What the Nazis called Aktion T4 was a euthanasia program, officially started on August 18th, 1939. The registration operations for individuals with physical or mental handicaps were followed by forced sterilization and transfer to clinics organized to kill. In this article, I try to explain the mechanisms that allowed the memory of Aktion T4 to be preserved and passed from one generation to the next; memories of the “merciful death” of approximately 70,000 “lives unworthy of life,” that find (...) themselves embedded in family records and family history. In the first section, I summarize the discussion that resulted from the theories of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Even if those theories do not in any way allude to the consequences that we have witnessed decades after their publication, they started a debate about the value of life and the legitimacy of human intervention in the selection of hereditary character traits, as well as the concept of race and the different methods and forms of theories and eugenics that were later adopted in Europe and in the United States. In the case of Germany, translated into Rassenhygiene, those concepts flowed into the Nazi project of purification of the German people. Through interviews with families who had a relative interned in one of the program's clinics spread across the Reich territory between 1939 and 1945, I investigate the evolution and passage of memories stored within the family sphere, paying attention to the generational steps and processes of trauma. These stories are born from a complicated process of reconstructing these memories via interviews. Their recollections were full of painful silences and negations, similar to the thought process which led the victims to live in a condition that they could not understand, and separated them from the world before they were each made to face a solitary death, far from any contact with their families. The trauma that I analyze concerns actions that had been carried out by previous generations; in the majority of cases, younger generations were not aware of the destiny of their murdered relatives and therefore tried to rebuild the stories of people who they never had the opportunity to meet. I examine the problematic relationship of those being interviewed with the end-of-life issue and also the sense of guilt which is generated by the awareness of crimes that were committed. Aktion T4 was not a crime committed outside the national borders, nor a crime that extended beyond the private sphere to the “others.” Instead, it existed within the most central and intimate place of Nazi culture: the family. (shrink)

Vier Biographien von Ärzten, die an der Tötungsaktion T4 in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus beteiligt waren. Die Biographien bilden den Hintergrund für die Untersuchung ihrer strafrechtlichen Verfolgung in den Jahren 1947 bis 1990 und für die Schilderung der Versäumnisse der deutschen Justiz im Umgang mit NS-Tätern.

The career of the German physicist Walther Gerlach (1889–1979) spanned two world wars and the changing political systems in Germany in the twentieth century. As a physicist involved in the rapid development of atomic physics and the management of scientific research in Germany during World War II as well as in post-war West Germany, several attempts have been made in the past by historians of science to write his full biography. These projects have, among other foci, asked about Gerlach's role (...) and his position with respect to National Socialism. However, based on his extensive papers preserved in the Deutsches Museum Archive in Munich, none of these projects has so far been conclusive. In this article, we identify evidence for the selective deletion of personal files relating to his first wife and daughter. We argue that reconstructing this lacuna sheds new light on the influence of National Socialist ideology on Gerlach's personal life, making him both a profiteer and a victim of eugenics jurisdiction. (shrink)

Many disabled individuals adamantly oppose medical assistance in dying, quite rightly referencing pervasive ableism and, euthanasia’s dark history in the Aktion T4 program of Nazi Germany in which...

According to Vera Moser, the first professorship of healing pedagogy, Heilpädagogik at the University of Zürich in 1931, established pedagogy of the disabled as an academic discipline. Through the definition of the smallest common denominator for all disabilities, which Heinrich Hanselmann called “weakness of the soul,” a connecting element of “imbecility, deaf-mutism, blindness, neglect and idiocy” was established. Under Nazi rule, school pedagogy advanced to völkisch, nationalist special pedagogy, shifting from the category of “innate imbecility” to a broader concept of (...) disability. As an outcome of these programs and policies, 300,000 people with disabilities were killed as a part of the “T4 Aktion.” Within just a few decades after World War II, special pedagogy expanded its sphere of influence through professionalization and institutionalization in West and East Germany and across Europe. This paper explores how special pedagogy aligned itself with the Nazi regime’s discourse and policy on eugenics and race hygiene, leading to the murder and mass sterilization of “disabled” children and adults. It probes questions regarding the extent to which the professionalization of special pedagogy has drawn from the Nazi-era terminology of the deficient and foreign to legitimate the contemporary migrant bias in German and Austrian special pedagogical care. (shrink)

Equal moral status for all human beings does not commit us to the malignant exclusionary practices we find in racism and pernicious nationalism. Racism (like the other harmful “ism”) involves a group that is constituted by appropriating to one’s own “primal group” a set “desirable” intrinsic properties (or traits) and expelling from the primal group those with the undesirable properties through subjugation, exploitation, sterilization, or extermination. The moral harm in racism is practiced by a ‘constituted’ group that must always police (...) its borders with violence and justifications for its privilege. The Nazi’s Project T4, which exterminated mentally disabled children born of German parents, and the subsequent exterminations of racialized groups, in particular the Jews, were regarded as the one process of cleansing Germany and its conquered territories of defective and inferior beings. Rather than being instances of “preferring one’s own,” the racist project was that of constituting the group by appropriating for itself all the desirable traits and expelling all undesirable ones, thus linking ablism and racism. (shrink)

Der Band bearbeitet die Frage, mit Hilfe welcher sprachlicher Verfahren Wissen in zentralen Praxisfeldern des Alltags entsteht. Am Beispiel der Bereiche Medizin, Recht, Lehr/Lerninteraktionen und Massenmedien wird untersucht, was jeweils interaktiv als Wissen angezeigt wird bzw. was als Wissen gilt. Die Beitrge gliedern sich quer zu den Praxisfeldern in vier Abschnitte und bearbeiten jeweils eine der folgenden Leitfragen: Wie wird Wissen situativ eingebettet, wie wird es interaktiv hervorgebracht, wie wird Wissen institutionell zur Geltung gebracht und wie wird es medial verbreitet.

