Husserls "Allgemeine Erkenntnistheorie" von 1902/03. Zur Frühentwicklung der phänomenologischen Methode

The first explicit account of the phenomenological method has a crucial historical significance not just for the development of the method itself, but also for the history of phenomenology in general. In his lecture General Theory of Knowledge (Allgemeine Erkenntnistheorie) of 1902/03, the early Husserl develops the two major operational concepts of the phenomenological method, namely the Epoché and the phänomenologische Reduktion, in a systematic relation in order to achieve an adequate investigation of the transcendental consciousness. This paper discusses in detail the theoretical and historical content of this underexplored early lecture in a developmental perspective for the history of philosophy

The Incipient Mind Argument: The Persistence of Absolutist Thinking in Biological Philosophy of Mind

The incipient mind argument is the central argument of Evan Thompson’s solution to the so-called mind-body problem. This paper challenges Evan Thompson’s (and Francisco Varela’s) assumption of a pristine form of subjectivity, as well as of interiority in unicellular life forms. I claim that this assumption makes sense only as a useful strategy for an absolutist account of mind. In this paper, I argue that Thompson’s thesis is erroneous at the object-level, as well as at the meta-level of his argumentation. By paying greater attention to the meta-level of his exposition, I show that Thompson’s assumption of an “incipient mind” obeys an absolutist, two-sided pattern of thinking and, therefore, that his argumentation fails to give an accurate account of the systemic generation and development of mind. After demonstrating this, I suggest an innovative action-based approach to mind in order to accurately give an account of its real-constructive development

Die vorbegriffliche reduktive Massnahme in Husserls früher Göttinger Zeit. Zur Entstehung des Reduktionsbegriffes

Within the scope of a comprehensive investigation about the historical development of the term "reduction", this paper specially takes the genesis of that development into consideration. The present study analyses and explicates the pre-conceptual use of the phenomenological reduction according to the early manuscript fragment F I 6/129, referring to the Seefelder Manuskripte as well as to the five lectures Die Idee der Phänomenologie. This analysis challenges the traditional date given for the first use of "reduction" as a phenomenological method by understanding the motivation behind its genesis more precisely and outlining the focus on the historical development from the first methodological approach to the concept of reduction within Husserl's early epistemological phenomenology

Counterfactual Truths: The Logical Structure of Argumentative Thought Experiments

Argumentative thought experiments are structurally conditional clauses. They can hence be formalized by means of the principle of modus ponendo ponens, as well as of modus tollendo tollens. In contrast to the practice in formal logic, exponents of argumentative thought experiments claim that the logical validity of a conclusion drawn within the framework of a particular conditional argument also holds beyond the particular conditional in question. In this paper, I articulate the criticism that this claim is wrong by arguing that the counterfactual scenario sets itself the most determinant premise. If the counterfactual scenario sets the initial conditional premise of the argument, then its true conclusion holds only as a counterfactual truth. The present paper illustrates this criticism using Frank Jackson’s thought experiment, the so-called knowledge argument, as a concrete example

Animated Machines, Organic Souls: Maturana and Aristotle on the Nature of Life

The emergence of mind is a central issue in cognitive philosophy. The main working assumption of the present paper is that several important insights in answering this question might be provided by the nature of life itself. It is in this line of thinking that this paper compares two major philosophical conceptualizations of the living in the history of theoretical biology, namely those of Maturana and Aristotle. The present paper shows how both thinkers describe the most fundamental properties of the living as autonomous sustenance. The paper also shows how these theoretical insights might have a consequence upon our understanding of a specific constructiveness of human cognition, here referred to as enarrativity, if this can be considered in a structural as well as evolutionary connection with the structure of life as such. The paper finally suggests that the structural connection made here can be traced from the fundamental organization of self-preservation to survival behaviors to constructive orientation and action

German Freemasonry and Framed Cognitive Immersion: The Transcultural Power of the Masonic Master Ritual

This paper identifies theories and cognitive aspects that shed light on the transcultural unifying identity power of Masonic initiation rituals and illustrates this more closely using the case study of the German master ritual. It suggests that the potential of the unifying identity of Masonic rituals does not reside solely in their symbolism, but rather primarily in their enactment as performance. By breaking down the basic elements of the performative character of rituals and comparing the Masonic ritual to that of male initiation among the Chambri people of Papua New Guinea within Whitehouse’s theoretical model of modes of religiosity, this paper also explores the transcultural unifying identity power of rituals while outlining a novel explanatory framework in the field of Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) and Ritual Studies. The present paper suggests that religious and religiously connoted transcultural unifying identity, including its inherent capacity for meaning creation and meaning attribution, is more strongly and stably achieved the more Framed Cognitive Immersion (FCI) is engaged, that is, the more corresponding cognitive processes of the participants are triggered together.:1. Why ritual research? 1.2 The concept of religion used in this study 1.3 The concept of ritual used in this study 1.4 The three basic elements of a ritual 2. Symbols and the performative character of rituals 2.1 The holistic approach to human cognition (Embodiment) 3. The power of rituals: The performative dimension 3.1 The performance of the legend of Hiram Abif 3.2 Generation of Reality 3.3 Scenic Staging 3.4 Corporeality or Physical Presence 4. Framed Cognitive Immersion (FCI) in ritual contex

A Change of Variables to the Dual and Factorization of Composite Anomalous Jacobians

Changes of variables giving the dual model are constructed explicitly for sigma-models without isotropy. In particular, the jacobian is calculated to give the known results. The global aspects of the abelian case as well as some of those of the cases where the isometry group is simply connected are considered. Considering the anomalous case, we infer by a consistency argument that the `multiplicative anomaly' should be replaceable by adequate rules for factorization of composite jacobians. These rules are then generalized in a simple way for composite jacobians defined in spaces of different types. Implimentation of these rules then gives specific formulas for the anomally for semisimple algebras and also for solvable ones.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, Latex file, A treatment of the global aspects of the abelian and of semisimple duality groups are added. General formulas for the mixed anomaly are derive

Las conflictivas relaciones entre los Corregidores militares y los Capitanes Generales de la Costa de Andalucía y de la Costa de Granada en el siglo XVIII

Las discordias entre las principales autoridades que manejaban el destino de la Administración territorial fueron una constante en el transcurso del siglo XVIII. La falta de entendimiento y colaboración entre las instancias civiles y militares mostraban las dificultades de convivencia de los responsables del ejercicio de gobierno común. Los litigios entre los gobernadores y los capitanes generales en Andalucía tuvieron variados orígenes y discurrieron en parcelas tanto profesionales como personales. La ambición de poder y las posibilidades de alcanzar mayor prestigio entre los de su clase impulsaron ciertos comportamientos de prepotencia social y política.The discords between the main authorities handled the destination of the territorial Administration were a constant along the century XVIII. The fault of understanding and collaboration between the civil and military instances showed the difficulties of agreement of the managers of the exercise of common government. The litigious between the governors and the general captains in Andalucia had varied origins and produced in plots so much professional and personal. The ambition of power and the possibilities to achieve main prestige between the ones of his kind caused some behaviors of social and political despotism

Is the String Coupling Constant invariant under T-duality?

It is well known that under T-duality the sigma model dilaton (which is normally thought to be related to the string coupling constant through the simple formula $\kappa = exp$), undergoes an additive shift. On the other hand, Kugo and Zwiebach, using a simplified form of string field theory, claim that the string coupling constant does not change under the T-duality. Obviously, what seems to happen is that two different coupling constants, associated to different dilatons, are used. In this contribution we shall try to clarify this, and related issues.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pag. Contributions to Santa Margherita and S. Petersburg meeting