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Contradiction, Logical

(281 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] A necessarily false set of statements contains a logical contradiction (Antinomy). Logical calculuses and theories should generally be free of contradiction (consistent) since, according to traditional logic all kinds of arbitrary conclusions can proceed from a falsehood ( ex falso quodlibet). Aristotle ( Metaph. Γ 1005 b 17–34) formulated the “principle of contradiction (to be excluded)” (which can be interpreted logically, psychologically and ontologically in his thinking) as a fundamental principle of …

Speech Act

(540 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] Philosophers of language traditionally reflect on the relationship between language and reality along with the truth or falsity of utterances and propositions. Despite some intimations in the work of earlier authors, especially G. Frege (“Der Gedanke,” 1918) and Adolf Reinach (“Die apriorischen Grund­lagen des bürgerlichen Rechts,” 1913), it remained for L. Wittgenstein ( Philosophische Untersuchungen, 1953; ET: Philosophical Investigations, 2001 [bilingual]) and John Langshaw Austin ( How To Do Things with Words, 1962) to formulate the insight that …

Signs

(2,878 words)

Author(s): Esterbauer, Reinhold | Alles, Gregory D. | Kober, Michael | Ochs, Peter | Linde, Gesche | Et al.
[German Version] I. Terminology The term sign usually means something perceptible to the senses that signifies something else, which gives it its specific meaning. In theological and philosophical usage, it differs from the term symbol (Symbols), although the latter is sometimes used synonymously with sign in semiotics and mathematics as well as in logic. While Aristotle used the term σημεῖον/ sēmeíon in various contexts – including his theory of conclusions –,Augustine of Hippo associated the theory of signs more closely with the theory of language (Phi…

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William

(386 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] (May 18, 1872, Ravenscroft, Monmouthshire – Feb 2, 1970, Plas Penrhyn, Wales), philosopher and political activist, visiting professor in China, Australia, the United States, and Europe, married four times, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Russell studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge; after 1900 he concentrated philosophically on the program of logicism – the attempt to reduce all of mathematics to axioms of logic, at the same time working out its implicat…

Probability

(716 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael | Evers, Dirk | Gräb-Schmidt , Elisabeth
[German Version] I. Philosophy Objectively, probability is the measure of the chance that a particular event will take place (ontological probability); subjectively, it is the measure of the certainty or credibility of a statement (epistemic probability). The interest in ontological probability arising from decision theory, as in games of chance, led to the mathematical theory of probability (Andrey N. Kolmogorov; Chance). But we must distinguish the logical ( a priori) ¶ probability of throwing a six, namely 1/6, from its empirical ( a posteriori) probability, i.e. its actua…

Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann

(1,104 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] (Apr 26, 1889, Vienna – Apr 29, 1951, Cambridge) I. Life Wittgenstein grew up in one of the wealthiest and most cultured families of Austria. After studying engineering in Berlin and Manchester, he studied philosophy with B. Russell and G.E. Moore at Cambridge. His first major work, the Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung, known under the title of its English translation, Tractatus logico-philosophicus ( TLP), made him one of the most innovative and influential philosophers of the 20th century. Published in 1921, it was written during a perio…

Ryle, Gilbert

(167 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] (Aug 19, 1900, Brighton – Oct 6, 1976, Oxford), philosopher. Ryle taught philosophy at Oxford; together with John L. Austin and L. Wittgenstein, in the mid-20th century he was the most influential exponent of ordinary language philosophy, which maintains that philosophical problems are an expression of linguistic confusions that can be resolved through precise analysis of how the words in question are used in ordinary language. In The Concept of Mind (1949), Ryle saw the dualism of body and mind, in which words like think and believe are treated analogously to go, as a …

Positivism

(1,549 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] I. General Positivism is an umbrella term for a number of concepts that vary greatly in their specifics and are no longer compatible with each other, notably in epistemology and theory of science, as well as in the philosophy of social science. A definition of Positivism is therefore not possible. However, proponents of Positivism in general share the conviction that all rational knowledge that is relevant to human action (in the form of judgments or assertions) should be intersubj…

