. (shrink)

Using a classical life history model (the Smith & Fretwell model of the evolution of offspring size), it is demonstrated that even in the presence of overwhelming empirical support, the testability of predictions derived from evolutionary models can give no guarantee that the underlying fitness concept is sound. Non-awareness of this problem may cause considerable justified but avoidable criticism. To help understanding the variable use of fitness in evolutionary models and recognizing potentially problematic areas which need careful consideration, a hierarchical (...) classification of definitions of fitness used in evolutionary models is presented. As a conclusion, it is advocated to use the term fitness more conscientiously than currently often practised and to think more about ways to develop fitness-free evolutionary theories compatible with Darwin's ideas. (shrink)

Der Fokus auf die Sprache bestimmte die Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts, die sowohl die Dekonstruktion der Metaphysik als auch den Tod des Subjekts verkündete. Der Psychoanalytiker Jacques Lacan führte das Subjekt des Begehrens wieder in den philosophischen Diskurs ein und entwickelte aus der Struktur der Sprache eine neue, symbolische Logik des Unbewussten. Die Logik des Signifikanten, deren Geschichte diese Arbeit nachzeichnet, um sie zu transzendieren, stellt die Frage nach der Dialektik von Signifikant und Begriff, Sprache und Logik, Bewusstem und Unbewusstem, (...) Ich und Subjekt, Gesetz und Begehren, Denken und Sein. Durch die Funktionen der Metonymie, der Metapher und des Stepppunktes sowie über das Schema der vier Diskurse werden die Tropen der traditionellen philosophischen Logik - Begriff, Urteil und Schluss - neu interpretiert. Das Peirce'sche Konzept der Abduktion ermöglicht es, sowohl den Borromäischen Knoten Lacans - Imaginäres, Symbolisches und Reales - wie auch die transzendentale Dialektik und Ontologie der Moderne, die auf Kants und Hegels Revolutionen der Denkungsart zurückgehen, schlusslogisch zu begründen. (shrink)

Diese komparatistische Monographie stellt zentrale Kategorien und Theorien der Literaturwissenschaft dar. Sie synthetisiert und bewertet den Stand der Forschung und unterwirft viele Dogmen der neueren Forschung einer kritischen Analyse. Resultat ist eine Reformulierung des theoretischen Kernbestandes der Literaturwissenschaft für die zentralen Kategorien Interpretation, Fiktion, Performativität, Intertextualität, Gattung, Epoche. Der Band richtet sich an alle Wissenschaften, die mit Texten als Erkenntnisobjekten umgehen; neben der Literaturwissenschaft sind also auch die Theaterwissenschaft, die Sprachwissenschaft, die Sprachphilosophie, die Kunstwissenschaft, die Geschichtswissenschaft sowie Theologie und Jurisprudenz (...) angesprochen. (shrink)

Attention is automatically allocated to stimuli that are opposite in valence to the current motivational focus (Rothermund, 2003; Rothermund, Voss, & Wentura, 2008). We tested whether this incongruency effect is due to affective–motivational counter-regulation or to an increased salience of stimuli that mismatch with cognitively activated information. Affective processing biases were assessed with a search task in which participants had to detect the spatial position at which a positive or negative stimulus was presented. In the motivational condition, positive or negative (...) affective–motivational states were induced by performance feedback after each trial. In the cognitive activation condition, participants memorised the word “good” or “bad” during the search task. The affective incongruency effect was replicated in the motivational condition, whereas an affective congruency effect obtained in the cognitive activation condition. These findings support an explanation of affective incongruency effects in terms of automatic counter-regulation that is motivational in nature. (shrink)

In this book, linguists and philosophers combine to offer a unique insight not only into Grice's contribution to philosophy of language, but on his theories of natural and non-natural meaning, implicatures and the semantic-pragmatic distinction.