Begründet und entfaltet wird ein Begriff des Spiels, der sich um Lockungen und Drohungen des Unerwarteten dreht. Das Autorenduo ordnet seine Theorie der ludischen Aktion in klassische Konzepte des Spiels ein sowie in den aktuellen Diskurs der Game Studies. Die phänomenale Mannigfaltigkeit des Spiels wird in historischer Perspektive skizziert und in systematischer Weise gegliedert. Die Autoren erläutern medientechnische und kommunikative Voraussetzungen des Booms der Computerspiele und reflektieren die Diskussion über Eskalationen ludischer Gewalt. Kritisch ausgeleuchtet werden Instrumentalisierungen des Spiels, die (...) sich unter dem Stichwort Gamification wachsender Beliebtheit erfreuen. Die auffällige Inflation der Spielmetapher wird in Zusammenhang gebracht mit ludischen Anmutungen in den sozialen Strukturen der modernen und digitalen Gesellschaft. Fabian Arlt, M. A., hat Medienmanagement studiert und promoviert im Studiengang Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin. Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Arlt ist Sozialwissenschaftler und Publizist, er lehrt am Institut für Theorie und Praxis der Kommunikation der Universität der Künste (UdK) in Berlin. (shrink)

Phage DNA packaging occurs by DNA translocation into a prohead. Terminases are enzymes which initiate DNA packaging by cutting the DNA concatemer, and they are closely fitted structurally to the portal vertex of the prohead to form a ‘packasome’. Analysis among a number of phages supports an active role of the terminases in coupling ATP hydrolysis to DNA translocation through the portal. In phage T4 the small terminase subunit promotes a sequence‐specific terminase gene amplification within the chromosome. This link between (...) recombination and packaging suggests a DNA synapsis mechanism by the terminase to control packaging initiation, formally homologous to eukaryotic chromosome segregation. (shrink)

Are bacteriophage T4 and the long-nosed elephant fish valuable in their own right? Nicholas Agar defends an affirmative answer to this question by arguing that anything living is intrinsically valuable. This claim challenges received ethical wisdom according to which only human beings are valuable in themselves. The resulting biocentric or life-centered morality forms the platform for an ethic of the environment. -/- Agar builds a bridge between the biological sciences and what he calls "folk" morality to arrive at a workable (...) environmental ethic and a new spectrum--a new hierarchy--of living organisms. The book overturns common-sense moral belief as well as centuries of philosophical speculation on the exclusive moral significance of humans. Spanning several fields, including philosophy of psychology, philosophy of science, and other areas of contemporary analytic philosophy, Agar analyzes and speaks to a wide array of historic and contemporary views, from Aristotle and Kant, to E. O. Wilson, Holmes Rolston II, and Baird Callicot. The result is a challenge to prevailing definitions of value and a call for a scientifically-informed appreciation of nature. (shrink)

Everyday joint remembering, from family remembering around the dinner table to team remembering in the operating theatre, relies on the successful interweaving of multiple cognitive, bodily, social and material resources, anchored in specific cultural ecosystems. Such systems for joint remembering in social interactions are composed of processes unfolding over multiple but complementary timescales, which we distinguish for analytic purposes so as better to study their interanimation in practice: (i) faster, lower-level coordination processes of behavioral matching and interactional synchrony occurring at (...) timescale t1; (ii) mid-range collaborative processes which re-evoke past experiences in groups, unfolding at timescale t2; (iii) cooperative processes involved in the transmission of memories over longer periods occurring at timescale t3; and (iv) cultural processes and practices operating within distributed socio-cognitive networks over evolutionary and historical timeframes, unfolding at timescale t4. In this paper we survey studies of how the processes operating across these overlapping and complementary timescales constitute joint remembering in social interactions. We describe coordination, collaboration, cooperation, and culture as complementary aspects of interacting to remember, which we consider as a complex phenomenon unfolding over multiple timescales (t1, t2, t3, t4). (shrink)

What is the connection between mirror processes and mindreading? The paper begins with definitions of mindreading and of mirroring processes. It then advances four theses: (T1) mirroring processes in themselves do not constitute mindreading; (T2) some types of mindreading (“low-level” mindreading) are based on mirroring processes; (T3) not all types of mindreading are based on mirroring (“high-level” mindreading); and (T4) simulation-based mindreading includes but is broader than mirroring-based mindreading. Evidence for the causal role of mirroring in mindreading is drawn from (...) intention attribution, emotion attribution, and pain attribution. Arguments for the limits of mirroring-based mindreading are drawn from neuroanatomy, from the lesser liability to error of mirror-based mindreading, from the role of imagination in some types of mindreading, and from the restricted range of mental states involved in mirroring. “High-level” simulational mindreading is based on enactment imagination, perspective shifts, or self-projection, which are found in activities like prospection and memory as well as theory of mind. The role of cortical midline structures in executing these activities is examined. (shrink)

