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399Moral Judgments as Descriptions of Institutional FactsIn Georg Meggle & Ulla Wessels (eds.), Analyomen 1, Proceedings of the 1st Conference ”Perspectives in Analytical Philosophy, De Gruyter. pp. 719-729. 1994.Abstract: It deals with the question of what a moral judgment is. On the one hand, a satisfactory theory of moral judgments must take into account the descriptive character of moral judgments and the realistic language of morals. On the other hand, it must also meet the non-descriptive character of moral judgments that consists in the recommending or condemning element and in the fact that normative statements are derived from moral judgments. However, cognitivism and emotivism or “normativism” …Read more
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604Perché Platone nel Timeo torna a sostenere la dottrina delle ideeElenchos: Rivista di Studi Sul Pensiero Antico 18 (1): 5-28. 1997.In the whole Corpus Platonicum, we find in principle only one "direct argument" (Charles Kahn) for the existence of the ideas (Tim.51d3-51e6). The purpose of the article is to analyse this argument and to answer the question of why Plato in the Timaeus again defended the existence of the ideas despite the objections in the Parmenides. He defended it again because the latent presupposition of the apories in the Parmenides, the substantial view of sensibles, is removed through the introduction of …Read more
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563Nachruf auf Henri LauenerKant Studien 94 (4): 403-404. 2003.This is an obituary notice on Henri Lauener (1933-2002)
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273The article first gives an exegesis of the famous passage in the "Republic", 505d11-506a2. Attention is drawn to the fact that the principle that every soul does everything for the Good can be translated in two ways: Every soul does everything for the sake of the Good, or goes to all lengths for the sake of the Good. Depending on the different translations, we have a different picture of the platonic Socrates in the Republic, an intellectualistic Socrates for whom irrational desires do not exist…Read more
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480Was und wie hat Sokrates gewusstElenchos 28 (1): 5-39. 2007.The first part of the paper (p. 10-21) tries to answer the first question of the title and describes a set of seven "knowledge-claims" made by Socrates: 1. There is a distinction between right opinion and knowledge.2. Virtue is knowledge. 3. Nobody does willingly wrong. 4. To do injustice is the greatest evil for the wrongdoer himself. 5. An even greater evil is if the wrongdoer is not punished. 6. The just man is happy; the unjust person is unhappy. 7. The pleasant is not the good. These claims…Read more
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89Der Ursprung der Wissenschaft bei Anaximander von MiletPhilosophia Naturalis 24 (2): 195-215. 1987.The paper is the revised version of an inaugural lecture given as Lecturer (”Privatdozent”) at the University of Zurich on 3 june 1985. It deals with the beginning and the main properties of “the science of nature” (hê peri physeôs historiê) (Plato.Phd.96a). According to Themistius (DK 12 A 7), the founder of this kind of Ionic philosophy is Anaximander of Miletus because he was the rst who wrote about nature (especially a cosmography and a cosmogony) and developed three main principles of natur…Read more
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370The Absolute Good and the Human GoodsPhilosophical Inquiry 25 (3-4): 117-126. 2003.By the absolute Good, I understand the Idea of the Good; by the human goods, I understand pleasure and reason, which have been disqualified in Plato's "Republic" as candidates for the absolute Good (cf.R.505b-d). Concerning the Idea of the Good, we can distinguish a maximal and a minimal interpretation. After the minimal interpretation, the Idea of the Good is the absolute Good because there is no final cause beyond the Idea of the Good. After the maximal interpretation, the Idea of the Good is …Read more
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55Philosophische Grundbegriffe: eine EinführungC. H. Beck. 1994.The book (8th edition since 1994) provides an introduction to six key concepts in philosophy - philosophy, language, knowledge, truth, being and good. At the same time, it aims to initiate its readers into the process of philosophical thinking. The book is addressed to students and laypeople, but also contains new ideas for specialists. It is written in a clear, accessible and engaging style, and its author 'shares, and manages to convey, something of Plato's own commitment to philosophy' (Phron…Read more
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863Key Concepts in Philosophy: An IntroductionAcademia Verlag. 2014.The book is an english translation with revisions and updates of the "Philosophische Grundbegriffe 1" and provides an introduction to six key concepts in philosophy - philosophy, language, knowledge, truth, being and good. At the same time, it aims to initiate its readers into the process of philosophical thinking. The book is addressed to students and laypeople, but also contains new ideas for specialists. It is written in a clear, accessible and engaging style, and its author 'shares, and mana…Read more
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5Zenon von Elea und das Leib-Seele-ProblemAllgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 23 (3): 231-246. 1998.
