This article discusses whether ecology represents an alternative type of natural science, that is normatively committed. Central questions are:-how man and human action are integrated into the subject matter of ecology.

This article discusses whether ecology represents an alternative type of natural science, that is normatively committed. Central questions are: -- how man and human action are integrated into the subject matter of ecology; -- whether evaluative concepts like 'health' are incorporated into the conceptual structure of ecology; and -- whether ecology transcends the image of natural knowledge as control of nature. It is concluded that all hypotheses of ecology being inherently judgmental in character must be rejected.

Christian theology conceives of ‘sacrificium intellectus’ to account for the message of Saint Paul that he will “take every thought captive to obey Christ”. Human insight gives way to the revealed truths of religion. In modern western cultures to explain the natural world has become the domain of science, and the imposition of collective rules of how we should live was shifted to democratically elected parliaments. In Germany legislation of bioethical issues is often justified with reasons that violate standards of (...) cognitive rationality. Is this another case of sacrificium intellectus? The Federal Constitutional Court refrains from the control of legislative arguments by conceding a broad margin of appreciation for the legislator. People have, however, a right to justification; they must not be subjected to arbitrary legal power. While the practice of democratic rule may seldom comply with the expectations of ‘government by discussion’, it is neither likely to gain acceptance as ‘government without discussion’. To impose legal force on the basis of false arguments and unsound reasoning is not a legitimate sacrificium intellectus, it is an intellectual scandal. (shrink)

Alles dreht sich um Werte. Sie werden von Politikern herbeizitiert, gerne bekennt man sich zu ihnen? in der Konsumwelt, in der politischen Aktionskunst, beim Wohnen, beim Essen und im Fitnesskult. Wolfgang Ullrich nimmt die Karriere der Werte in verschiedenen Bereichen unter die Lupe. Seine These: Sich zu Werten zu bekennen ist so beliebt, weil es dem Selbstbewusstsein schmeichelt. Man darf sich dann moralisch gut und sogar kreativ fühlen. Ullrich untersucht, wie Werte im Einzelnen in Szene gesetzt werden. Aber er (...) fragt auch, wie sich gesellschaftspolitische Debatten unter diesen Vorzeichen entwickeln. (shrink)

The book demonstrates for the first time that transculturality – the mixed constitution of cultures – is by no means only a characteristic of the present, but has de facto determined the composition of cultures since time immemorial. This is demonstated using examples from the arts across all cultures and continents.

In the last decade, we have observed a continuous increase of interest in eye movement research. According to a recent investigation, eye movements are discussed in over one million publications. The number of publications with eye movement in the title or abstract has been steadily increasing over the years, with over 1,200 papers published alone in 2013. The last decade has also witnessed the emergence of many new sub-disciplines in the field of neuroscience and cognition - one of them is (...) neuroaesthetics, which refers to the [neuro-]science of aesthetic perception of art.The title and contents of our book have been inspired by a very influential research article. It is one of the most cited scientific papers of all time, published in 1959 by a team of neurophysiologists and engineers, Lettvin, McCulloch and Pitts who are considered to be the founders of modern cybernetics. Their article, "What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain," refers to the role of internal cortical models in the communication or interfacing of the information in the outside world with the practical contextual task of the viewer. It shows how eye movements are the modality of this communication. The same duality between eye movements and internal models plays a fundamental role in humans. When we look, for example, at art, it explains those neurological processes involved in neuroaesthetics. Our book undertakes this innovative approach to neuroaesthetics. It explains this duality and discusses the communication between the artist and the viewer's aesthetic perception. It is structured into five chapters.Chapter One discusses the neurology of aesthetics, the idea of art as a form of communication, and explains perception as an active matching between a "top" (the viewer's mind) and a "down" (the viewer's sensorial machinery). It goes deep into the philosophical quandary of what beauty is in terms of art. Chapter Two is about eye movements and the scanpath theory of vision perception. It discusses the role of visual attention for controlling active vision, the meaning of mental binding and the analysis of eye movements as the key to understanding aesthetic processes. Chapter Three introduces Claude Shannon's information theory using it as a matrix into which to embed the top down active vision scanpath theory. The authors explain the main concept of neuroaesthetics as a form of communication mediated by the sequence of eye fixations. Chapter Four discusses art critique: The role of the viewer's training and expectation, the dilemma of the aesthetics of art versus non-art and how all of this affects the viewing mode. Finally, Chapter Five treats the intimacy of the artistic process, showing the unique implementation of the communicative experience between the artist and the viewer - the relation between a pictorial representation defined by the artist and modes of AWE generated in the viewer during active looking. (shrink)

