What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of »technical others« and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration (...) with extensive visual material. (shrink)

Der Körper hat Konjunktur. Als ausgestellter, verfüg- und verführbarer begegnet er uns täglichim Übermaß. Es war nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis im Spiel der sich in den Wissenschafteneinander ablösenden turns auch ein corporeal (oder body) turn ausgerufen würde. Dabeibleibt im genannten turn der Gegenstand der Untersuchung nicht selten reduziert auf das, wasman im deutschen Sprachgebrauch »Körper« nennt: ein physisches Substrat, das wie ein Dingunter Dingen beschreibbar ist. Gegen diese Verkürzung stellt der Begri des »Leibes«,spätestens seit Edmund Husserl, eine präzise (...) theoretische Intervention in die wissenschaftlicheund philosophische Diskussion um Körper und Körperlichkeit dar: Dem objektiv beobachtbaren Körper, den wir haben, wird der lebendige Leib, der wir sind, gegenübergestellt. Diesem »Leib«, seiner Geschichte, seinen Varianten und seinem Versprechen gehen dieAutoren der vorliegenden Beiträge nach. Inhaltsübersicht Emmanuel Alloa/Thomas Bedorf/Christian Grüny/Tobias Nikolaus Klass: Einleitung I. Der Leibbegriff in der Phänomenologie Emmanuel Alloa / Natalie Depraz: Edmund Husserl – „Ein merkwürdig unvollkommenkonstituiertes Ding“ – Stefan Kristensen: Maurice Merleau-Ponty I – Körperschema undleibliche Subjektivität – Emmanuel Alloa: Maurice Merleau-Ponty II – Fleisch und Dierenz – David Espinet: Martin Heidegger – Der leibliche Sinn von Sein – Thomas Bedorf: EmmanuelLevinas – Der Leib des Anderen – Karel Novotný: Körper, Leib, Aektivität in Jan Pato č kasPhänomenologie der natürlichen Welt – Julia Scheidegger: Michel Henry – TranszendentaleLeiblichkeit – Jörg Sternagel: Bernhard Waldenfels – Responsivität des Leibes – Kerstin Andermann: Hermann Schmitz – Leiblichkeit als kommunikatives Selbst- und Weltverhältnis II. Zur Geschichte des Leibbegris Emmanuel Alloa: Archaische Leiblichkeit. Die griechische Antike und die Entdeckung desKörpers – Theresia Heimerl: Der Leib Christi und der Körper des Christen: Körper und Leib alszentrale Problemzonen des Christentums – Marc Rölli: Philosophische Anthropologie im 19. Jahrhundert – Zwischen Leib und Körper – Tobias Nikolaus Klass: Friedrich Nietzsche – Denkenam „Leitfaden des Leibes“ – Andreas Cremonini: Sigmund Freud – Der gelebte vs. derphantasmatische Leib – Uta Noppeney: Kurt Goldstein und Frederik Buytendijk – Der Leib-Begri in der organismischen Biologie – Volker Schürmann: Max Scheler und Helmuth Plessner– Leiblichkeit in der Philosophischen Anthropologie – Marion Lauschke: Ernst Cassirer und AbyWarburg – Kulturanthropologie III. Grenzen und Kritik des Leibbegris Christian Grüny: Theodor W. Adorno – Soma und Sensorium – Ulrich Johannes Schneider: Michel Foucault – Der Körper und die Körper – Burkhard Liebsch: Paul Ricoeur – Das leiblicheSelbst begegnet dem Widerstand des Anderen – Mirjam Schaub: Gilles Deleuze – Was weiß ein„Körper ohne Organe“ vom Leib? – Kathrin Busch: Jean-Luc Nancy – Exposition und Berührung– Shaun Gallagher: Embodiment: Leiblichkeit in den Kognitionswissenschaften – Marie-Luise Angerer: Gender und Performance – Ist leibliche Identität ein Konstrukt? – Thomas Bedorf/Selin Gerlek: Praxistheorien – Leibkörperliche Praktiken im Vollzug. (shrink)

Martin Buber believed that life's deepest truth lies in human relationships. In this classic work he puts this belief into practice, applying it to the concrete problems of contemporary society.