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462Der Ursprung der Wissenschaft bei Anaximander von MiletTheologie Und Philosophie 61 (4): 551-561. 1986.The paper deals with the beginning and the main properties of the science of nature (he peri physeos historiê). According to Themistius (DK 12 A 7), the founder of this kind of Ionic philosophy is Anaximander of Miletus because he was the first who wrote about nature (especially a cosmography and a cosmogony) and developed three main principles of nature: 1. Nature has a mathematical structure (Arist. De coelo I3 295b10-14.32); 2. nature has a physical structure (DK 12 A 10-11); and 3. nature fo…Read more
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360This is an introductory blog to the question: "What is a human being?"
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483Ist die Idee des Guten nicht transzendent oder ist sie es doch? Nochmals Platons ΕΠΕΚΕΙΝΑ ΤΗΣ ΟΥΣΙΑΣIn Damir Barbaric (ed.), Platon über das Gute und die Gerechtigkeit / Plato on Goodness and Justice / Platone sul Bene e sulla Giustizia, Königshausen & Neumann. pp. 149-174. 2005.Plato scholars such as Matthias Baltes (1940-2003) and Luc Brisson have defended the thesis that Plato‘s Idea of the Good is on the one hand beyond being (epekeina tês ousias) in dignity and power, but is nevertheless not transcendent over being. The article gives first (I.), an introduction into the status questionis. Second (II.), it delivers the most important arguments for the thesis of Baltes and Brisson. Third (III.), it gives two counterarguments against the thesis. Fourth (IV), it deals …Read more
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599Under semantic monism I understand the thesis “The Good is said in one way” and under semantic pluralism the antithesis “The Good is said in many ways”. Plato’s Socrates seems to defend a “semantic monism”. As only one sun exists, so the “Good” has for Socrates and Plato only one reference. Nevertheless, Socrates defends in the Philebus a semantic pluralism, more exactly trialism, of “beauty, symmetry and truth” . Therefore, metaphorically speaking, there seem to exist not only one sun, but thre…Read more
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497Notizen zu Platos HöhlengleichnisFreiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Theologie 28 (n/a): 393-433. 1981.The paper puts forward a new interpretation of the image of the Cave, that is the image on human paideia (education) and apaideusia (lack of education). The cause of the apaideusia (R.514a) is identified as a separation from the origin. (1) First, the relation between the Cave, the analogy of the Linie and the Sun is shown not to be a strict parallelism, but a resemblance, which implies sameness and difference between Sun, Line and Cave. (2) Second, the author argues that the idea of the Good is…Read more
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437Was und wie hat Sokrates gewusstElenchos 28 (1): 5-40. 2007.The first part of the paper (p. 10-21) tries to answer the first question of the title and describes a set of seven “knowledge-claims” made by Socrates: 1. There is a distinction between right opinion and knowledge. 2. Virtue is knowledge. 3. Nobody willingly does wrong. 4. To do injustice is the greatest evil for the wrongdoer himself. 5. An even greater evil is if the wrongdoer is not punished. 6. The just person is happy; the unjust person is unhappy. 7. The pleasant is not the good. These cl…Read more
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508Der Grundgedanke des Tractatus als Metamorphose des obersten Grundsatzes der Kritik der reinen VernunftKant Studien 75 (1-4): 460-468. 1984.The paper puts forward that the basic principle of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (4.0312) transforms the supreme principle of all synthetic judgments a priori in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (A158/B197) from a level of reason to the level of language. Both philosophers, Kant and Wittgenstein, put forward a transcendental principle and both hold a formal identity true, Kant an identity between the form of experience and the form of the object of experience, Wittgenstein an identity between the form …Read more
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341"The origins of objectivity in communal discussion" : einige Bemerkungen zu Gadamers und Davidsons Interpretationen des "Philebos"In Christopher Gill & François Renaud (eds.), Hermeneutic Philosophy and Plato: Gadamer's Response to the Philebus, Academia. pp. 211-242. 2010.The first chapter, "Der Hintergrund von Gadamers 'Phänomenologischen Interpretationen' in Sein und Zeit" traces the origins of Gadamer’s interpretation of the Philebus in Sein und Zeit. Especially important is that Dasein is, thanks to speech , already outside of itself in the world. The second chapter "Gadamers Dialektische Ethik" gives a short summary of the main points of Gadamer's interpretation of the Philebus. The third chapter "Davidsons reinterpretation of von Gadamer's Dialektischer Eth…Read more
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23Platos Idee des GutenAcademia Verlag. 2015.At the centre of the monograph (1984, first edition) lies a detailed interpretation and critique of the idea of the Good in the Republic. The main thesis of the interpretation runs as follows: The idea of the Good functions as a third item between thinking and being. The main purpose of the monograph is to introduce the systematic problem of the third item via the historical problem of the idea of the Good. The second, enlarged edition (1989) gives a new reconstruction of an "exasperatingly diff…Read more
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197"M. Hossenfelder:" Die Philosophie der Antike 3. Stoa, Epikureismus und Skepsis (review)Studia Philosophica 48 (n/a): 200. 1989.This is a book review of “Malte Hossenfelder: Die Philosophie der Antike 3, Stoa, Epikureismus und Skepsis”.
