Previously published: Princeton University Press, 1940.

*Fresh interpretations of the greatest philosophers on the nature of truth and speculative essays on truth in law, the arts, and science*.

Am Beispiel der Uhrenmetapher, deren Entstehung und Gestaltwandel ein bestimmtes Welt- und Staatsverständnis widerspiegelt, soll das Verhältnis von Metapher und Wirklichkeit deutlich werden. Die Geschichte der Uhrenmetapher, die u. a. über Cusanus, Kepler, Kopernikus, Leibniz, Hobbes, Descartes, Diderot, Voltaire, Wolff verfolgt wird, zeigt, dass sie schon im Mittelalter als Träger des Maschinenbegriffs verstanden wird und mit der Erfindung des Computers ihr Endstadium erreicht. Im Zeichen der Uhr als Symbol der Mechanik entfaltet sich im 17. Jahrhundert die Kontroverse zwischen Determinismus und (...) Willensfreiheit. Mit der Erfindung der mechanischen Uhr bildet sich ein abstrakter Begriff von Zeit heraus. Das mechanische Denken prägt bis in die Gegenwart hinein unser Wissenschaftsverständnis. (shrink)

People often make use of a spatial “mental time line” to represent events in time. We investigated whether the eyes follow such a mental time line during online language comprehension of sentences that refer to the past, present, and future. Participants' eye movements were measured on a blank screen while they listened to these sentences. Saccade direction revealed that the future is mapped higher up in space than the past. Moreover, fewer saccades were made when two events are simultaneously taking (...) place at the present moment compared to two events that are happening in different points in time. This is the first evidence that oculomotor correlates reflect mental looking along an abstract invisible time line during online language comprehension about time. Our results support the idea that observing eye movements is likely to “detect” invisible spatial scaffoldings which are involved in cognitively processing abstract meaning, even when the abstract meaning lacks an explicit spatial correlate. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

In contrast to several recent studies that align Vincent van Gogh's plans for a “Studio of the South” with entrepreneurial capitalism, this essay considers the scheme in the context of nineteenth-century cooperative socialism. It traces the artist's experiences among striking miners in Belgium and impoverished weavers in the Netherlands, and it examines the artworks that these encounters inspired. In the process, I identify basic principles that would inform Vincent's plan for a producers' cooperative in Arles in 1888. Working from Vincent's (...) letters, I identify two stages in the development of the artist's proposal. In the winter and spring, Vincent discussed a strategic “association” of Impressionist artists and dealers. By the fall, he had combined this concept with his long-standing desire for companionship; the resulting conception was a cooperative avant-garde atelier in which member artists and dealers would dedicate themselves to maintaining communal working and living spaces and providing materials for production. The essay then explores Vincent's plan in the context of mid-nineteenth-century discussions of cooperative organization. I conclude that Vincent's scheme should be understood as a revival of the reformist, even socialist, literature that was current at mid-century. (shrink)

Ein gutes Verfahren, reine Mathematik kennenzulernen, ist - ein mathematisches Buch in die Hand zu nehmen und zu lesen. Es ist moglich, auf diese Weise in mathematisches Denken zu kommen ohne Reflexion iiber dies Denken. Aber da die Mathematik auch anwendbar ist, fiihren viele Wege von vorweisbaren Sachverhalten her zur Mathe­ matik, und auf solchen Wegen sich der Mathematik anzunahern, mag um so wertvoller sein, als man dabei nach Mathematischem zu fragen lernt und fertige Theorien dann vielleicht besser wiirdigen kann. (...) Bei einer solchen Annaherung stellen sich aber immer Gedanken iiber das Denken seiber ein und diese Gedanken haben ihre eigenen Gefahren. Sofern sie nur eine Annaherung vorbereiten, die dann in medias res fiihrt und die Mathematik so wie sie ist und sein solI zu W orte kommen laBt, ist alles gut. Aber Anleitungen machen um der Verstandlichkeit willen gern in einem Vorstadium halt, das sich womoglich noch als lebendig und dem reinen mathematischen Denken als iiberlegen anempfiehlt. Aus diesem Vorbezirk nahrt die Legende, das mathematische Denken der Neuzeit sei wesentlich von dem der Antike verschieden, ihre Lebenskraft. Fiir Nichtmathematiker, insbesondere solche mit philosophischen Neigungen, scheint diese Legende eine unwiderstehliche Glaubwiirdigkeit zu be­ sitzen. Sie hii. ngt mit der Meinung zusammen, daB die neuere Mathematik die Anschauung als Quelle mathematischer Erkenntnis vernachlassige. (shrink)

This paper advances ways in which the understandings of “nature” and “creation” can be seen to overlap through specialized relations between humans and their environment. The hope of redemption of nature, united with evidences of grace in the advancements of science, can become helpful guides toward a theological interpretation of technology and the emerging character of human relations with nature.