InhaltVorwort der Herausgeber Wilhelm G. JACOBS: Einleitung Hartmut TRAUB: Über die Freundschaft – Vier Bemerkungen zum Briefwechsel zwischen Schelling und Fichte Paul ZICHE: Raumkonstruktion, Deduktion der Dimensionen und idealistische Prinzipientheorie Problemlagen im Fichte-Schelling-Briefwechsel vom November 1800Christian KLOTZ: »Synthesis der Geisterwelt«. Fichtes Systemskizze im Briefwechsel mit Schelling Birgit SANDKAULEN: Was heißt Idealismus? Natur- und Transzendentalphilosophie im Übergang zur Identitätsphilosophie Schellings Systemskizze vom 19.11.1800Violetta L. WAIBEL: Fichtes Kritik an Schelling »Alle Wissenschaften sind nur Theile der Wissenschaftslehre« Zu Fichtes Briefen an Schelling vom (...) 31. Mai / 7. August 1801 und 15. Januar 1802 Lore HÜHN: Die Verabschiedung des subjektivitätstheoretischen Paradigmas. Der Grunddissens zwischen Schelling und Fichte im Lichte ihres philosophischen BriefwechselsPetra LOHMANN: Die Funktionen der Kunst und des Künstlers in der Philosophie Johann Gottlieb FichtesThomas KISSER: Wie kann eine allgemeine Theorie der Wirklichkeit ihre eigene Wahrheit zeigen? Bemerkungen und Fragen zu Struktur und Funktion der Kunst in Schellings System des transzendentalen Idealismus Zur Diskussion:Erklärung von Prof Dr. Maciej Potepa Editionspraxis in dürftiger Zeit am Beispiel der F. H. JacobiWerkeausgabe Band 3 von Albert Mues Vierter Internationaler Kongress der Russischen Fichte-Gesellschaft: »Platon, Machiavelli und Fichte – Die Idee einer gerechten Gesellschaft« vom 26. – 31. Mai 2004 in Ufa . Ein Reisebericht von Hartmut Traub Rezensionen. (shrink)

The origin of Rudolf Hagelstange’s cycle of sonnets "Venezianisches Credo" was Venice, while he was temporarily stationed in northern Italy in 1944 as a soldier. Twenty-four sonnets were written in the lagoon city, four more in Breganze, the remainder in Verona, where a limited edition was published in spring 1945, after some of the sonnets had already been distributed in military circles over some months. This contribution attempts on the one hand to analyze Hagelstange’s choice of the sonnet–form – a (...) classical type of lyric poetry, guaranteeing tradition and continuity –, claiming that at that time sonnets had become a fashionable form of oppositional poetry; on the other hand, the content of the three dozen sonnets will be analyzed, in which, over long stretches discordance prevails. For the author initially presents a damning indictment of the criminal activities of the NS-regime, until he eventually proclaims – with reference to Schiller – that the contemporary spiritual and moral crisis can yet be overcome by an ‚other Germany‘. In the final analysis, Hagelstange brilliantly succeeded – by means of an interaction of continuity and dissonance – to merge aesthetic and ethical aspects and thereby managed to create one of the most outstanding lyrical documents near the end of World War II. (shrink)