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327The debate over Plato’s “ so called unwritten doctrines”, which he communicated only to a small circle of trusted disciples, has caused a stir among philosophers in recent decades. Rafael Ferber assumes a differentiated position in this controversy. He is convinced that the unwritten doctrines did exist, but that Plato, for reasons inherent in the process of gaining knowledge, was unable to communicate these doctrines even to his closest disciples. In this book, Ferber outlines the discussion an…Read more
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190Continuing the introductory blog to the question: "What is a human being?", that is “What is a zôon logon echôn?“, this blog tries to answer the question by unfolding the meaning of the expression “logos“.
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53Platos Idee des GutenAcademia Verlag. 1984.At the centre of the monograph (1984, first edition) lies a detailed interpretation and critique of the idea of the Good in the Republic. The main thesis of the interpretation runs as follows: The idea of the Good functions as a third item between thinking and being. The main purpose of the monograph is to introduce the systematic problem of the third item via the historical problem of the idea of the Good. The second, enlarged edition (1989) gives a new reconstruction of an "exasperatingly diff…Read more
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333Review of: Eugen Fink: Grundfragen der antiken Philosophie, Würzburg 1985 (review)Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 41 (1): 694-696. 1985.This is a review of lectures given by Eugen Fink at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau in the winter term of 1947/48, “Fundamental Questions of Ancient Philosophy,” edited by Franz A. Schwarz
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811Plato as Teacher of Socrates?In Ferber Rafael (ed.), International Plato Studies, Academia Verlag. pp. 443-448. 2016.What distinguishes the Socrates of the early from the Socrates of the middle dialogues? According to a well-known opinion, the “dividing line” lies in the difference between the Socratic and the Platonic theory of action. Whereas for the Platonic Socrates of the early dialogues, all desires are good-dependent, for the Platonic Socrates of the middle dialogues, there are good-independent desires. The paper argues first that this “dividing line” is blurred in the "Symposium", and second that we ha…Read more
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220II Symposium Platonicum. Grüdung der Internationalen Platon-GesellschaftZeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 45 (1). 1991.This is a report on the II Symposium Platonicum, which took place in Perugia, Italy, September 1-6, 1989, and on the founding of the International Plato Society, which took place in Bevagna, Province of Perugia, Umbria, Italy, September 3, 1989.
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137Wilhelm Vossenkuhl, Die Möglichkeit des Guten. Ethik im 21. JahrhundertPhilosophisches Jahrbuch 115 (1): 230. 2008.This is a review of: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl. Die Möglichkeit des Guten. Ethik im 21. Jahrhundert, München. C. H. Beck 2006.
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368Der Grundgedanke des "Tractatus" als Metamorphose des obersten Grundsatzes der "Kritik der reinen Vernunft"Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie Und Theologie 33 (n/a): 129-139. 1986.The paper puts forward that the basic principle of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (4.0312) transforms “the supreme principle of all synthetic judgments a priori” in Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” (A158/B197) from a level of reason to the level of language. Both philosophers, Kant and Wittgenstein, put forward a transcendental principle and both hold a formal identity true, Kant an identity between the form of experience and the form of the object of experience, Wittgenstein an identity between the f…Read more