Darwin’s insight that species are mutable, and descent, and origin by means of natural selection is one of the most widely acknowledged strategies for the origin of species and their survival in nature. In his famous contribution, however, Darwin also writes that he is convinced that “... Natural Selection has been the main but not exclusive means of modification ” (Darwin in The origin of species. Oxford Univeristy Press, Oxford, p. 7, 1996 ). This research suggests robustness as another fundamental (...) strategy for survival in nature. The paper does not contradict the popular view, which usually sees robustness as a feature making systems fault-tolerant, thereby focusing on the identification of strategies and techniques for making systems robust (i.e., how to achieve robustness). The paper rather extends this view with an interpretation resting on the question—WHY is robustness omnipresent in the world around us? From this point of view, robustness is interpreted as a fundamental mechanism that is in place because of another fundamental feature in nature—the design and use of sub-optimal systems. The paper argues that, in a sense, nature under-specifies systems but compensates for this by providing systems with various degrees of robustness. We believe that this interpretation may lead to fundamentally new design approaches and insights in several fields. (shrink)

Pinder, Wilhelm, Kunstgeschichte nach generationen.--Neumann, Friedrich. Die gliederung der deutschen literaturgeschichte.--Wirth, Wilhelm. Die zeitwahrnehmung.--Petsch, Robert. Gedanken über den aufbau des dramas.--Litt, Theodor. Person und sache im philosophischen denken.--Bülow, Friedrich. Johannes Volkelt und die Hegelsche philosophie.--Everth, Erich. Volkelts ästhetische grundgedanken.--Driesch, Hans. Johannes Volkelts erkenntnislehre und metaphysik.--Schingnitz, Werner. Kontemplation als wurzel von philosophie und kunst.--Körte, Alfred. Das schlusskapitel von Xenophons Symposion.--Studniczka, Franz. Ein neues bildnis des Sokrates.

In diesem Buch geht es um den Beitrag, den die antike Rhetorik zum normativen Selbstverstandnis der Polis und zur politischen Ethik ihrer Zeit leistete. ANders als im neuzeitlichen Kontraktualismus gilt fur die antike Ethik die uberzeugende Rede als einzige Kraft, die bei besonnenem "Gebrauch" individuelles und kollektives Handeln auf gegenseitige Verstandigung einzustellen und durch die Begrundung einer rechtlichen Ordnung den Naturzustand roher Gewalt zu uberwinden vermag. IN Absetzung von der Sophistik profiliert sich die Rhetorik als Alternative insbesondere zur platonischen, jedoch (...) auch zur aristotelischen Philosophie. DEr Autor behandelt u.A. Die Polis-Ethik des Isokrates, ihre Vorformen bei Solon und Aischylos sowie ihre Parallele bei Xenophon. HErodot, Thukydides und Aristoteles verdeutlichen daruber hinaus Probleme ihrer "Implementierung" und zeigen, dass ihrer Wirkungsmoglichkeit durchaus auch Grenzen gesetzt sind. DAbei geht es um die sozialen Folgen von Gewalt und uberzeugungskraft, das Verhaltnis von Verfassungsordnung und AuSSenpolitik sowie die Herstellung von "Burgerfreundschaft " als Voraussetzung einer erfolgreichen Verbindung von Macht und Recht. DAnk ihrer Verzahnung von Individual- und Institutionenethik und ihrer Kritik an Versuchen, politische Verhaltnisse auf der Grundlage eines epistemisch begrundeten Gerechtigkeitswissens in der Orientierung an transpolitischen Normen zu gestalten, ist die rhetorisch fundierte Ethik fur ein modernes Verstandnis demokratischer Politik, die auf offentliche Rede und eine belastungsfahige Streitkultur angewiesen ist, von Bedeutung. (shrink)

