Philosophisches Jahrbuch

Abstract. The following paper is grounded on a reflection found in Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, opposing Martin Heidegger’s conception of historicity to the one put forth in the writings of the surrealists. By interpreting Benjamin’s own...

Abstract. Usually the ethics of humor revolves around the content of humor. After giving a synopsis and exposing some shortcomings of the recent controversies, this paper takes into account additional aspects and proposes a change of perspective...

Abstract. The argument from potentiality for embryo protection relies on the assumption of a specific developmental potential of human embryos: As human embryos under normal conditions naturally develop into beings whose strong moral status is...

Abstract. This paper examines Kierkegaard’s concept of the leap, Carl Schmitt’s concept of the exception, Benjamin’s concept of the origin and the extreme and tries to demonstrate that they all derive from a contingent foundation stipulating...

Abstract. Why should contemporary philosophers study philosophical texts of the past? Today, there are various answers to that question, but Bernard Williams was one of the first who has combined analytical and historical elements in his approach to...

Abstract. In Plato’s Sophist (247e), the Eleatic Stranger seems to propose to define being by means of the notion of dynamis. Although some recent papers have claimed that his dynamis-proposal should be taken seriously (at least as an explication...

Abstract. In On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche asserts, first, that the transvaluation of values of an original master morality by the slave morality is accompanied by an increasing deepening and differentiation of the human soul and, secondly,...