The Immanence Of Criticism

The article examines various forms of immanent critique. Following forms of critique in Kant and Hegel, it highlights how contemporary approaches to immanent critique within the tradition of critical theory fail. Idealistic residuals regularly prevent critical thinking from holding on to immanence. Historico-philosophical, but also anthropological assumptions are particularly relevant here. Finally, an alternative to the existing forms of critique is outlined, which strengthens pluralistic concepts, and detaches the idea of immanence from an in itself homogeneous internal perspective of critique

Immanence and Transcendence

non

Power Regimes of Control: Remarks on their Neoliberal Context

In speaking of the society of control, new qualities of current social conditions are usually addressed in a diffuse rather than precise manner. Quite often, e.g. within surveillance studies, it is associated with technologies modelled after the fiction of god-like omnipotence of visual surveillance (cf. Gehring 2017). The relevance of a power of cybernetics – according to Wiener, the science of systemic control – which resonates in the concept of control, refers to normally invisible operations of technical systems that permanently evaluate data streams according to discursively determined parameters and in connection with commercial interests (cf. Wiener 1948)

Ethology. Claims and Limits of a Lost Discipline

When the Werner Reimers Foundation organized a colloquium on Human Ethology in 1977, it was about Claims and Limits of a New Discipline as a bridge between biology and the social sciences and humanities. As a lost discipline, however, the interdisciplinary approach to ethology only takes shape in a dispersed dispositif. This is the framing argument, which derives from the nucleus of ethology, namely that the starting point of all knowledge is the body in its possibilities of movement in time and space to affect and be affected. In their essays (English or German), the contributors to this collection have worked through the heterogeneity of ethological thought – from Spinoza to Jakob von Uexküll, Gregory Bateson, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Philippe Descola, or Isabelle Stengers – and practice – as, for example in the works of Virginia Woolf or Marcel Beyer – and have taken it as an opportunity to relocate ethology, 1) as an “Immanent Ecology”, with essays by Kerstin Andermann, Hanjo Berressem, and Verena Andermatt Conley; 2) in the discussion of “Anthropological Contrasts”, with essays by Marc Rölli, Mirjam Schaub, and Stefan Rieger, and 3) in “Ethological Interferences and Practices,” with essays by Stephan Zandt, Anthony Uhlmann, and Adrian Robanus. A commentary by Sophia Gräfe concludes the volume

Targeting CD47 in Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Enhances Tumor Phagocytosis by Macrophages and Is a Promising Therapeutic Strategy.

Background: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is one of the most aggressive human cancers, with a median survival of only three to six months. Standard treatment options and even targeted therapies have so far failed to improve long-term overall survival. Thus, novel treatment modalities for ATC, such as immunotherapy, are urgently needed. CD47 is a "don't eat me" signal, which prevents cancer cells from phagocytosis by binding to signal regulatory protein alpha on macrophages. So far, the role of macrophages and the CD47-signal regulatory protein alpha signaling axis in ATC is not well understood. Methods: This study analyzed 19 primary human ATCs for macrophage markers, CD47 expression, and immune checkpoints by immunohistochemistry. ATC cell lines and a fresh ATC sample were assessed by flow cytometry for CD47 expression and macrophage infiltration, respectively. CD47 was blocked in phagocytosis assays of co-cultured macrophages and ATC cell lines. Anti-CD47 antibody treatment was administered to ATC cell line xenotransplanted immunocompromised mice, as well as to tamoxifen-induced ATC double-transgenic mice. Results: Human ATC samples were heavily infiltrated by CD68- and CD163-expressing tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), and expressed CD47 and calreticulin, the dominant pro-phagocytic molecule. In addition, ATC tissues expressed the immune checkpoint molecules programmed cell death 1 and programmed death ligand 1. Blocking CD47 promoted the phagocytosis of ATC cell lines by macrophages in vitro. Anti-CD47 antibody treatment of ATC xenotransplanted mice increased the frequency of TAMs, enhanced the expression of macrophage activation markers, augmented tumor cell phagocytosis, and suppressed tumor growth. In double-transgenic ATC mice, CD47 was expressed on tumor cells, and blocking CD47 increased TAM frequencies. Conclusions: Targeting CD47 or CD47 in combination with programmed cell death 1 may potentially improve the outcomes of ATC patients and may represent a valuable addition to the current standard of care