Deweys humanistische Dezentrierung des Subjekts

In French post-structuralism, »decentering« signifies the criticism of any metaphysical »centre« which is supposed to reign the development and the logic of discourse, and hence of thinking. In particular, anthropology and the recourse to humanism were suspected to miss the plurality and the self-differing nature of discursive practices. This article presents Dewey’s philosophy as an alternative to this criticism. Dewey is comparably sceptical of any attempt to treat the human being as a metaphysical essence. Nevertheless, he develops an explicit humanism which defends the central values of freedom, openness, and growth. This paradoxical humanism is rendered possible by developing a concept of nature, and the human being, which,decenters‘ the specific human capacities by consequently treating them as an integral part of nature

Realismus und literarische Form bei Wittgenstein

The so-called ›resolute‹ reading of Wittgenstein, most notably represented by Cora Diamond and James Conant, claims that the text of the Tractatus does not convey a philosophical thesis. In engaging with the text and its literary form, the reader is supposed to cultivate an experience which will eventually allow her to confront (moral) reality without any obstructing philosophical abstractions. The article argues that this under- standing of the text implicitly rests on the traditional and highly problem- atic distinction between rhetoric and ›serious‹ speech, between a use of language which describes facts and one which elicits experiences. By re- constructing the alleged effect of a ›resolute‹ reading of the Tractatus with the help of Iser’s theory of literary experience, it is shown that the ›real- ism‹ that the resolute readers argue for can have no substance at all

Die Vernunft der Erfahrung. Eine pragmatistische Kritik der Rationalität

Die moderne Philosophie steht im Schatten des Skeptizismus: Alle Wissensansprüche scheinen fallibel, alle Theorien nur vorläufig, alle Gewissheiten nur temporär zu sein. In dieser gespannten Situation ist die Versuchung groß, das Wesen des vernünftigen Denkens in der Form zu suchen. Vernunft gilt dann als ein allgemeines Vermögen, das bei wechselnden Inhalten seine kritische Kompetenz bewahrt. Doch solche Formalismen müssen scheitern: Wer Erfahrung nur als «Wahrnehmung» oder «Gehalt» adressiert, übergeht die dynamische und überschreitende Natur alles Erfahrens, ohne die Denken und Wissen nicht zu haben sind. In dieser Studie wird gezeigt, dass der Pragmatismus von Peirce und Dewey als eine Philosophie der Erfahrung gelesen werden muss, die eine effektive Kritik der formalen Vernunft formuliert. Dabei bettet sie diese Philosophie in den weiteren Kontext der philosophischen Diskussion des 20. Jahrhunderts ein, in dem der Logische Empirismus und die postanalytische Philosophie auf die dynamische Natur des Wissens reflektieren. Die Frage nach der Erfahrung, so zeigt sich, ist selbst eine Reflexion auf die geschichtliche Erfahrung einer kontingenten Moderne

Determination of secondary ion mass spectrometry relative sensitivity factors for polar and non-polar ZnO

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is regarded as a promising material for optoelectronic devices, due to its electronic properties. Solely, the difficulty in obtaining p-type ZnO impedes further progress. In this connection, the identification and quantification of impurities is a major demand. For quantitative information using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), so-called relative sensitivity factors (RSF) are mandatory. Such conversion factors did not yet exist for ZnO. In this work, we present the determined RSF values for ZnO using primary (ion implanted) as well as secondary (bulk doped) standards. These RSFs have been applied to commercially available ZnO substrates of different surface termination (a-plane, Zn-face, and O-face) to quantify the contained impurities. Although these ZnO substrates originate from the same single-crystal, we observe discrepancies in the impurity concentrations. These results cannot be attributed to surface termination dependent RSF values for ZnO

Natural Conditions of (Kantian) Majority

The core idea of 'becoming major', as it can be found in Kant's famous essay about the Enlightenment, is the concept of self-legislation or self-governance. Minority is described as a state of dependency on some heteronomous guidance (i.e. church, doctor, or the state), whereas majority is defined by Kant as the ability to guide oneself, using one's own understanding ('Verstand'). These definitions display a deep affinity to central concepts of Kant's philosophy: the autonomy of rational ethics, as it is defended in the second Critique, and the copernican revolution in epistemology, which is the topic of the first Critique. Picking up on these similarities, the text isolates some of the essential conditions for Kant's understanding of an enlightened state of majority. Kant's theoretical works spell out conceptual preconditions for his radical account of self-guidance and gives it a more detailed form. This allows to articulate some of the historical assumptions and theoretical implications of majority which we might have lost out of sight in a time where 'self-management' is a ubiquitous demand

