If we are to constrain our place in the world, two principles are often appealed to in science. According to the Copernican Principle, we do not occupy a privileged position within the Universe. The Cosmological Principle, on the other hand, says that our observations would roughly be the same, if we were located at any other place in the Universe. In our paper we analyze these principles from a logical and philosophical point of view. We show how they are related, (...) how they can be supported and what use is made of them. Our main results are: 1. There is a logical gap between both principles insofar as the Cosmological Principle is significantly stronger than the Copernican Principle. 2. A step that is often taken for establishing the Cosmological Principle on the base of the Copernican Principle and observations is not incontestable as it stands, but can be supplemented with a different argument. 3. The Cosmological Principle might be crucial for cosmology to the extent it is not supported by empirical evidence. (shrink)

Einstein's special and general theory of relativity abolished the Newtonian concept of absolute time. Moreover, Einsteinian physics revealed the mutual interdependence of space, time, and matter. Applying general relativity to cosmology leads again to the existence of a preferred time coordinate among the homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models. Einstein referred to this time coordinate as ,,almost absolute time." What is the exact relation between absolute time in relativistic cosmology and absolute time in Newtonian physics? To answer this question firstly we (...) investigate which features are characteristic of Newtonian absolute time. Secondly we show how the preferred time in relativistic cosmology is related to the cosmological principle. After that we compare the two concepts of time. Finally, we consider the concept of time in particular cosmological models like the static Einstein universe, the relation between cosmic time and the evolution of the universe and different possibilities to introduce the time coordinate in oscillating cosmological models. German Die Spezielle und Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie Einsteins räumten mit dem Konzept einer absoluten Zeit, wie es von Newton für seine Physik vorausgesetzt worden war, auf und zeigten die wechselseitige Abhängigkeit von Raum, Zeit und Materie. In Anwendung der Allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie auf das kosmologische Problem ergibt sich jedoch für die üblicherweise herangezogene Klasse der homogenen und isotropen Weltmodelle die Möglichkeit, eine ausgezeichnete Zeitkoordinate einzuführen, die Einstein als ,,quasi-absolute Zeit bezeichnete. Wie verhält sich die absolute Zeit der relativistischen Kosmologie zur absoluten Zeit Newtons? Diese Frage wird beantwortet, indem die wichtigsten Momente der absoluten Zeit Newtons herausgestellt werden, die auf dem Kosmologischen Prinzip basierende Möglichkeit der Einführung einer ausgezeichneten Zeit in der Kosmologie erörtert wird und anschließend beide Zeitkonzepte konfrontiert werden. Abschließend wird der Begriff der Zeit im Rahmen bestimmter kosmologischer Modelle weiter untersucht, vor allem seine Bedeutung im statischen Einstein-Universum, seine Verknüpfung mit der Evolution des Universums und die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten, die Zeit in oszillierenden bzw. zyklischen Modellen zu definieren. (shrink)

There is the widely held view that quantum physics differs fundamentally from classical physics regarding measurements. In order to prepare the ground for settling this question we discuss the consequences it has for classical physics if one includes measurement in the theory. After explaining the terms measurement and error it is argued that every measurement can be reduced to a measurement of length and/or number. Additionally to the wellknown statistical and systematical errors we introduce the concept of classical uncertainty which (...) states that every measurement of a physical quantity _A_ carries a finite inaccuracy Δ_A_. Hence it is transempirical to assign an infinite decimal number to a measurement. This implies that, also in classical physics, only probabilistic predictions are possible and that we need ensembles for the empirical testing of theoretical predictions. Furthermore we rebut the claim that in classical physics measurements can be performed without any disturbance of the system under investigation. Finally we state that by including measurements in the theory itself classical physics like quantum physics can be formulated as an indeterministic theory. Likewise both theories can be formulated deterministically if measurements are excluded from the theory. _German_ Gemäß einer weit verbreiteten Sichtweise gibt es hinsichtlich der Messung in der Quantenphysik und in der klassischen Physik einen grundlegenden Unterschied. Um einer Klärung dieser Frage den Boden zu bereiten, versuchen wir für die klassische Physik die Folgen zu diskutieren, die sich ergeben, wenn man die Messung in die Theorie mit einbezieht. Zunächst wird dafür argumentiert, dass jede Messung auf eine Längenbzw. Zählmessung zurückzuführen ist. Wir führen zusätzlich zu den bekannten Arten von Messfehlern – statistischen und systematischen Fehlern – das Konzept der klassischen Messunschärfe ein, das abbildet, dass jede Messung einer Messgröße _A_ mit einer endlichen Ungenauigkeit Δ_A_ behaftet sein muss. Dies bedeutet insbesondere, dass die Angabe von nichtendlichen Dezimalzahlen für Messwerte transempirisch ist. Die Betrachtung der Messfehler führt zu der Folgerung, dass auch in der klassischen Physik nur mehr Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen getroffen werden können und Messungen an Ensembles zur empirischen Bestätigung theoretischer Vorhersagen nötig sind. Außerdem wird die Behauptung entkräftet, in der klassischen Physik seien im Prinzip Messungen möglich, die den Zustand eines Systems nicht stören. Abschließend stellen wir heraus, dass durch Einbeziehung der Messung in die Theorie die klassische Physik wie die Quantenphysik als indeterministischen Theorie formuliert werden kann, ebenso wie beide ohne Einbeziehung der Messung deterministisch formuliert werden können. (shrink)

