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An accessible explanation of Kurt Goedel's groundbreaking work in mathematical logic In 1931 Kurt Goedel published his fundamental paper, "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Goedel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences-perhaps the highe...

The book is an exploration of the affinities between Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and Virginia Woolf's philosophy of beauty and Being embodied in her oeuvre. The study addresses beauty as a mode of being rather than a mere adornment of human existence. Tracing Plato's legacy in the two authors, it espouses the proximity of truth and beauty, and argues for beauty's restorative capacity discerned in the repetitive patterns of the universe. Showing the poetics of Gadamer and Wool...

Philosophy as a discipline has not only been distinct and crucial but also consistent in the enduring search for practical solutions to human problems. This study discusses the role philosophical enquiries and postulations can play in the practical reconstruction of Africa. It identifies the continent's peculiar and diverse challenges as arising mostly from effects of Western intervention in African history and argues for a restoration of the heritage immanent in Africa's oral tradition. The aut...

Diese Monographie, die sich sowohl an Natur- als auch an Geisteswissenschaftler wendet, thematisiert die Moglichkeit der Explikation von sozialer Praxis als oko-kulturelles System. Der zentrale Begriff der Untersuchung ist der Begriff -soziale Praxis-. Er wird unter der wissenschaftstheoretischen Konzeptualisierung des Subjekt/Objekt-Verhaltnisses aufbauend auf den Theorien der klassischen Physik, den physikalisch-chemischen Selbstorganisationstheorien sowie der Theorie selbstreferentieller Syst...

The last half century has seen both attempts to demythologize the idea of God into purely secular forces and the resurgence of the language of “God” as indispensable to otherwise secular philosophers for describing experience. This volume asks whether “piety” might be a sort of irreducible human problematic: functioning both inside and outside religion.

Seit dem 2. Jh. n. Chr. bzw. mit Winckelmann erscheinen sowohl der Begriff als auch das Phanomen des Eklektizismus explizit innerhalb der Geschichte von Philosophie und Literatur oder Kunst. Die vorliegende Studie mit ihrer gesamtkulturellen, interdisziplinaren wie komparatistischen Ausrichtung versucht, die Entwicklung des Bewusstseins vom Eklektizismus und die Formen eklektischer Werke in den oben erwahnten Bereichen nachzuzeichnen oder darzustellen. Dabei stellt sich heraus, dass es sich beim...

Im Protestantismus wird derzeit uber das Verhaltnis zur Kultur nachgedacht. Fur die Theologie liegt darin die Chance, den eigenen Standort neu zu beschreiben. Wichtige Fundamente fur die moderne kulturwissenschaftliche Hermeneutik wurden in der Theologie gelegt. Die Anknupfung an diese Tradition ermoglicht es, die eingespielte, aber unfruchtbare Alternative zwischen dogmatischen Letztbegrundungsanspruchen und kriterienloser Beliebigkeit zu uberwinden. Im Anschluss an eine Tagung der Evangelische...

This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion is always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religions are privileged, epistemic objects, argues for the importance of metatheory, and presents an argument...

This book examines the notion of 'the homely' which rests at the foundation of Gaston Bachelard's concrete metaphysics. In order to trace the development of this effaced notion through the history of contemporary Continental philosophy and literature, this study progresses along two distinct arcs. One is presented in a traditional chronological fashion whereby the reader is invited to dig down into the enormous chasm set forth in Martin Heidegger's writing and its reception; become lost in Mark...

These "Philosophical Essays" by Giulio Preti explore, with particular acuteness and originality, some of the major problems addressed by contemporary philosophy. Preti's objective was to outline a scientific philosophy capable of embodying the rigour and concern for the factual found in scientific procedure. His analysis engaged with the complex tradition of logical empiricism and he also devoted attention to pragmatism and the philosophy of praxis in early Marx. Preti succeeded in establishing...

How does the contemporary reader make sense of the life and writings of such an icon as Dietrich Bonhoeffer? The essays in this volume seek to address this question by carefully examining the social, cultural, religious and intellectual locations that inform the Sitz im Leben of a vast readership of Bonhoeffer. The focus of each of the essays is thus on the task of articulating and clarifying a hermeneutically self-conscious and responsible approach to interpreting and understanding Bonhoeffer....

In From Spinoza to Levinas, Ze'ev Levy discusses the pivotal ideas of the most influential Jewish thinkers in modern times including Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and Levinas. Levy accounts for the political foundation of the philosophies of Spinoza and Mendelssohn and the role of hermeneutics in the writings of Spinoza and Maimonides. He traces the history of modern philosophical and biblical hermeneutics and considers issues pertaining to death and dying in light of traditional Jewish and contemporary...