The relation between Charles Mills and the Enlightenment has often been overlooked or seen as antithetical. Yet Mills considered his philosophy a part of the (black) radical Enlightenment. The latter, he claimed, is true to the core principles of Enlightenment philosophy – objectivism, universalism, and rationalism – but radicalizes them with a focus on actual (racial) socio-political domination. In this paper, I argue that the principles of Enlightenment philosophy play a fundamental role in Mills’s project of locating real-world racial domination and the struggle against it at the center of philosophical reflection. I also show that, according to Mills, only the radical Enlightenment is able to substantively realize these principles. More generally, my discussion sheds light on Mills’s understanding of Enlightenment philosophy and the radical Enlightenment in particular.

A Chinese food network specializing in vegetable crops has existed since the onset of labor migration from southeast China to British Columbia in the 19th century. By 1940, the network achieved market prominence in the local production and distribution of vegetables. This thesis examines the socio-economic history of the network’s emergence and development during the historical period between 1880 and 1940 – the height of white supremacy and discriminatory policies. It seeks to explain how the economic success came about under structural disadvantages. Two theoretical concerns guide the methodologies and historical analysis: How do social relations bear on economic actions? How do migrants interact with the environment in which they find themselves? To deconstruct the narrative that Chinese market gardeners, peddlers, and greengrocers were victims simply pushed into the agri-food sector, this thesis reads for economic difference from data scattered across secondary literature, archival materials, and oral histories. Economic subjectivities and actions are re-aligned to present an alternative picture: small-business entrepreneurship in agriculture as a vehicle to a good life. Adopting mixed embeddedness approach, it traces the interplay between the actors within the network and the structural context of colonialism and capitalism. It identifies the ways in which they utilized resources and devised strategies to adapt to and transform societies. Furthermore, the multifaceted ways in which social relations, especially migrant networks, influenced the emergence and development of the Chinese food network are elaborated.

Durante la crisis política en Bolivia en 2019-2020, se reactualizaron las correlaciones de fuerza dentro de la disputa por el poder de estado en Bolivia. En este proceso, los frentes cívicos y, en particular, las agrupaciones femeninas organizadas en la ciudad de Santa Cruz cobraron relevancia. La presente tesis ofrece un análisis en clave materialista y feminista sobre el rol de las “plataformas ciudadanas”, con énfasis en las plataformas femeninas, para así indagar sobre las imbricaciones de clase y género en el proyecto conservador de la toma de poder estatal. En base a un estudio cualitativo se exploran empíricamente los lugares de enunciación, acciones y alianzas de estas agrupaciones. A través de entrevistas con activistas clave y del análisis de redes sociales de las plataformas, así como de material periodístico, se devela la centralidad de la construcción de la mujer-madre desde nociones heteropatriarcales y conservadoras como estrategia para sostener un proyecto reaccionario. Finalmente, se argumenta que la feminización de las plataformas ciudadanas fue instrumentalizada por la clase dominante cruceña para expandir su fuerza política e ideológica, y así conseguir legitimidad ante la población boliviana sin realizar cambios sustanciales en la naturaleza patriarcal y opresiva de estos bloques políticos.

Political trust as a conditional relationship between citizens and institutions is essential for the stability of political systems. Although the EU-Institutions are extending increasingly their competences (Tallberg, 2002), trust in them is mostly determined by national trust (Harteveld et al., 2013). Two theories, how national trust spills over to the EU-Level, are introduced: The congruence theory (Anderson, 1998) assumes a positive relation on the individual level based on proxy-theory and the compensation theory (Sánchez-Cuenca, 2000) postulates a negative one, applying a cost-benefit approach. To combine both theories, the latter was shifted to the aggregated level of EU-member-states (Muñoz et al., 2011). With the help of the ESS Round 9 (2018), both theories are analyzed comprehensively. The findings clearly confirm the existence of a congruence effect to explain variation inside a country. Between EU-member-states differences can be partly explained by the compensation theory, but the results are less robust.

The biodiversity crisis of rapid species extinction is met with conservation measures on a global scale. The current thesis examines the case of German development cooperation as the biggest financier of biodiversity conservation in the Global South, focusing on the in-volvement of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IP&LC) in the planning and imple-mentation of biodiversity projects in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Based on inter-views with practitioners in German development cooperation and the protocol of a Bundes-tag hearing it is worked out how German conservation approaches often (still) follow a logic of ecological modernisation. On the other hand, the involvement of IP&LC is gaining sali-ence. By applying a post-colonial political ecology perspective, it is shown that on the imple-mentation level German development actors are aware of the importance of integrating the rights, worldviews and contributions of IP&LC into conservation. However, when it comes to policymaking, IP&LC are often still excluded due to structural obstacles. This bears the risk that IP&LC are merely included for the implementation of Western-designed conservation projects. Conversely, there is a chance that the growing awareness for IP&LC will translate into more participatory conservation that places human well-being at the centre.