Fast 25 Jahre nach seinem Bestseller,,Unsere postmoderne Moderne" legt Wolfgang Welsch eine neuartige und tiefer gehende Infragestellung der Moderne vor. Als zentral für die Moderne sieht er das anthropische Prinzip an: In allem ist vom Menschen auszugehen, alles ist auf den Menschen zu beziehen; der Mensch ist das Maß der Welt, die Welt ist Menschenwelt - und nichts sonst, nichts darüber hinaus. Dem stellt er kritisch eine Reihe von Phänomenanalysen und die Skizze einer Anthropologie auf evolutionärer Grundlage entgegen. Indem (...) nicht die Welt vom Menschen her, sondern zuerst einmal der Mensch von der Welt her zu begreifen ist, ist den anthropischen Spiegelspielen der Moderne der Boden entzogen, und eine neue Denklandschaft zeichnet sich ab. (shrink)

Dieses Buch möchte eine Revolution der Denkungsart auf den Weg bringen. In kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit den Dogmen des Empirismus und der erschlaffenden und konformistischen Analytischen Sprachphilosophie, versucht es eine Synthese aus den Lehren jener Genies zu generieren, welche das Fundament der,westlichen Kultur? gelegt haben: Platon? Descartes? Kant? und im 20. Jahrhundert, Ernst Cassirer. Das neuentdeckte,visuelle Denken?, welches offenbar eine Vorstufe der Sprache und des menschlichen Denkens darstellt und in der Philosophie stets immanent präsent war, soll wieder in seine Rechte gesetzt (...) werden. Zudem soll die Substanzlosigkeit der naturalistischen und realistischen Strömungen aufgezeigt werden, welche uns glauben machen wollen, der menschliche Geist sei bloss Gehirn, bzw. eine Maschine. (shrink)

Die Physikotheologie leitet Gottes Schöpferkraft, Weisheit und liebende Vorsorge aus Schönheit, Funktionalität und Ordnung seiner Schöpfung ab. Diese Theologierichtung - Vorläufer des Intelligent Design Movement? - wird, von Natürlicher Theologie und Naturrecht ausgehend, von Cicero über Calvin, Luther, Kant, Barth und Gogarten besprochen. Ist diese Theologierichtung ein Zugang zu Gott neben der Offenbarung? Der Berner Anatom und Botaniker Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777), ein physikotheologisch denkender Gelehrter, hat als Calvinist das Christentum gegen Voltaire und materialistischen Atheismus kämpferisch verteidigt. Hallers Interpretation der (...) Bibel als von Gott eingegebenes Menschenwort - nicht als Verbalinspiration - ist gerade in der Kreationismus-Diskussion lesenswert. Man würde heute Haller als Anhänger des Intelligent Design einordnen: dass es eine evolutionäre Entwicklung zum Überleben der Schöpfung gibt, ist Gottes Plan zu danken. (shrink)

The respectably legitimate offspring of an age-old affair between writing and picture-making, the calligramme — that is, “a poem in which the typographical layout creates a picture, generally related to the ‘subject’ of the text” (Dictionnaire des littératures, Larousse) — is often seen as an esoteric minority art of dubious reputation. Starting from an exclusively Western approach to the history of the calligramme, my aim is to demonstrate that this artform may in fact represent something more than simply (here I (...) deliberately use a metaphor from the far east, as a counterargument to my theme) the “Kyogen of the No theatre” — i.e., more than a lightweight interlude between more literary, aesthetic, even metaphysical preoccupations — more elevated, more serious, or, in general terms, more extended. Apart from the play and the pleasure of an approach that is creative in terms of letters and language, it contains serious elements related to the actual exercise of writing in our media civilization. (shrink)