Scholarship in experimental jurisprudence has reported surprising findings about various concepts of legal significance: _acting intentionally_, _causation_, _consent_, _knowledge, recklessness_, _reasonableness,_ and _law_ itself. Often, these studies examine laypeople’s ordinary concepts and draw broader conclusions about legal experts’ concepts. This Article questions such inferences, from empirical findings about ordinary concepts to conclusions about the concepts of those with legal expertise. It presents a case study concerning what it means to act _intentionally._ An experiment examines intentionality judgments across four populations (N (...) = 774): laypeople, law students, non-law students, and United States judges. Legal training affected judgments in three ways that are consistent with the acquisition of a distinctive legal concept. This case study supports the Article’s broader claim: Laypeople’s ordinary concepts are not equivalent to experts’ legal concepts. The acquisition of legal concepts is an important form of legal expertise. (shrink)

Was macht das Besondere der menschlichen Lebensform aus? Wie können wir es verstehen, dass unsere Art wie alle anderen natürlich evolviert ist und dennoch als einzige Art die Fähigkeit entwickelt hat, unter dem Anspruch der Freiheit und in reflexiver Distanz zu handeln, damit aber die Umwelt auf eine Welt hin zu transzendieren? Jung argumentiert, dass sich diese Fragen nur beantworten lassen, wenn man philosophische, evolutionstheoretische und kognitionswissenschaftliche Ansätze aufeinander bezieht. Der Schlüssel hierfür ist der Begriff der Bedeutung. Alle Lebewesen (...) erfassen ihre Umwelt im praktischen Umgang mit ihr als bedeutsam. Auch der Geist des Menschen ist essentiell verkörpert und basiert auf erlebten Bedeutsamkeiten. Die Fähigkeit zur symbolischen Artikulation und kulturellen Weiterentwicklung solcher Lebensbedeutungen erlaubt es ihm aber auch, die lokale Umwelt zu transzendieren und dabei Werte, Normen und objektive Geltungsansprüche zu entwickeln. Eine zeitgemäße Anthropologie muss in der Lage sein, diese qualitativen Besonderheiten des menschlichen Geistes als Resultate von Naturprozessen verständlich zu machen. Sie verbindet methodischen Naturalismus mit Offenheit für die Transzendenz des Geistes über die Umwelt. Damit leistet der Autor einen wichtigen Beitrag zu einem nichtreduktionistischen Verständnis des Menschen, das Leib und Geist nicht dualistisch trennt, sondern ihre spannungsvolle Einheit sichtbar macht. (shrink)

This article offers the first systematic investigation of the linguistic forms in which Kant expresses his transcendental idealism since Gerold Prauss’ seminal book Kant und das Problem der Dinge an sich. It is argued that Prauss’ own argument for the claim that ‘in itself’ is an adverbial expression that standardly modifies verbs of philosophical reflection is flawed and that there is hence very poor exegetical evidence for so-called ‘methodological two-aspect’ interpretations of Kant’s transcendental idealism. A comprehensive investigation of Kant’s adverbial (...) uses of ‘in itself’ rather reveals that there are various groups of verbs that ‘in itself’ modifies, which can more or less all be reduced to a standard use in which ‘in itself’ modifies verbs of predicative being such as the copula. It is also discussed how these findings can be accommodated by the two main alternative kinds of interpretations, that is, two-object and ontological two-aspect interpretations. (shrink)

