User:Verena61/Rainer E. Zimmermann

Rainer E. Zimmermann (*9th November 1951 in Berlin) is a philosopher-scientist.

Life
Rainer Ernst Zimmermann began his studies after graduating from Robert Blum high school in Berlin (Schoeneberg) in 1971 at Berlin’s University of Technology (TU) taking physics and mathematics as major topics. He was then a DAAD exchange scholar to Imperial College London (1973/74) where he gained a Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) in mathematical physics. He continued his studies at Free University Berlin (FU) gaining a physics diploma (1975) and a PhD in mathematics (1977). During these years and some time afterwards he worked as scientific employee on various positions and taught in Berlin at the TU and FU. Subsequently, he studied also philosophy, history and literature at TU Berlin and gained another PhD in philosophy (1988). After having been called onto the position of a professor of philosophy at Munich’s University of Applied Sciences (1995) he gained his habilitation at Kassel University in the philosophy of nature (1998). He works primarily on metaphysics and the philosophy of nature including the philosophy of science (especially with a view to theories of quantum gravity), also dealing with ethical implications and the relationship between ontological and epistemological consequences of the cognitively mediated modeling of the world, especially with regard to the theories of spaces, networks, and (evolutionary) systems. From 2000 until 2005 he was leader of the Kassel team within the framework of an (European Commission) INTAS co-operation with Vienna, Kiev, and Moscow. He was a visiting fellow to the University of Cambridge (UK), 1999/2000, where he is still life member of Clare Hall, to the Istituto di Studi Avanzati of the University of Bologna, 2003, to the ICT&S of the University of Salzburg, 2006, as well as to the CMS of Berlin’s University of Technology, 2010/11. From 1992 through 1999 he was founder and editor of the half-yearly journal “System & Struktur” (New Journal for Speculative Physics), Cuxhaven, and since 2007 he is co-editor of the “Munich Texts on Design Science”, Aachen. He is also co-founder, scientific director, and chairman of the executive board of the Institute for Design Science in Munich. He is member of various philosophical societies (Spinoza, Schelling, Bloch, Sartre) as well as of the society of “System of Philosophy”; in particular, he was several times member of the executive board of both Bloch societies (Society Ludwigshafen, and Association, Nuernberg) and is still corresponding member of the European academy of sciences, arts, and literature, in Paris. He is author of about 350 publications, among them more than 20 books.

Main Topics of Research
In systematical terms, his special topics include metaphysics and the philosophy of nature, and in historical terms the classical line of thought characterized by the philosophies of Spinoza-Schelling-Bloch. To this line he also adds Sartre, but contrary to the latter he tries to develop an approach to both the philosophies of nature and society in a somewhat holistic manner being influenced by existentialism as well as structuralism. As the conceptual bridge between the two serves him the Freud interpretation of Lacan. He attempts thus to conceptualize a logic, starting from modern physics, which in the ancient stoic sense puts forward a consistent ethics. He starts from cosmology whose interpretation ends up successively with a theoretical and practical philosophy (“from physics to politics”) which is still completed by means of a third component (experimental philosophy). In this sense, he is known as the initiator of his own branch of research called “transcendental materialism”, explained in detail soon after introducing the basic conceptions in his book on Schelling (Die Rekonstruktion von Raum, Zeit und Materie, Frankfurt a. M. etc., 1998). As seen under the methodological perspective, this approach shall manifest itself in a precise “design science”, a term introduced by Buckminster Fuller (Rainer E. Zimmermann: Was heisst und zu welchem Ende studiert man Design Science? Aachen, 2007). Up to now his main work is his book “System des transzendentalen Materialismus” (Paderborn, 2004).

