This reference work offers a representative and reliable survey of classical, medieval, and modern history in regards to the philosophical term, truth .

Based on the philosophy of Michel Henry, the contributions of the anthology “Immanenz und Einheit” give different phenomenological and metaphysical foundations of the relation between immanence and unity, examine its perspectives for philosophy of religion and analyse its ethical consequences. Ausgehend vom Werk Michel Henrys geben die in der Festschrift „Immanenz und Einheit“ gesammelten Beiträge phänomenologische und metaphysische Grundlegegungen für das Verhältnis zwischen Immanenz und Einheit und untersuchen die religionsphilosophischen Perspektiven und ethischen Konsequenzen, die sich aus diesem Verhältnis ergeben.

Bernard of Clairvaux's understanding of secientia mundi is founded in the Bible and obviously is pejorative. It is a knowledge that leads to vanity. This is why it is the knowledge of the morally bad. In his theology, inspired by Paul, Bernard opposes to this negatively qualified wisdom of the world the wisdom of God that is identical with Christ (sapientia Dei). This wisdom is characterized by saintliness and peacefulness. The God-given effects of this essentially divine wisdom can also be (...) seen in the wisdom of the wise and just human being. This wisdom consists in the knowledge that is required for the actualisation of the love of God and of the love of the neighbour and is thus necessary for the salvation of the human being. (shrink)

In Western thinking, the tradition of the argument for the existence of God beganwith Plato and Aristotle. It was carried forward in medieval scholasticism,eminently in Aquinas‟s so-called quinque viae, and reached its peak in modernphilosophy. To date approximately 1850 different proofs for the existence of Godare known. The most frequently represented and well-known types of proofs arethe ontological, cosmological, teleological and the moral or deontological type,referring respectively to the arguments of Anselm, Aquinas , and Kant. In this paper I will (...) discuss the development of modernphilosophical proofs, from Descartes‟s and Spinoza‟s ontological arguments,through, Leibniz‟s cosmological argument to Swinburne‟s revision of Leibniz. (shrink)

A detailed philosophical reconstruction of the theory of truth presented by Anselm von Canterbury in the context of his whole thinking and with a special consideration of his antique sources in Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine and Boethius.

This essay intends to contribute to the history of the ideas of omnipresence and infinity as two related attributes of God in the theology of the Latin Church Fathers and in the philosophical and theological thinking of the early Middle Ages. The classical Christian doctrine of the infinite presence of God was developed within the early Latin context by Hilarius of Poitiers and foremost by Augustine, who set forth the unique omnipresence of God through the formula that God is «wholly (...) everywhere in himself». Gregory the Great expanded upon this formula and passed it on to the early Middle Ages. Boethius comprehended the omnipresence of God primarily as his omniscience and defined his timeless presence - his eternity - as the simultaneously entire and perfect possession of unlimited life. While Eriugena's comprehension of the omnipresence of God is mostly rooted in Maximus Confessor's doctrine of God's omnipresence, his teaching of the essential infinity of God is quite original. The clearly most important contribution to the history of the omnipresence and infinity of God in the early Middle Ages was made by Anselm of Canterbury in chapters 20-24 of his Monologion, in chapters 13,18 and 19 of his Proslogion and in his famous reply to Gaunilo. (shrink)

Die zweisprachige wissenschaftliche Fachzeitschrift enthält ausschließlich Originalbeiträge und ist prinzipiell für alle Richtungen der Religionsphilosophie und der philosophischen Theologie offen. Mit Erscheinen des Bandes 18 wird das Jahrbuch eingestellt.

Die einfache Entgegensetzung von Vernunft und Religion wirkt nach der Religionskritik des 19. Jahrhunderts und der Vernunftkritik des 20. Jahrhunderts philosophisch naiv und historisch unaufgeklart. Dadurch fallt aber ein neues Licht auf das Projekt der Gottesbeweise, die fur die Religion zentrale Gottesvorstellung dem Denken argumentativ zuganglich zu machen. Die Autoren der hier versammelten Uberlegungen beleuchten auf je eigene Weise die traditionellen und aktuellen Gottesbeweise mit dem leitenden systematischen Erkenntnisinteresse, ein neues Verstandnis von Vernunft und Religion zu gewinnen. Mit Beitragen von: (...) Svend Andersen, Thomas Buchheim, Markus Enders, Markus Gabriel, Jens Halfwassen, Friedrich Hermanni, Gunnar Hindrichs, Axel Hutter, Christian Illies, Anton Friedrich Koch, Armin Kreiner, John Leslie, Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, Friedo Ricken SJ, Friedrike Schick, Rolf Schonberger, Christoph Schwobel, Robert Spaemann, Richard Swinburne, Peter van Inwagen. (shrink)

