The article offers a critical assessment of an article on "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation" by Guido Palazzo and Andreas Scherer in this journal. We share the concern about the precarious legitimacy of globally active corporations, infringing on the legitimacy of democracy at large. There is no quarrel with Palazzo/Scherer's diagnosis, which focuses on the consequences of globalization and ensuing challenges for corporate social responsibilities. However, we disagree with the "solutions" offered by them. In a first step we refute the idea (...) of a legitimacy of morals, maintaining that morality is a premodern mode of creating legitimacy. Even worse, moral is becoming a dangerous commodity under conditions of fundamental global disagreements and antagonisms. We secondly refute the concept of the "politicized corporation", maintaining that Palazzo/Scherer disregard the consequences of functional differentiation of modern societies and, in particular, disregard the wisdom of political restraint and constitutional guarantees for the autonomy of different spheres of society. Finally, we refute a seemingly romantic notion of deliberation, maintaining that deliberation and deliberative democracy is a worthy idea, which, however, has no place in the real world of globalized contexts. On the other hand, we also find enough common ground and common concern with Palazzo/Scherer to validate a fruitful discourse. (shrink)

The article offers a critical assessment of an article on “Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation” by Guido Palazzo and Andreas Scherer in this journal. We share the concern about the precarious legitimacy of globally active corporations, infringing on the legitimacy of democracy at large. There is no quarrel with Palazzo/Scherer’s diagnosis, which focuses on the consequences of globalization and ensuing challenges for corporate social responsibilities. However, we disagree with the “solutions” offered by them. In a first step we refute the idea (...) of a legitimacy of morals, maintaining that morality is a premodern mode of creating legitimacy. Even worse, moral is becoming a dangerous commodity under conditions of fundamental global disagreements and antagonisms. We secondly refute the concept of the “politicized corporation”, maintaining that Palazzo/Scherer disregard the consequences of functional differentiation of modern societies and, in particular, disregard the wisdom of political restraint and constitutional guarantees for the autonomy of different spheres of society. Finally, we refute a seemingly romantic notion of deliberation, maintaining that deliberation and deliberative democracy is a worthy idea, which, however, has no place in the real world of globalized contexts. On the other hand, we also find enough common ground and common concern with Palazzo/Scherer to validate a fruitful discourse. (shrink)

Nonmonotonic reasoning in its broadest sense is reasoning to conclusions on the basis of incomplete information. Given more information, previously drawn inferences may be retracted. Commonsense reasoning has a nonmonotonic component; it has been argued that almost all commonsense inferences are of this sort. From the end of the 1980s to the present there has been an explosion in research in nonmonotonic reasoning. It is now possible to understand more clearly the properties of the major formalisms from a metatheoretical point (...) of view, the relationships among the formalisms and their connection to independently developed proof methods. The goal of this monograph is to make this understanding more accessible. (shrink)

This article provides the proof-theoretic analysis of the transfinitely iterated fixed point theories $\widehat{ID}_\alpha and \widehat{ID}_{<\alpha};$ the exact proof-theoretic ordinals of these systems are presented.

The article presents proofs of the context freeness of a family of typelogical grammars, namely all grammars that are based on a uni- ormultimodal logic of pure residuation, possibly enriched with thestructural rules of Permutation and Expansion for binary modes.

This paper deals with the “magic” of the Carpocratians, who, according to Irenaeus of Lyon, believed in the Platonic tripartite nature of the soul. The Carpocratian approach to philosophical magic is probably derived from Neoplatonic ideas popular during the first centuries of the Common Era. The Carpocrations, a second-century Christian Gnostic group, believed Yeshua was a soul personality like all other people, but because of his “spiritualization,” he reached the state of the “philosophical magician.” He did not lose his memory (...) while “staying with his Father” (while he was in the eternal sphere before his next incarnation) and, according to Irenaeus, despised the creators (angels) of the world during the ascension of the soul, a Hermetic and Neoplatonic notion. In addition, as the Christ, Yeshua overcame all emotions and passions. That is, according to the Neoplatonic tripartite nature of the soul, he overcame the emotional part of himself in favor of the spirit. This ascent gave him magical abilities such as healing and prophecy. The Carpocratians believed that each soul can achieve what Christ achieved. Ceremonial and heavenly magic was practiced by the Carpocratians, but their main goal was to achieve the complete spiritualization of the soul or the attainment of Christ Consciousness. To analyze Carpocratian magic, it is useful to use the theories of other magicians like Agrippa von Nettesheim or Iamblichus, because their ideas improve our limited understanding of the text by the Early Church Writer Irenaeus whose basic interest in the Carpocratians was heresiology. Finally, this analysis of how magic was applied by the Carpocratians could contribute to a better understanding of their philosophy. (shrink)