This chapter describes the phenomenology of the political world. Phenomenology must get underway with an analysis of the political world. The chapter evaluates more precisely the relation between the concept of world or worldliness and the openness of the political. Using the term ‘political world’ is preferred to utilising the traditional terms because it is less burdened by prejudice. The guiding impulse towards the clarification of the Sache of political philosophy as political world stems from Hannah Arendt, who does not (...) make use of the phenomenological conception of ‘horizon’. Science's confidence that it can attain a knowledge free of all horizonal plurality is among the most fundamental prejudices that phenomenology endeavours to overcome. Phenomenology is the decided present renewal of the most ancient idea of epistêmê. (shrink)

The achievement of unity and perfection in human action begins with a struggle for these ideals in human thought. Dr. Klaus Vondung in his collection of essays that span four decades explores examples of this in different fields of human inquiry: striving for harmonious existential unity of talents and morals, intellect and emotion; seeking to make natural sciences consonant with the humanities and thereby moving toward a more universal, "perfect" science; and establishing unity in political structures and cultivating in (...) this unity a homogenous society. Vondung has given special devotion to National Socialism as a context wherein he revisits its perverted motivation and the consequences of this despite noble ideals. Particular focus in following the thread of unity and perfection in human intellectual and practical ambitions ultimately hones in on the combination of religion and politics. Vondung in these essays unpacks the ways in which this continues to fascinate and disturb us, and in his expertise he uses National Socialism to connect this pursuit of unity and perfection to what he calls one of the signature marks of modernity--namely, secular apocalypticism. This claim stands in opposition to Eric Voegelin's remark that Gnosticism, rather, is "the nature of modernity." Vondung, who studied and wrote his dissertation under Voegelin, grapples with the contrast of these positions. Vondung is willing to challenge Voegelin, but ultimately his treatment of the latter bears the quality of tribute to this great scholar. Vondung also explores the points of contact between apocalypticism and Hermetic speculation. Despite the independence of the religious and philosophical doctrines of Hermeticism, there are parallels to be found. Apocalypticism and Hermeticism originated in antiquity and yet each represents a tradition that still holds footing today. Vondung furthermore leads the reader to see the project of salvation found in both even as each operates with a different scope. This collection of essays centers itself on a perspective of the human pursuit of unity and perfection, directly or indirectly, as objectives of intellectual endeavors, existential ideals, as social or political outcomes, and in the case of National Socialism even as perverse aberrations. Vondung's particular treatment of Voegelin's work likewise establishes what the former identifies as a stand-out question of this study: Does the search of order in history show us the unity of the history of humankind? (shrink)

In the age of digitization, the world seems to be reducible to a digital computer. However, mathematically, modern quantum field theories do not only depend on discrete, but also continuous concepts. Ancient debates in natural philosophy on atomism versus the continuum are deeply involved in modern research on digital and computational physics. This example underlines that modern physics, in the tradition of Newton’s Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis, is a further development of natural philosophy with the rigorous methods of mathematics, measuring, (...) and computing. We consider fundamental concepts of natural philosophy with mathematical and computational methods and ask for their ontological and epistemic status. The following article refers to the author’s book, “The Digital and the Real World. Computational Foundations of Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Philosophy.”. (shrink)

Historical Justice and Memory highlights the global movement for historical justice—acknowledging and redressing historic wrongs—as one of the most significant moral and social developments of our times. Such historic wrongs include acts of genocide, slavery, systems of apartheid, the systematic persecution of presumed enemies of the state, colonialism, and the oppression of or discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities. The historical justice movement has inspired the spread of truth and reconciliation processes around the world and has pushed governments to make (...) reparations and apologies for past wrongs. It has changed the public understanding of justice and the role of memory. In this book, leading scholars in philosophy, history, political science, and semiotics offer new essays that discuss and assess these momentous global developments. They evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the movement, its accomplishments and failings, its philosophical assumptions and social preconditions, and its prospects for the future. (shrink)

Die Wissenschaft hat - von der Wissenschaftstheorie des 20. Jahrhunderts gründlich untersucht - bestimmte Strukturen ihres Wissens, ihrer Methodik der Wissensgewinnung und Wissensabsicherung entwickelt, die sie von anderen Arten des Umgangs mit Wissen - z.B. der Alltagserfahrung - signifikant unterscheidet. Für die Technikwissenschaften haben solche wissenschaftstheoretischen Untersuchungen jedoch bisher kaum stattgefunden. Was etwa die analytische Wissenschaftstheorie für die Naturwissenschaften geleistet hat, steht daher für die Technikwissenschaften noch aus. Denn das technische Wissen unterscheidet sich vom wissenschaftlichen Wissen in seiner inneren Struktur. (...) Diese Struktur aufzuklären ist eine lohnende Aufgabe, weil deren Kenntnis hilft, besser mit Technik umzugehen. Die in diesem Band vorgelegten analytischen Studien zur Wissenschaftstheorie der Technikwissenschaften behandeln - ausgehend vom Problem der Formalisierung und der Wahrheitsfrage in der Philosophie - die Grundeinheit des technischen Wissens, die technologische Regel, und den Aufbau und Zusammenhang technologischer Theorien. Daraus ergeben sich Hinweise auf die innere, d.h. auch logische Struktur des technischen Wissens. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to propose a unified approach to the split scope readings of negative indefinites, comparative quantifiers, and numerals. There are two main observations that justify this approach. First, split scope shows the same kinds of restrictions across these different quantifiers. Second, split scope always involves low existential force. In our approach, following Sauerland, natural language determiner quantifiers are quantifiers over choice functions, of type <<,t>,t>. In split readings, the quantifier over choice functions scopes above other (...) operators (such as intensional verbs like must or can). Determiner quantifiers leave a choice-function trace when they move and this trace combines with the noun restriction, which is interpreted low. That split scope always involves low existential force is derived, without stipulation, from Kratzer’s idea that low existential force can be achieved via binding (into the noun restriction). (shrink)