Das Buch zeigt, wie Mittelstands- und Familienunternehmen die Nachhaltigkeitswende ihres Unternehmens mit Hilfe von Sustainability Leadership meistern können. Denn zunehmende staatliche Vorgaben und die ökologische Transformation veranlassen viele Unternehmer dazu, sich aktiv mit dem Thema auseinanderzusetzen. Dabei stehen Unternehmen und Organisationen vor neuen Herausforderungen - alte Führungs- und Managementmuster passen nicht mehr. Als Führungskraft ist es nicht immer leicht, angesichts hoher Komplexität und Unsicherheit die Orientierung zu behalten und die eigene Unternehmensstrategie mit den Bedürfnissen von Mitarbeitenden und externen Stakeholdern in (...) Einklang zu bringen. Die Autoren zeigen anhand von praxisnahen Beispielen und konkreten Werkzeugen einen ganzheitlichen und integrativen Leadershipansatz auf, wie Führungskräfte mittelständischer Unternehmen Nachhaltigkeit erfolgreich in ihrem Unternehmen verankern können. Besonders bemerkenswert: Dies kann die Geburtsstunde eines "Unternehmertum 2.0" sein. Es basiert auf den oftmals tiefen Wurzeln des Unternehmens und neuen, innovativen Perspektiven. Interviews mit Unternehmerpersönlichkeiten vermitteln Impulse und geben Einblicke zu ihren Erfahrungen mit der Nachhaltigkeitstransformation. Die AutorenWolfgang Zimmermann ist Betriebswirt, Leadership-Experte, Speaker und Vordenker für unternehmerisch geführte Organisationen.Felix Richter ist Volkswirt und Geschäftsführer der Kompetus Management Consulting GmbH in Berlin mit langjähriger Erfahrung in der Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeitsprojekten.Andre Stuer arbeitet als Unternehmensberater, Coach und Trainer mit den Schwerpunkten Leadership und Veränderungsprozesse. (shrink)

Contrary to our conception of logic and science, our reality of life doesn’t shy at paradoxes which are rather omnipresent there. In fact they are to be found everywhere and are not understood as faults. Paradoxes are seen as stimulating; they attract our attention and make as laugh about the conditio humana.The book starts with a collection of paradoxical quotes from antiquity, followed in the central part by a survey of numerous examples ordered by spheres of life. This will show (...) the broad dissemination of the phenomenon of paradox. Furthermore some examples taken from literature are to follow, not to forget jocular samples.Finally the question is raised if and within which limits paradoxes can be used in a sensible way. (shrink)

This book is about the interrelationship between nature, semiosis, metarepresentation and (self-)consciousness, and the role played by metarepresentation in ...

This paper draws on an in-depth phenomenological analysis of some interviews taken from volunteers, inviting them to reflect on their lived experiences of meaningfulness in the context of volunteering and citizenship. It is found that while some testimonies reinforce the standard conceptions of meaningfulness, other testimonies vary from it. The main challenge of this contribution consists in phenomenologically describing this alternative picture of meaningfulness, depicted as the event of witnessing. In a final part, the authors consider how volunteering is at (...) times especially prone to further experiences of witnessing. (shrink)

Literary and philosophical scholars have long anticipated the publication of a comprehensive critical edition of Schleiermacher’s Lectures on Hermeneutics and Criticism (1805–1833) based on his manuscripts and various lecture transcripts performed by students. This new volume specifically makes available for the first time the transcript of the 1819 lecture undertaken by Schleiermacher’s beloved student and subsequent literary executor, Ludwig Jonas, as well as Braune’s transcript of a lecture from 1826. In the latter, Schleiermacher addresses the issue of criticism from philological (...) and other perspectives. (shrink)

Creatively operationalizing Claude Lévi-Strauss’ predicament that food is good to think with, I initiate a methodological conceptualization of food by exploring the ways in which it is apt to study Sri Lankan domestic and collective village life. Food is approached as an assemblage that is an emergent resultant of heterogeneous aspects with which it is deeply entangled and by way of which it turns into a potent agent shaping life. More specifically, I explore the vibrancy of these different components that (...) co-create the overall soundscape of food that as such becomes the conductor of Sri Lankan life. Food shapes domestic life by way of its preparation and consumption, and through its cultivation also conducts the collective rhythms at the village level. The conceptualization of food as an assemblage seeks to develop it as a methodology that opens up for a holistic integration and interdisciplinary collaboration. (shrink)

Im Zentrum dieses Bandes steht die Frage, wie unter Zugrundelegung der Evolutionstheorie Natur und Geist in ihrem Verhaltnis zueinander und in ihren verschiedenen Ausgestaltungen bestimmt werden konnen.