In the enquiry into the import and function of the basic norm in Hans Kelsen's legal theory, the interpretations of special interest are those dealing with the notion of the basic norm as the ‘logico-transcendental’ condition for cognition in legal science, or with the relation of Kelsen's juridico-scientific method to Kant's practice philosophy. Two thinkers in particular have written along these lines, Norbert Leser and Ralf Dreier, respectively. This chapter begins by describing the positions taken up by the two authors. (...) It then asks, whether in terms of Leser's thesis, it is in fact possible to maintain the notion of the transcendental character of the basic norm. It then turns to Dreier's suggested reinterpretation of the basic norm by appeal to the law of reason, examining the suggestion from the point of view of Kant's philosophy. (shrink)

This monograph offers new insights into the connection between self-consciousness and emotion. It focuses on what fundamental “feelings of being” tell us about ourselves. The results enrich the philosophy of human affectivity and help shed new light on some pressing, current problems. The author seeks to understand self-consciousness as an affective phenomenon, namely as self-feeling. He identifies it as a pre-reflective, pre-propositional, bodily feeling that shapes our space of possibilities. It is the affective disclosure of individual existence. His account overcomes (...) the difficulties of infinite regress and vicious circularity that reflective accounts of self-consciousness struggle with. At the same time, it helps build a bridge between the basic level of self-consciousness and the higher level of more substantial thoughts about oneself. The title explores fundamental affectivity, Matthew Ratcliffe’s theory of existential feelings, features of self-feeling, and appropriateness and inappropriateness in self-interpretation. It also considers the contributions of the Heidelberg School of self-consciousness to current debates. The title provides students and researchers with a unique look into such vital philosophical questions as: What is self-consciousness? How do we know ourselves? It will also appeal to a wider audience interested in self-consciousness and/or human affectivity since it does not presuppose knowledge of the jargon. (shrink)

The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893 bis 974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only (...) a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893 bis 974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. The fame of the Jacobite Christian Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ''Adi (893-974) as in influential philosopher and as en eminent apologist of the Christian faith has been founded on reputation rather than on the study of his work. When Augustin Perier compiled the first list of his writings in 1920, most of his philosophical works were believed to be lost. Most recent publications have enabled us to appraise his merits as a translator an commentator of Aristotle. But only a few of his philosophical monographs were available until an important collection of his treatises was discovered inthe libraries of Tehran. This. at last, has enabled us to study in detail his contribution to logic, his treatment of physical and metaphysical problems, and his position on questions of Muslim "kalam". The Monophysite theology of Yahya ibn ''Adi, on the other hand, though better known through the studies of G Graf and A. Perier, still awaits renewed examination. The most important works in this field have not even been published. So the new inventory of his writings is intended to provide the basis for a reassessment of his merits as an Aristotelean as well as a Christian thinker.The study contains a survey of biographical data, detailed bibliographical information on manuscripts and printed works and summaries of most the unpublished texts. (shrink)

The articles collected in this volume document the eighth conference organized by the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The conference in which Indologists, Theologians and Philosophers participated in, took place in september 2004 under the title "Certainty of Believe and Truth in Religious Tradition". Against the background of Gerhard Oberhammer's hermeneutics of religious traditions the contributors challenge from their professional viewpoint the traditional understanding of the relationship between certainty of (...) belief and truth and give reasons that certainty of belief found in a special religious tradition cannot claim absolute truth, even if its validity within a tradition is not to be denied. (shrink)