Philosophical Main Concepts
Insight from the Line Spinoza-Schelling-Bloch Two motivating aspects stood at the beginning of what has been introduced here: on the one hand research about the Tuebingen axiomatic following up the still significant work of Panajotis Kondylis (Die Entstehung der Dialektik, Stuttgart, 1979) and on the other a talk Theunissen gave in the summer term of 1989 (more recently in id.: Negative Theologie der Zeit, Frankfurt a. M., 1991, 13-36) on the possibility of philosophizing today. The former allowed a reading which visualizes the Tuebingen axiomatic as a unified approach to an ancient stoic project: namely to draft an ethics (as theory of adequate behavior within the world) which is the result of an appropriate physics (as theory of the world itself) due to a given logic (as theory of an adequate reflexion of the worldly). The early modern debate, up to Fichte after all, will actually deal with the necessary assumptions for this: The things are. They appear to us. We recognize them as what they are. We behave accordingly. Obviously, within these four propositions all that is being codified which shows up as the complete controversial complexity of philosophizing. The Tuebingen axiomatic, already prepared in the Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism (1797) – essentially even earlier in Hoelderlin’s Urtheil & Seyn of 1795, does not only point to the basic problems of all this, but it also extends the totalizing attempt of Spinoza’s in an ethics more geometrico towards a new objective which comes very near to materialistic philosophy, especially in the late Schelling. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to stage what is referred to as Great Materialistic Transformation before securing this approach for us today. It is here where the latter (Theunissen’s approach) comes into play, because Theunissen – starting from the fact that philosophy today cannot anymore lay the grounds for anything, because it follows up the results of the sciences in the first place – sees the main task now in the reflexion of scientific results by a method which has passed through the insight of Hegel as well as Marx. In the critical discussion of these results and in their mediation, it is possible then to eventually illuminate what is transcending that critical reflexion und is making possible to take in sight what is the scientifically inexhaustible ground of all. In other words, metaphysics becomes important again, but not as “prima philosophia” as what it had been intended originally, but now as “ultima philosophia” which illuminates the Other of this world after having passed through what has been subjected to scientific research. Hence, metaphysics and an explicit research program on the one hand, and axiomatic and fundamental heuristic on the other, are deeply interrelated with one another (as has been shown about the same time by so different protagonists as Hans Albert: Kritik der reinen Erkenntnislehre, Tuebingen, 1987, and Wolfram Hogrebe: Praedikation und Genesis, Frankfurt a. M., 1989). Hence, each philosophical approach is being loaded with science, and viceversa: “The starting point are thus those theory-immanent implications which follow alone from the architecture of the results of scientific modeling, permanently assuming the basic idea that all experience (…) is already theory-laden.” (Die Rekonstruktion von Raum, Zeit und Materie, op. cit., p. 19 – translated here) This is also true for the philosophical approach itself: “The method of interpretation is thus one which drafts out a heuristic starting point of the theory and is thereby itself encompassing-heuristic. I.e. the method of reflexion starts from points which are loaded with theory and probes into the reflexive experience in trying to connect them tentatively first, in order to eventually produce a consistent network of theoretical lines.” (Ibid.) This approach is primarily oriented with respect to the line of thought which is associated with the names of Spinoza, Schelling, and Bloch. But also Sartre can be added here. An alternative version of this line has been called “Aristotelian Left” by Ernst Bloch.

The Relevance of Sartre
As to Sartre one can easily recognize that his important category of freedom (including his explicit project dynamics) operates in strict vicinity to the above-mentioned line of thought. The relationship becomes obvious when deriving it from Schelling’s conception of freedom: It is namely in the writings of his middle and late periods that Schelling comes back to his early concept of freedom which is one which qualifies self-consciousness from the beginning on. But now he formulates the contextual embedding in more systematic terms such that it is not mere abstract ground of the absolute (and thus unground or abyss), instead, it is now mediated with practical freedom, because it is not anymore transcendence of dependency, as in Fichte, but more the unification of contradictions. Hence, it aims more at a unity which surpasses these contradictions, and is not solely centred around the for-itself of a given subject. (See the illuminating exposition in Dieter Henrich: Der Grund im Bewusstsein. Stuttgart, 1992.) So Schelling sticks after all to his holistic approach, because theoretical and practical philosophy connect each other now within a complete framework which shall illuminate insight about the ground of philosophizing as well as the ground of the concrete becoming of the worldly such that it is also capable of formulating knowledge about both the world as culture as well as the world as nature. (Die Rekonstruktion von Raum, Zeit und Materie, op. cit., 219 (par.).) However, of this onto-epistemic arc Sartre has dealt only with one half, perhaps contrary to his own intention and tendency and not to his own advantage, and by doing so, probably missing an important component of his own thinking which had already been intrinsic in his epoch. (Paraphrasing here a passage of an unpublished talk of Zimmermann’s: Diskursive Aberration als Grundlage des Gelingens. Conference on existential philosophy and ethics, FU Berlin, March 2011, to be published.) Nevertheless, the methodological consequences of his approach are important in their own right: This is particularly clear in the detailed explication of his progressive-regressive method applied to biographical research and essentially going back to an idea of Henri Lefebvre, which is also utilized in order to conceptualize the notion of time. Although this is only needed for the project of an individual freedom within collective sociality, the method is a practical application of what is already drafted out in the ontological as well as epistemological project of a differentiation between negative and positive philosophy in the sense of Schelling. Hence, very similar to what he does when he clarifies Husserl’s concept of epoché (in visualizing it as a “cleaned up” (authentical) reflexion), Sartre also clarifies the meaning of what is in question in Schelling’s positive philosophy, and usually not quite at hand for practical explications: This is so because for him, freedom becomes the qualitative difference between what has become and what could have become. Hence, for Sartre it is the field of possibilities which is the ground of individual subjectivity (traditionally generalized as to a global, transcendental subjectivity), but this ground is erected again on a primal ground (Urgrund) which is itself groundless such that it is abyss like in Schelling and flees its own reflexion towards the unthinkable and unspeakable. So in the end, Lacan is right after all: “The Unconscious is the discourse of the Other.” (Die vier Grundbegriffe der Psychoanalyse, Seminar IX, Olten, 1980). “Is there”, asks Lacan, “a better means of securing oneself about a point about which one is erring, than to convince the Other of the truth of what one claims?” (Ibid.) This is the basic structure of love: to convince the Other that he has got what is able to complete ourselves. By this we can assure ourselves to continue erring in what we are actually missing. This is the fundamental aberration/failure in Lacan: “It is met by the subject in the Other in the manner of that invitation that this Other offers to it. In the intervals of this discourse of the Other emerges then something (…) for the experience whose radical expression could be summarized in the formula He tells me that, but what is it he wants?”(Ibid., 225) In its aberration/failure, the discourse recurs therefore onto the difference. The ethical demand consists in my making it not only topical but also conceptual.

