Search Results (37)

Fairness and minority exclusion have emerged as the central concerns of contemporary Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics. However, standard auditing and documentation practices often fail to capture harms affecting edge cases and marginalized groups. This article argues that this failure is structural: the act of “discretization”—converting continuous reality into discrete governance categories—inevitably produces a “residual.” Drawing on German Idealism (Kant, Fichte, Schelling) and continental philosophy (Dilthey, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty), we reconceptualize residuals not as mere noise but as “surprising facts” that should trigger abductive hypothesis revision. We critique checklist-centered governance as a form of proceduralized auditing that can obscure these residuals. This article makes three key contributions: (i) a structural diagnosis of residual production using systems theory and topology; (ii) a philosophical reconstruction of abductive revision as a hermeneutic necessity; and (iii) an institutional design proposal—specifically, the Residual Ledger and Category Revision Protocols—to operationalize “Open Schema” governance. Full article

This article advances the conversation between the secular transhumanist movement and the traditionally Christian personalistic thought concerning the future of the human person. More specifically, it addresses the question of whether transcending the human condition by means of technology toward the posthuman state, as postulated by transhumanism, is a viable and beneficial option for man. To answer this question, the article discusses the concept of transcendence in the works of the transhumanists (primarily the German transhumanist and metahumanist Stefan Lorenz Sorgner) compared to those of the Christian personalistic philosopher Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) and his concepts of transcendence and integration. The article develops a corrective to transhumanism by proposing integration as an effective solution for preserving and developing humanity’s possibilities precisely through transcendence. Various threats to transcendence in transhumanism impede the enhancement of the human species and individual persons. These threats include, among others, the loss of interstage continuity, a degradation of integration, and the primacy of external means of improvement. The article also recognizes transhumanism’s attempt to surpass nature’s determination of transcendence by positing nihilism at its foundation. The article’s argument does not offer practical solutions for technological enhancement and, in its method and scope, draws on the resources of philosophy without recourse to Christian Revelation and theology. Instead, the article proposes a realignment of the transhumanist movement with Karol Wojtyła’s realistic and personalistic thought. Full article

The publication of Richard Wilhelm’s German translation of the Daodejing in 1911 ignited a “Daoist enthusiasm” in German literary circles, offering spiritual solace to a generation disillusioned by World War I. This article explores the creative reception of Daoist thought by the German writer Klabund (1890–1928), arguing that he reinterpreted Daoism not merely as a philosophy but as a religious response to the spiritual and political crises of post-war Germany. Through a comparative analysis of Klabund’s Laotse. Sprüche and Wilhelm’s source text, this study reveals how Klabund, through the selection, reorganization, and substitution of key terms, constructs a “practicable faith” for his contemporaries. The article further examines how this reconstruction extends into his literary works: Li-Tai-Pe aestheticizes Daoist themes like “softness” and “water”, Dreiklang elevates Laozi to a “divine incarnation” within a syncretic religious framework alongside Christ and Buddha, and The Last Emperor applies Daoist political wisdom to critique imperial power. Klabund’s approach illustrates a unique model of cross-cultural dialogue, where ancient Eastern wisdom is transformed into a “revolution of the heart”, serving as a spiritual antidote to the modern Western crisis of faith. Full article

Humor creation is presented as a modality in human communication involving “double framing”, in which a scenario, understanding, or agreed-upon reality is presented and is suddenly revealed to be something else by being recontextualized during the humorous presentation. This analysis utilizes Ba Theory, as articulated in the philosophy of Kitaro Nishida and Shimizu. Ba is a cognitive space for developing relationships, both interpersonal and in relationships to shared environments. A state of Ba arises in social interaction, requiring the need for pragmemic triggers to initiate creation and sustaining of a Ba state. The creation of humor requires that participants be in a state of Ba with each other, sharing the knowledge and understanding of the frames to which they are exposed. Examples are provided from Japanese, Chinese, German, Persian, Arabic, and English humor creation. Full article