Angesichts von Zweifel und Verzweiflung, von Furcht und Angst - jeweils verstanden als existentielle Grundbefindlichkeiten des Menschen - werden Haltungen gelingenden Lebens gesucht. Die Ethik bietet Tugenden als Wege zu einer gelingenden Lebensfuhrung an. Die Beitrager dieses Buches suchen nach Entwurfen, die die Verbindung des Tugendgedankens mit dem naturlichen Glucksverlangen des Menschen zu ermoglichen helfen und erortern, welche Bedeutung dabei Mut, Gelassenheit und Weisheit zukommt. Dabei werden ideengeschichtliche Entwurfe in heutigen Problemkontexten auf ihre Gultigkeit hin gepruft. Mit Beitragen von Martin (...) Ebner, Markus Enders, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, Stephan Herzberg, Hubert Irsigler, Margit Kopper, Matthias Kossler, Jean-Luc Marion, Peter Reifenberg, Ralf Rothenbusch, Gerd Theissen, Klaus Viertbauer und Gunther Wenz. (shrink)

This volume contains new and original papers on Martin Heidegger’s complex relation to Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. The authors not only critically discuss the many aspects of Heidegger’s reading of Nietzsche, they also interpret Heidegger’s thought from a Nietzschean perspective. Here is presented for the first time an overview of not only Heidegger’s and Nietzsche’s philosophy but also an overview of what is alive – and dead – in their thinking. Many authors through a reading of Heidegger and Nietzsche deal with (...) current issues such as technology, ecology, and politics. This volume is of interest for everyone interested in Heidegger’s and Nietzsche’s thought. Contributors include: Babette Babich, Charles Bambach, Robert Bernasconi, Virgilio Cesarone, Stuart Elden, Michael Eldred, Markus Enders, Charles Feitosa, Véronique Fóti, Luanne T. Frank, Jeffery Kinlaw, Theodore Kisiel, William D. Melaney, Eric Sean Nelson, Abraham Olivier, Friederike Rese, Karlheinz Ruhstorfer, Harald Seubert, Robert Sinnerbrink, Robert Switzer, Jorge Uscatescu Barrón, Nancy A. Weston, Dale Wilkerson, Angel Xolocotzi, Jens Zimmermann. (shrink)

Alle Menschen wollen glücklich sein, das eigentliche Glück aber besteht darin, Gott zu haben, lautet ein Grundsatz der Anthropologie von Augustinus, der das abendländische Menschenbild wesentlich geprägt hat. Doch streben wirklich alle Menschen nach dem Glück als ihrem letzten Ziel? Und kann man die Frage nach dem Glück wirklich mit Gott in Verbindung bringen, Gott womöglich selbst mit dem ersehnten Glück identifizieren? Welche Rolle kommt Gott in einer Ethik des Glücks, welche Rolle in einer nicht am Glück orientierten Ethik zu? (...) Mit dieser Thematik befassen sich aus philosophiegeschichtlicher und philosophisch-systematischer Perspektive: Jörg Disse, Klaus Düsing, Markus Enders, Bernd Goebel, Rochus Lehonhardt, Jörg Müller und Anja Solbach. (shrink)

This paper offers a critique of sustainability reporting and, in particular, a critique of the modern disconnect between the practice of sustainability reporting and what we consider to be the urgent issue of our era: sustaining the life-supporting ecological systems on which humanity and other species depend. Tracing the history of such reporting developments, we identify and isolate the concept of the ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL) as a core and dominant idea that continues to pervade business reporting, and business engagement (...) with sustainability. Incorporating an entity’s economic, environmental and social performance indicators into its management and reporting processes, we argue, has become synonymous with corporate sustainability; in the process, concern for ecology has become sidelined. Moreover, this process has become reinforced and institutionalised through SustainAbility’s biennial benchmarking reports, KPMG’s triennial surveys of practice, initiatives by the accountancy profession and, particularly, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s sustainability reporting guidelines. We argue that the TBL and the GRI are insufficient conditions for organizations contributing to the sustaining of the Earth’s ecology. Paradoxically, they may reinforce business-as-usual and greater levels of un-sustainability. (shrink)