Abstract“Sign stimuli” elicit specific patterns of behavior when an organism's motivation is appropriate. In the toad, visually released prey-catching involves orienting toward the prey, approaching, fixating, and snapping. For these action patterns to be selected and released, the prey must be recognized and localized in space. Toads discriminate prey from nonprey by certain spatiotemporal stimulus features. The stimulus-response relations are mediated by innate releasing mechanisms (RMs) with recognition properties partly modifiable by experience. Striato-pretecto-tectal connectivity determines the RM's recognition and localization (...) properties, whereas medialpallio-thalamo-tectal circuitry makes the system sensitive to changes in internal state and to prior history of exposure to stimuli. RMs encode the diverse stimulus conditions referring to the same prey object through different combinations of “specialized” tectal neurons, involving cells selectively tuned to prey features. The prey-selective neurons express the outcome of information processing in functional units consisting of interconnected cells. Excitatory and inhibitory interactions among feature-sensitive tectal and pretectal neurons specify the perceptual operations involved in distinguishing the prey from its background, selecting its features, and discriminating it from predators. Other connections indicate stimulus location. The results of these analyses are transmitted by specialized neurons projecting from the tectum to bulbar/spinal motor systems, providing a sensorimotor interface. Specific combinations of such projective neurons – mediating feature- and space-related messages – form “command releasing systems” that activate corresponding motor pattern generators for appropriate prey-catching action patterns. (shrink)

Refugee and poverty migration is one of the key challenges developed Western societies are facing. Due to the unstable political situation in many parts of the world and the lasting high differences in development between the economies, these migratory movements will continue to increase in the future. In order to channel immigrants, the authors suggest that migrants must pay an entry premium to obtain a permanent right of residence. We criticize this proposal from both an ethical and an economic perspective. (...) We argue that a pricing system is neither ethically legitimate nor economically sensible. In order to meet the chal- lenges of migration, a fundamental change in economic cooperation between developed and less developed economies is more appropriate. (shrink)

At a time of increasing fragmentation, growing social tension and global forced migration, solidarity is more than ever an endangered social resource. In this volume, scientists from different disciplines analyze the idea of solidarity, its analytical content as well as practical scope and limits for pluralistic and cosmopolitan societies.

Una de las principales dificultades para escribir un texto sobre el acceso y el uso que los jóvenes hacen de las TIC (tecnologías de la información y la comunicación) consiste en el hacho de que inevitablemente, lo escribimos desde nuestro punto de vista adulto. Posiblemente nuestras preocupaciones como padres y educadores tienen poco que ver con las preocupaciones reales de los propios hijas e hijos, alumnos y alumnas, cuando navegan por Internet, chatean con sus amigos o intercambian fotos y vídeos. (...) Frecuentemente se atribuye ésta distancia a la diferencias de edad. (shrink)

The distinction between agent-relative reasons and agent-neutral reasons is philosophically important, but there is no consensus on how to understand the distinction exactly. In this paper, I discuss several interpretations of the distinction that can be found in the literature: the Motivational Interpretation, the Scope Interpretation, and the Goal Interpretation, and argue that none of these interpretations is entirely convincing. I propose a novel interpretation of the distinction, which I call the Normative Force Interpretation, according to which the distinction between (...) agent-relative reasons and agent-neutral reasons concerns the normative force that these reasons can have for agents. (shrink)

Agent-relative reasons are an important feature of any nonconsequentialist moral theory. Many authors think that they cannot be accommodated within a value-first theory that understands all value as agent-neutral. In this paper, I offer a novel explanation of agent-relative reasons that accommodates them fully within an agent-neutral value-first view. I argue that agent-relative reasons are to be understood in terms of second-order value responses: when an agent acts on an agent-relative reason, she responds appropriately to the agent-neutral value of her (...) own appropriate response to some agent-neutral value. This view helps reconcile important elements of deontology and consequentialism. (shrink)

Das »Performative« ist in den vergangenen Jahren zu einer festen Größe im Theorierepertoire der Geisteswissenschaften geworden. Seine nachgerade ubiquitäre Verwendung verdankt sich dabei vielfach einem wenig präzisen Verständnis, das – teilweise gegenstrebige – Aspekte von Performanz, Wirklichkeitskonstitution, Emergenz und Präsenzeffekten verbindet. Dieser Band zieht eine kritische Bilanz, ohne dabei ein bestimmtes Verständnis zu verabsolutieren. Die Beiträge bereiten das aktuelle Theoriefeld erstmals so auf, dass es einem breiteren, interdisziplinären Leserkreis zugänglich wird.

