This article wants to answer three questions: first, why is not only sensibility but visibility important for modern democracy? Second, why is art or aesthetic experience important for both democracy and visibility? And third, how is it possible that aesthetic experience generates effects that conduce to democracy? Answering these questions aims at highlighting an inner connection between democracy, feelings and aesthetics. For a democratic community, on the one hand, cannot exclude feelings from political discourse, but, on the other hand, cannot (...) accept them in their immediate and absolute form. Feelings need ‘transformation’, and the best popular medium for this is aesthetic experience. (shrink)

The text presents the general cultural-historical thesis that one cannot adequately understand philosophy after the Second World War if one does not understand it in interaction with politics and popular culture. These three spheres find themselves in a variable triangular constellation after the Second World War. Methodologically, the text is guided by the fact that this interplay is also organised in a triangular and variable way, namely according to the options of coexistence, conflict and cooperation. Adorno’s philosophy serves as a (...) challenging example. The principle of coexistence, conflict and cooperation also serves as a framework for the second part of the text, which reformulates Adorno’s socio-critical question about the possibility of change as an ontological question. In the constellation with politics, pop music can in this context express in its own way what in philosophy is called the principle of ontological contingency. (shrink)

Following Hegel's remark that art is a “thousand-eyed Argos,” one can formulate the assumption that under contemporary conditions art and surveillance state do not necessarily exclude, but reflect each other. The film minority report as popular art offers a visual self-reflection on this proposition. The central question is whether and to what extend this film performs a legitimization or delegitimization of the normative order.

At first trust plays a fundamental role within the social sphere. Accordingly, trust serves as philosophical term above all in Political, Social, and Moral Philosophy. But it is also central in recent Sociology and Psychology. Referring to these disciplines, the relationship of trust be- tween viewer and hero on the screen can be called ›parasocial‹, as-if-interaction. In contrast, ontological trust is of particular interest for recent philosophy of film. Instead of explaining it, following Deleuze, in terms of a metaphysics of (...) cinema it seems to be more adequate to com- bine the different subject-specific answers in Kant’s concept of play. Aesthetic experiences then are encouraging us in the attitude to act as if there could be trust in the world. (shrink)

Ausgehend von Jacques Rancière lässt sich das Verhältnis von Ästhetik und Politik erneut, wie schon im deutschen Idealismus, als Einheit eines Widerspruchs begreifen. Rancière verknüpft dieses Verhältnis mit einem romantischen Begriff von Politik. Unabhängig davon aber rekonstruiert er es ‚historisch-apriorisch‘ unter dem genannten idealistischen Prinzip. Für das Konzept des Spiels hat das, über Rancière hinausgehend, ambivalente Konsequenzen. Seine Attraktivität wie Kalamität werden bestimmt durch die ‚Regime‘ der Moderne, die sich als ausdifferenzierte Formen des dialektischen Widerspruchsprinzips erweisen.

Concerning artistic research, the state of affairs is still one of delusions and confusions. The reason for this is the pluralization and dedifferentiation of rationality pushed forward by the postmodern period. The way out of it is the way of differentiations. Thus, it seems helpful, first, to remember what we already have in philosophical aesthetics, namely four basic models of art and knowledge. The question, then, is whether artistic research fits into these models. To my mind, it does – though (...) in a new way. Secondly, it is helpful to have a short sober sociological look at the situation. Finally, we have to ask the question about the kind of research that is at stake in artistic research. Here, the meaning of non-propositional knowledge and Kant’s idea of an as-if-knowledge is useful. All in all, artistic research still fails in giving a sufficient explanation of itself. (shrink)

The Art of a Democracy of Emotions There is a long discussion in philosophy about the relationship between reason, emotions and politics. Today the adequate question is not whether, but to what extent and in which sense emotions normatively have to play a role in democracy. My first thesis is that there are three central answers to that question which can be brought down to the nominators ‘presentation’, ‘compensation’ and ‘transformation’. Within a political context, emotions ask for a contemporary form (...) of presentation, for a tempering or balancing compensation, and for a meaningful transformation. And my second thesis is that this threefold reaction can be achieved either with the aid of, or even in an excellent way by, aesthetic experiences. In detail I focus on a brief analysis of the modern political meaning of impertinence; the current situation concerning the philosophical discussion on democracy, emotions and aesthetics (with an accent on Martha Nussbaum); and finally on my own suggestion, supported by I. Kant and J. Dewey, concerning the concept of aesthetic experience. (shrink)

Ever since ›Die Kunst der Entzweiung‹, one can detect a certain Lubitsch touch at work in Martin Seel’s books: subtlety, wit, finesse, elegance, nonchalance. In a general typology that tentatively orders philosophy in its relation to comedy, Seel accordingly belongs to the wellknown type of irony and humour. However, this type can only show its strength when it absorbs the unsettling intensity of experiences and the sting of indissoluble opposites, a synthesis for which Billy Wilder stands cinematically.

Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.

