Why did the scientific revolution take place in the West and not in China or the Islamic world? How did humanity's progress in science and technology, which had been moving along at a relatively steady pace for tens of thousands of years, end up taking such an unprecedented leap? Subjecting the history of thought and technology to a novel interpretation based on the relationship between theory and practice, Ahmet Selami Çalışkan argues that the industrial revolution and modern science-and the scientific (...) revolution that preceded both-did not alone suffice to sort out the philosophical problems of their day or to produce the institutions of the modern age. Both required a new sort of human: Homo economicus faber. Tracing the historical emergence of this figure and its persistence in our own age, this book offers an innovative and holistic assessment of the economic, cultural, and political effects of centuries of interaction between East and West and their repercussions in our world today. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a caracterização que Hannah Arendt e Hans Jonas fazem da técnica moderna em suas visões da dimensão do homo faber, bem como suas críticas ao mundo da técnica no horizonte da modernidade, mostrando suas convergências e diferenças quanto a isso. A partir dessas críticas arendtianas e jonasianas, procuramos mostrar como ambos podem contribuir para uma ética e uma política baseada na ideia de responsabilidade pelas futuras gerações.

Originally published in 1951, Homo Faberis an examination of the scientific outlook on human mental evolution through the lens of parapsychology. The book aims to undermine what its terms, the 'scientific outlook' examining the human interpretation of the world, and the preconceived scientific concepts that reality does not extend beyond the realm that our senses reveal. The book expands upon this and moves to examine the broader human understanding of the entire cosmos, challenging the scientific conception that this can (...) be grasped in principal by human intellect, arising from the chance combination of material particles. The book argues that the scientific outlook prevents humans from discovering in the Universe the meaning and purpose which are everywhere to be found if sought in the appropriate contemplative states of mind. This book provides a unique take on the examination of human psychology and the evolution of the brain from an alternative scientific stance. It will be of interest to anthropologists, historians and psychologists alike. will be of interest to anthropologists, historians and psychologists alike. (shrink)

Dieser Aufsatz befasst sich hauptsächlich mit drei Werken: The Human Condition der Philosophin Hannah Arendt, The Road To Serfdom des Ökonomen Friedrich A. Hayek und dem Essay “Tradition without Convention” aus dem Sammelband Freedom and the Arts des Musikwissenschaftlers Charles Rosen. Die Grundlage des vorliegenden Essays bildet The Human Condition, Die conditio humana bildet die Grundlage des Essays, in dem Arendts historisch angelegte Erzählung den öffentlichen und privaten Bereich, wie er in der griechischen Antike existierte und definiert wurde, bis zu (...) seinen verschiedenen Verzerrungen in der Moderne nachzeichnet. Die Veränderung wird in erster Linie als Ergebnis der schwankenden Verhältnisse der Conditio humana selbst verstanden, die Arendt ausführlich als Arbeit (animal laborans), Herstellen (homo faber) und Handeln (vita activa) kategorisiert. In diesem Zusammenhang untersuchen wir zwei Hauptgedanken: die Anreize zur Entscheidungsfindung und die Zuständigkeitsbereiche;und moderne Gebiete für Exzellenz, Betrachtung und Gleichberechtigung, die in der heutigen Zeit gedeihen können. Es geht um eine zweiteilige Diskussion: der Entscheidungsfähigkeit in einem erodierten privaten Bereich und den Preis für den höchsten Aspekt der menschlichen Existenz, wenn die Verheißung des öffentlichen Bereichs und seine Zugangsvoraussetzungen nicht mehr im Rahmen der egalitären Standards der Moderne gewährt werden. F. A. Hayeks überzeugende Auseinandersetzung mit Zentralplanung, die Unmöglichkeit ihrer Kompetenz sowie der moralische Verfall, der eintritt, wenn Entscheidungen und Verantwortlichkeiten ausgelagert werden, bieten einen nützlichen und konstruktiven Rahmen für die Beobachtung von sowie dem Schutz vor den Fallen eines eingenommenen privaten Bereichs. Rosen liefert mit seiner verblüffenden Analyse von Konventionen in der klassischen Musik des frühen 18. Jahrhunderts ein aufschlussreiches Paradigma, um damit nicht nur einen modernen öffentlichen Raum zu verorten, sondern auch Konventionen, Muster und Praktiken zu erkennen, die zu seiner Existenz und Langlebigkeit beitragen. (shrink)