Transcendental Materialism
For Zimmermann, the approach to transcendental materialism took place within a series of successive working periods which were grounded in an early study group essentially coming from physics dealing from 1981 through 1987 with research on the phenomenon of self-organization as introduced by Thom, Prigogine and others (Whitsun Group with Clive Kilmister). In a second study group called Klymene meeting in the monastery of the Dominicans in Walberberg near Cologne led by Jan Robert Bloch (then at the IPN Kiel) the discussion was continued from 1988 through 1990. This group was once continued, led by Zimmermann himself from 1994 through 1997. The results of this group are collected in “Selbstreferenz und poetische Praxis” (Cuxhaven, 1991). Into this period belong Zimmermann’s main publications on Sartre, Bloch, and Schelling. His stay in Cambridge then stimulated again his interest in his former work in physics (mainly on cosmology and black holes), but now always under the perspective of a philosophical horizon which has to be accounted for all the time and with a view to the explicit relationship between physics (as fundamental science) and philosophy altogether. At the same time, he worked on those topics which could be visualized as immediate consequences following from the original research program of self-organization, in particular with respect to the mediation of spaces, networks, and systems. But Zimmermann dealt more with the theories of emergence in the sense of the Santa Fe school and the semiological approaches following the interpretations of the French speaking schools, not only of Thom and Prigogine, but also of Umberto Eco and Julia Kristeva, rather than the classical approaches which in Germany are still attributed to Luhmann. Between 2000 and 2010 this line was still topical, although in his books all of these topics were visualized within a complete mediative interrelationship. This topical multitude seems somewhat unbounded (and was frequently topic of critique, if not reason for professional disadvantages), but nevertheless comprises of a strict guide line which makes possible the definition of what is now called transcendental materialism: This is mainly so because this approach approximates what Sandkuehler once called “onto-epistemic” viewpoint (Artikel “Onto-Epistemologie”In: id. (ed.), Europaeische Enzyklopaedie zu Philosophie und Wissenschaften, Hamburg 1990, III 608-615). Sandkuehler understands this as a re-problematizing of questions originally posed by Kant with a view to a genetically structured and transcendental history of science and of knowledge into which logic and/or philosophy are being integrated from the outset. Schelling’s line of argument however is not far then: Sandkuehler speaks of a “methodological realism and epistemological materialism” which “pre-supposes the objective mode of existence for the entities of knowledge.” (Ibid., 609) Hence, his theory is ontological (visualizing forms of knowledge as forms of being) and epistemological (visualizing these forms of being as interpreted and thus constructed) at the same time. In this sense, such an approach presents “a contribution to a rational reconstruction of the internal epistemic history of theories (…) [and of the] implicit epistemological pre-conditions of theory (…)”(Ibid.) It is exactly here where Zimmermann recognizes the possibility of re-interpreting substance metaphysics in a new way (on the line from Spinoza via Schelling to Bloch and Sartre) which is essentially materialistic after all. This materialism is also transcendental, because apparently the worldly is still deficient with respect to its foundation and is in need therefore of a suitable completion which from the beginning on implies some form of necessitarianism for an underlying concrete tendency of process-like development (evolution). Because it is this concreteness which shows up as result of a philosophy of nature, the relationship with psycho-analysis is quite obvious. As already Klaus-Juergen Gruen has said: “Like a psycho-analysis of nature the unconscious shall become conscious in the end.” (Das Erwachen der Materie, Hildesheim etc., 1993, 80.) Such a re-construction is always related to an encompassing-heuristic method and thus to philosophical speculation. The latter aims not only to some totality: In the first place, it is “re-construction of the mediations” and constitutes the “formative process of the total mediation itself.”(Hans Heinz Holz: Artikel “Spekulation”. In: H.-J. Sandkuehler (ed.), op. cit., IV 397-402, here: 399.) Indeed, this structure is „not of the simply connecting type by means of intermediate terms, but that of the encompassing …” In this sense shows “metaphysics as modern and regained one (more as ultima philosophia rather than as prima philosophia) up as approximation to what we have characterized by the expression ‘transcendental materialism’, of which the axiomatic dialectic of systems turns out to be the systematic as well as methodological nucleus more geometrico.”(Rainer E. Zimmermann: Rekonstruktion, op. cit., 33 sq. as well as id.: Axiomatische Systemdialektik als Differenzphilosophie, in id. (ed.), System und Struktur, Cuxhaven, 1992, 31-64.) But by means of this explicitly progressive-regressive structure of the approach two fields of research are being opened up, of equal relevance to be illuminated in detail, but leading into two different directions:

a) The regression onto the ground (Nothing(ness) as Ground)