Turing's celebrated 1950 paper proposes a very general methodological criterion for modelling mental function: total functional equivalence and indistinguishability. His criterion gives rise to a hierarchy of Turing Tests, from subtotal ("toy") fragments of our functions (t1), to total symbolic (pen-pal) function (T2 -- the standard Turing Test), to total external sensorimotor (robotic) function (T3), to total internal microfunction (T4), to total indistinguishability in every empirically discernible respect (T5). This is a "reverse-engineering" hierarchy of (decreasing) empirical underdetermination of the theory (...) by the data. Level t1 is clearly too underdetermined, T2 is vulnerable to a counterexample (Searle's Chinese Room Argument), and T4 and T5 are arbitrarily overdetermined. Hence T3 is the appropriate target level for cognitive science. When it is reached, however, there will still remain more unanswerable questions than when Physics reaches its Grand Unified Theory of Everything (GUTE), because of the mind/body problem and the other-minds problem, both of which are inherent in this empirical domain, even though Turing hardly mentions them. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Hume's Missing Shade of Blue Re-viewed John 0. Nelson It is obviously important for Hume's purposes in the Treatise to maintain that simple ideas are always founded in precedent, resembling impressions;1 andhe explicitly, overandover, doesso, evensometimes being so carried away by this first principle ofhis science of man (T 7) or so careless as to say that not just all simple ideas but all ideas are founded in precedent, (...) resembling impressions. At the same time, as often noted, Hume explicitly maintains that it is possible for there to be a simple idea having no precedent, corresponding impression. He argues: There is however one contradictory phaenomenon, which may prove, that 'tis not absolutely impossible for ideas to go before their correspondent impressions... Suppose... a person to have enjoyed his sight for thirty years, and to have become perfectly well acquainted with colours of all kinds, excepting one particular shade of blue... Let all the different shades of that colour, except that single one, beplac'd before him... Now Iask, whether 'tis possible for him, from his own imagination, to supply this deficiency, and raise up to himselfthe idea ofthat particular shade, tho' it had never been conveyed to him by his senses? I believe there arefew but will be ofopinion that he can; and this may serve as a proof, that the simple ideas are not always derived from the correspondent impressions. (T 5) Nowjust prior to this concession (as Cummins calls it ), Hume has said that the full examination ofthis question [the causal relationship between ideas and impression] is the subject of the present treatise; and therefore we shall here content ourselves with establishing one general proposition, That all our simple ideas in their first appearance are deriv'd from simple impressions, which are correspondent to them, and which they exactly represent. (T 4) Volume XV Number 2 353 JOHN O. NELSON And just after the same concession, that a simple idea may be raised up which does not have a prior, correspondent impression, Hume says that it still remains true, that all our simple ideas proceed either mediately or immediately, from their correspondent impressions (T 7). Thus we have Hume explicitly asserting, it seems, both that all simple ideas have precedent correspondent impressions and that they do not. But this, on the face ofit, is an arrant contradiction! Can Hume have Homerically nodded? We have been quoting from the Treatise, but Hume makes the very same contradictory-seeming claims in the Enquiryl A thinker of Hume's acumen might nod for a page or two's quarter hour but not for all of nine years! Moreover, in both places Hume refers to the phenomenon of the impression-less idea ofblue as a contradictory phenomenon, indicating clearly enough that he was himself aware of there seeming to be an inconsistency here in his contentions. What can possibly be going on? Is Hume deliberately being paradoxical? Perhaps trying, for sensation's sake, to shock the reader and so increase sales of his work, as some commentators in the past might have wished to say? But this would be at the expense ofhis own contentions and principles and not the reader's, and not even Hume's bitterest foes and most malicious critics — so far as I know — have ever proposed that Hume would, figuratively speaking, like Oedipus, gouge out his own eyes, even in order to increase sales of the Treatise, nor does it make the slightest sense to think he would. The mystery deepens when we remember that Hume has said, in defining the program of the Treatise, that his intention is to establish the one general proposition that all our simple ideas in their first appearance are deriv'd from simple impressions, which are correspondentto them (T4). What astrange way, we want to exclaim, to show that all our simple ideas are derived from correspondent simple impressions by almost immediately afterwards arguing that it is possible to have an idea that has had no correspondent, precedent impression! Such an egregious nonsequitur mightbe expected ofan absolutely incompetent beginner in philosophy, but we are speaking of David Hume, generally recognized as the profoundest and most acute of... (shrink)