WHEN NIETZSCHE CALLED MAN THE YET UNFINISHED ANIMAL, he echoed a phrase that had remote origins. In classical German philosophy, the idea of man as a Mängelwesen, a lacking and underdetermined being, was shared by Herder, Kant, and even Hegel and Marx, among others. It was brought to clear expression by Schiller when he wrote: “With the animal and plant, Nature did not only specify their dispositions but she also carried these out herself. With man, however, she merely provided the (...) disposition and left its execution up to him.” What distinguishes man from animals, according to these thinkers, is the unfinished character of the gifts he is endowed with by nature; at the same time, this underdetermined quality is responsible for human openness and adaptability. To play on the myth of the birth of eros in the Symposium, one could say that for man poverty is resourcefulness. (shrink)

Following the philosophical work of Jürgen Mittelstrass, the papers presented in this volume justify this thesis and differentiate it in both its historical and its systematic dimension (including its practical philosophical implications).

The thinking employed by Homo faber, Latin for ‘Tool Wo/Man,’ and a concept articulated by Hannah Arendt and Max Scheler referring to humans as controlling the environment through tools, is instrumental in nature. Know-how is applied to the environment as one would apply a tool, in order to control it. In contrast, thinking that looks at how to engage the whole for the sake of solving a problem, is the thinking employed by Homo Cognoscens (a term I (...) invented), referring to the Examining/Inquiring Wo/Man, from the Latin cognosco, which means ‘I inquire/examine.’ In my essay, I show why it is important to move beyond the limited thinking of Homo faber. Homo faber in some sense still views itself at the center of the universe and capable of controlling it. S/he lives in a geocentric worldview. Homo cognoscens has a heliocentric worldview. Homo cognoscens understands that the world is interconnected and that we do not control the universe literally or figuratively no matter how advanced our knowledge. Instrumental thinking also does not lend itself to developing self-knowledge, for it doesn’t involve awareness of the thinking that goes into solving problems “out there.” It simply applies reason for the purpose of solving problems. We tend to reason things through, but rarely to think through our reasoning. Yet, we live in an interconnected world and we are interconnected with the world we live in. Our thinking reflects our interconnectedness and we have to be able to view it critically and self-critically. Homo cognoscens restores our relationship with the world and other people. Homo faber has gone too far in its instrumental thinking and destroyed relationship in the process. Everything has become instrumental. To move beyond Homo faber is to evolve to Homo cognoscens and understand how we are intrinsically connected to the world we depend on and need to engage it, rather than assume we can control it at all cost. (shrink)

Che relazione c’è tra capacità di ragionamento e felicità? Cos’è la democrazia, e perché dovremmo curarcene? Questo libro risponde a domande del genere, a partire da un’idea semplice e potente su cosa significa essere umani: l’idea che siamo costruttori, e che tra le cose che costruiamo ci sono le persone, le lingue, la capacità di pensare, gli obblighi morali, le istituzioni sociali e politiche. Insomma, ciò che è più importante per la nostra vita richiede un paziente lavoro di costruzione, e (...) di manutenzione. Questa costruzione di noi stessi, dell’ambiente e delle società in cui viviamo è guidata da processi simbolici e da pratiche linguistiche. Le pratiche linguistiche strutturano le nostre abitudini mentali: ci guidano nella soluzione di problemi, ci addestrano al pensiero, alla progettazione del futuro, alla mediazione tra i desideri individuali. L’educazione è l’insieme di questi processi di costruzione sociale del sé, orientata da entità linguistiche, da idee come “democrazia”, “felicità”, “bene comune” che sono a fondamento dell’identità personale e sociale. Filosofia e scienze cognitive ci aiutano a dare corpo a questa prospettiva, contro alcuni rischi attuali. In particolare, appare indispensabile recuperare l’idea di una “disciplina dell’attenzione”, strumento essenziale per trasformare il presente pieno di distrazioni in un presente denso di progetto. (shrink)