The regressive motion leads back to the ground: On the one hand this shows what can be found about the genesis of the world, given the present perspective of some actualized state of knowledge. Because it is necessary here to determine the ground of the complete world, the reflexion is practically leaving the worldly region of human consciousness. Hence, it becomes re-construction of the pre-conditions of life. But at the same time, the ground itself has to be illuminated and discussed with respect to its own determination, because it can only be ground, if it does not have any ground for itself. But this is not quite the case: Very much in the sense of Schelling ground turns out to be itself grounded within a primal ground which defines the pre-conditions of the universe altogether. Understood correctly, one deals here also with physical pre-conditions, but primarily, one deals with those of transcendental philosophy, because this primal ground exists beyond the categorial determinations of space and time (and also matter). In other words: It cannot be expressed in linguistic terms, because language itself lives under the conditions of this very categorial framework. Hence, language can only be applied usefully within this very framework. Nevertheless, Zimmermann shares the view of some of his predecessors, particularly of Schelling, that in spite of this we can actually talk about the primal ground, if only in a metaphorizing variant of philosophical language as it is utilized for instance in the arts. So Zimmermann goes beyond the usual division of modes of being in adding to the being of beings, non-being (as the possible) and nothingness (as the impossible) another differentiation which splits nothingness into a speakable (thinkable) component and an unspeakable (unthinkable) component. Only the latter can be primal ground of All, and as such it is abyss, it is nothingness as ground and nothing but ground.

b) Methodological progression (experimental philosophy)

The other direction leads to a practical application of the theory, different from what is usually understood in terms of practical philosophy, in a way that is very direct, straight-forward and far-reaching: This is the reason why the book “System of transcendental materialism” consists of two parts. The first part (The Physics of Logic) is being read in the usual way as a book of philosophy and discusses successively the regressive analysis (71-207), the re-construction of the ground (transition from non-being to being) (207-330), and the progressive synthesis (331-431). The second part (Hermeneutic of Matter) (433-761) however explicates a complete line of philosophical reflexion in the sciences, from physics to politics. The argument following a more and more branching and bifurcating line is such that it ends up with a unified figure of aesthetics and ethics within a re-formulation of the ancient double-term “kalokagathía” which shall be visualized as concrete pendant of the abstract debate on the ground in the book’s first part. But for both, there is an important common aspect to note: because in the final passages it is the discourse of the topology of social space (in this case illustrated by means of discussing the city of Bologna serving as an example here) which essentially determines the design in terms of the concrete application. It is this same discourse however that determines the argument at the beginning when discussing the nature of the primal ground. Even more: Zimmermann leads this approach into a region beyond this self-referencing loop of discourse modeling by adding the aspect of experimental philosophy to this which can be understood in the following way: To the book a list of theorems is being attached including all propositions which accompany the text as a kind of subtext (following Spinoza’s custom in his “Ethics”of adding scholiae). This compact formal nucleus forms the inventory of data for a computer-playable version of the Glass Bead Game (in the sense of Hermann Hesse’s novel), which Zimmermann and his colleague from Munich, Simon Wiedemann, have developed recently: The idea is to put tokens onto the vertices of a hexagonal two-dimensional network of lines on the screen. These tokens represent propositions from the book’s inventory which can be downloaded. They are coloured in a certain way in order to classify the relevance of the respective propositions (theorem, proposition, corollary). The edges of the network represent the logical connectives between propositions and imply a direction of argument which is indicated by means of an arrow head attached to the edges. The point is now to extend the given inventory by adding new propositions to the network while re-combining arguments or models of theories. (Rainer E. Zimmermann, Simon M. Wiedemann: Reconstructing the Glass Bead Game, 3rd ICT&S meeting, Barcelona, 2010, TripleC 8(2), 136-138.) Hence, the game simulates the process of reflexion itself – but while doing so, it also emulates this process. In other words: The game actually performs research and produces propositions which can be utilized for actual theories according to the selected field of research. But if the formation of theories becomes practical in a space whose points are propositions (more precisely: models of theories), then it is straightforward to assume that the space of the concrete discourse (of reflexion and design) can be brought to congruence with the space of the abstract discourse of the (conceptual) founding process. And this is the basic idea of this project, but also the idea of the complete project altogether.

Delimitations
Under the collective name „speculative realism“ various approaches have been presented during the last years pointing to re-interpretations of the line mentioned here, in particular with a view to German Idealism. These approaches are somewhat different among each other, but have got a number of common aspects as well: It is important to notice that all these approaches, the object-oriented philosophy of Graham Harman, the eliminative nihilism of Ray Brassier, the cybervitalism of Iain Hamilton Grant, and the speculative materialism of Quentin Meillassoux, do only tangentially touch but do not meet the nucleus of transcendental materialism as it is being introduced here. This does not necessarily mean that all parts of these approaches would have no relevance as to the project displayed here, nor does it imply that those authors who are godfathers of these approaches (Bruno Latour, Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou) would not be able to contribute to it. But it should be clear that the alternative utilization of the term “transcendental materialism”, be it in former times in Austria while trying to reconciliate Kant and Marx, be it more recently when Johnston applies it to the approach of Zizek’s is not meeting the point Zimmermann would like to express in this work.

