New Kids on the Net. Deutschsprachige Philosophie elektronisch\ud

Mailing lists tend to be shaped by core groups of dedicated participants, developing their interests and opinions in front of a predominantly receptive audience of subscribers. A new kind of communicative praxis is established on top of some guidelines on how computers should exchange data: participation in quasi-instantaneous, globally distributed, non-hierarchical discursive interchange. Computer networks, as is well known, are not confined by any historical or geographical borders. As a consequence, the cultural impact of the technical devices seems to affect arbitrary collections of users availing themselves of the necessary equipment and know-how. One of the most dazzling experiences of communication on the net, it has correctly been pointed\ud out, is its global egalitarianism. While it is true that large parts of the planet are still excluded and the predominance of the English language imposes important\ud constraints on the participants, it is difficult to avoid an initial euphoria, a cosmopolitan state of mind, as one becomes familiar with a machinery that can support spatially unlimited cooperation between equals with a minimum of\ud administrative overhead

At the Crossroads of the Wittgenstein and Autobiography Highways

Book review of: Immler, Nicole L., Das Familiengedächtnis der Wittgensteins. Zu verführerischen Lesarten von (auto-)biographischen Texten. Edition Kulturwissenschaft Band 12. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2011. 395 p

Deletion or Deployment. Is That any Way to Treat a Sign?

Edmund Husserl's treatment of signs as derivative from the lived presence of human consciousness has evoked quite divergent critical comments. Two can paradigmatically be singled out. Whereas Jaques Derrida in a Heideggerian move shows the metaphysical assumptions hidden in unmediated presence, Ernst Tugendhat exchanges Husserl's emphasis on phenomenological explorations of the human mind for the tools of analytical philosophy of language.\ud \ud Although Derrida and Tugendhat eventually move into very different directions their objections start from similar concerns. Talk about signs is almost incomprehensible unless a certain dualism between something that is employed to indicate, refer to, mean something else is assumed. It can be argued that, consequently, Husserl's attempt to tie such a dichotomy back to the presumably\ud unshrouded clarity of Cartesian consciousness threatens the very idea of signification. According to this consideration semantics cannot be grounded in the noetic realm. ,,Signs are foreign to this self-presence of\ud consciousness'' (SP, 58) since their possibility rests on some systematically antecedent set of differences governing the relations between what is present (the signifier) and what is indicated or expressed by it (the signified). This idea can be expressed not only in the Saussurian terms the early Derrida draws upon, but also by\ud using the distinction between syntax and semantics familiar in analytical philosophy.\u

RFCs, MOOs, LMSs: Assorted Educational Devices\ud

This paper discusses implicit social consequences of four basic internet protocols. The results are then related to the field of computer-assisted teaching. An educational on-line community is described and compared to the emerging standard of web-based learning management.\u

Wittgenstein's Paperwork. An Example from the "Big Typescript"

The edition of the Nachlass from the early thirties by Michael Nedo and the completion of the "Bergen Electronic Edition" (BEE) have provided Wittgenstein scholars with all the material required to investigate the author's philosophical development starting with his auto-criticism of the "Tractatus" and leading to his later views. Wittgenstein's strategy of dictating from his notebooks and cutting up the typescripts to rearrange paragraphs into sequences of remarks is well documented in Nedo's edition and the BEE provides convenient facsimile access to every page Wittgenstein wrote or edited throughout the process. Some researchers have begun to revise received opinions that were based upon the "books" previously published by the trustees. (Hrachovec 2002, 2004, Kientzler 1997, Nyiri 2002, Pichler 2004, Stern 2002) Yet, the scientific community has barely begun to discover the richness and density of the philosophical endeavor manifesting itself in this material. There has, understandably, been an interest to trace the origin of remarks, well-known from the "Philosophical Investigations", providing some background to Wittgenstein's most popular ideas. Various doctrines of what is becoming known as the "middle Wittgenstein" have been noticed, but they have themselves been perceived as more or less consolidated theories. Wittgenstein's editorial activity has been recognized as a hypertextual undertaking avant la lettre, yet there has been insufficient attention to the philosophical impact of these hypertextual strategies themselves. It is all too easy to be caught by someprovisional result captured on a printed page and to overlook the fact that some of its philosophical significance can only be recognized by considering its genesis

e-Learning Nudism: Stripping Context from Content

Educational economics plays an increasing role in university development. In order to attract students well developed curricula are needed and they are expected to contain a fair amount of digital resources, which are much more expensive to create than sheets of paper in the old days. The flip side is: they can be sold. Whereas hand-outs remained an obscure asset, suitably organized electronic courseware promises to become a major business. As "Learning Management Systems" offer comprehensive services to entire universities at substantial costs, university administrators try to channel traditional teaching into new formats, hoping to serve more students at lesser expense. One catchword, capturing those concerns, is "learning object". A learning object is the equivalent of a chunk of beef, registered according to some classificatory scheme, marked by a stamp of approval by some authority, deep-frozen and waiting for delivery. Here is a more respectable description. Learning objects are digital entities designed to be used (and re-used) in learning activities.[1] They are supposed to be independent of specific educational settings, disengaged from more comprehensive courses. Information pertaining to their educational, technical and legal status is to be captured by meta-data accompanying the objects. Learning object repositories (LORs) collect those molecular units and offer facilities for search and peer evaluation

Ontological Relativity reconsidered: Quine on Löwenheim-Skolem, Davidson on Quine

