The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment can be, or otherwise ought to be, regarded as a transcendental phenomenology of hope. Kant states repeatedly that CPoJ mediates between the first two Critiques, or between the theoretical knowledge we arrive at on the basis of understanding and reason’s foundational role for practical philosophy. In other words, exercising the power of judgment is implicated whenever we try to bring together the (...) ethical issue of strictly determining our actions on the one hand and the necessity to act in the physical world on the other. We will argue that this mediating function is properly understood only if the ideations produced by self-understanding are characterized as objects of rationally required hope or fear. (shrink)

The notion of a μέσον, formally defined as the «middle term« in a syllogism, plays a pivotal role in Aristotle's theory of scientific demonstrations in his Analytica Posteriora. It is via the μέσον that the distinctive traits of a demonstration – the employment of causal notions and of statements concerning the essence of things – enter into demonstrative syllogisms. This, however, raises problems with respect to the provability of statements concerning the essence of things that Aristotle seems to accept in (...) certain passages of the Analytica Posteriora, as opposed to well-known passages in the Metaphysics. It is shown in which sense essences are in fact demonstrated by their being employed – via the μέσον – in a demonstration, without, however, being mentioned in the conclusion of such a demonstration. The importance Aristotle ascribes to the μέσον in Analytica Posteriora suggests a more flexible, less formalistic understanding of Aristotle's view of science, while still being based on an analysis of the formal structure of the syllogism. (shrink)

The ‚Naturforschende Gesellschaft’, founded in 1793, proved instrumental for the development of science at the University of Jena around 1800. Its library can be considered as one of its most important facilities provided for research and for the education of students. Since this library has been preserved almost without losses, we can ask whether this library served the purpose of a research library in the newly established field of ‚science’. In consequence, the role of scientific societies and the genesis of (...) specialised libraries in the area of science can be investigated in an exemplary case, with implications for the concept of scientific research around 1800. (shrink)

The Naturforschende Gesellschaft (NFG) of Jena, founded in 1793, became instrumental for the development of the sciences in Jena in this period. New experimental facilities, new organizational structures and new scientific topics such as antiphlogistic chemistry and galvanism were introduced into Jena via the NFG. An investigation of the letters that were sent to the NFG shows, 1., how important the NFG was for the reception of these new results and for transmitting them to a wider audience; 2., how scientists, (...) both in Germany and abroad, tried to establish a network for scientific communication via the NFG, and 3., how personal contacts between scientists and how various forms of written exchange interrelate in the activities of the NFG. The letters to the NFG, therefore, show how, in the period around 1800; smaller scientific organizations such as the NFG managed to form a focus for scientific research and scientific exchange, with these societies being particularly important for the reception of the, by the time, latest developments in science. (shrink)