A remarkable amount of work on the study of Islamic ethical thought is published annually, covering an unprecedented variety of topics and themes. Yet despite the strides made, these debates have not addressed vital questions about how Islamic ethical thought can contribute to ongoing discourses that affect not only the Muslim community but society at large. In other words, how can we bring Islamic ethical thought into systematic engagement with modern philosophy? Specifically, how can Islamic ethical thought learn from contemporary philosophy, as it learned from Greek philosophy in the Middle Ages? And how might it be possible to develop Islamic ethical thought that can withstand both religious and rational scrutiny? In this programmatic overview, I respond to these questions by engaging with responsibility ethics within and beyond the Islamic tradition. As much as the debate about ethics has reached new heights in contemporary philosophical discourses, so too has the debate about responsibility re-emerged in theological discourses. In this paper, I bring into conversation the thought of Taha Abdurrahman on responsibility, which is nested within his larger paradigm of contemporary Islamic ethics, and Jewish thinker Hans Jonas’ concept of an ethics of responsibility. I argue that orchestrating this scholarly dialog between a 20th-century German Jewish thinker (Jonas) and a contemporary Muslim thinker (Abdurrahman) can lead to both a productive and constructive elaboration of Islamic ethical thought. Furthermore, I suggest that Habermas’ philosophy can serve as a bridge in this discussion, facilitating a comparative exploration of the ethical frameworks presented by both thinkers. By engaging with Habermas, we can highlight how Islamic thought can approach modernity, including philosophical debates, in a manner similar to that of 20th-century Jewish scholars like Jonas. This engagement not only enhances our understanding of responsibility within these traditions but also underscores the potential for interdisciplinary dialog in navigating contemporary ethical challenges. Full article

Background/Objectives: Spinal cord injury (SCI) care in Germany was established after the Second World War, following Guttman’s philosophy that post-SCI rehabilitation should not be separated from the acute treatment phase. Reimbursement is negotiated with only rudimentary eligibility requirements. Over time, however, more and more centers have emerged that offer “only” rehabilitation. Therefore, in 2014, the German-Speaking Paraplegic Society (DMGP) saw the need to establish a certification and grading process to protect existing centers and enable qualified reimbursement negotiations. Methods: In a modified delpi process, key data reflecting the human resources and equipment of the units were collected, and, after lengthy consensus negotiations, a grading was proposed which recognizes four levels of performance. Level Ia—24/7 coverage for all SCI-related emergencies (including intensive care unit care and surgery)—to Level IIb (rehab only, no intensive care unit). Results: In 2019, the grading was accepted by the extended board of the DMGP, and all but one of the 27 SCI centers applied to be graded and certified according to a self-reported questionnaire (2020). Conclusions: The development of the certification requirements and grading system was a complicated process, but it was possible to reach a solution which allowed its acceptance by all German SCI centers. Whether it will result in better care for the patients remains to be seen. Full article

In the months following the Turkish capture of Constantinople in 1453, Nicholas of Cusa composed his De Pace Fidei, a text with which he defended and highlighted the value of interreligious dialogue and peace. Beginning with a textual analysis of its central formula (“una religio in rituum varietate”), I analyze the role that Christianity occupies in the text: I exclude its possible reduction to the una religio or to one of the multiple world religions. I then identify through a literal analysis its role as a mediator between the plurality of historical religions and that religio founded on the fides orthodoxa on which the cardinal rests his argument. In addressing this matter, I also establish how the German cardinal makes the heavenly representatives of Christianity consciously use philosophical and not only theological arguments to avoid the reduction of his position to any kind of historical one. I, hence, argue for the possible transposition of the De Pace Fidei’s method to a contemporary philosophy of interreligious dialogue. Full article

