Philosophisches Jahrbuch

This article considers aspects of Philippa Foot’s theory of naturalist realist metaethics. It addresses the question of whether human nature can function as a direct source of normativity or whether it is more of a metanormative framework that is...

Kant’s highest good consists of happiness and the worthiness of happiness, that is, morality. The question of the exact connection between these two parts is disputed. Some argue that Kant proposed different, sometimes contradictory, concepts of...

This is the third part of a „controversy“, in which I respond to comments from Vera Hoffmann-Kolss, Johannes Hübner, Boris Kment, Kathrin Koslicki, Annina Loets, and Ulrich Metschl concerning my earlier paper „Möglichkeit ohne mögliche...

The article presents Hönigswalds version of transcendental philosophy, putting focus on the mediation of epistemological principles and empirical states of affairs. It is shown, that Hönigswald provides an original account of transcendental...

Barbara Vetter proposes that certain epistemic and metasemantic challenges to our theorizing about metaphysical modality can be met by an approach which generalizes from every day paradigms of objective modality – notably the abilities and...

The paper discusses Barbara Vetter’s strategy of grounding metaphysical modalities in the capacities or potentialities of individual things. The first concern is the direction of explanation in tautological and contradictory potentialities. It is...

Do essence-based accounts of necessity and Vetter’s potentiality-based account of possibility in fact lead to the same result, viz., a single derived notion of necessity that is interdefinable with possibility or vice versa? And does each approach...

In this paper I investigate the limits of toleration using the example of the German debate on dealing with opponents of the covid vaccination. First, I present central elements of Rainer Forst’s conception of tolerance. I then refer to an...

Barbara Vetter has argued that the notion of a metaphysical possibility functions like a natural-kind concept that picks out whatever kind is instantiated by the large majority of paradigmatic examples. Vetter holds that proponents of such a view...

With the comeback of metaphysics on the agenda of analytical philosophy a renewed interest for modalities and their specific properties was not lagging far behind. Yet, their indispensability in debates, say for example on identity and essence,...

Tolerance is not a problem of medieval philosophy. In addition to discussing reasons for this, the article refers to several texts, not coincidentally dialogues, in which elements of a sophisticated tolerance concept become apparent: For example the...