Unser Alltag ist von technisch erzeugter Virtualität nicht nur geprägt - er wird in vielen Bereichen durch sie bestimmt. Die Informationsgesellschaft pflegt einen selbstverständlichen Umgang mit sich immer weiter entwickelnden technischen Geräten. Als Schein oder Unwirklichkeit konnotiert, bleiben die neuen Phänomene der Virtualität dabei jedoch weitgehend unreflektiert. Tobias Holischkas phänomenologische Analyse zeigt, dass insbesondere der virtuelle Ort als versammelndes Prinzip eine Realität schafft, die - ganz im Gegensatz zum abstrakten Konzept des Cyberspace - eine ontologische Verbindung zur menschlichen Alltagswelt (...) herstellt und sie auf diese Weise erweitert. (shrink)

Die vorliegende Ausarbeitung setzt sich mit der Beziehung auseinander, die Subjekt (Erkenntnisvermögen) und Objekt (Erkenntnisgegenstand) im Denken Theodor W. Adornos zueinander einnehmen. Sie fragt, genauer gefasst, wie das Subjekt den darin angestrebten philosophischen Zugang zu seinem Objekt herstellen kann, der sich aus dezidierter Distanz und enger Nähe zugleich speisen soll. Dazu möchte sie dem dialektischen Gefüge von Subjekt und Objekt, wie es in Adornos Schriften zur Geltung kommt, weiter nachgehen: Sie möchte dessen zentrale Aspekte herausstellen, ihren Zusammenhang kenntlich machen und (...) das bei Adorno Ungesagte weiter ausdeuten. Der Autor Tobias Litterst studierte Philosophie und Musikwissenschaft. Er war Doktorand am Lehrstuhl von Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlösser an der Universität Tübingen. Dort setzte er sich mit der Epistemologie Theodor W. Adornos auseinander. (shrink)

The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia serves as a guide to the complex and often contradictory concept of nostalgia, as well as the field of "nostalgia studies" more broadly. Nostalgia is an area of intense interest across several disciplines as well as within society and culture more generally. This handbook brings together an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers to survey the current landscape and identify common trends, achievements and gaps in existing literature. Comprising forty-five chapters, the volume covers the following topics: (...) Disciplinary perspectives of nostalgias including philosophy, history, literature, and psychology. Conceptual aspects of nostalgia including homesickness, temporality, affectivity, and memory. Historical and political dimensions such as afro-nostalgia, populism, feminism, and queer nostalgia. Spatial and material aspects of nostalgia including ruins, regionalism, and objects. Media related nostalgia such as analogue and digital nostalgia, reboots, revivals, gaming, and graphic novels. Essential reading for students and researchers working in nostalgia studies, this book will also be beneficial to related disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, geography, history and literature; cultural, media, heritage, museum and film studies courses; and more generally for readers interested in how the past is represented and used in the present. (shrink)

Die Frage nach einem neuen Materialismus hat gegenwärtig quer durch die Disziplinen Konjunktur. Dabei wird Materie oder 'Matter' nicht länger als passiver Träger von Bedeutung, Diskursen oder menschlicher Manipulation verstanden, sondern die Eigensinnigkeit und Kontingenz der materiellen Welt betont. Dieser Band versammelt Beiträge, die die bislang massgeblich im englischsprachigen Raum und auf theoretischer Ebene stattfindende Debatte aufgreift und sie mit Blick auf ihr gesellschaftskritisches Potenzial diskutiert. Bei aller Diversität der disziplinären und thematischen Zugänge hebt der Band eine grundlegende Tendenz hervor. (...) Zum einen die Unzufriedenheit über die gegenwärtigen gesellschaftlichen Zustände, zum anderen die Unfähigkeit gegenwärtiger Analysen, die aktuellen Bewegungen und Umbrüche in der Gesellschaft anschaulich zu machen. Die unterschiedlichen im Band vorgestellten Ansätze, Materie neu zu denken, nehmen diese Herausforderung an: Sie versuchen, soziale und politische Zusammenhänge in ihrer Komplexität zu erfassen ohne den kritischen Impetus des 'alten' marxistischen Materialismus aufzugeben. Dabei wird versucht, neomaterialistische Ansätze für unterschiedliche Bereiche der Gesellschaftskritik fruchtbar zu machen, darunter Ökonomiekritik, Biopolitik, Feminismus, Raumtheorie, Ästhetik, Technologie und kritische Theorie"--Back cover. (shrink)