Die in diesem Bande vereinigten Aufsatze dokumentieren die siebte einer Reihe thematisch aufeinander bezogener Arbeitstagungen von Indologen, Buddhologen und Theologen, zu der das Institut fur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften eingeladen hatte, und die im September 2000 unter dem Titel "Mythisierung der Transzendenz als Entwurf ihrer Erfahrung" stattfand. Zur Diskussion stand die Tragweite und Anwendbarkeit des Begriffes "Mythisierung", ein zentraler Terminus der Religionshermeneutik Gerhard Oberhammers. Dieser Begriff ermoglichte es den Beitragenden nicht nur, den Gegensatz von (...) Erfahrung, Sprache und Transzendenz in den unterschiedlichen Religionen zu problematisieren, sondern mit ihm konnte auch auf die Bedingungen jeder historisch-konkreten Religion reflektiert werden. Zu den theologischen und philosophischen Beitragen gehoren: Gerhard Oberhammer, Mit-sein, Mythisierung und Transzendenz. Einleitende Gedanken; Siegfried Wiedenhofer, "Mythisierung der Transzendenz". Zwischen Offenbarungsereignis und Traditionsvermittlung; H. J. Adriaanse, Wort, Offenbarung und Theologie als Momente der Mythisierung. Karl Barths Theologie des Wortes Gottes als Prufstein eines religionshermeneutischen Grundbegriffs; Desiree J. Berendsen, Mythisierung der Transzendenz als Ordnung des Lebens. Uber Kierkegaard und Oberhammer; Marcus Schmucker, Von der individuellen Erfahrung zum Text; Norbert Hintersteiner, Von der Gebung des Unendlichen. Phanomen und Transzendenz bei Jean-Luc Marion. Shizuteru Ueda, Mythisierung und Ent-Mythisierung der Transzendenz als Entwurf ihrer Erfahrung im Zen-Buddhismus; Hans-Peter Muller, Mythisierung geschichtlicher Ereignisse im Alten Testament und im Alten Vorderen Orient; Lourens Minnema, Bildlose Bildhaftigkeit. "Mythisierung" im Werk Mark Rothkos; Johann Reikerstorfer, Kritische Toleranz. Verstandigungsmoglichkeiten im interreligiosen Dialog? Indologische Beitrage: Halina Marlewicz, Advaita Vedanta Hermeneutics of Revelation Key-Statements as "Mythicising" of Transcendence; Jan C. Heesterman, Opfer, Transzendenz und Dharma in der Sicht der Mima'sa; Andre Padoux, Mythisierung am Beispiel des Sivaismus; Marion Rastelli, Der Tempel als Mythisierung der Transzendenz; Axel Michaels, Tirtha - Orte der Transzendenz in hinduistischen Texten, Ritualen und Karten; Tilmann Vetter, Zur Anthropologie der Khandha-Passagen in den alteren Sammlungen des Pali-Kanons. (shrink)

The reception of the rational sciences, scientific practice, discourse and methodology into Arabic Islamic society proceeded in several stages of exchange with the transmitters of Iranian, Christian-Aramaic and Byzantine-Greek learning. Translation and the acquisition of knowledge from the Hellenistic heritage went hand in hand with a continuous refinement of the methods of linguistic transposition and the creation of a standardized technical language in Arabic: terminology, rhetoric, and the genres of instruction. Demonstration more geometrico, first introduced by the paradigmatic sciences-mathematics, astronomy, (...) mechanics-and adopted by philosophers embracing the cosmology of Neoplatonism, was complemented and superseded by the methods of syllogistic demonstration. Faced with the establishment of philosophy as a demonstrative science, which claimed absolute and universal knowledge, even the hermeneuti. (shrink)

Organisms are self-producing and self-maintaining, or autopoietic systems. Therefore, the course of evolution and adaptation of an organism is strongly determined by its own internal properties, whatever role external selection may play. The internal properties may either act as constraints that preclude certain changes or they open new pathways: the organism canalizes its own evolution. As an example the evolution of feeding mechanisms in salamanders, especially in the lungless salamanders of the family Plethodontidae, is discussed. In this family a large (...) variety of different feeding mechanisms is found. The authors reconstruct this evolutionary process as a series of bifurcation points of either constraints or opportunities forming a sequence of preconditions for the formation of a high-speed projectile tongue characteristic of tropical salamanders. Furthermore, it is shown how parallel evolution of seemingly unrelated domains within an organism such as respiratory physiology, life history biology and pattern of ontogeny has rather direct relevance to the feeding biology, thus demonstrating that organisms always evolve as wholes. (shrink)

In this paper first order theories for nonmonotone inductive definitions are introduced, and a proof-theoretic analysis for such theories based on combined operator forms a la Richter with recursively inaccessible and Mahlo closure ordinals is given.

This article tries to point out the dialectical and paradoxical character of Eckhart’s thought, which permits him at once to affirm and to negate categories such as being, nothingness, personality, substance, origin, creation, image. In this way, Eckhart can unite a personal-theistic and a non-personal-atheistic view. A dialectical structure can also be seen in Eckhart’s ethics. Further, the dialectical interpretation can elucidate the ambivalence in the concept of the scintilla animae. The origin and aim of Eckhart’s dialectics proves to consist (...) in the concept of non-distinction. (shrink)

In this note it is shown that in explicit mathematics the strong power type axiom is inconsistent with elementary comprehension and discuss some general aspects of power types in explicit mathematics.

This book deals with the metaphysics of Giordano Bruno. It is very controversial until today, whether Giordano Bruno is a Pantheist or not. There are even authors who believe that Bruno was an Atheist. Other authors like Frances Yates believes that Bruno was a representative of the Hermetic Tradition, but not in the sense of Ficino. This work tries to find out whether Giordano Bruno had a concept of god or not. Finally, there is a concept of god in Giordano (...) Bruno´s works. His concept of god is very similar to that of the Hermetic Tradition and that of neoplatonic philosophy. The reason why Bruno was burned in Rome was not that he was an Atheist, but Bruno denied that Jesus Christ was the son of god. (shrink)