Merleau-Ponty claims that the idea of objective knowledge is supported by "our reveries." My aim in this paper is to explore this argument with respect to the idea of health. As a case study, I focus on bioethical issues surrounding return of results of incidental variants with respect to the use of genetic and genomic screening technologies (GSTs) in newborn and pediatric contexts. Drawing on a range of Merleau-Ponty’s texts, I argue that this case suggests the modern idea of health (...) to turn largely on the desire for control over one’s fate. More specifically, this is a desire for control aimed at assuring that the meaning of one’s life will stay the same as indexed by one’s ability expectations. I term this a desire for existential homeostasis. I further contend that the desire for existential homeostasis is underwritten by multiple sorts of privilege and, insofar as it informs health as a reverie, it is a desire that is particularly apt to contribute to and maintain injustice in both theory and practice. (shrink)

Este artículo ofrece una visión paralela sobre el problema de la técnica de Oswald Spengler y de Henri Bergson, autores de El hombre y la técnica. Una contribución a la filosofía de la vida y Las dos fuentes de la moral y de la religión, respectivamente. En general, el trabajo se centra en estos dos ensayos para dar cuenta de los puntos en común y de la distancia entre estos dos pensadores. El texto está dividido en tres apartados. Uno muestra (...) sus respectivas visiones antropológicas en relación con el problema de la técnica, a continuación, comenta afinidades y desencuentros en relación a su interpretación histórica de la cuestión del maquinismo, y, en tercer lugar, se habla de la cuestión más relativa al contexto histórico de estas dos contribuciones al tema que aquí nos ocupa. ¿En qué medida es para ambos la técnica un signo de decadencia o no? En este último punto, la perspectiva fatalista de Spengler se separa de la bergsoniana. (shrink)

이 논문은 이른바 놀이하는 존재Homo ludens로서의 인간에 대한 정의를 중심으로 인간을 이해하기 위한 의도로 기획한 글이다. 전통적인 관점에서 인간에 대한 정의는 이성적 존재Homo sapiens, 도구적 존재Homo faber 등으로 이해되어왔으나, 그러한 이해는 인간에 대한 특수적 관점만을 부각시키고 있기에 인간에 대한 전일적 이해에 걸림돌이 되어왔다. 이성적 존재로 인간을 이해하는 한 21세기에 비약적인 과학적 발전을 바탕으로 전개되고 있는 초인류 사회에서 인간에 대한 이해는 새로운 문제점에 봉착하게 된다. 이러한 논의를 유발 하라리의 『사피엔스』와 『호모데우스』에서의 주장에 근거해서 논의를 전개하였다. 한편, 인간에 대한 도구적 존재로서의 이해 (...) 방식 역시 인간이해에 있어서 단편적인 이해라는 난점을 지니고 있다. 신체의 확장으로서 도구의 제작과 사용이 인간을 정의하는데 있어서는 매우 유효할 것 같지만 인간의 문화를 이해하는 차원에서 한계를 드러낸다고 하겠다. 필자는 놀이하는 존재Homo ludens로서의 인간이야말로 인간을 이해하는데 매우 적절한 이해 방식이라고 본다. 이른바 피로사회로 정의되는 현대사회의 지평에서 인간의 이해방식을 통해 피로사회의 극복 방안을 모색하는 차원에서 이 글을 작성하였다. (shrink)

