The influence of Husserl on the Russian Formalism and the Structuralism of the Prague School of Linguistics is especially manifest in the work of Jakobson. A direct literary dependence is traceable in the so-called „antipsychological” tendency, in the program of a Universal Grammar and in several questions of the theory of meaning. Objective points of contact can be found in the theses of the intersubjective and the associative constitution of objects, but also concerning the central topics of Husserlian phenomenology, the (...) analysis of essence (the elaboration of invariants and universals) and the phenomenological attitude (e.g. in phonology the priority of the perceptual level against the articulatory (physiological) and the acoustic (physical) level). A comparison of Jakobson and Husserl yields not only a mutual confirmation of fundamental aspects of their linguistic and philosophical thought. It opens also interesting ways for further research in both fields. (shrink)

In examining the question “What is common to all people and how do they differ?” three typological stages may be distinguished: a Platonic thesis, a romantic antithesis, and a current synthesis—the last a hypothesis that is advanced today in human biology and linguistic studies.

Nationalism is an anthropological reality; nations in the German ethnic sense of homogeneous cultural wholes are not. 'Nation’ in this sense is not a 'natural-kind term'. Its defining properties do not co-vary. It does not even correspond to a classical ’ideal type'. Its properties do not tend unidirectionally to a coherent approximative realisation. For natural languages and cultures internal deviations from standard are as constitutive as conformity is. The idea of a homogeneous ’cultural nation' does not justice to the complexity (...) of social diversification. Nationalism is less to be refuted because of its alleged incompatibility with an idealistic universalism than because of its much more painful incompatibility with an empirically adequate particularism. In conclusion: regionalism is a well-founded goal, nationalism is not. (shrink)

Nicht alles, was logisch möglich und technisch machbar ist, ist auch natürlich. Weltkarten sind ein anschauliches Beispiel. Es gibt amerikazentrierte und chinazentrierte Weltkarten, aber sie setzen sich nicht allgemein durch, auch in Amerika und China nicht. Auf amerikazentrierten Karten wird die größte Landmasse, der afroasiatische Kontinent, auseinandergerissen. Chinazentrierte Karten haben eine optische Aufteilung des amerikanischen Kontinents zur Folge. Das widerspricht dem Gestaltgesetz, dass, was zusammengehört, zusammenhängend wahrgenommen und am Natürlichsten auch so wiedergegeben wird. Afrika- alias europazentrierte und pazifikzentrierte Karten sind (...) darum die global verbreitetsten Weltkarten, weil sie keine vergleichbaren Wahrnehmungsgesetze verletzen. Süden-oben-Karten mit den Südkontinenten in der oberen Kartenhälfte setzen sich selbst auf den Südkontinenten aus geologischen und Wahrnehmungsgründen nicht durch, keineswegs nur, weil die politische Dominanz der nördlichen Hemisphäre es verhindert. In den menschlichen Lebenswelten herrscht keine unbeschränkte Variation. (shrink)

A symposium with the title “Tradition, Modernity and Postmodernity: Eastern and Western Perspectives” is in need of a subtitle auch as “Overcoming Dichotomies.” Societies, as well as historical epochs, are complex and overlapping phenomena. A clash between complex civilizations will naturally be a complex encounter. The conflicting parties will always find kindred souls on the other side, motivated by converging interests and values. Modernity and secularism are not inseparable, and tradionality and secularism are not incompatible (see Confucian politology). Two main (...) philosophical reasons for the complexity of civilizations are the heterarchical structure of the human value system and the creative potential of human individuals. These highest values cannot be optimally realized at the same time. The potential for self-fulfillment that every human being has, thanks to his mental structures, excedes the potential for self-fulfillment a singular culture can provide. (shrink)

In Sachen Funktionalanalyse befaßte man sich in der allgemeinen Wissenschaftstheorie anfänglich überwiegend mit der Logik funktionaler Erklärungen. Diese bedarf einer Ergänzung durch eine Semantik der Funktionalanalyse. Nach einer einleitenden Erörterung einiger Schwachpunkte und Grenzen der klassischen Literatur zur Logik der Funktionalanalyse wird eine Wortfeldanalyse von 'Funktion' und 'System' sowie eine phänomenologische Beschreibung der Wirkungsweise von Motiven angeboten. Im Unterschied zu Zielen, die man nur Entitäten zuschreibt, die als selbständig angesehen werden, spricht man Funktionen nur Entitäten zu, die als nichtselbständig angesehen (...) werden, die jedoch mit ihrer Funktion bezogen sind auf eine solche zielorientierte selbständige Entität. (shrink)

G.E. Moore, more than either Bertrand Russell or Ludwig Wittgenstein, was chiefly responsible for the rise of the analytic method in twentieth-century philosophy. This selection of his writings shows Moore at his very best. The classic essays are crucial to major philosophical debates that still resonate today. Amongst those included are: * A Defense of Common Sense * Certainty * Sense-Data * External and Internal Relations * Hume's Theory Explained * Is Existence a Predicate? * Proof of an External World (...) In addition, this collection also contains the key early papers in which Moore signals his break with idealism, and three important previously unpublished papers from his later work which illustrate his relationship with Wittgenstein. (shrink)

An important contribution to the foundations of probability theory, statistics and statistical physics has been made by E. T. Jaynes. The recent publication of his collected works provides an appropriate opportunity to attempt an assessment of this contribution.

In this philosophy classic, which was first published in 1951, E. R. Dodds takes on the traditional view of Greek culture as a triumph of rationalism. Using the analytical tools of modern anthropology and psychology, Dodds asks, "Why should we attribute to the ancient Greeks an immunity from 'primitive' modes of thought which we do not find in any society open to our direct observation?" Praised by reviewers as "an event in modern Greek scholarship" and "a book which it would (...) be difficult to over-praise," _The Greeks and the Irrational _was Volume 25 of the Sather Classical Lectures series. (shrink)

Is God's foreknowledge compatible with human freedom? One of the most attractive attempts to reconcile the two is the Ockhamistic view, which subscribes not only to human freedom and divine omniscience, but retains our most fundamental intuitions concerning God and time: that the past is immutable, that God exists and acts in time, and that there is no backward causation. In order to achieve all that, Ockhamists distinguish ‘hard facts’ about the past which cannot possibly be altered from ‘soft facts’ (...) about the past which are alterable, and argue that God's prior beliefs about human actions are soft facts about the past. (shrink)