Not just war: Eisikovits on A Theory of Truces

More work has gone into thinking about the philosophical justifications for starting a just war than bringing political violence to an end. The papers in this special section explore themes in Nir Eisikovits’s groundbreaking book A Theory of Truces and why truces deserve greater philosophical attention. This introduction briefly raises these issues and provides an overview of the papers.     

Theological Hermeneutics

Book reviewed:
Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: An Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation , Jen Zimmerman, Baker 2004 (0-8010-2727-6), pp. 345, Hb £17.99     

Der bewegliche Mensch

Zusammenfassung. Diese Arbeit unterscheidet drei Konzepte der Identit?t (substanzielle, formale und qualifizierte Identit?t) und ordnet sie verschiedenen intellektuellen Traditionen zu. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient der systematisch wichtigste Identit?tsbegriff, die „qualifizierte Identit?t.” Hingewiesen wird auf die Schwierigkeiten, die sich aus einer rein „narrativen” Fundierung dieser Identit?t ergeben; im Kontrast hierzu wird die Notwendigkeit betont, Identit?t in einem „dramatischen” Kontext zu sehen. Von dort her ergeben sich wichtige Vorgaben zur Ausrichtung therapeutischer Intervention. Die Vernachl?ssigung jenes dramatischen Kontexts führt zu einer Einengung des Identit?tsbegriffs, die besonders deutlich bei den Aporien der „Selbstverwirklichung” zutage tritt. Abschlie?end wird auf einige Gefahren hingewiesen, die sich aus der individualistischen Verzerrung des Identit?tsbegriffs in modernen Gesellschaften ergeben; von besonderer Bedeutung sind hier die soziale Erosion, aus der sich eine Krise im Verh?ltnis zwischen den Generationen ableitet, sowie – in engem Zusammenhang damit – das K?rperbild, das dem modernen Jugendkult zugrunde liegt.

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The human being in movement. Modern identity from a philosophical point of view

Summary. This paper draws a distinction between „substantive”, „formal”, and „qualified” identity, and gives hints at the intellectual traditions linked to these different accounts. The systematically most advanced concept of identity, i.e., „qualified identity”, deserves particular attention. With regard to the „making” of this identity, both its „narrative” foundation and its „dramatic” contextualization need to be discussed. The author hints at systematic problems involved in a merely „narrative” (re-)construction of identity and pleads for a „dramatic” contextualization of identity. Following this „dramatic” turn, the focus for therapeutic intervention is to be elucidated in a new way. Whereas a „dramatic” approach to identity allows to encompass the social context, an individualistic approach leads to serious distortions; this becomes evident in the aporetic figure of „self-realization”, which is reflected in the erosion of social relations, the struggle between generations, and the modern body-image of „youthfulness.”

     

Ausbildungs- und Berufserfahrungen älterer Psychoanalytiker

Based on the discussion about the crisis of psychoanalysis and in particular of psychoanalytic training, 145 (female and male) analysts older than 70 years of age were interviewed about their training and professional experiences as well as about their attitudes towards psychoanalysis. This older generation is of great interest because their training generally took place prior to 1967 and preceded the introduction of guideline therapy (cost coverage by the general health insurance) and under much less formalized conditions, which can be seen almost as a contrast to the current circumstances and conditions. This research has shown that especially personal or content and value-based motivations (personal problems, therapeutic experience, interest in the subject, the desire for depth, self-realization and expansion of the situation perceived as restrictive of their former profession) were the main determining factors for the choice of career. The training analyses were, despite some exceptions, of substantial length even then (an average of 544 h), but often had a lower frequency (30% had less than 3 h per week). Since the age limitation for running a psychoanalytic practice within the general health services (formerly 68 years) is no longer compulsory, the results of this study regarding the professional life of older psychoanalysts are of special interest. Of the respondents 45% are still running their own practice and 22% are working as training analysts.     

Two spatial memories are not better than one: evidence of exclusivity in memory for object location

This paper studies the dynamics of attempting to access two spatial memories simultaneously and its implications for the accuracy of recall. Experiment 1 demonstrates in a range of conditions that two cues pointing to different experiences of the same object location produce little or no higher recall than that observed with a single cue. Experiment 2 confirms this finding in a within-subject design where both cues have previously elicited recall. Experiment 3 shows that these findings are only consistent with a model in which two representations of the same object location are mutually exclusive at both encoding and retrieval, and inconsistent with models that assume information from both representations is available. We propose that these representations quantify directionally specific judgments of location relative to specific anchor points in the stimulus; a format that precludes the parallel processing of like representations. Finally, we consider the apparent paradox of how such representations might contribute to the acquisition of spatial knowledge from multiple experiences of the same stimuli.