In Parts of Classes [Lewis 1991] David Lewis attempts to draw a sharp contrast between mereology and set theory and to assimilate mereology to logic. He argues that, like logic but unlike set theory, mereology is “ontologically innocent”. In mereology, given certain objects, no further ontological commitment is required for the existence of their sum. On the contrary, by accepting set theory, given certain objects, a further commitment is required for the existence of the set of them. The latter – (...) unlike the sum of the given objects – seems to be an abstract entity whose existence is not directly entailed by the existence of the objects themselves. The argument for the innocence of mereology is grounded on the thesis of “Composition as identity”. Lewis analyses two different versions of the thesis: the first is the Strong composition thesis, according to which certain objects are their sum, where the use of “are” would mean that composition is literally identity. The second version is the Weak composition thesis, according to which composition is analogous, under some aspects, to identity. He criticises the first version of the thesis and argues for the second one. In the paper we argue that (T1) arguments for the ontological innocence of mereology are not conclusive. An obvious objection to the Strong composition thesis is that – given certain objects Xs – they cannot be their sum because none of them is the sum. One could reply to this objection by observing that the “are” in the sentence “The Xs are their sum” is to be understood collectively and not distributively. But the crux is that the collective reading fails to generate a new entity, whereas mereology, in particular in Lewis’ use for the reconstruction of set theory as “megethology”, needs to consider sums as real objects. Besides, we contend that Lewis’ argument for the innocence of mereology based on the Weak composition thesis is a petitio principii. The reason is that the aspects of the analogy between composition and identity, which Lewis emphasises, obtain under the presupposition of the existence of sums. But this is just what a denier of innocence would refuse. (T2) Some arguments against the ontological innocence of mereology show a certain ambiguity in the innocence thesis itself. Some defences of the innocence seem to implicitly presuppose that the sum of certain objects Xs is not a genuine entity. Speaking of the sum of the Xs would be just another way of speaking plurally of the Xs. However, the relevant use of sums in mereology treats them as well determined objects. The relevant innocence thesis takes for granted that, though sums are genuine objects, nevertheless their existence does not require any further commitment. (T3) The innocence thesis, apart from Lewis’ defence, seems to depend on a general conception of the nature of objects and on how the notion of ontological commitment is understood. We think that the thesis is the manifesto of a realistic conception of parts and sums. This conception consists of the following clauses: (i) given any object x, it is well determined which parts it possesses; these are in turn objects whose existence is a necessary consequence of the existence of x. (ii) However any objects Xs are given, they automatically constitute a well determined object x which is their sum; (iii) We can refer singularly and plurally to parts and sums of given objects. Obviously, one might wonder if such a conception is really ontologically innocent. One could object that it is not innocent because clauses (i) – (iii) are not. For example, clause (i) could be considered as an ontological commitment to the existence of sums. But the innocence at issue does not concern the above-sketched conception. The innocence is embedded in the conception itself. In other words, someone who argues for clauses (i) – (iii) takes a point of view from which mereology appears to be innocent. For, such a point of view forces us to consider as well determined the parts of any object and does not allow us to separate the existence of certain objects form the existence of their sum. (T4) is the claim that the alleged innocence of mereology is subject to Quine’s notorious criticisms of the set-theoretical interpretation of second order logic. To the purpose, we construct a mereological model of a substantive fragment of set theory, i.e. the one that grounds the principal model semantics of second order logic. First, we construct a mereological model under the assumption of the existence of infinitely many atoms. Then, we replace this assumption with that of the existence of any infinite object (with or without atoms). Finally, let us make a general point about the innocence thesis of mereology. A conclusive argument for that would be a refutation of the thesis that there are only denumerably many entities. For, since the parts of an infinite object constitute a non-denumerable infinity, such an argument would entail that there could be no infinite without a non-denumerable infinity. However, the thesis that any genuine infinity is a denumerable one has had some important advocates. So, a conclusive argument for the innocence of mereology seems to be highly implausible. (shrink)

Everyday joint remembering, from family remembering around the dinner table to team remembering in the operating theatre, relies on the successful interweaving of multiple cognitive, bodily, social and material resources, anchored in specific cultural ecosystems. Such systems for joint remembering in social interactions are composed of processes unfolding over multiple but complementary timescales, which we distinguish for analytic purposes so as better to study their interanimation in practice: faster, lower-levelcoordination processesof behavioral matching and interactional synchrony occurring at timescale t1; mid-rangecollaborative (...) processeswhich re-evoke past experiences in groups, unfolding at timescale t2; cooperative processesinvolved in the transmission of memories over longer periods occurring at timescale t3; and cultural processesand practices operating within distributed socio-cognitive networks over evolutionary and historical timeframes, unfolding at timescale t4. In this paper we survey studies of how the processes operating across these overlapping and complementary timescales constitute joint remembering in social interactions. We describe coordination, collaboration, cooperation, and culture as complementary aspects of interacting to remember, which we consider as a complex phenomenon unfolding over multiple timescales. (shrink)

Earthquakes, which can cause widespread territorial and socio-economic destruction, are life-threatening, unexpected, unpredictable and uncontrollable events caused by the shaking of the surface of the earth. The psychological consequences, such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, are well-known to clinicians and researchers. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the use of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Integrative Group Treatment Protocol (IGTP) on a sample of adolescents, after the earthquake in Central Italy on 24 August (...) 2016. The objective of the EMDR intervention was to reduce PTSD symptoms. Before and after EMDR, specific assessment to find changes in PTSD symptoms was made using the IES-R (Impact of Event Scale Revised) and through the analyses of the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD). The EMDR treatment was given in three sessions (T1, T2, T3), each lasting 90 minutes, and the results at follow-up phase (T4) were also monitored. The results are very encouraging, showing significantly reduced PTSD symptoms in the majority of the subjects. The clinical implications and limitations will be discussed. (shrink)

In this note we shall assume acquaintance with [T4] and the parts of [T1] which deal with intuitionistic arithmetic in all finite types. The bibliography just continues the bibliography of [T4].The principal purpose of this note is the discussion of two models for intuitionistic finite type arithmetic with fan functional. The first model is needed to correct an oversight in the proof of Theorem 6 [T4, §5]: the model ECF+as defined there cannot be shown to have the required properties inEL+ (...) QF-AC, the reason being that a change in the definition ofW12alone does not suffice—if one wishes to establish closure under the operations of HAωthe definitions ofW1σfor other σ have to be adopted as well. It is difficult to see how to do this directly in a uniform way — but we succeed via a detour, which is described in §2.For a proper understanding, we should perhaps note already here thaton the assumption of the fan theorem, ECF+as defined in [T4] and the new model of this note coincide ; but inELit is impossible to prove this. (shrink)