Kurt Gödels ontologischer Gottesbeweis, in dem er die notwendige Existenz Gottes über die maximale Menge der positiven Eigenschaften beweist, wurde 1970 veröffentlicht. In den Jahrzehnten zuvor wurden seine Unvollständigkeitssätze (1931), seine Beweisskizze über die Vereinbarkeit der ZF-Mengenlehre mit dem Auswahlaxiom und der allgemeinen Kontinuumshypothese (1939), Arbeiten zur Erweiterung der Mengenlehre, sowie metamathematische Texte und Vorträge zur Grundlegung der Mathematik veröffentlicht. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Zusammenhang dieser unterschiedlichen Arbeiten Gödels beschrieben und seine Auswirkungen auf die Grundlegung der Mathematik diskutiert. Dabei wird insbesondere Gödels Forderung nach neuen Begriffen, seine philosophische Anschauung zur mathematischen Intuition und Konzeptbildung und der Aufbau seines philosophischen, metamathematischen Programms auf der absoluten Unendlichkeit (in Anlehnung an Leibniz’ Monadologie und seine Urmonade), herausgestellt. In diesem Zusammenhang wird ein neuer Mengenbegriff etabliert, der als Analogie zur Allklasse und zum Prinzip der Unerreichbarkeit von V als Grund-Axiom die Verbindung zwischen den hier diskutierten verschieden Gebieten und Gödels ontologischem Gottesbeweis darstellt, in dem das Maximum der positiven Eigenschaften über einen offenen, homogenen Mengenbegriff erreicht und so die notwendige Existenz Gottes bewiesen wird.

Higher-order logic (HOL) offers a simple syntax and semantics for representing and reasoning about typed mathematical concepts. There are many state-of-the-art automated theorem provers for HOL. But the type system of HOL lacks advanced features where types may depend on terms. This is useful as many mathematical notions are inherently dependent typed. Dependent type theory offers such a rich type system but has rather substantial conceptual differences to HOL and isn’t supported as well by automated theorem provers. We introduce a dependently typed extension DHOLP of HOL that supports dependent types while retaining the style and conceptual framework of HOL. Moreover, we describe one translation from DHOLP and a second one from one of its fragments to HOL and prove the soundness and completeness of the translations. We implement both translations within the MMT system—a system for formalizing mathematics—where they are combined with a HOL prover into an automated theorem prover for DHOLP. Finally, we formalize basic set theory notions in DHOLP and outline how such a formalization can be combined with a recent translation of the language of the Mizar proof assistant to MMT to obtain an automated theorem prover for problems in the language of the Mizar proof assistant.

Planning and mental imagery interventions are two inexpensive evidence-based strategies that hold promise in facilitating changes in health behavior. This systematic review explores whether incorporating mental imagery techniques alongside planning enhances the effectiveness of planning interventions aimed at promoting health-related behaviors. Specifically, the main hypothesis examined whether combining planning with either process simulation or outcome simulation would be more effective in changing behavior than planning alone. It was further hypothesized that each individual intervention component would effectively change behavioral outcomes compared to a control condition. The review yielded 7 original studies analyzing data from a total of 1646 participants. Preliminary evidence was found that multicomponent interventions might be ineffective in changing health behavior relative to each of the components alone. The review also found preliminary evidence suggesting that planning and mental imagery may individually have limited effectiveness in promoting health behavior change. The results are discussed considering the limitations of the included trials and review methods, while also exploring practical implications and directions for future research.

To ensure lecturers can improve their teaching quality, the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science employs an evaluation process every semester, during which students can evaluate their lecturers anonymous and directly. In addition to individual results, the faculty also manually creates an evaluation report for all institutes belonging to it. To support the evaluation committee in generating the report, a reproducible pipeline will be created to automate this task as much as possible. Special focus will be applied to the concepts of code understandability and (computa- tional) reproducibility, while following modern design, documentation, coding guidelines and specifications. This ensures the pipeline is usable by anyone and continues to stay so in the future. Along with the pipeline, a prototype for a dashboard will be developed with minimal functionality to demonstrate how the processed data can be used to convey results in a way that extends the current evaluation report.

Diese Untersuchung beleuchtet aus demokratietheoretischer Perspektive die Spielräume und Grenzen demokratischer Entscheidungsfreiheit in der Migrationspolitik. Ausgangspunkt ist die These, dass Migration ein besonderes Politikfeld darstellt, dessen Besonderheiten die Legitimität demokratischer Entscheidungen beeinflussen. Ziel ist es, die Gründe für diese demokratische Sonderstellung der Migrationspolitik zu erörtern und die daraus resultierenden Konsequenzen zu analysieren. Es wird argumentiert, dass politische Gemeinschaften zwar über Spielräume bei migrationspolitischen Regelungen verfügen, diese aber mehrfach begrenzt sind.