Technischer Wandel in hoher Geschwindigkeit kennzeichnet unsere Zeit. Dieser Wandel wirft grundsätzliche Fragen auf: Können wir begreifen, was wir tun? Können wir abschätzen, was wir tun? Können wir wollen, was wir tun? Können wir sagen, was wir tun? Können wir leben, was wir tun? Mit Fragen wie diesen hat sich der Philosoph Klaus Kornwachs immer wieder auseinandergesetzt. Ihm zu Ehren widmen sich die Autorinnen und Autoren in ihren Essays der Philosophie der Technik, der Technikfolgenabschätzung sowie der Ethik, Sprache und (...) Kultur der Technik. Neben Philosophen kommen auch Vertreter der Soziologie, Medizin, Technik- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Psychologie, Physik, Theologie, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Ökonomie, Politologie und Rhetorik zu Wort. So entsteht - ganz im Sinne Klaus Kornwachsˈ - ein breites Spektrum von Ein- und Ansichten. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag analysiert auf der Basis theoretischer Überlegungen sowie empirischer Ergebnisse Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer „interkulturellen Öffnung“ von Sportvereinen, worunter Strukturanpassungen verstanden werden, die auf die Inklusion und Integration von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund zielen. Es wird gezeigt, inwiefern eine nachhaltige interkulturelle Öffnung der Vereine von der programmatischen Anbindung an den Vereinszweck, von der kontinuierlichen Behandlung in den Kommunikationswegen, von spezifischen Personalentscheidungen und der Kompatibilität mit der Organisationskultur abhängig ist.

Im vorliegenden Buch stellt Klaus Oehler die Lehre vom noetischen und dianoetischen Denken bei Platon und Aristoteles dar und begründet damit erstmals die These, dass das für die neuzeitliche Philosophie zentrale Problem der Reflexion und des Selbstbewusstseins schon, wenn auch nicht in gleicher Weise, in der antiken Philosophie eine Rolle gespielt hat.

Der Mathematiker Erhard Weigel (1625-1699) gilt bisher als einer der bedeutendsten deutschen Vertreter der sog. "Fruehaufklärung". Dieser Band hinterfragt nun diesen traditionellen und deshalb allzu bequemen philosophiegeschichtlichen Begriff nach seiner Erklärungsfunktion innerhalb der modernen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. In komparatistischer Sicht auf die deutsche Universitätslandschaft nehmen die Beiträger den institutionellen Rahmen und seine konkreten Auswirkungen auf den Lehrbetrieb in den Blick, um die Bedingungen des damaligen Wissenschaftsverständnisses und seiner Entwicklungsrichtungen zu untersuchen. Im Fokus stehen die Verwandlungen der aristotelischen Basis des Wissenschaftsverständnisses und was (...) sich damalige Universitätslehrer als Autoren explizit (z.B. in Form wissenschaftstheoretischer Schriften und Lehrbuecher) oder implizit (z.B. in Form der von ihnen praktizierten Wissenschaft) unter Wissenschaft vorgestellt und ihrem gelehrten Publikum vermittelt haben. (shrink)

It is shown by means of four examples that the demarcation between law and morals has become problematical. The study of more recent developments in ethics and in law indicates that in both fields the relevance of discourse and consent has grown. Though both law and morals aim at agreement their degree of dependance on it differs. The definition of law and morals suggested in this article is based on this view. Legitimate law consists of norms, which besides fulfilling other (...) conditions have attained a certain degree of consent. On the other hand one can only talk of social morals when a very high degree of consent has been reached. The consequences of this definition are explained by means of the examples presented at the beginning. (shrink)