In dem Artikel werden der Hintersinn, die Rolle sowie die Wichtigkeit der moralischen Identität für die Ethik und eine vortreffliche Lebensführung besprochen . Die moderne Gesellschaft ist eine Gesellschaft des ununterbrochenen Wandels und Ungewissheitsgefühls. Die Welt erscheint bruchstückhaft und diskontinuierlich. Es ist äußert prekär, in einer solchen Welt eine Daueridentität zu entfalten. In der Vergangenheit stand die Wahl des Lebensprojekts für eine Wahl aller Wahlen. In der flüssigen Modernität fungiert die Identität flexibel, in einem Zustand der Dauerumwandlung, in welchem das (...) Individuum sich selbst stetig aufs Neue formuliert, indem es zu jemand anderem wird, als es bisher war. Die Zentralproblematik, von welcher her dieses Paper die angeschnittenen Themen angeht, wirft die Frage auf, ob uns unsere moralische Identität jemals mit guten Anlässen zur Aktion versieht und ferner, welche der Moraltheorien die geeignetste ist, um eine positive Beantwortung dieser Frage anzubieten. (shrink)

Outdoor Education (OE) refers to organized experiential education that takes place in the outdoor, characterized by action-centered and thematic learning processes. Literature shows how OE may have beneficial effects on different areas of child development, including cognitive abilities, social skills and motor development. This relationship is not necessarily linear, but moderated by different variables. Until now, few studies have examined, using rigorous methods, the role of OE in children’s development and studies of preschool aged children remain lacking. The current study (...) aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of children’s developmental trajectories over 2 school years, investigating whether teachers’ perceptions differed between two kindergartens, one characterized by a consolidated OE approach and the other one characterized by a more traditional method of education. The sample was composed of 20 teachers, evaluating 93 children aged 3-5 (M= 46.95 months, SD= 6.73; 42 males): 13 teachers were from a traditional kindergarten (Traditional Group- TG) and evaluated 52 children; 7 teachers were from an OE kindergarten (Outdoor Group – OE) and observed 41 children. All the teachers completed the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables (Beller, 1995), in order to describe specific child developmental areas in 4 consecutive moments during 2 school years (T1-T2: January-May 2014; T3-T4: October 2014-May 2015). The 20 teachers also completed the “Outdoor Activities/Trips Diary”, an instrument created for this study to collect qualitative data on the characteristics of outdoor activities. Results showed that, in all the developmental areas, OE teachers perceived higher scores over time were found for the Outdoor Group compared to the Traditional one. Specifically, GLM ANOVAs Repeated Measures revealed a significant interaction of the 2 variables Time and Groups (p<0.001): contrast analyses showed that OE children, compared to the TG children, were perceived by their teachers with higher levels in all developmental areas at T1 and T2, but not at T3 and T4. The findings suggest that the OE activites, compared to indoor ones and according to teachers' perceptions, offer greater opportunities to promote the child’s development at different levels. especially when children are younger. Future studies are recommended analyzing possible moderating variables and long term effects of OE. (shrink)

Das heftig diskutierte Werk Joseph Beuys? ist eines der einflussreichsten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sein schöpferischer Reichtum umfasst bildnerische, philosophische und politische Aspekte. Die Aufzeichnungen, Gespräche und Vorträge von Joseph Beuys gehören zu seinem Werk wie seine Zeichnungen, Installationen und Aktionen. Sein bildnerisches Werk konfrontiert mit Rätseln, die nach dem Menschen fragen. Durch deren Aufschlüsseln sucht er ein Denken zu provozieren, das in Intuition umschlägt. Sie setzt kreative Kräfte frei, eine innere Freiheit, durch die der Einzelne auf eine Transformation der Gesellschaft (...) einwirken kann: 'Die einzig revolutionäre Kraft ist die Kraft der menschlichen Kreativität.' Diese Transformation ist die Aufgabe, die Beuys mit dem erweiterten Kunstbegriff gestellt hat.0Mit Aufzeichnungen von 1961, als Beuys Professor an der Kunstakademie wird, beginnt die Chronologie dieser Sammlung. Sie setzt sich fort mit Gesprächen, die durch die politischen Auseinandersetzungen der sechziger und siebziger Jahre führen und Antworten auf seine Arbeiten geben. Mit Beuys' Spürsinn, sich auf sein Gegenüber einzulassen, werden die Gespräche Aktion und bewahren durch ihre Lebendigkeit und Provokation ihre Gegenwart. Der Band erscheint anlässlich des 100. Geburtstags von Joseph Beuys am 12. Mai 2021. (shrink)