Selected Works
Books/Monographies

Selbstreferenz und poetische Praxis. Zur Grundlegung einer axiomatischen Systemdialektik. Cuxhaven, 1991.
Die Rekonstruktion von Raum, Zeit und Materie. Moderne Implikationen Schellingscher Naturphilosophie. Frankfurt a.M.1998.
The Klymene Principle. A Unified Approach to Emergent Consciousness. Kasseler Philosophische Schriften, Materialien und Preprints, 1999.
Das Draengen des Blickes. Vorlesungen über Aesthetik. Muenchen, 1999.
Subjekt & Existenz. Zur Systematik Blochscher Philosophie. Berlin, 2001.
The Physics of Logic. Collected Archive Papers 2000-2001 containing two joint papers and one paper in German. Kasseler Philosophische Schriften, Materialien und Preprints, 2002.
Diskurse des Unsagbaren. Vorlesungen über Hermeneutik. Muenchen, 2002.
Kritik der interkulturellen Vernunft. Paderborn, 2002.
[with E. R. Sandvoss] Philosophische Aspekte der Raumfahrt. Paderborn, 2004.
System des transzendentalen Materialismus. Paderborn, 2004.
Graphismus & Repräsentation. Zu einer poetischen Logik von Raum und Zeit. Muenchen, 2004.
[with H.-S. Park] Die gestoerte Morgenstille. Kleine Geschichtsphilosophie Koreas. Paderborn, 2005.
Jean-Paul Sartre – interkulturell gelesen. Nordhausen, 2005.
Ernst Bloch – interkulturell gelesen. Nordhausen, 2005.
Ethik & interkulturelle Vernunft. Nordhausen, 2005.
Die außerordentlichen Reisen des Jules Verne. Zur Wissenschafts- und Technikrezeption im Frankeich des 19. Jahrhunderts. Paderborn, 2006.
[with W. Loh and R. A. Mall] Interkulturelle Logik. Paderborn, 2009.
Die Kreativitaet der Materie. Interkulturelle Strukturgeschichte eines Begriffs. Nordhausen, 2007.
[with S. M. Wiedemann] Topoi der Materie. Neue Anleitung zum Glasperlenspiel. [In press]
Was heisst und zu welchem Ende studiert man Design Science? (Muenchener Schriften zur Design Science, Band 1) Aachen,2007.
[with C. Fuchs] Practical Civil Virtues in Cyberspace. Towards the Utopian Identity of Civitas and Multitudo.(Muenchener Schriften zur Design Science, Band 5) Aachen, 2009.
New Ethics Proved in Geometrical Order. Spinozist Reflexions on Evolutionary Systems. Litchfield Park (Az.), 2010.
[with P. Kasapidou] Vom Rebetiko zum Entechno Laiko. Bemerkungen zum griechischen Sozialraum mit einem Anhang ausgewaehlter Liedertexte. (Muenchener Schriften zur Design Science, Band 6) Aachen, 2010.

Important papers following Jean-Paul Sartre

Die Totalitaet und ihre Struktur: Existentielle Psychoanalyse und Geschichtstheorie bei Sartre, Lendemains 40, 1985, 75-85.
Poetik des sozialen Seins: Sartres Auffassung vom Unbewussten, in: R. E. Zimmermann (ed.), Dossier Sartre, Lendemains 42,1986, 61-69.
Imagination und Katharsis: Zum poetischen Kontext der Subjektivitaet bei Sartre, in: T.Koenig (ed.), Sartre - ein Kongress, Reinbek, 1988, 107-131.
Authenticity and Historicity. On the Dialectical Ethics of Sartre. In: S. H. Lee (ed.), Inquiries into Values (The Inaugural Session of the International Society for Value Inquiry), Lewiston, Queenston, 1988, 413-426.
Neue Fragen zur Methode: Das juengste Systemprogramm des dialektischen Materialismus. In: R. E. Zimmermann (ed.),Jean-Paul Sartre, Junghans, Cuxhaven, 1989, 44-57.
Invention als Moment kreativer Praxis: Zur sozialistischen Ethik Sartres. Prima Philosophia 4 (3), 1991, 311-334.
Zeit und Zeitlichkeit bei Sartre und Bloch, 3. Sartre-Treffen, Berlin, in: R. E. Zimmermann (ed.), Sartre-Jahrbuch Zwei, Muenster, 1991, 102-117.
The Ontological Perspective of Existential Dialectics. A Contextual Approach to Sartrean Thought. In: P. L. Eisenhardt, K. Palonen, L. Subra, R. E. Zimmermann (eds.), Modern Concepts of Existentialism (Essays on Sartrean Problems in Philosophy, Political Theory, and Aesthetics), University of Jyvaeskylae Studies in Education, Psychology, and Social Research (Finland) 102, 1993, 35-65.
Verallgemeinerte Aesthetikproduktion als dynamischer Kern der Praxis bei Sartre. In: P. Knopp, V. v. Wroblewsky (eds.), Existentialismus heute, Philo-Verlag, Berlin, 1999, 37-62.
Kontext-Chirurgie, Metaphorisierung und poetische Praxis. Nochmals zur progressiv-regressiven Methode Sartres. In: P. Knopp, V. v. Wroblewsky (eds.), Jean-Paul Sartre, Carnets 2000, Philo, Berlin, 2001, 49-63, 236-239.
Der totale Sinn seiner selbst. Literatur und Biographie bei Sartre oder Zur anthropologischen Grundlegung der Psychologie. In: E. Jaeggi et al. (eds.), Journal für Psychologie 2/2002, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 177-199.
Ob Geburt oder Tod. Freiheit als Irreduzibilität. In: P. Knopp, V. v. Wroblewsky (eds.), Die Freiheit des Nein (Cahiers Sartriens 2001/02), Philo, Berlin, 2003, 15-39.
Sartres Das Sein und das Nichts als moderne Poetik. Zur Neubegründung eines Begriffs. (Tagung der Sartre-Gesellschaft Berlin aus Anlass des 60. Jahrestages der Erstveroeffentlichung.) In: P. Knopp, V. v. Wroblewsky (eds.), Carnets Jean-Paul Sartre: Der Lauf des Boesen. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. etc., 2006, 127-161.