Stoicism has had a diverse reception in German philosophy. This is the first interpretive study of shared themes and dialogues between late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century experts on classical antiquity and philosophers. Assessing how modern philosophers have incorporated ancient resources with the context of German philosophy, chapters in this volume are devoted to philosophical giants such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, Hans Blumenberg, and Peter Sloterdijk. Among the ancient Stoics, the focus is on (...) Seneca, Epictetus, and doxography, but reference will also be made to texts that have so far been neglected by non-specialists. Often references to Stoic texts are playful, making it hard for non-specialists to reconstruct their understanding of the sources; by illuminating and enhancing the philosophical significance of these receptions, this book argues that they can change our understanding of Greek and Roman Stoic doctrines and authors, twentieth-century continental philosophy, and the themes which coordinate their ongoing dialogues. Some of these themes are surprising for Stoicism, such as the poetics of tragic drama and the anthropological foundations of hermeneutics. Others are already central to Stoic reception, such as the constitution of the subject in relation to various ethical, ecological, and metaphysical powers and processes; among these are contemplation and knowledge; identity and plurality; temporality, facticity, and fate; and personal, social, and planetary forms of self-cultivation and self-appropriation. Addressing the need for a synoptic vision of related continental readings of Stoicism, this book brings ancient texts into new dialogues with up-to-date scholarship, facilitating increased understanding, critical evaluation, and creative innovation within the continental response to Stoicism. (shrink)

Die Arbeit setzt sich mit der neuzeitlichen Theodizeefrage auseinander. In einem ersten Schritt wird versucht, den genuinen Gehalt der Philosophie von Leibniz darzustellen, dessen Werk für die weitere Diskussion dieser Thematik maßgeblich wurde. Dabei wird aufgewiesen, dass die Argumente von Leibniz empiristischen und fideistischen Bestreitungen einer Theodizee standzuhalten und den Glauben an den allmächtigen und gütigen Gott mit dem Phänomen menschlicher Freiheit in Verbindung zu bringen vermögen. In einem zweiten Schritt werden die Positionen von Kant und Leibniz konfrontiert. Dabei zeigt (...) sich, dass Kant den von Leibniz bezeichneten Weg nicht verwirft, sondern weiterführt und die Theodizeefrage konsequent in der Praxis menschlichen Weltumgangs zu verorten vermag. (shrink)

Two distinct attitudes have been adopted by investigators in the field of the sociology of knowledge. One of them may be called speculative; the other, empirical. The central interest of an investigator having the speculative attitude lies in developing a theory of the sociology of knowledge. The central interest of investigators having the empirical attitude lies in finding out or explaining concrete phenomena; the theory is employed, implicitly or explicity, for this purpose. The existence of the two attitudes may be (...) in part explained, as far as the German sociology of knowledge is concerned, by reference to the history of this school, which has grown out of and has been determined by a Marxist and materialistic philosophy, and especially by the use of this philosophy as a political instrument in the struggle of the emerging proletariat against the bourgeoisie. This statement, however, must be supplemented by a short location of the four most important contributors to the theory of the German sociology of knowledge. Max Scheler approaches the problem phenomenologically; he was the first and only one to ask the fundamental question, “What is knowledge?” Karl Mannheim, though markedly influenced by the Marxist viewpoint, particularly by Lukács, seems to me more adequately characterized by stressing his development from a more exclusively speculative to a more decidedly empirical attitude, which latter is especially evident in his most recent book, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction. Alexander von Schelting's main contribution is his thorough logical analysis of Mannheim's theory in the light of Max Weber's methodology. Ernst Grünwald has given the most complete survey of the forerunners, the history, and the various contributions of the sociology of knowledge. These four thinkers are indirectly dependent on the historically determined emphasis of the movement on ideology in that they remain on the level of a theoretical discussion without arriving at factual research. (shrink)