This article discusses the relationship between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s and Rudolf Carnap’s philosophies of logic during the time of Wittgenstein’s interactions with the Vienna Circle and up to 1934 when the German edition of Carnap’s The Logical Syntax of Language was published. Whilst Section 1 focuses on the relationship between Carnap and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus, including Wittgenstein’s accusation of plagiarism against Carnap in 1932, Section 2 discusses the relationship between Carnap’s principle of tolerance and Wittgenstein’s similar principle of the arbitrariness of grammar. I argue that, although Carnap’s claim in Logical Syntax to ‘go beyond’ Wittgenstein has certain justification in relation to the Tractatus, so does Wittgenstein’s priority claim. The relationship between Carnap’s philosophy of logic and the Tractatus is thus more complicated than is often recognized. If the reference point is Wittgenstein in the early 1930s, however, Carnap cannot be described as going beyond him, and by 1934, Wittgenstein had advanced further than Carnap would ever venture. Despite evidence that Carnap knew about Wittgenstein’s principle of the arbitrariness of syntax well before his first articulations of his principle of tolerance, the extent of the influence of Wittgenstein’s principle on Carnap remains unclear. What can be established with certainty is that Wittgenstein’s principle predates Carnap’s and that Carnap resisted acknowledging him despite being urged to do so. Arguably, Wittgenstein’s account of syntax as both arbitrary and non-arbitrary is also superior in clarity to Carnap’s misleading claim about a ‘complete freedom’ implied by the principle of tolerance, because such a freedom only exists for idle syntactical systems that are not put to work. In Section 3, I discuss the relationship between Carnap’s notion of expediency and Wittgenstein’s account of the correctness or truth of logical accounts. As my discussion of Wittgenstein’s account brings out, Carnap’s rejection of truth in logic for expediency as the goal of logical clarifications does not follow from the principle of tolerance and is not justified by it. It remains unclear what justifies Carnap’s rejection of truth as the goal of logical clarification. Again, Wittgenstein’s account seems preferable, given the vacuity of the claim that expediency constitutes the basis of choice between different logical languages and clarifications. Full article

Despite being a prominent and influential figure in the German and Jewish Enlightenment, Salomon Maimon’s skeptical standpoint seems to veer towards radical and unsustainable assertions, denying the validity of any knowledge—including natural science—except for mathematics. This paper seeks to demonstrate that Maimon’s skepticism concerning non-mathematical knowledge does not propose an incoherent skepticism nor contradict the enlightened perspective of developing natural sciences. To achieve this, I aim to show that (1) Maimon’s radical claim originates from the radical nature of the question he answers, and (2) the key to understanding it lies in grasping the concept of synthesis in his philosophy, from which different meanings of knowledge follow. Full article

This article is part of a wider project that addresses gaps in the scholarly knowledge of the philosophical and theological foundations of the Biblical Fundamentalism that originated in North America. Through exploring the relevant literature, including primary sources from within Fundamentalism, the article examines the anti-European sentiment in early Fundamentalism and how this sentiment led to a rejection of philosophical values associated with Europe, especially with Germany. The article will show that anti-European, especially anti-German, sentiment bolstered Fundamentalism’s rejection of subjectivity in thinking, and even its rejection of human subjects themselves. In the place of subjectivity associated with European philosophy, Fundamentalism embraced an extreme objectivity that claimed the heritage of Reid and Bacon but eliminated subjectivity from the Fundamentalist horizon. This article thus shows how Fundamentalism radically opposes God and human beings, and faith and philosophy, with the resulting way of thinking that can be characterised as “naïve realism”, an approach to thinking that excludes the active thinking subject and does not allow for critical judgement or personal understanding. Full article

This article revisits Feuerbach’s “break with speculation” in the early 1840s in light of issues raised by the original Pantheism Controversy, initiated in 1785 by the publication of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi’s Letters on the Doctrine of Spinoza. The article first describes the concerns underlying Jacobi’s repudiation of Spinozism, and rationalism more generally, in favor of a personalistic theism that disclaims the possibility of philosophical knowledge of God. It goes on to reconstruct Hegel’s alternative to Jacobi’s famous salto mortale before considering how Feuerbach’s critique of Hegel’s philosophy of religion, as well as the personalism of the so-called Positive Philosophy (inspired by the late Schelling), was influenced by both Spinoza and Jacobi in ways that have not yet received sufficient attention. Full article