Theoretische Philosophie aus phänomenologischer Perspektive Das Verhältnis von Phänomenologie und Metaphysik ist ambivalent. Einerseits richtet sich phänomenologische Deskription gegen leere Spekulation. Andererseits betonen Husserl und seine Nachfolger die Möglichkeit einer kritischen Erneuerung der Metaphysik. Die zwanzig Beiträge dieses Kompendiums untersuchen das Problem einer phänomenologischen Metaphysik von Husserl bis in die Gegenwart und bieten so Antworten auf die Frage, was phänomenologische Metaphysik sein kann und sein sollte.

The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Ethics provides an ecumenical introduction to Christian ethics, its sources, methods, and applications. With contributions by theological ethicists known for their excellence in scholarship and teaching, the essays in this volume offer fresh purchase on, and an agenda for, the discipline of Christian ethics in the 21st century. The essays are organized in three sections, following an introduction that presents the four-font approach and elucidates why it is critically employed through these subsequent sections. The (...) first section explores the sources of Christian ethics, including each of the four fonts: scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. The second section examines fundamental or basic elements of Christian ethics and covers different methods, approaches, and voices in doing Christian ethics, such as natural law, virtue ethics, conscience, responsibility, narrative, worship, and engagement with other religions. The third section addresses current moral issues in politics, medicine, economics, ecology, criminal justice and other related spheres from the perspective of Christian ethics, including war, genetics, neuroethics, end-of-life decisions, marriage, family, work, sexuality, nonhuman animals, migration, aging, policing, incarceration, capital punishment, and more. (shrink)

The article introduces and defends the Nomological Account of ground, a reductive account of the notion of metaphysical explanation in terms of the laws of metaphysics. The paper presents three desiderata that a theory of ground should meet: it should explain the modal force of ground, the generality of ground, and the interplay between ground and certain mereological notions. The bulk of the paper develops the Nomological Account and argues that it meets the three desiderata. The Nomological Account relies on (...) two central notions: the notion of a ‘law of metaphysics’ and the notion of ‘determination via the laws’. The paper offers the constructional conception of the laws of metaphysics, on which the metaphysical laws are general principles that characterize construction–operations such as composition, constitution, or set-formation. The role of determination in the account is explained and some reductive approaches to the notion are sketched. The case for the Nomological Account presented in this article is also a case for the laws of metaphysics. Since the Nomological Account offers a promising approach to metaphysical explanation we should take the laws of metaphysics seriously. (shrink)

Obtaining informed consent from patients is a moral and legal duty and, thus, a key legitimation for medical treatment. The pivotal prerequisite for valid informed consent is decision-making capacity of the patient. Related to the question of whether and when consent should be morally and legally valid, there has been a long-lasting philosophical debate about freedom of will and the connection of freedom and responsibility. The scholarly discussion on decision-making capacity and its clinical evaluation does not sufficiently take into account (...) this fundamental debate. It is contended that the notion of free will must be reflected when evaluating decision-making capacity. Namely, it should be included as a part of the appreciation-criterion for decision-making capacity. The argumentation is mainly drawn on the compatibilism of Harry Frankfurt. A solution is proposed which at the same time takes the notion of free will seriously and enriches the traditional understanding of decision-making capacity, strengthening its justificatory force while remaining clinically applicable. (shrink)

The paper explores a deductive-nomological account of metaphysical explanation: some truths metaphysically explain, or ground, another truth just in case the laws of metaphysics determine the latter truth on the basis of the former. I develop and motivate a specific conception of metaphysical laws, on which they are general rules that regulate the existence and features of derivative entities. I propose an analysis of the notion of ‘determination via the laws’, based on a restricted form of logical entailment. I argue (...) that the DN-account of ground can be defended against the well-known objections to the DN-approach to scientific explanation. The goal of the paper is to show that the DN-account of metaphysical explanation is a well-motivated and defensible theory. (shrink)

A new edition of the classic introduction to mathematics, first published in 1930 and revised in the 1950s, explains the history and tenets of mathematics, ...