In recent years, proof theoretic transformations that are based on extensions of monotone forms of Gödel’s famous functional interpretation have been used systematically to extract new content from proofs in abstract nonlinear analysis. This content consists both in effective quantitative bounds as well as in qualitative uniformity results. One of the main ineffective tools in abstract functional analysis is the use of sequential forms of weak compactness. As we recently verified, the sequential form of weak compactness for bounded closed and (...) convex subsets of an abstract Hilbert space can be carried out in suitable formal systems that are covered by existing metatheorems developed in the course of the proof mining program. In particular, it follows that the monotone functional interpretation of this weak compactness principle can be realized by a functional Ω∗ definable from bar recursion of lowest type. While a case study on the analysis of strong convergence results that are based on weak compactness indicates that the use of the latter seems to be eliminable, things apparently are different for weak convergence theorems such as the famous Baillon nonlinear ergodic theorem. For this theorem we recently extracted an explicit bound on a metastable version of this theorem that is primitive recursive relative to Ω∗.In the current paper we for the first time give the construction of Ω∗ . As a corollary to the fine analysis of the use of bar recursion in this construction we obtain that Ω∗ elevates arguments in Tn at most to resulting functionals in Tn+2 . In particular, one can conclude from this that our bound on Baillon’s theorem is at least definable in T4. (shrink)

In this collection of essays, art historian and critic Sven Lütticken focuses on aesthetic practice in a rapidly expanding cultural sphere. He analyzes its transformation by the capitalist cultural revolution, whose reshaping of art's autonomy has wrought a field of afters and posts. In a present moment teeming with erosions - where even history and the human are called into question - 'Cultural revolution: aesthetic practice after autonomy' reconsiders these changing values, for relegating such notions safely to the past betrays (...) their possibilities for potential today. Lütticken discusses practices that range from Black Mask to Subversive Aktion, from Krautonomy to Occupy, from the Wet Dream Film Festival in the early 1970s to Jonas Staal's recently established New World Academy. Within these pages Scarlett Johansson meets Paul Chan, Walid Raad, and Hito Steyerl, and Dr. Zira from Planet of the Apes mingles with the likes of Paul Lafargue and Alexandre Kojève. (shrink)

How is it possible, for those who were not “under that sky of blood”, to speak about the Shoah without outraging again, even involuntarily, millions of victims?What are we speaking of, when we mention the Shoah? Starting from these two questions, the paper approaches Treblinka, the biggest factory of “pure” death set up by the Aktion Reinhard, with the purpose of understanding, through the words of Yitzhak Arad, a survivor who became a historian, and those of other witnesses, dead (...) or alive, interviewed by Claude Lanzmann, the reality of the concentration camps. (shrink)

Im Folgenden wird versucht zu erläutern, wie die Bergson’sche Methode an einem konkreten Problem in der Philosophie funktioniert: Wie ist es möglich, Gefühle zu messen? Bergson erklärt, dass ein Gefühl kein psychologisches Objekt ist, da das, was es ist, davon abhängt, wie es auf uns wirkt. Dann ist es nicht nur vorgestellt, sondern auch gelebt. Jede Gefühlsmessung fügt dem Gemessenen ein neues Gefühl hinzu . Dieses spezifische Gefühl steht mit nichts anderem als der Dauer in Verbindung. Unser erstes Ziel ist (...) es aufzuweisen, dass dieses alte epistemologische Problem auch heute noch attraktiv ist. Wir wissen nicht genau, wie wir Gefühle messen sollten, sei es mit zusätzlichen oder mit regulären Messvorgängen.Wir möchten jedoch auch erklären, wie metaphysische Intuition in Bergsons erstem Werk funktioniert. Sie kommt nicht zuerst. Sie erfolgt immer nach der Überprüfung eines spezifischen wissenschaftlichen Problems, da philosophische Einsichten immer mittelbar entstehen. Es ist unmöglich, Bergsons Auffassung zu teilen, dass Wissenschaft nicht denke. Wichtig ist nur zu bemerken, dass Wissenschaft nicht alleine denkt. Sie bedarf der kritischen Aktion der Philosophie. (shrink)

Background: Meditation is gaining recognition as a tool to impact health and well-being. Samyama is an 8-day intensive residential meditation experience conducted by Isha Foundation requiring several months of extensive preparation and vegan diet. The health effects of Samyama have not been previously studied. The objective was to assess physical and emotional well-being before and after Samyama participation by evaluating psychological surveys and objective health biomarkers.Methods: This was an observational study of 632 adults before and after the Isha Samyama retreat. (...) All participants were invited to complete surveys. Controls included household significant others. Surveys were completed at baseline, just before Samyama, immediately after Samyama, and 3 months later to assess anxiety, depression, mindfulness, joy, vitality, and resilience through validated psychometric scales. Voluntary blood sampling for biomarker analysis was done to assess hemoglobin, HbA1c, lipid profile, and C-reactive protein. Primary outcomes were changes in psychometric scores, body weight, and blood biomarkers.Results: Depression and anxiety scores decreased from T1 to T3, with the effect most pronounced in participants with baseline depression or anxiety. Scores at T4 remained below baseline for those with pre-existing depression or anxiety. Vitality, resilience, joy, and mindfulness increased from T1 to T3. Body weight decreased by 3% from T1 to T3. Triglycerides were lower from T2 to T3. Participants had lower HbA1c and HDL at T2, and lower CRP at all timepoints compared with controls.Conclusions: Participation in the Isha Samyama program led to multiple benefits. The 2-month preparation reduced anxiety, and participants maintained lower anxiety levels at 3 months post-retreat. Physical health improved over the course of the program as evidenced by weight loss and improved HbA1C and lipid profile. Practices associated with the Samyama preparation phase and the retreat may serve as an effective way to improve physical and mental health. Future studies may examine their use as an alternative therapy in patients with depression and/or anxiety.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: 1801728792. Registered retrospectively on 4/17/2020. (shrink)