Humans, more than any other species, have been altering their paths of development by creating new material forms and by opening up to new possibilities of material engagement. That is, we become constituted through making and using technologies that shape our minds and extend our bodies. We make things which in turn make us. This ongoing dialectic has long been recognised from a deep-time perspective. It also seems natural in the present in view of the ways new materialities and digital (...) ecologies increasingly envelop our everyday life and thinking. Still the basic idea that humans and things are co-constituted continues to challenge us, raising important questions about the place and meaning of materiality and technical change in human life and evolution. This paper bridging perspectives from postphenomenology and Material Engagement Theory is trying to attain better understanding about these matters. Our emphasis falls specifically on the human predisposition for technological embodiment and creativity. We re-approach the notion Homo faber in a way that, on the one hand, retains the power and value of this notion to signify the primacy of making or creative material engagement in human life and evolution and, on the other hand, reclaims the notion from any misleading connotations of human exceptionalism. In particular, our use of the term Homo faber refers to the special place that this ability has in the evolution and development of our species. The difference that makes the difference is not just the fact that we make things. The difference that makes the difference is the recursive effect that the things that we make and our skills of making seem to have on human becoming. We argue that we are Homo faber not just because we make things but also because we are made by them. (shrink)

Charkiw in der Ukraine war in den 1920er-Jahren ein aktives Zentrum der Avantgarde, das mehrfach an Peripherien gelegen war: Räumlich abseits der Machtzentren und zeitlich in der letzten Phase der Avantgarde positioniert, differierten auch die künstlerischen Praktiken des Panfuturismus und des Konstruktiven Dynamismus von tonangebenden Erscheinungen. So wurden etwa in der späten Phase der Avantgarde überholte Konzepte der Abstraktion mit funktionalistischen Ansätzen vereint. Die Formationen Nova Generacija (1927-1931) und Avanhard (1925-1929) mit Mychajl' Semenko und Valerijan Poliscuk an der Spitze interagierten (...) dabei rege mit den Avantgarden in Ost und West.0Vera Faber analysiert nun erstmals umfassend die dabei zum Einsatz kommenden polemischen Praktiken der Aus-, Ab- und Eingrenzung - anhand von Programmtexten und literarischen sowie künstlerischen Arbeiten -- Cover page [4]. (shrink)

If one believes the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, Alfred North Whitehead's work is one of the most important events in the exploration of the universes of thought in recent times. Whitehead's text confronts us with the feeling of existing in a world that cannot be defined by any creed or method, but offers us unexpected friends: ideas--ideas that unleash and alleviate, play and mitigate despair, swim in the rough waters, but without effort let go of us if we cannot fathom (...) them. For adventurers who risk the encounter with Whitehead's text, its treasures feel like balm on the overheated, burning sensation of wounds of division. A way out. A new way. A revolution--not of violent overturning, but of gentle reorientation in which compassionate thinking breathes. It is not about systems, but permeated with musical rhythms and harmonics, composing significance with impermanence. It does not arrive at a promised land, but perhaps is a harbinger of things to come, sensing a universe that will surprise our descendants. It does not reveal a mind in which we can live, but one that challenges all rest. (shrink)

This paper explains conceptual modeling within the framework of Frame-Based Terminology (Faber, 2012; 2015; 2022), as applied to EcoLexicon (ecolexicon.ugr.es), a specialized knowledge base on the environment (León-Araúz, Reimerink &, Faber, 2019; Faber & León-Araúz, 2021). It describes how a frame-based terminological resource is currently being restructured and reengineered as an initial step towards its formalization and subsequent transformation into an ontology. It also explains how the information in EcoLexicon can be integrated in environmental ontologies such as (...) ENVO (Buttigieg, Morrison, Smith, Mungall & Lewis, 2013; Buttigieg, Pafilis, Lewis, Schildhauer, Walls & Mungall, 2016), particularly at the bottom tiers of the Ontology Learning Layer Cake (Cimiano, 2006; Cimiano, Maedche, Staab & Volker, 2009). The assumption is that frames, as a conceptual modeling tool, and information extracted from corpora can be used to represent the conceptual structure of a specialized domain. (shrink)