Important papers following Ernst Bloch

Axiomatische Systemdialektik als Differenzphilosophie. Zur Denklinie Spinoza-Schelling-Bloch. In: R. E. Zimmermann (ed.),System und Struktur, Neue Aufsaetze zur spekulativen Physik, Cuxhaven, 1992, 31-64.
The 1994 Eastbourne Lectures on the Utopian Function of Art & Literature in the Philosophy of Ernst Bloch. A Topic Revisited. Part 1: The Conservative Approach. Bloch’s Ontology of the Not-yet-being; its Methodological & Systematical Aspects. Part 2: The Contemporary Approach. Modern Substance-Metaphysics on the Line Spinoza-Schelling-Bloch. Bloch-Almanach 15, Ludwigshafen, 1996, 33-73.
Das Experimentum Mundi als narrative Rekonstruktion, in: R. E. Zimmermann, G. Koch (eds.), U-Topoi, Aesthetik und politische Praxis bei Ernst Bloch, Moessingen-Talheim, 1996 (1997), 42-58.
Vom Sein zum Werden oder Auf der Suche nach dem Goldenen Vlies. In: J. R. Bloch (ed.), Perspektiven der Philosophie Ernst Blochs. Frankfurt a.M., 1997, 374-390.
Ethik heißt im Grunde Wissen. Bloch und Sartre auf dem Weg zu einem transzendentalen Materialismus. System & Struktur VII/1&2, 1999, 11-21.
[with J. R. Bloch] Naturallianz, in: K. Kufeld, P. Zudeick (eds.), Utopien haben einen Fahrplan, Gestaltungsräume für eine zunkunftsfähige Praxis, Moessingen-Talheim, 2000, 99-108.

Important papers following Schelling

Naturphilosophie und Aesthetik nach Schelling, System & Struktur (Neue Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik) II/1, 1994, 79-99. Neuerdings auch in: E. Hahn (ed.), Berliner Schelling-Studien, Heft 1, Schelling-Forschungsstelle, Total, Berlin, 2000, 177-206.)
[with F. Viganò] Das Unbedingte als Grund der Philosophie, System & Struktur (Neue Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik) II/2, 1994, 159-209.
Freiheit als Grund des Wirklichen. Zur Entwurfsstruktur Schellingscher Ontologie. In: Internationale Fachtagung Leonberg 1992 (Internationale Schelling-Gesellschaft), in: H. M. Baumgartner, W. G. Jacobs (eds.), Schellings Weg zur Freiheitsschrift, Legende und Wahrheit, Tagungsakten (Schellingiana Band 5), Fromman-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstadt,1996, 330-339.
Aesthetics as a Semiology of Nature: On the Unity of Schelling’s Substance-Metaphysics. NOBOSS-Meeting, Westcliff-on-Sea, UK-Essex, System & Struktur (Neue Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik) IV/2, 1996, 151-173.
Freiheit als Substanz. Metaphysische Aspekte von Initialemergenz und kosmischer Evolution. In: W. Saltzer, P. L. Eisenhardt, D. Kurth, R. E. Zimmermann (eds.), Die Erfindung des Universums?, Neue Überlegungen zur philosophischen Kosmologie, Insel, Frankfurt a.M., 1997, 45-71.
Von Schelling zu Bloch: Positive Philosophie als Begründung des noch gar nicht geräumten Bauplatzes, in: H. Eidam, F. Hermenau, D. Stederoth (eds.), Kritik und Praxis, Zur Problematik menschlicher Emanzipation (W. Schmied-Kowarzik zum 60.Geburtstag), zu Klampen, Lueneburg, 1999, 84-95.
L’Originarietà della materia. Sulla fondazione dell’organismo in Bruno e Schelling. In: C. Tatasciore (ed.), Dalla Materia alla Coscienza, Studi su Schelling in ricordo di Giuseppe Semerari. Guerini, Milano, 2000, 43-64.
Freiheit & Unfreiheit. Zur Interpretation der Freiheitsschrift Schellings durch Francesco Moiso. In: F. Viganò (ed.), La Natura osservata e compresa, Saggi in memoria di Francesco Moiso, Guerini, Milano, 2005, 138-151.