This chapter reviews empirical research on the rules governing assertion and retraction, with a focus on the normative role of truth. It examines whether truth is required for an assertion to be considered permissible, and whether there is an expectation that speakers retract statements that turn out to be false. Contrary to factive norms (such as the influential “knowledge norm”), empirical data suggests that there is no expectation that speakers only make true assertions. Additionally, contrary to truth-relativist accounts, there is (...) no requirement for speakers to retract statements that are false at the context of assessment. We conclude by suggesting that truth still plays a crucial role in the evaluation of assertions: as a standard for evaluating their success, rather than permissibility. (shrink)

Alfred Mele’s zygote argument is widely considered to be the strongest version of the manipulation argument against compatibilism (about free will and determinism). Opponents have focused largely on the first of its two premises and on the overall dialectic. My focus here will be on the underlying thought experiment—the Diana scenario—and on the second premise of the argument. I will argue that reflection on the Diana scenario shows that the second premise does not hold, and we will see that my (...) objection to the second premise helps to defend the claim that manipulation arguments face, in general, a dilemma. (shrink)

The luck argument raises a serious challenge for libertarianism about free will. In broad outline, if an action is undetermined, then it appears to be a matter of luck whether or not one performs it. And if it is a matter of luck whether or not one performs an action, then it seems that the action is not performed with free will. This argument is most effective against event-causal accounts of libertarianism. Recently, Franklin (Philosophical Studies 156:199–230, 2011) has defended event-causal (...) libertarianism against four formulations of the luck argument. I will argue that three of Franklin’s responses are unsuccessful and that there are important versions of the luck challenge that his defense has left unaddressed. (shrink)

Empirical evidence challenges many of the assumptions that underlie traditional philosophical and commonsense conceptions of human agency. It has been suggested that this evidence threatens also to undermine free will and moral responsibility. In this paper, I will focus on the purported threat to moral responsibility. The evidence challenges assumptions concerning the ability to exercise conscious control and to act for reasons. This raises an apparent challenge to moral responsibility as these abilities appear to be necessary for morally responsible agency. (...) I will argue that this challenge collapses once the underlying conditions on moral responsibility are specified in sufficient detail. I will argue, in other words, that the empirical evidence does not support a challenge to the assumption that we are, in general, morally responsible agents. In the final section, I will suggest that empirical research on human agency is nevertheless relevant to various questions about moral responsibility. (shrink)

Is the assessment of a view of life only a matter of personal preference? I argue that there is more than personal preference. I defend the position that a view of life must be useful for the ascription of meaning and therefore needs to fulfil the requirements of the process of ascribing meaning. In this article I analyse this process and its requirements and deduce from them a set of criteria by which views of life can be assessed.

It is widely believed that at least two developments in the last third of the 20th century have given dispositionalism—the view that powers, capacities, potencies, etc. are irreducible real properties—new credibility: (i) the many counterexamples launched against reductive analyses of dispositional predicates in terms of counterfactual conditionals and (ii) a new anti-Humean faith in necessary connections in nature which, it is said, owes a lot to Kripke’s arguments surrounding metaphysical necessity. I aim to show in this paper that necessity is, (...) in fact, of little help for the dispositionalists. My argument makes use of one of the above mentioned counterexamples against Humean reduction: antidotes. Turning the tables, I ask how the dispositionalists themselves can deal with antidotes. The result will be to show that if the dispositionalists are to demystify antidote cases, they must make plausible a conceptualisation of dispositions that does not invoke any kind of necessity. I will cautiously suggest that the anti-Humean link dispositions bring to the world has to be thought of in terms of (Newtonian) forces. (shrink)

Empirical evidence, it has often been argued, undermines our commonsense assumptions concerning the efficacy of conscious intentions. One of the most influential advocates of this challenge has been Daniel Wegner, who has presented an impressive amount of evidence in support of a model of "apparent mental causation". According to Wegner, this model provides the best explanation of numerous curious and pathological cases of behavior. Further, it seems that Benjamin Libet's classic experiment on the initiation of action and the empirical evidence (...) concerning the confabulation of reason explanations provide further support for this view. In response, I will propose an alternative model of "real mental causation" that can accommodate the empirical evidence just as well as Wegner's. Further, we will see that there is plenty of evidence in support of the assumption that intentions are causally efficacious. This will provide us with ample reason to endorse the model of real mental causation. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 105 Heft: 3 Seiten: 406-417.