This paper addresses the question whetherbullshitis a reasonable pragmatic category. In the first part of the paper, drawing on the insights of Harry Frankfurt’s seminal essay, bullshit is defined as an act of insincere asserting where the speaker shows a loose concern for the truth, and does not want the addressee to become aware of condition. The author adds to this definition the condition requiring that the bullshitter expresses morecertaintythan is adequate with respect to condition. In the second part of (...) the paper, it is discussed whether the above definition can cope with special types of bullshit considered to be a challenge to Frankfurt’s definition. These areevasive bullshitting,bullshit lies, andbald-faced bullshitting. It is shown that there is hope for establishing a reasonable pragmatic category of bullshitting if it is related to certain levels of pragmatic description, e.g. conversational implicatures, that can explain the putative challenges. (shrink)

Aims to challenge Kant from the point of view of Kierkegaard's interpretation of autonomy.

La crise écologique fait sentir la nécessité d'élaborer une éthique de la nature. Elle provoque l'affrontement, en particulier en Allemagne, d'une tendance philosophique, qui fonde le devoir de l'homme envers la nature sur le propre bien de l'homme, et d'une tendance théologique, qui fonde ce devoir sur l'immanence de Dieu dans la nature. Il semble qu'on puisse trouver chez Simone Weil une autre voie, esthétique, qui éviterait les insuffisances ou les dangers de ces deux tendances: la perception de la beauté (...) du monde, appréhendée comme trace de la présence du Dieu absent. (shrink)

Occidental philosophy tends to subordinate the individual to the general. The mystical marxism of Ernst Bloch seems to value the individual more than does orthodox marxism. This article shows that after all Bloch falls in line with the tendency of occidental philosophy.

Polish translation of "Kleine Geschichte der abendländischen Metaphysik: Von Platon bis Hegel". The history of Western metaphysics is being unfold on the basis of nine outstanding philosophers. For ancient philosophy: Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus; for medieval philosophy: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham; for the modern period: Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The final chapter outlines some prominent opponents of metaphysics in the 19th/20th Century (Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger). Metaphysics being a fundamental philosophical discipline, this book can also be (...) read as an introduction to philosophy as such. (shrink)

Besides Ch. S. Peirce and W. James, John Dewey is known not only as the founder of classical American pragmatism, but also by his key contribution to the development of modern reform pedagogy, as well as the contribution to legitimizing the democratic social model, which has since become known even outside the academic context of education. The following article will systematically detect, from the action-theory perspective, the implicit relation between his concepts of pragmatism, pedagogy and democracy, as well as the (...) maneuvering space or limitations in the present which arise from it. Due to the above, in the center of attention comes the issue of successful life practice, mirrored in Dewey’s plaidoyer for the abolition of classical dualism of theory and practice on social, political, ethical and scientific level. (shrink)

Dass John Dewey, neben Ch. S. Peirce und W. James, nicht nur als einer der Begründer des klassischen amerikanischen Pragmatismus gilt, sondern auch einen wesentlichen Anteil zur Entwicklung der modernen Reformpädagogik und zur Legitimation eines demokratischen Gesellschaftsmodells beigetragen hat, ist mittlerweile nicht nur innerhalb eines akademischen Bildungskontextes bekannt. Welche implizite Beziehung zwischen seinem Pragmatismus-, Pädagogik- und Demokratiekonzept jedoch besteht, welche Möglichkeitsräume oder Grenzen sich hieraus für die Gegenwart ergeben, soll unter einer handlungstheoretischen Perspektive systematisch in dem folgenden Beitrag entwickelt werden. (...) In den Mittelpunkt rückt infolge die Frage nach einer gelingenden Lebenspraxis, die an Deweys Plädoyer für eine Aufhebung des klassischen Dualismus’ von Theorie und Praxis auf sozialer, politischer, ethischer und wissenschaftlicher Ebene widergespiegelt wird. (shrink)

