Aesthetics is today widely seen as the philosophy of art and/or beauty, limited to artworks and their perception. In this paper, I will argue that today's aesthetics and the original programme developed by the German Enlightenment thinker Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten in the first half of the eighteenth century have only the name in common. Baumgarten did not primarily develop his aesthetics as a philosophy of art. The making and understanding of artworks had served in his original programme only as an (...) example for the application of his philosophy. What he really attempts to present is an alternative philosophy of knowledge that goes beyond the purely rationalist, empiricist, and sensualist approaches. In short, Baumgarten transcends the old opposition between rationalism and sensualism. His core theme is the improvement (perfectio) of human knowledge and cognition and the ways to reach this goal. The study of Baumgarten's foundational works on aesthetics should not be undertaken merely out of antiquarian interest. I will argue, instead, that Baumgarten's importance and contemporary relevance lies in this: that his Aesthetica may serve as a profound contribution to the philosophy of the cultural sciences and humanities. Revisiting Baumgarten's original idea of aesthetics will lead us to a more inclusive concept of that philosophical discipline. (shrink)
If C 1 , ..., C k are members of a certain class of suitable categories (which contains those arising from models with dimension), C = C 1 × ⋯ × C k , C' is a suitable category, F: C → C' is a partial recursive combinatorial functor satisfying a certain property (which, if C = C 1 , is that F is nonconstant) and U ∈ C, then (1) if FU is regressive so is U as is each (...) U i , and (2) if FU is Dedekind then each U i is Dedekind. (shrink)
Don't fence me in : Rorty and Sartre -- On freedom and action : Dewey and Sartre -- A (neo) American in Paris : Bourdieu and Mead -- Mead on cosmopolitanism, sympathy, and war -- W.E.B. Du Bois : double-consciousness, Jamesian sympathy, and the cosmopolitan -- Self-concept in the new sociology of ideas : reflections on Neil Gross's Richard Rorty : the making of an American philosopher -- Eros and self-determination -- What if Hegel's master and slave were women?
For the few scientists that earn a Nobel prize, the im- (h = 75), D.J. Scalapino (h = 75), G. Parisi (h = 73), pact and relevance of their research work is unquestion- S.G. Louie (h = 70), R. Jackiw (h = 69), F. Wilczek able. Among the rest of us, how does one quantify the (h = 68), C. Vafa (h = 66), M.B. Maple (h = 66), D.J. cumulative impact and relevance of an individual’s sci- Gross (...) (h = 66), M.S. Dresselhaus (h = 62), S.W. Hawkentific research output? In a world of not unlimited reing (h = 62). sources such quantification (even if potentially distaste- I argue that h is preferable to other single-number cri-. (shrink)
Preface, by F. Böckle.--Articles: Empirical social study and ethics, by W. Korff. What does a non-Christian expect of the church in matters of social morality, by R. Garaudy. Social cybernetics as a permanent function of the church, by C. Wagner. World trade and international cooperation for development, by A. Ferrer. How can the church provide guidelines in social ethics? by P. Herder-Dorneich. Races and minorities: a matter of conscience by J. Musulin. The modern sexual revolution, by G. Struck. Prudence and (...) moral change, by F. Furger.--Bibliographical survey: Strength and weakness of the declaration on the Jews, by J.-P. Lichtenberg.--Documentation Concilium: Peace through revolution, by Concilium General Secretariat and H. Gross-Mayr. (shrink)
This book explores how people's subjective, felt experiences of their bodies in action provide part of the fundamental grounding for human cognition and language. Cognition is what occurs when the body engages the physical and cultural world and must be studied in terms of the dynamical interactions between people and the environment. Human language and thought emerge from recurring patterns of embodied activity that constrain ongoing intelligent behavior. We must not assume cognition to be purely internal, symbolic, computational, and disembodied, (...) but seek out the gross and detailed ways that language and thought are inextricably shaped by embodied action. Embodiment and Cognitive Science describes the abundance of empirical evidence from many disciplines, including work on perception, concepts, imagery and reasoning, language and communication, cognitive development, and emotions and consciousness, that support the idea that the mind is embodied. (shrink)