Die Geschichte des zivilen Ungehorsams bis zu den 1960er Jahren ist, wie Historiker und politische Theoretiker gezeigt haben, die Geschichte einer grundlegend antikolonialen, antikapitalistischen und antimilitaristischen politischen Praxis. Diese Geschichte wurde nach und nach aus unserer politischen Vorstellungskraft getilgt, als der Begriff in den späten 1960er und frühen 1970er Jahren von liberalen US-amerikanischen Juristen und Wissenschaftlern neu konzipiert wurde. Diese Liberalen argumentierten, dass ziviler Ungehorsam keine revolutionäre, sondern eine im Wesentlichen reformistische Aktionsform sei, und zwar zu einer Zeit, als soziale (...) Bewegungen angesichts steigender Kriminalitätsraten beschuldigt wurden, die US-amerikanische Demokratie zu gefährden. Ziviler Ungehorsam, so das Argument, würde eine kriminelle Haltung gegenüber einer rechtmäßig gewählten Regierung fördern. Inmitten konservativer Aufrufe zu Recht und Ordnung und der Wahl Richard Nixons zum Präsidenten wurde die Behauptung, ziviler Ungehorsam sei keine radikale Form der politischen Aktion, zu einer zentralen rhetorischen Strategie amerikanischer Liberaler während des sogenannten War on Crime. In diesem Artikel zeichne ich die Debatten über zivilen Ungehorsam und Kriminalität in diesem Kontext nach. Abschließend gehe ich darauf ein, wie liberale Konzeptualisierungen des friedlichen Protests bis heute dazu genutzt werden, Aktivismus zu delegitimieren und zu kriminalisieren. (shrink)

Theories are ordered along a temporal line: there are past and present theories. Theories may be speculative but a large number of them are not the result of idle speculation. Theories can take many different forms but they are usually an attempt to solve some kind of problem. If theories are juxtaposed on a temporal or historical line, and if they are matched against some corresponding problems, then those problems, too, exist on a temporal line. Of course, this is not (...) a one-to-one correspondence; a number of theories may be submitted, at a certain time t1, to answer a given problem; also theories that are separated on the temporal line, i.e., that are historically apart, may still concern some broadly identical problem p1 whose identification and formulation may either be imagined as fixed at, say, t1 and subsequently to survive as such, or as recurring, in different versions, at t2 … t4 etc. on our historical line. But is this alternative a real one? Theories evolve, and so does the perception of problems. In which sense can any two historically separated theories T1 and T2 be said to relate to the same problem p1? And what does it mean to speak of the same problem if the perception and formulation of a problem is at least partly dependent on the way it is stated in T1 and T2 respectively? (shrink)

Speakers with autism spectrum disorder are found to exhibit atypical pitch patterns in speech production. However, little is known about the production of lexical tones as well as neutral tones by tone-language speakers with ASD. Thus, this study investigated the height and shape of tones produced by Mandarin-speaking children with ASD and their age-matched typically developing peers. A pronunciation experiment was conducted in which the participants were asked to produce reduplicated nouns. The findings from the acoustic analyses showed that although (...) ASD children generally produced both lexical tones and neutral tones with distinct tonal contours, there were significant differences between the ASD and TD groups for tone height and shape for T1/T1N, T3/T3N, and T4/T4N. However, we did not find any difference in T2/T2N. These data implied that the atypical acoustic pattern in the ASD group could be partially due to the suppression of the F0 range. Moreover, we found that ASD children tended to produce more errors for T2/T2N, T3/T3N than for T1/T1N, T4/T4N. The pattern of tone errors could be explained by the acquisition principle of pitch, similarities among different tones, and tone sandhi. We thus concluded that deficits in pitch processing could be responsible for the atypical tone pattern of ASD children, and speculated that the atypical tonal contours might also be due to imitation deficits. The present findings may eventually help enhance the comprehensive understanding of the representation of atypical pitch patterns in ASD across languages. (shrink)

In den drei Aufsätzen dieses Bandes - Originaltitel: Une des sources de la pensée moderne: l'évolution du Spinozisme (1894); L'illusion idéaliste (1898); Le point de départ de la recherche philosophique (1906) entwickelt Maurice Bondel (1861-1949) den Begriff seiner phänomenologisch vom Leben ausgehenden Philosophie der Aktion, die u. a. auch Heidegger, der Blondel nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg für die größte Kapazität Frankreichs hielt, nachhaltig beeindruckte.