This essay explores the notion of Mitsprechen or “with-speaking” in Paul Celan’s poetry. “With-speaking” supposes that voices in the poems actively participate and engage in a dialogue that goes beyond traditional hermeneutic frameworks. Celan’s notion of col-loquy, distinct from the conventional sense of dialogue, challenges the separation between author and interpreter, rendering the traditional concept of intertextuality inadequate. The poems, according to Celan, give voice to human destinies, making texts audible as the voices of others. This vocal dimension of Celan’s poetry has prompted extensive discussion among philosophers, particularly in France. Levinas, Blanchot, and Derrida, influenced by German phenomenology and hermeneutics, critically examine the ethical implications of speaking “about” the other. They challenge traditional hermeneutical practices, emphasizing the responsibility of interpreters to respect the unique and untranslatable character of individual voices. This critique extends to Protestant categories of interpretation, drawing on alternative Jewish perspectives on being-in-the-world and alterity. The text explores the tensions inherent in speaking “for” or “in the name of” others, especially in the context of interpreting Celan’s work, raising questions about maintaining the fundamental difference and distance that otherness implies. The discussion concludes by highlighting Werner Hamacher’s formulation of a new philology that disrupts hermeneutical violence, influenced by the critiques of Blanchot, Levinas, and Derrida, and offering an alternative way of addressing the particular challenges posed by Celan’s poetry. Full article

This article traces the emergence of what is nowadays called “postsecular” religion from German-Jewish philosophy of the 1920s and 1930s. The three different cases of Franz Rosenzweig, Alexander Altmann, and Leo Strauss impel us to pay particular attention to a few recurring argumentative and rhetorical strategies. The emergence of postsecularism marks a shift in the epistemic foundations of Jewish religious thought, which had long been under pressure from secular European thought. Beginning with Rosenzweig, Jewish philosophy used secular categories of European philosophy to facilitate a return to the foundations of Judaism, eventually turning against what it sees as the epistemic weaknesses of secularism itself. This article traces the new phenomenon to Rosenzweig’s evolving view of secularism, especially to his ridicule of Siegfried Kracauer’s secular messianism, before examining a few key arguments in his book The Star of Redemption (1921). A brief discussion of Alexander Altmann’s writings of the early 1930s provides that even modern Orthodox Jewish thought, which had never been “secular”, used postsecular categories and arguments to make the philosophical case for orthodoxy. Leo Strauss’s introduction to his Philosophy and Law (1935) provides a far more elaborated form of Rosenzweig’s argument. As this article seeks to show, postsecular Jewish thought comes with a slight twist of epistemic relativism, particularly when it comes to the juxtaposition of the Biblical and scientific “world-views”. But here it merely draws the full consequences of modern science, beating scientism with its own weapons. Furthermore, religious thought in the 20th century had no other option than to rebuild itself on postsecular grounds. Full article

This article discusses Schelling’s contribution to the definition of the concept of religion in post-Kantian philosophy. In three lines of argument, it is shown that Schelling’s late lectures on the philosophy of mythology and revelation place religion in a history of development in which religion is successively understood as religion. Schelling assumes that religion is independent of reason and is based on a real relationship with God that is connected to the nature of man. This makes the philosophy of religion an independent academic discipline. Schelling links the historical development of religion and the history of God in his concept of monotheism. This is the content of Schelling’s formula that God is the Lord of being. Full article

The German word destruktion is used here in the sense that philosophy should destroy some ontological concepts and the everyday meanings of certain words. Tradition allows the transmission of knowledge, but it can perpetuate certain prejudices. According to Heidegger, tradition transmits, but it also conceals. Tradition induces self-evidence and prevents us from accessing the origin of concepts. It makes us believe that we do not need to return to that origin. Making tradition transparent dissolves the concealments it has provoked. Here, I apply this idea to the mind–body problem, which has inherited occultations that are born from Descartes himself. As a result, a new philosophical framework for research on consciousness emerges: that, as an individual cognitive being, I cannot avoid splitting reality into what I am and what I am not, extending then the individual duality to a collective error transmitted culturally. Full article