Semiotics

(3,339 words)

Author(s): Grasmück, Oliver | Macho, Thomas | Alkier, Stefan | Kober, Michael | Vetter, Martin | Et al.
[German Version] I. Religious Studies Semiotics, a discipline inaugurated primarily by C.S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure (see II and IV below), is the systematic analysis of signs (Gk σημεῖον/ sēmeíon) and the way the human mind perceives and understands them. A sign in the sense of semiotics can be any present physical or mental entity that is in a position to stand for an entity not present. A sign is constituted by the conjunction of two elements, the signifier and the signified. In religious studies, semiotics examin…

Vienna Circle

(227 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] self-designation of a group of philosophers (Moritz Schlick, R. Carnap), mathemati-¶ cians with philosophical interests (Hans Hahn, Kurl Gödel), natural scientists (Philipp Frank), and social scientists (Otto Neurath, Edgar Zilsel) at the University of Vienna, who met regularly from 1924 to 1934 for interdisciplinary discussion and debate. Adopting the traditions of Empiricism and Positivism, they shared a distaste for speculative metaphysics and a methodological orientation toward the natur…

Realism

(4,743 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael | Großhans, Hans-Peter | Kitschen , Friederike | Hartwich, Wolf-Daniel | Linde, Gesche
[German Version] I. Philosophy Realism in a given area B means the ontological thesis that names or terms used in a theory of B refer to things that exist independently of human thought. For example, in natural realism the existence of stones, trees, and ¶ tables is assumed; in scientific realism, that of electrons, force fields, and quarks (see V below); in mathematical realism, that of numbers and quantities; or in ethical realism, that of moral values. Critics of realism object, for example, that moral values are an expression of value…

Doubt,

(549 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[German Version] a condition of objection, dismissal, caution or indecisiveness. In cases of practical (and moral) doubt, there is an objection to either a behavior or basic convictions relevant to action, and with religious doubt, to certain religiously motivated convictions as well. Existential doubt about the “meaning of existence” (Dasein) radically calls into question any action orientation (Nihilism, S. Kierkegaard, F. Nietzsche). People will reject or deny a proposition or judgment p if they have good grounds for thinking that p is false and that non- p is …

Ryle

(142 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[English Version] Ryle, Gilbert (19.8.1900 Brighton – 6.10.1976 Oxford), lehrte in Oxford Philos. und war zus. mit John L. Austin und L. Wittgenstein Mitte des 20.Jh. einflußreichster Vertreter der Ordinary Language Philosophy, nach der philos. Probleme als Ausdruck sprachlicher Verwirrungen gelten, die mittels genauer Analyse des umgangssprachlichen Gebrauchs entsprechender Wörter aufzulösen sind. In »The Concept of Mind« (1949) sah R. den Leib-Seele-Dualismus, in dem Wörter wie »denken« und »glau…

Zeichen

(2,608 words)

Author(s): Esterbauer, Reinhold | Alles, Gregory D. | Kober, Michael | Ochs, Peter | Linde, Gesche | Et al.
[English Version] I. Begrifflich Der Begriff Z. meint in der Regel etwas sinnlich Faßbares, das auf etwas anderes verweist und dadurch spezifische Bedeutung erhält. Theol. und philos. ist er vom Symbolbegriff (Symbol/Symbole/Symboltheorien) zu differenzieren, obwohl dieser in der Semiotik und in der Mathematik sowie in der Logik teilweise mit dem Zeichenbegriff synonym verwendet wird. Während Aristoteles den Ausdruck σημει˜οn̆/sēmeíon in unterschiedlichen Zusammenhängen gebraucht – u.a. in seiner Lehre vom Schluß –, bindet Augustin die Zeichentheorie …