Einleitung, Zwischen Sprache und Denken / Alex Burri -- Linearity and structure / Peter Simons -- The role of language in intelligence / Daniel C. Dennett -- Die Fiktion einer Sprache des Geistes in der zeitgenössischen Philosophie / Katia Saporiti -- Ist eine Sprache des Geistes möglich? / Ansgar Beckermann -- Searles chinesischer Zauber oder Wahrnehmung, Sprachverständnis und der Turing-Test / Wolfgang Lenzen -- On determining reference / Michael Devitt -- How perception fixes reference / Kevin Mulligan -- Rede zwischen (...) Aktion und Kognition / Kuno Lorenz -- Die kausale Relevanz des Geistigen / Thomas Ruprecht -- Kantian schemata and the unity of perception / Jay F. Rosenberg -- Der sichtbare Geist / Gérard Bornet -- Intention und Kognition / Dieter Münch -- Zur sog. Naturalisierung von Intentionalität / Andreas Kemmerling -- Thinking that one thinks / David M. Rosenthal -- The nature of thought / Fred Dretske -- Sprache und Wahrheit / Josef Seifert -- Anschauliches und symbolisches Denken / Andreas Kamlah -- Logisches und analogisches Denken / Gottfried Gabriel. (shrink)

Some doctors and nurses played a key role in Nazism. They were responsible for the sterilization and murder of people with disabilities. Nazi doctors used concentration camp inmates as guinea pigs in medical experiments that had military or racial objectives. What we have learnt about the behaviour of doctors and nurses during the Nazi period enables us to reflect on several issues in present-day medicine. In some authors' opinions, the teaching of the medical aspects of the Holocaust could be a (...) new model for education relating to professionalism, Human Rights, Bioethics and the respect of diversity. Teaching Medicine and the Holocaust could be a way of informing doctors and nurses of violations of Ethics in the past. Moreover, a Study Trip to Holocaust and Medicine related sites has a strong pedagogical value. Visiting Holocaust related sites, T4 centres and the places where medical experiments were carried out, has a special meaning for medical students. Additionally, tolerance, anti-discrimination, and the value of human life can be both taught and learned through this curriculum. The following article recounts our experiences of organizing and supervising a study trip with a group of medical students to some Holocaust and medicine-related sites in Berlin and Hadamar. The study tour included lectures at universities in Düsseldorf and Berlin. (shrink)

Die Science & Technology Studies sind ein interdisziplinäres und vor allem internationales Forschungsfeld, das sich mit den Wechselverhältnissen von Wissenschaft, Technik und Gesellschaft beschäftigt. In Theorie und Empirie erforschen sie die zunehmende Verwissenschaftlichung von Technik und Gesellschaft, die Technisierung von Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft sowie die Vergesellschaftung von Wissenschaft und Technik. Mit der Fokussierung auf ‚Wissenschaft und Technik in Aktion‘ ist die Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung gegenüber der Einhegung diverser Erkenntniszugänge skeptisch und sensibel gegenüber der In und Exklusion verschiedener Gruppen und (...) Akteure innerhalb wissenschaftlicher Diskurse. Der vorliegende Band der „Schlüsselwerke der Science & Technology Studies“ leistet einen Beitrag, die Perspektiven der Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum sichtbarer zu machen und inhaltliche Impulse für Studium, Lehre und Forschung zu bieten. (shrink)

Die Science & Technology Studies sind ein interdisziplinäres und vor allem internationales Forschungsfeld, das sich mit den Wechselverhältnissen von Wissenschaft, Technik und Gesellschaft beschäftigt. In Theorie und Empirie erforschen sie die zunehmende Verwissenschaftlichung von Technik und Gesellschaft, die Technisierung von Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft sowie die Vergesellschaftung von Wissenschaft und Technik. Mit der Fokussierung auf ‚Wissenschaft und Technik in Aktion‘ ist die Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung gegenüber der Einhegung diverser Erkenntniszugänge skeptisch und sensibel gegenüber der In und Exklusion verschiedener Gruppen und (...) Akteure innerhalb wissenschaftlicher Diskurse. Der vorliegende Band der „Schlüsselwerke der Science & Technology Studies“ leistet einen Beitrag, die Perspektiven der Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung im deutschsprachigen Raum sichtbarer zu machen und inhaltliche Impulse für Studium, Lehre und Forschung zu bieten. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung: Die politische Grenze, die in der Erzählung vom Goldenen Kalb schematisch gesetzt wird, ähnelt zeitgenössischen autoritären wie auch demokratischen Strategien, Macht durch gesellschaftliche Spaltungen auszuüben. In Bezug auf die Überlagerung politischer Differenzen mit moralischen und religiösen Werturteilen, die Verabsolutierung von Privilegien und die Verschleierung des Gesetzes scheint die in der Episode vom Goldenen Kalb erzählte Spaltung systematische Parallelen zu gegenwärtigen Praktiken innergesellschaftlicher Grenzziehung aufzuweisen. Die Aktualität der Berufung auf religiöse Erzählungen, rhetorische Polarisierungen oder antagonistische Symboliken macht die Kritik und (...) Analyse der politisch-theologischen Sakralisierung politischer Differenzen zu einem wesentlichen Gegenstand der Aufklärung über die religiösen Grundlagen politischer Gewalt. Der Artikel interpretiert mit Verweis auf textkritische Analysen der Erzählung die Abspaltung der Leviten vom restlichen Volk als kultisch inszenierte militärische Aktion zur Herstellung und Befestigung von Privilegien durch Grausamkeit, den Tanz um das Goldene Kalb als Strategie der Konsolidierung einer durch die Abwesenheit von Gesetz und Führung verunsicherten Gemeinschaft und die Konstruktion gesellschaftlicher Antagonismen als Kompensation für die Verschleierung des Gesetzes. Abschließend wird diskutiert, inwiefern diese Strategien auch in Demokratien zentrale Merkmale der Konstituierung kollektiver Identitäten, Privilegien und Gewaltbeziehungen sind und ob es in Demokratien auch Raum für die Neuverhandlung innergesellschaftlicher Grenzen gibt. (shrink)