This book reconstructs key aspects of the early career of Descartes from 1618 to 1633; that is, up through the point of his composing his first system of natural philosophy, Le Monde, in 1629-33. It focuses upon the overlapping and intertwined development of Descartes’ projects in physico-mathematics, analytical mathematics, universal method, and, finally, systematic corpuscular-mechanical natural philosophy. The concern is not simply with the conceptual and technical aspects of these projects; but, with Descartes’ agendas within them and his construction and (...) presentation of his intellectual identity in relation to them. Descartes’ technical projects, agendas and senses of identity shifted over time, entangled and displayed great successes and deep failures, as he morphed from a mathematically competent, Jesuit trained graduate in neo-Scholastic Aristotelianism to aspiring prophet of a systematised corpuscular-mechanism, passing through stages of being a committed physico-mathematicus, advocate of a putative ‘universal mathematics’, and projector of a grand methodological dream. In all three dimensions—projects, agendas and identity concerns—the young Descartes struggled and contended, with himself and with real or virtual peers and competitors, hence the title ‘Descartes-Agonistes’. (shrink)

Der Produktionsfaktor Wissen produziert nicht nur Wissen, sondern zugleich auch Unwissen. Die Wissensgesellschaft ist auch eine Risikogesellschaft, in der die Normalität von Unfällen ebenso zu akzeptieren ist, wie das Fungieren der Gesellschaft als Labor neuer Technologien. Vor diesem Hintergrund der Gesellschaft als Wissensgesellschaft mit ihren beiden Seiten der Innovation und des Risikos ist die Frage zu sehen, wie die moderne Gesellschaft die ihr spezifische Problematik bearbeitet, mehr denn je von einem nicht auf seine positive Seite festlegbaren Wissen abhängig zu sein.

Betrifft die Handschrift Cod. 579 der Burgerbibliothek Bern.

ABSTRACT A new phenomenon in the philosophical discipline, philosophical practice—or counselling—is introduced to the reader through the description of three different approaches to philosophical practice. What is common to these approaches is that an academically trained philosopher philosophises together with a ‘sane’person—the visitor—on questions and problems relevant to the visitor. The essential difference between this and psychological counselling is that philosophers do not use therapeutic methods or make diagnoses. The philosophical practitioner triggers in his dialogue partner a didactic philosophical process, (...) which enables the visitor to become an authentic thinker and eventually to arrive at philosophical answers by her/himself. The effectiveness of the language used in philosophical practice is not so much in applying philosophical ideas or theories as in the philosophical knowledge, skills and attitudes attained by the visitor. (shrink)

The present commentary emphasizes that the acquisition of fear always involves complex changes in several quasi-independent response systems. Stimulus-specific electrodermal response differentiation as well as the bias to overestimate the belongingness of certain stimulus pairs mainly indicates cognitive processes of selective orienting and attention. Emotion, however, also involves the activation of subcortical motivational circuits. Why certain stimuli acquire rapid access to these basic motivational systems is not explained by the expectancy bias model.

The objective of this article is to contribute to an understanding of Hannah Arendt’s special place in present-day political theory by means of a contrast between her Origins of Totalitarianism and four important political science studies of National Socialism and totalitarianism, three written by authors who shared the status of involuntary emigrant with Arendt, that are offered as constituting the original context of her work. A critical appreciation of the seminal works by Ernst Fraenkel, Franz L. Neumann, Sigmund Neumann, and (...) Carl Joachim Friedrich and Zbigniew Brezinski, with special emphasis on questions of method, opens the way to a reconsideration of the distinctly philosophical character of Arendt’s work, and its shocking challenges to the scientific orientations of political science. (shrink)

John Stuart Mill, whose relevance for Nietzsche’s late work has been documented by recent research, is not directly mentioned in On the Genealogy or Morality (1887). This article argues that Mill’s On Liberty (1859) nevertheless played a crucial role in the development of the Genealogy. Following a source-based methodology, three major references demonstrate how Nietzsche used On Liberty as a resource as he initiated and developed his own exploration into the origin of morality. After tracing Nietzsche’s reading of Mill through (...) pencil marks in his copy of On Liberty, I discuss the reappearance of Mill’s motives and terminology as well as the explanatory power of Mill as a source for the respective sections in the Genealogy. It becomes clear to what extent Nietzsche adapts Mill and how he turns Mill’s own weapons against him through skillful transformations. The article concludes that instead of delivering the “better” Mill, Nietzsche builds up a fruitful tension between a then-common take on morality and its transgression. (shrink)