Other main papers

The Structure of Mythos - On the Cultural Stability of Alchemy, Ambix 31 (3), 1984, 125-137.
Ordnung und Unordnung - Zum neueren Determinismusstreit zwischen Thom und Prigogine, Lendemains 50, 1988, 60-74.
Zur Dialektik der Naturwissenschaften, in: H. Kimmerle, W. Lefèvre, R. W. Meyer (eds.), Hegel-Jahrbuch 1989 (XVII. Int. Hegel-Kongress, Berlin-West), Bochum, 1989, 309-317.
Self-Reference: On the Generic Non-Linearity of Nature, Philosophia Naturalis 27 (2), 1990, 272-297.
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle: Philosophical Implications of Self-Reference, in: J. L. Casti, A. Karlquist (eds.), Beyond Belief: Randomness, Prediction, and Explanation in Science, Abisko Summer Workshop, Boca Raton, Ann Arbor, Boston, 1991, 14-54.
Netzwerkstrukturen und die Emergenz des Neuen, in: J. Ehrhardt (ed.), Netzwerk-Dimensionen, Kulturelle Konfigurationen und Management-Perspektiven, Bergheim, 1992, 70-85.
Initiale Emergenz und kosmische Evolution. Zur Rekonstruktion der Substanz-Metaphysik. System & Struktur (Neue Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik) I/1, 1993, 39-55.
Emergenz und exakte Narration des Welthaften: Zur Naturdialektik aus heutiger Sicht. System & Struktur (Neue Zeitschrift für spekulative Physik) III/1, 1995, 139-169.
Emergence and the Hierarchies of Form: An Onto-Epistemic Approach to Metaphysics. In: K. Mainzer, A. Mueller, W. Saltzer (eds.), From Simplicity to Complexity, Part II (Conference, ZiF, Bielefeld), Braunschweig, 1998, 153-162.
René Thom - Semiologie des Chaos, in: G. Abel (ed.), Franzoesische Nachkriegsphilosophie - Autoren und Positionen (= volume 2 der Schriftenreihe des Frankreich-Zentrums der TU Berlin), Berlin, 2001, 185-203.
Beyond the Physics of Logic. Aspects of Transcendental Materialism or URAM in a Modern View. In: URAM 11 (Ultimate Reality and Meaning), Toronto, http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/physics/0105094 . (2001) (Also in: Science & Society (Polish Academy of Sciences, Scientific Centre, Paris), 2002, 17-32.)
Relational Concepts of Space and Time in Leibniz and the Foundations of Physics. In: H. Poser (ed.), Nihil sine ratione (VII. Int. Leibniz-Kongress, Berlin), III, 2001, 1428-1436.
Imago Mundi. Begründung und Verfügungsmacht oder Eine Poetik der Modelle. In: F. Vidal (ed.), BilderWelten, Bloch-Jahrbuch 2000, Moessingen-Talheim, 2001, 11-57.
Orthafte Ortlosigkeit und Formen der Überlappung. Zu einer Figur der interkulturellen Philosophie bei Ram Adhar Mall. In: H. R. Yousefi, I. Braun, H.-J. Scheidgen (eds.), Orthafte Ortlosigkeit der Philosophie, [Festschrift fuer R. A. Mall], Nordhausen, 2007, 163-171.
Poetik und rationaler Diskurs. Zur rituellen Inszenierung der Logik. In: H. Paetzold, W. Schmied-Kowarzik (eds.),[Ringvorlesung, IAG Philosophische Grundlagenprobleme, Kassel, 2005] Interkulturelle Philosophie (Philosophische Diskurse,Band 9), Weimar, 2007, 134-156.

Papers with respect to physics

Loops and Knots as Topoi of Substance. Spinoza Revisited. In: http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0004077 v2. (2000)
Physik als praktische Theorie, in: K. Kufeld, P. Zudeick (eds.), Utopien haben einen Fahrplan, Gestaltungsraeume für eine zukunftsfähige Praxis, Moessingen-Talheim, 2000, 178-196.
Classicity from Entangled Ensemble States of Knotted Spin Networks. A Conceptual Approach. Icmp2000. Imperial College London, http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0007024 . (2000) [Cf. A. Fokas et al. (eds.), Congress Proceedings, International Press, Boston, 2001, 468 sq.]
Recent Conceptual Consequences of Loop Quantum Gravity, Part I: Foundational Aspects, http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/physics/0107061 . (2001)
Recent Conceptual Consequences of Loop Quantum Gravity, Part II: Holistic Aspects, http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/physics/0107081 . (2001)
Recent Conceptual Consequences of Loop Quantum Gravity. Part III: Postcript On Time, http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/physics/0108026 . (2001)
Spinoza in Context: A Holistic Approach in Modern Terms, in: E. Martikainen (ed.), Infinity, Causality, and Determinism, Cosmological Enterprises and their Preconditions, Finish Academy of Sciences Colloquium. Lang, Frankfurt a.M. etc., 2002,165-186.
Cosmological Natural Selection Revisited. Some Remarks on the Conceptual Conundrum and Possible Alleys. http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/physics/0304053 (2003)
Das Begruendungsproblem in der Philosophie der Quantengravitation. System & Struktur X 1, 2004, 3-17.
The Modeling of Nature as a Glass Bead Game. In: Eeva Martikainen (ed.), Conference Human Approaches to the Universe. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Helsinki. Agricola Society, 2005, 43-65.
Bewusstsein & Quantenuniversum. In: R. E. Zimmermann (ed.), Tagung zur Naturphilosophie Ernst Blochs, Ernst-Bloch-Zentrum Ludwigshafen, Hamburg, 2005, 17-38.
On the Modality of the World. Space and Time in Spinoza. In: F. Linhard, P. Eisenhardt (eds.), Notions of Space and Time, Early Modern Concepts and Fundamental Theories, Zeitspruenge, Frankfurt a. M., II (2007), Heft 1/2, 217-242.