Fe-implanted ZnO: Magnetic precipitates versus dilution

Nowadays ferromagnetism is often found in potential diluted magnetic semiconductor systems. However, many authors argue that the observed ferromagnetism stems from ferromagnetic precipitates or spinodal decomposition rather than from carrier mediated magnetic impurities, as required for a diluted magnetic semiconductor. In the present paper we answer this question for Fe-implanted ZnO single crystals comprehensively. Different implantation fluences and temperatures and post-implantation annealing temperatures have been chosen in order to evaluate the structural and magnetic properties over a wide range of parameters. Three different regimes with respect to the Fe concentration and the process temperature are found: 1) Disperse Fe$^{2+}$ and Fe$^{3+}$ at low Fe concentrations and low processing temperatures, 2) FeZn$_2$O$_4$ at very high processing temperatures and 3) an intermediate regime with a co-existence of metallic Fe (Fe$^0$) and ionic Fe (Fe$^{2+}$ and Fe$^{3+}$). Ferromagnetism is only observed in the latter two cases, where inverted ZnFe$_2$O$_4$ and $\alpha$-Fe nanocrystals are the origin of the observed ferromagnetic behavior, respectively. The ionic Fe in the last case could contribute to a carrier mediated coupling. However, their separation is too large to couple ferromagnetically due to the lack of p-type carrier. For comparison investigations of Fe-implanted epitaxial ZnO thin films are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figure

Contrasting multiproxy reconstructions of surface ocean hydrography in the Agulhas Corridor and implications for the Agulhas Leakage during the last 345,000 years

Planktonic δ18O and Mg/Ca-derived sea surface temperature (SST) records from the Agulhas Corridor off South Africa display a progressive increase of SST during glacial periods of the last three climatic cycles. The SST increases of up to 4°C coincide with increased abundance of subtropical planktonic foraminiferal marker species which indicates a progressive warming due to an increased influence of subtropical waters at the core sites. Mg/Ca-derived SST maximizes during glacial maxima and glacial Terminations to values about 2.5°C above full-interglacial SST. The paired planktonic δ18O and Mg/Ca-derived SST records yield glacial seawater δ18O anomalies of up to 0.8‰, indicating measurably higher surface salinities during these periods. The SST pattern along our record is markedly different from a U37K'-derived SST record at a nearby core location in the Agulhas Corridor that displays SST maxima only during glacial Terminations. Possible explanations are lateral alkenone advection by the vigorous regional ocean currents or the development of SST contrasts during glacials in association with seasonal changes of Agulhas water transports and lateral shifts of the Agulhas retroflection. The different SST reconstructions derived from U37K' and Mg/Ca pose a significant challenge to the interpretation of the proxy records and demonstrate that the reconstruction of the Agulhas Current and interocean salt leakage is not as straightforward as previously suggested

Language or Experience? – That’s not the Question

Analytic philosophy of language has often criticized classical pragmatism for holding to an unwarranted notion of experience which lapses into epistemological foundationalism; defenders of the classics have denied such a consequence. The paper tries to move this debate forward by pointing out that the criticism of the empiricist “given” is not wedded to a specific philosophical method, be it linguistic or pragmatist. From a broader historical perspective drawing in particular on Kant, antifoundationalism turns out to be deeply rooted in modern western philosophy and its ambivalent attitude towards the success of the empirical sciences. This diagnosis allows to reassess classical pragmatism beyond the perceived alternative “language vs. experience”, and to concentrate on antifoundationalism as the real challenge to any modern, epistemologically oriented philosophy. In that perspective, classical pragmatism’s genuine contribution is to do justice to antifoundationalism by focusing on the experimental dynamic of scientific practice, which is most commonly ignored by the analytic tradition. Pragmatism identifies rationality with the practical operation of reflexively determining and articulating what is being experienced. With this approach, it is argued, experiential pragmatism serves modern antifoundationalism ends better than its analytic siblings