Before sampling some of the treasures, I must register three objections: one unessential, the other two less so. Bern, in the eighteenth century, was not a ‘Canton’ - it became that in 1848 - but a sovereign state. And the French spelling ‘Berne’ is not used in the German-speaking Bern. Many repetitions of the same mistake do not make it more correct. Secondly, the author has taken over from Theodor Haering his contention that the unifying interest of the young Hegel (...) was his concern for popular education. If there is one realm of value which Hegel did not cultivate, it would be just that. If one wants to know what it is for a man to concern himself with Volkserziehung, then he must get acquainted with Pestalozzi, who was at the height of his activity when Hegel resided in Switzerland. He did not notice him. In Glockner’s Hegel Lexicon there are only two references to Pestalozzi, both of them irrelevant. When Hegel speaks of education, it is always the humanistic and philosophical education of intellectuals. Finally, the author is aware of my criticism of the nineteenth century translation of ‘Verstand’ by ‘understanding’, and of ‘Vernunft’ by ‘reason’. But he ignores it and clings to the traditional nineteenth century mistake. But the equivalent of ‘understanding’ - hallowed perhaps by Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding - is nevertheless not ‘der Verstand’ but ‘das Verstehn’ - the felt apprehension of values or their lack in other souls. ‘Verstand’, in Hegel, is always ‘reason’, as defined by formal logic, and ‘Vernunft’ is never ‘reason’, but always self-conscious or reflective comprehensiveness. (shrink)

We argue that the relationship between Kant’s theory of imagination and his moral philosophy has not been well understood. Missing is an adequate connection between his idea of sensus communis and the power of imagination to exceed the senses. This connection is close and important, and it has serious implications for how we are to apply and further theorize moral relations among human beings. Especially important in this regard is the ability among humans, in their social setting, to imagine other (...) persons. We do this pre-cognitively, at the level of feeling. The effects of imagining other persons prior to all knowledge of them (as, for instance, rational agents), grounds the autonomy of other persons in a relationship that is far broader than knowledge. (shrink)

Narrative allegory is distinguished from mythology as reality from symbol; it is, in short, the proper intermedium between person and personification. Where it is too strongly individualized, it ceases to be allegory […]. In the community of scholars of intermedia research, the above quoted citation is commonly regarded as Coleridge’s coining of the term “intermedium” or “intermediality”. However, a short glance at the discursive strategy of his argument emphasizes that his notion of “intermedium” must be closely linked to the poetics (...) and aesthetics of 19th-century romanticism. For the romantic poet, the term of “intermedium” does not point to media relations or intermedia processes but to.. (shrink)

Several lines of evidence suggest that children born via Cesarean section are at greater risk for adverse health outcomes including allergies, asthma and obesity. Vaginal seeding is a medical procedure in which infants born by C-section are swabbed immediately after birth with vaginal secretions from the mother. This procedure has been proposed as a way to transfer the mother's vaginal microbiome to the child, thereby restoring the natural exposure that occurs during vaginal birth that is interrupted in the case of (...) babies born via C-section. Preliminary evidence indicates partial restoration of microbes. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine the health benefits of the procedure. Several studies, including trial, are currently underway. At the same time, in the clinic setting, doctors are increasingly being asked to by expectant mothers to have their babies seeded. This article reports on the current research on this procedure and the issues it raises for regulators, researchers, physicians, and patients. (shrink)

All nations on this little planet earth, in all periods of their self-conscious history, are agreed on relating themselves back to an absolute world-ground which is also the goal of love; the source of existence is responded to in gratitude and awe. "Religio" literally means this "back-tie." Religion is the consensus gentium. The many world-religions appeal to the same Absolute in many linguistic symbols. We call a symbol which appeals to the Absolute a mythical expression. "Tao" or "Central Harmony" in (...) Chinese Taoism or Confucianism, the "Trimurti" or "Brahma," "Vishnu" and "Shiva" in Hinduism, "Allah" in Islam, "Jehova" in Judaism, and "God Our Father" in Christianity are such mythical appellations. "The realm of God is primarily the invisible church, which comprehends all zones and different religions; secondarily the external church.". (shrink)

Becoming is interpreted by various sciences. The exact sciences, physics, and chemistry, interpret this universal becoming or change of all things on the model of mathematical equations. In such an equation of quantities or magnitudes, one side always balances the other. We call such a process “circular”. Numbers may be subdivided or contracted, they may change their places or positions, but the sum total of the whole equation remains immutably the same. In this manner mechanics constructs change as a change (...) of positions of unchanging particles in a continuous but divisible space and in a continuous but divisible time. Chemistry constructs qualitative change as a change of unchanging elements in such a fashion that the sum total of the elements involved in such transactions is always completely accounted for. But in the twentieth century becoming entered these closed systems. There are no unchanging atoms now, and no unchanging chemical elements. Both the physical atom and the chemical element, thought immutable before, are now seen to disintegrate, to radiate, to change their character according to their position in the “field” of energy in which they occur. (shrink)