In view of the dramatic contrast between speculative thought dressed in fashionable jargon and Quine's sober accounts of the scientific status quo it might seem frivolous even to suggest that his work exhibits a postmodern touch. The present paper will, nevertheless, focus on Quine's usage of the Löwenheim-Skolem theorems as a prominent example of ontological relativity and will attempt to show that Quine's treatment is unattractive to philosophers of mathematics and -- more generally -- untenable within the very methodology arising from Quine's basic approach. After examining the doctrine of relativity as applied to the Löwenheim-Skolem result two recent reflections on it's theoretical impact will be discussed. Those contributions make a strong case against the kind of attitude exemplified by Quine, but they do not address the general issue of how to deal with relativism. Donald Davidson has provided a remarkably attractive strategy to counter relativistic moves. Stripping away postmodernist pretensions this strategy challenges the peculiar Quinean mix of methodological austerity and anti-foundationalism

Impressive. Memory, Matter and Mind

This paper will set out a dualistic pattern, exemplified by (1) a neurobiological account of memory and (2) a short segment of the work of an Austrian avantgarde film-maker. This segment is chosen to simultaneously show a possible proximity as well as the presumable incompatibility of neurological and artistic approaches. The inevitable question of how those points of view relate to each other is taken up in the final section

Identität ist Spurensuche

Mit „Identität“ ist es wie mit „Unterhaltung“ oder „Partnerschaft“: der Ausdruck wird in mehreren, nur lose miteinander verbundenen, Zusammenhängen verwendet.\ud Assoziationen, die sich in einem Fall ergeben, greifen dadurch bisweilen auf sachlich fremde Bereiche über. \ud \ud <br /> <br />\ud \ud Die\ud Partnerschaft zwischen Städten hat in mehreren Punkten\ud nichts mit einer Lebenspartnerschaft zu tun. Im Fall von\ud „Identität“ sind – um nur einige zu nennen – die Logik,\ud die Ontologie, die philosophische Psychologie, die Soziologie, Messtheorie und Kriminalistik beteiligt. Im Folgenden wird versucht, charakteristische Eigenheiten des\ud Identitätsbegriffs in ausgewählten Anwendungsgebieten\ud zu markieren und aus diesen Faktoren eine Orientierung\ud für Diskussionen in der Biometrie zusammenzustellen.\ud \ud <br /> <br />\ud \ud Identität ist ein Grundzug unseres Weltbezugs und gilt für\ud Sprachausdrücke und Personen; dieser Zusammenhang\ud wird eingangs erläutert. Die Identifizierung erwünschter\ud Messgrößen gehört in einen ganz verschiedenen Kontext,\ud dessen Gesetzlichkeit sich jedoch, zweitens, wenn es darum geht, Personen dingfest zu machen, mit dem ersten\ud Themenfeld überschneidet. Das Verhältnis zwischen der\ud Feststellung einer Variable und der menschlichen Lebensform, die von semi-stabilen Identitätzuschreibungen\ud getragen wird, bildet den Schnittpunkt der beiden Begriffsverwendungen und wird abschließend diskutiert.\ud \ud <br /> <br />\ud \ud Zusätzlich zum Beitrag im Sammelband werden die Folien und der Audiomitschnitt des zugrund liegenden Vortrags zur Verfügung gestellt

Batman. Philosophische Überlegungen zur Fernseh- und Filmzeit\ud

Um beobachten zu können, wie die Dinge laufen, ist es nötig, einen Schritt zurückzutreten. Für Bilder gilt das nicht in gleicher Weise. Sie sind schon einen Schritt vom realen Vorgang entfernt und wenn sie sich bewe­gen, impliziert das einen eigentümlich gestaffelten Verlauf. Es handelt sich ja nicht um den Transport der Bildträger, sondern um die darstellende Erfassung der zeitlichen Entfaltung bestimmter Verhältnisse. Dazu ist eine zweifache Laufzeit nötig, jene der Verhältnisse und jene ihrer Bilder. Um Bewegung wiedergeben zu können, müssen beide sorgfältig synchronisiert werden. Das Verständnis des Bewegungsbildes setzt die Beherrschung eines ausgeklügelten Verfahrens vor-aus, insbesondere einen Standpunkt, von dem aus die Diskrepanz zwischen Realzeit und Bildzeit in ein Darstellungsverfahren synthetisiert werden kann. Die Mo­bilität der Welt, die in ein Bild gebannt ist, beruht auf Zeitspeichern und den Konventionen, die sich im ver­gangenen Jahrhundert rund um sie entwickelt haben.\ud \ud Die Faszination, die von bewegten Bildern ausgeht, lenkt davon ab, daß unterschiedliche Techniken und Rezeptionsweisen im Spiel sind. Ich werde zwei schwer vereinbare visuelle Produktionen durch etwas Überschaubares aufzuschlüsseln suchen, den ununterbrochenen Datenfluß des Fernsehens und die Gestal­tungsfreiheit filmischer Bildkomposition anhand der Zeichnungen eines Comic strips. Frank Millers "Batman. The Dark Knight Returns" lebt graphisch wie kon­zeptuell von deren Gegenüberstellung. Es ist ein Buch festgehaltener Bilder, und dennoch lassen sich in sei­nen Kompositionen Bewegungen, die täglich über uns hinweggehen, besser betrachten, als wenn man ihnen gerade unterliegt.\u