Gilles Deleuze and belief in the world -- A struggle against oneself: cinema as technology of the self -- The evidence of film and the presence of the world: Jean-Luc Nancy's cineastic ontology -- Cinema as human art: rescuing aura in gesture -- Exhibiting or presenting?: politics, aesthetics and mysticism in Benjamin's and Deleuze's concepts of cinema -- Made and yet true: on the aesthetics of presence of the heroic -- An art of gesture: returning narrative and movement to images (...) -- It is if we could trust: fiction and aesthetics of the political -- All you need is love: Cavell and the comedy of remarriage of film and philosophy. (shrink)

Following Hegel's remark that art is a “thousand-eyed Argos,” one can formulate the assumption that under contemporary conditions art and surveillance state do not necessarily exclude, but reflect each other. The film minority report as popular art offers a visual self-reflection on this proposition. The central question is whether and to what extend this film performs a legitimization or delegitimization of the normative order. German Hegels Beobachtung von der Kunst als tausendäugigem Argus folgend lässt sich unter zeitgenössischen Bedingungen die These (...) aufstellen, dass Kunst und Überwachungsstaat sich nicht zwingend gegenseitig ausschließen, sondern ineinander spiegeln. Der Film minority report bietet dazu als populäres Kunstwerk anschauliche Selbstreflexion. Die leitende Frage ist, ob und inwiefern dieser Film eine Legitimierung oder Delegitimierung der normativen Ordnung leistet. (shrink)

parte i: modernidade, subjetividade, Hegel e o Western Resumo: Trata-se de apresentar aspectos da teoria de Josef Früchtl sobre a subjetividade moderna, com base em uma associação do “Eu” filosófico e a figura do herói encontrada em alguns gêneros cinematográficos. Neste artigo, o foco será a relação entre a filosofia de Hegel e o gênero do Western, além da introdução aos princípios gerais sobre o fenômeno da modernidade e seus três estratos: o clássico, o agonal e o híbrido.

In der Reihe werden herausragende monographische Untersuchungen und Sammelbände zu allen Aspekten der Philosophie Kants veröffentlicht, ebenso zum systematischen Verhältnis seiner Philosophie zu anderen philosophischen Ansätzen in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Veröffentlicht werden Studien, die einen innovativen Charakter haben und ausdrückliche Desiderate der Forschung erfüllen. Die Publikationen repräsentieren damit den aktuellsten Stand der Forschung.

This work is both an introduction to, and a reader in, contemporary hermeneutics. Included are papers by Betti, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Apel and Habermas.

In this volume, Fr. Fuchs has brought together 12 exceptionally important essays which consider various aspects of the relationship between Christian morality ...

Given the recent interest in the subjective or phenomenal dimension of consciousness it is no wonder that many authors have once more started to speak of the need for pheno- menological considerations. Often however the term ‘phenomenology’ is being used simply as a synonym for ‘folk psychology', and in our article we argue that it would be far more fruitful to turn to the argumentation to be found within the continental tradition inaugurated by Husserl. In order to exemplify this claim, (...) we criticize Rosenthal's higher-order thought theory as well as Strawson's recent contribution in this journal, and argue that a phenomenological analysis of the nature of self-awareness can provide us with a more sophisticated and accurate model for understanding both phenomenal consciousness and the notion of self. (shrink)

1. Matter and form -- 2. Maimonides' theory of the parable -- 3. The parable of adamic perfection -- 4. Physical matter and its limitations on intellects -- 5. Maimonidean skepticism I -- 6. Maimonidean skepticism II -- 7. In the inner chamber of the ruler's palace: the critique of the theory of separate intellects -- 8. The embodied life of an intellect -- 9. Excrement and exegesis, or shame over matter.

Volume 2 of Josef Pieper's three-part autobiography is here presented for the first time in English translation. The volume represents not just a simple continuation of a seamless story. The first volume dealt with Pieper's life from his birth in 1904 to the time of World War 2. The current volume deals with the post-war years, 1945-1964, offering a personal documentation of the institutional rubble through which an emerging academic and philosopher had to find his way. This included finding (...) work, re-establishing himself in the family home, completing his academic education, and beginning to teach philosophy in a climate of despair and disillusionment. In this context, the quintessential Pieper emerges. His positive philosophy of being, firmly based on Plato and Thomas Aquinas, finds extraordinary resonance with students, who flock to his lectures in surprising numbers -- seeking and finding a positive way forward. His dedication to training teachers sees him declining higher academic posts in Germany in favor of work which, though less lucrative and more obscure, he considered more fruitful. These years are also marked by his fiercely independent stance over against the Catholic hierarchy -- despite his staunch adherence to the tradition values of Christianity. His popularity as a philosopher and teacher quickly spread to America, where he was invited to teach at famous universities. His fame led to further travels -- to Switzerland, England, France, Spain, India, China, Saigon, and Thailand. Such travels enriched his thinking and nourished the open-mindedness of the Western philosopher. (shrink)

This is a work by Josef Pieper, one of this century's most profound and lucid expositors of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.