Volume 60, Issue 3 -

Our thoughts that can be enounced in speech have these characteristics: They refer to something as their object, they are affirmations or negations which contradict each other, and they can be translated into other languages. I thus look for thoughts in the comportment and communications of animals and afterwards reveal the special origin in mankind.

The article proposes a historical model of ideology understood as cyclical. This model is especially designed to the study of Marxism. Ideologies emerge as small systematic formations initially characterized by the delegitimization of the established order and the intent to liberate larger social groups. These formations are subsequently systematized into a comprehensive world view before they are reshaped and adapted by epigones. Finally, ideologies become static and serve as pure means of legitimation.

The article discusses if opposing ideologies use the same conceptional means and structures. The comparison of theistic and modern world views shows that they have similar aims. Both world views claim power via universal explanations and assert their own moral superiority. Atheism thus remains tied to theism and has itself an implicit metaphysics.

Today Kondylis seems to be a more or less forgotten philosopher. This is astonishing insofar as Kondylis’ writings reflect very prominent subjects of contemporary political and philosophical thought. Firstly there is the conceptualization of the history of thought as conflict, a major thesis of Kondylis’ work, which is shared in principle by influential thinkers such as Michel Foucault on the one hand and Quentin Skinner on the other. Secondly, we can find in Kondylis a theory of the constitutive role of conflict and power in political relations and in the constitution of political orders – a topic again prominently discussed today, e.g. in the writings of Chantal Mouffe and Jacques Rancière. But taking – in the light of contemporary debates – a closer look at Kondylis’ conceptualization of these subjects, his apodictic tendencies become evident, resulting from his highly problematic social ontology of conflict and struggle for power.

Despite his undeniable erudition Kondylis never made his mark on the contemporary discussions. This is not surprising, because he preferred to stay in opposition to the mainstream of normativistic thinking, as shown in a rereading of his programmatic work on “Macht und Entscheidung”. Yet this isolated position allows the deficits of normativism to be perceived in remarkable lucidity in mirror-image reversal: a restricted perception of political power and the unclear relation between deliberation and decision. Hence the consequence can be drawn that any attempt at a normative conception of life-world must clarify its relationship to a positive concept of power and the meaning of decision-making.

Zusammenfassung Panajotis Kondylis interviewt von Spyros Koutroulis

Under the new heading “Philosophie aktuell” topics which are relevant in terms of public, moral, and political discourse will be discussed from a philosophical vantage point. By way of example, the explanatory capacity of philosophical reflection and critique will be demonstrated. The present issue puts the reform of the Transplantation Law under philosophical investigation. Concepts of life and death, in particular that of cerebral death, will be scrutinized. It will be asked whether these concepts are descriptive in nature or prescriptive, normatively charged ones. Are cerebrally dead persons still alive or already dead?

From 1949 to 1969, Theodor W. Adorno habitually let students take minutes of his Frankfurt seminars in philosophy und sociology. More than 470 of these minutes have been retained, and three of them shall now for the first time be rendered unabridged.

Zusammenfassung Ulla Wessels: Das Gute. Wohlfahrt, hedonisches Glück und die Erfüllung von Wünschen. Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt/M. 2011, 244 S.

Zusammenfassung Tilo Wesche: Wahrheit und Werturteil. Eine Theorie der praktischen Rationalität. Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen 2011, 384 S.

Zusammenfassung Peter Schaber: Instrumentalisierung und Würde. Mentis Verlag, Paderborn 2010, 171 S.

Zusammenfassung Kirsten Meyer: Bildung. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2011, 224 S.

Zusammenfassung Andreas Hetzel: Die Wirksamkeit der Rede. Zur Aktualität klassischer Rhetorik für die moderne Sprachphilosophie. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2011, 484 S.