In kritischer Anlehnung an die empirischen Kognitionspsychologie von K.E. Stanovich erweist sich das menschliche Verlangen wesentlich von drei übergeordenten Interessen geprägt: ein Interesse der Gene an der Replikation ihrer selbst, ein Interesse des Individuums am eigenen Glück, und ein Interesse der Vernunft, das auf die universale Verwirklichung des Guten um seiner selbst willen gerichtet ist. Je nachdem, von welchem Interesse sich der Mensch in seinem Leben leiten lässt, verleiht es seinem Verständnis vom guten Leben eine grundsätzlich andere Richtung. Was gutes (...) Leben ist, hängt jedoch zusätzlich von der Lebensform ab, die ein Mensch vertritt. Im zweiten Teil werden zwei grundsätzlich entgegengesetzte Lebensformen untersucht: eine atheistische und eine theistische. Es zeigt sich, dass für eine atheistische Lebensform das Interesse des Individuums konsistent ist, für eine theistische Lebensform hingegen das Interesse der Vernunft. Das gute Leben für den Atheisten besteht in der Verfolgung seines eigenen Glücks, das gute Leben für den Theisten in der universalen Verwirklichung des Guten um seiner selbst willen. (shrink)

Against the general view of analytical Plato-research I intend to show that Plato's Theory of Ideas can today still be interpreted as metaphysics in a positive sense. With the late Wittgenstein I concede that by hypostasizing concepts it is not possible to posit any kind of transcendance. However for Plato this was not the true reason for his metaphysical interpretation of Ideas, but - as G. Vlastos also notices - a metaphysical experience as it is described in particular in the (...) Ascent-Passage of the Symposium. Given that this experience can only be interpreted as a coincidence of thought and intuition, the analytical presupposition which is responsible for the anti-metaphysical attitude among analytical interpreters - predicates can be no objects - is necessarely relativised. The possibility of such an experience however cannot just be ruled out as philosophically irrelevant. (shrink)

Despite the fact that the late Augustine's idea of eschatological accomplishment stresses the function of the body more than does the early Augustine, (partly) dependent on stoicism, it remains a purely intellectualistic conception of accomplishment.

Levinas theory of a self is interpreted as a threefold model: an epistemic self, a lifeworld self and an intersubjective self. Against the modern idea of an identitiy of sovereignty and self-affirmation, Levinas wants to show that self-affirmation at its highest is reached where the self instead of being sovereign is in a position of dependence and passivity which is the case for the intersubjective self.

The present article seeks to show, with reference to Thomas Aquinas and Richard Swinburne, that classical theism cannot reconcile the idea of divine perfection with the modern idea of a person. It then proposes a solution which consists in applying to the doctrine of God the model of complementarity which Niels Bohr first used in quantum physics in his attempt to explain (among other things) the duality between wave and particle. This model is then applied by juxtaposing the description of (...) God as a perfect being, established through the 'via negativa', and the description of God as a person, esablished through the 'via positiva' as two contradictory, albeit necessary, descriptions. (shrink)

My aim is to relate Søren A. Kierkegaard’s early theory of stages as described basically in “Either-Or” to the theory of interest underlying the two process model of cognition of the Canadian psychologist Keith E. Stanovich with regard to the question of the highest formal goal we can pursue in our life. On the basis of Stanovich’s distinction between type 1 and type 2 processing and Kierkegaard’s distinction between an esthetical and an ethical stage of life, I argue for an (...) extension of Stanovich’s understanding of the goal structure of type 2 processing, for Kierkegaard’s ethical stage of life being a natural expression of our cognitive faculties and for a critical approach to Kierkegaard's idea of a religious stage as hinted at in “Fear and Trembling”. (shrink)

The article deals with the question of the possibility of miracles opposing the theory of miracles of Richard Swinburne and David Hume.