Positivismus

(1,273 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[English Version] I. Allgemeines Unter P. werden eine Reihe im Detail sehr unterschiedlicher und miteinander nicht mehr vereinbarer Konzeptionen v.a. in der Erkenntnis- und Wissenschaftstheorie sowie in der Philos. der Sozialwiss. zusammengefaßt. Insofern ist eine Definition von P. nicht möglich. Vertreter des P. eint jedoch i. allg. die Überzeugung, daß alles rationale und für Menschen handlungsrelevante Wissen (in Form von Urteilen oder Behauptungen) intersubjektiv überprüfbar sein soll und desha…

Realismus

(4,258 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael | Großhans, Hans-Peter | Kitschen, Friederike | Hartwich, Wolf-Daniel | Linde, Gesche
[English Version] I. Philosophisch Unter R. bzgl. eines Bereichs B versteht man die ontologische These, daß sich die in einer Theorie über B verwendeten Namen oder Termini auf Dinge beziehen, die unabhängig vom menschlichen Denken existieren. Z.B. wird im natürlichen R. die Existenz von Steinen, Bäumen und Tischen angenommen, im wiss. R. die von Elektronen, Kraftfeldern und Quarks (s.u. V.), im mathematischen R. die von Zahlen und Mengen oder im ethischen R. die von moralischen Werten. Kritiker des…

Wittgenstein

(946 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[English Version] , Ludwig Josef Johann (26.4.1889 Wien – 29.4.1951 Cambridge) I. Leben Aufgewachsen in einer der reichsten und kultiviertesten Familien Österreichs, Studium der Ingenieurwiss. in Berlin und Manchester, später der Philos. bei B. Russell und G.E. Moore in Cambridge. Schon sein erstes Hauptwerk, die »Logisch-Philos. Abh.«, bekannt unter dem Titel der engl. Übers. »Tractatus logico-philosophicus« (TLP), machte ihn zu einem der innovativsten und einflußreichsten Philosophen des 20.Jh. Publizie…

Semiotik

(2,997 words)

Author(s): Grasmück, Oliver | Macho, Thomas | Alkier, Stefan | Kober, Michael | Vetter, Martin | Et al.
[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich S. bez. die hist. v.a. auf Ch.S. Peirce und Ferdinand de Saussures (s.u. II. und IV.) zurückgehende syst. Analyse der Zeichen (griech. σημει˜οn̆/sēmeíon) sowie deren Wahrnehmen und Verstehen durch den menschlichen Geist. Zeichen im semiotischen Sinne kann jede anwesende physische oder psychische Entität sein, die in der Lage ist, für eine abwesende zu stehen. Das Zeichen wird konstituiert durch die Verknüpfung zweier Elemente, des Signifikanten bzw. Bezeichnenden mit dem Si…

Russell

(336 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[English Version] Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3. Earl of R. (18.5.1872 Ravenscroft, Monmouthshire – 2.2.1970 Plas Penrhyn, Wales), Philosoph und polit. Aktivist, Gastprof. in China, Australien, USA, Europa, viermal verheiratet, Literaturnobelpreis 1950. R. studierte Mathematik und Philos. in Cambridge und konzentrierte sich ab 1900 philos. auf das Projekt des Logizismus, d.h. den Versuch, die gesamte Mathematik auf Axiome der Logik zurückzuführen und dabei erkenntnistheoretische, sprachphilos…

Wiener Kreis

(187 words)

Author(s): Kober, Michael
[English Version] . Eine Selbstbez. einer insbes. 1924–1934 an der Universität Wien regelmäßig, interdisziplinär und kontrovers diskutierenden Gruppe von Philosophen (Moritz Schlick, R. Carnap) oder an Philos. interessierten Mathematikern (Hans Hahn, Kurt Gödel), Natur- (Philipp Frank) und Sozialwissenschaftlern (Otto Neurath, Edgar Zilsel). Die Traditionen des Empirismus und Positivismus aufgreifend, einte sie eine Abneigung gegen spekulative Metaphysik sowie eine methodische Orientierung an den …
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