The potential for biases being built into algorithms has been known for some time, yet literature has only recently demonstrated the ways algorithmic profiling can result in social sorting and harm marginalised groups. We contend that with increased algorithmic complexity, biases will become more sophisticated and difficult to identify, control for, or contest. Our argument has four steps: first, we show how harnessing algorithms means that data gathered at a particular place and time relating to specific persons, can be used (...) to build group models applied in different contexts to different persons. Thus, privacy and data protection rights, with their focus on individuals, do not protect from the discriminatory potential of algorithmic profiling. Second, we explore the idea that anti-discrimination regulation may be more promising, but acknowledge limitations. Third, we argue that in order to harness anti-discrimination regulation, it needs to confront emergent forms of discrimination or risk creating new invisibilities, including invisibility from existing safeguards. Finally, we outline suggestions to address emergent forms of discrimination and exclusionary invisibilities via intersectional and post-colonial analysis. (shrink)

Are acts of violence performed in virtual environments ever morally wrong, even when no other persons are affected? While some such acts surely reflect deficient moral character, I focus on the moral rightness or wrongness of acts. Typically it’s thought that, on Kant’s moral theory, an act of virtual violence is morally wrong (i.e., violate the Categorical Imperative) only if the act mistreats another person. But I argue that, on Kant’s moral theory, some acts of virtual violence can be morally (...) wrong, even when no other persons or their avatars are affected. First, I explain why many have thought that, in general on Kant’s moral theory, virtual acts affecting no other persons or their avatars can’t violate the Categorical Imperative. For there are real world acts that clearly do, but it seems that when we consider the same sorts of acts done alone in a virtual environment, they don’t violate the Categorical Imperative, because no others persons were involved. But then, how could any virtual acts like these, that affect no other persons or their avatars, violate the Categorical Imperative? I then argue that there indeed can be such cases of morally wrong virtual acts—some due to an actor’s having erroneous beliefs about morally relevant facts, and others due not to error, but to the actor’s intention leaving out morally relevant facts while immersed in a virtual environment. I conclude by considering some implications of my arguments for both our present technological context as well as the future. (shrink)

Our aim in this entry is to articulate the state of the art in the moral psychology of personal identity. We begin by discussing the major philosophical theories of personal identity, including their shortcomings. We then turn to recent psychological work on personal identity and the self, investigations that often illuminate our person-related normative concerns. We conclude by discussing the implications of this psychological work for some contemporary philosophical theories and suggesting fruitful areas for future work on personal identity.

In the Transcendental Aesthetic of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant famously claims that we have an a priori intuition of space as an ‘infinite given magnitude’. Later on, in the Transcendental Analytic, he seems to add that the intuition of space presupposes a synthetic activity of the transcendental imagination. Several authors have recently pointed out that these two claims taken together give rise to two problems. First, it is unclear how the transcendental imagination of a finite mind could (...) ever result in the intuition of an entity that is infinitely large. Second, Kant claims that our intuition of space has a ‘whole-prior-to-its-parts’ structure, such that its parts are given only as limitations of the whole, while synthesis is compositional and has a ‘parts-prior-to-their-whole’ structure, because it consists in first running through and then taking together the parts of a sensible manifold. I will solve these two problems by showing that Kant thought that synthesis does not always have a compositional structure but that there is also a form of ‘decomposing’ synthesis, which has a whole-prior-to-its-parts structure. Building on similarities between Kant, Edmund Husserl and G. W. F. Hegel, I will argue that infinite space is given to us in intuition by precisely such an activity of decomposition, one that allows us to differentiate between finite spatial objects and the unlimited phenomenal horizon in which they appear. (shrink)

What part do feature films play in creating our notions of history? Using the example of Dutch and German feature films about the resistance, the author shows how these long-neglected films succeeded in injecting competing interpretations of history into public commemorative culture in both the Netherlands and Germany.