Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg

We can make our pain more bearable through our will. But how and where does my self (my mind) affect my body? In this books, medical doctors, neurophysiologists, physicists, and psychologists show that the dualism of body and mind we all experience does not really exist. Body and mind are an indivisible unit, shaped over millions of years by the adaptive self-organization of the brain’s neuronal networks.

Collective identities – national, regional, local, religious, linguistic – are all constructed as opposed to an “other” which is constructed in alterity. They are established by historiography, art, and media. The contributions in this volume analyze characteristics and strategies of European and non-European identity discourses.

This volume provides the very first transcription of correspondence between Richard Dedekind and Heinrich Weber, one of the most important instances of written dialog between mathematicians in the 19th century.
Nearly every subarea of mathematics is addressed in the letters, which intensively discuss nascent developments in the field. A register of persons and index of works ease access to the topics discussed in the letters.

Modern science is, to a large extent, a model-building activity. But how are models contructed? How are they related to theories and data? How do they explain complex scientific phenomena, and which role do computer simulations play here? These questions have kept philosophers of science busy for many years, and much work has been done to identify modeling as the central activity of theoretical science. At the same time, these questions have been addressed by methodologically-minded scientists, albeit from a different point of view. While philosophers typically have an eye on general aspects of scientific modeling, scientists typically take their own science as the starting point and are often more concerned with specific methodological problems. There is, however, also much common ground in middle, where philosophers and scientists can engage in a productive dialogue, as the present volume demonstrates. To do so, the editors of this volume have invited eight leading scientists from cosmology, climate science, social science, chemical engeneering and neuroscience to reflect upon their modeling work, and eight philosophers of science to provide a commentary.

Is Europe in crisis? Is there such a thing as European identity beyond economic and political integration? What common features can be found in history and in the present that foster unity? And what is Germany’s role in this process? These were among the questions raised in a lecture series held at the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg. The volume present responses by H. Reinitzer, G. Clemens, M. Borgolte, D. Diner, F.W. Graf und A. Pistor-Hatam.

Increasingly, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and a lack of new antibiotics to combat them are endangering the successful treatment of bacterial infections. This book describes the insufficient status quo of the development of new antibiotics and gives extensive recommendations for scientific, political and social solutions.

Peter Heyman’s large tapestry of 1554 depicts members of the Saxon princely and ducal houses and the Pomeranian ducal house as well as Luther, Melanchthon and Bugenhagen. This study interprets the tapestry as an example of political iconography and relates it to the controversy between “true” Lutherans and Philippists.

Whatever societies accept as ‘knowledge’ is embedded in epistemological, institutional, political, and economic power relations. How is knowledge produced under such circumstances? What is the difference between general knowledge and the sciences? Can there be science without universal truth claims? Questions like these are discussed in eleven essays from the perspective of Sociology, Law, Cultural Studies, and the Humanities.