Papers with respect to the theory of evolutionary systems (experimental philosophy)

[with A. Soci and G. Colacchio] Re-constructing Bologna. The City as an Emergent Computational System. An Interdisciplinary Study in the Complexity of Urban Structures. Part I: Basic Idea & Fundamental Concepts In: http://www.arXiv.org/pdf/nlin.AO/0109025 v2. (2001)
Decentralization as Organizing Principle of Emergent Urban Structures. In: AKSOE 14 (Urbane Systeme und Verkehrsdynamik II), Fachsitzungen des Arbeitskreises Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme, Fruehjahrstagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, Regensburg, http://www.arXiv.org/nlin.AO/0203012 . (2002) Also in: V. Arshinov, C. Fuchs (eds.), Causality, Emergence, Self-Organization (INTAS Volume of Collected Essays 1), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 2003, 36-55.
From Utopia to Metopia. Brecht’s Mahagonny as a Counter Project to Progressing Civilis and Actual Bologna as its Negation. 11th Symposion of the International Brecht Society, 26-29th June 2003, Humboldt University, Berlin. In: G. Koch et al.(eds.), „Koennen uns und euch und niemand helfen“, Die Mahagonnysierung der Welt, Frankfurt a. M., 2006, 113-123.
[mit A. Soci] The Emergence of Bologna and its Future Consequences. Decentralization as Cohesion Catalyst in Guild Dominated Urban Networks. In: The Information Society. Understanding Its Institutions Interdisciplinarily. EAEPE, Maastricht, 181-182. See the complete version: www.arXiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0411509
Otherland Revisited. Philosophical Implications of Artificial Worlds. Part 1: City of Golden Shadow or the Ontology of Artificial Worlds. In: I. Dobronravova, W. Hofkirchner (eds.), Science of Self-Organization and Self-Organization of Science (INTAS Volume of Collected Essays 2), Kyiv, 2004, 86-116.
Otherland Revisited. Philosophical Implications of Artificial Worlds. Part 2: River of Blue Fire or the Epistemology of Artificial Worlds. In: R. E. Zimmermann, V. Budanov (eds.), Towards Otherland, Languages of Science and Languages Beyond.(INTAS Volume of Collected Essays 3), Kassel University Press, 2005, 29-44.
Metopien in Anderland. Ansätze zu einer experimentellen Philosophie. In: F. Vidal (ed.), Naturallianz – von der Physik zur Politik. (Bloch-Jahrbuch 2004) Moessingen-Talheim, 2004, 47-62.
„ … the exact size, shape and color of hope itself.“ Virtual Environment & Concrete Utopia. In: F. Vidal (ed.): Heimat in vernetzten Welten. [Bloch-Jahrbuch 2006] Mössingen-Talheim, 2006, 67-82.
Topological Aspects of Biosemiotics. (Contribution to: Gathering in Biosemiotics 6, July 2006, Salzburg) tripleC (Salzburg), special issue, 5(2), 2007, 49-63.
Die Raumdeutung. Ein erster Ansatz. Tagung der Ernst-Bloch-Assoziation, ict&s, Salzburg, 2006. VorSchein 29, Nürnberg, 2007, 13-25.
Sartre steht im Raum. Ueberlegungen zur Einholung der Philosophie in die soziale Praxis. In: P. Knopp, V. v. Wroblewsky (eds.), Carnets Jean-Paul Sartre – Eine Moral in Situation, Frankfurt a.M. etc., 2008, 211-232.
Konzeptuelle Dialektik I: Leid & Elend. VorSchein 30, Nürnberg, 2008, 225-242.
[with Wolfgang Hofkirchner] The Topos of Virtuality. Part I: From the Neuman-Nave Topos to the Explication of Conceptual Social Space, tripleC (Wien), 7(1), 2009, 74-87.
Sprache & Raum. Zur Großstadtheimat von Bloch aus. In: id. (ed.), Aktuelle Bloch-Studien 2008/2009. (Münchener Schriften zur Design Science, Band 4) Aachen, 2010, 31-72.
Ι ΝΕΑ ΠΟΛΥ. Design komplexer urbaner Systeme und Erzeugung von Heimat. Entwurf eines Forschungsprogramms. Tagung Sozialrauminszenierung. Humboldt-Universität Berlin, 2010. [In press]
[with Simon M. Wiedemann] Reconstructing the Glass Bead Game. On the Philosophy of Information. 3rd ICTs & Society Meeting, Barcelona, 2010, TripleC 8(2), 136-138, 2010.

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