Politically and socially polarizing issues like immigration or Europe’s financial crisis are leading to increasing party divisions in numerous European countries. Some scholars hypothesize that this is not just an issue of polarization, but the emergence of a new societal cleavage: the transnational globalization cleavage. Even though the salience and perceived gravity around transnational issues are increasing, no extensive analyses along the new cleavage have been made of parliamentary debates. This thesis attempts to close the identified research gap by following the method of Drewski and Gerhards (2023). Its analysis focuses specifically on justifications in the Italian parliamentary discourse to identify whether the globalization cleavage is indeed emerging in the country’s party system. Results largely confirm the presence of this cleavage, which could lead to an increasing reevaluation of original cleavages, and to a further analysis of new conflict lines.

Phosphate homeostasis is essential for survival in eucaryotes. It is mediated by inositol phosphates, which are synthesized by a sequence of kinases. One such kinase in humans is diphosphoinositol pentakisphosphate kinase 2 (PPIP5K2). However, the exact mechanism of phosphate homeostasis in general and PPIP5K2 specifically are still subject to research. To date knockouts and mutations are used for research, but an inhibitor for PPIP5K2 is heavily sought after. Bartsch and Fiedler, who carry out research concerning PPIP5K2, performed a high-throughput screening of 60 000 compounds revealing a single ATP-competitive inhibitor. With an IC50 of 15:5 M the affinity is comparably poor. The presented thesis aims at utilizing computer-aided drug design (CADD) methods to identify additional and ideally more potent PPIP5K2 ligands. We employed the binding mode of the lead compound to perform a pharmacophore-based virtual screening. A second approach deriving pharmacophore features from the PPIP5K2 apo structure was included to broaden the chemical space of potential active compounds further. We wrapped the pharmacophore screenings in a pipeline with additional CADD methods to evaluate the screening hits in more detail. Hits not fitting the binding pocket were discarded first. Then we used molecular docking to place the molecules in the binding pocket and filtered them based on matching the respective pharmacophore hypothesis and on the binding affinity score. Selected hits were simulated using molecular dynamics (MD) and the stability was evaluated by calculating the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) and fluctuation (RMSF). We identified nine candidates from the lead-based screening and eight from the apo structure-based screening. All candidates conform to their respective pharmacophore, score sufficiently high and are stable in MD simulations. Proposed candidates were handed over to our collaboration partners at FMP and will be tested invitro. If confirmed active, these compounds will aid building a library of PPIP5K2 ligands to be used in research and for further virtual screening and lead optimization campaigns.

Gegen ein allgemein-abstraktes Verständnis ist der spezifisch akademische Antisemitismus zu bestimmen, der sich als Ideologie an das akademische Feld anpasst: So wird Wissenschaftsfreiheit als defensives Individualrecht und die wissenschaftliche Form beansprucht, während sich antisemitische Ressentiments und Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit zeigen. Die Bedrohung für die Wissenschaftsfreiheit ist aus seiner irrationalen, antagonistischen und spaltenden Logik zu begreifen. Denn er geht mit Täter-Opfer-Umkehr, Leugnungen und weiteren sozialen Abwehrhandlungen einher, die Antisemitismuskritik erschweren und einen verschwörerischen ‚jüdischen‘ Feind imaginieren, der ‚Kritik‘ unterdrücke. Antisemitisch Agierende profitieren von einer organisationskulturellen Neutralität in den deutschen Universitäten, die selten Sanktionen folgen lassen – wenn sie das Problem überhaupt benennen. Denn die institutionelle Selbstregulierung und ihr Ideal der Wissenschaftsfreiheit scheitern an einem systemisch reproduzierten Antisemitismus und einer spiegelbildlichen Selbstidealisierung: Die zumeist liberalen Theorien (hier: Elif Özmen) der Wissenschaftsfreiheit gründen auf den Dualismen wissenschaftlich/ unwissenschaftlich und wissenschaftlich /ideologisch, mit der das Ideologische ausgeblendet wird. Während Özmen auf der Trias von Rechtsstaat, demokratischer Gesellschaft und akademischer Selbstregulierung vertraut, zieht sie keine Konsequenz aus ihrer Erfahrung, dass die meisten Professor:innen bei "Vorfällen“ schweigen. In ihrem Zweckrationalismus, Pragmatismus und Formalismus blendet Özmen von der real unvernünftigen Gesellschaft ab, die systemisch pathisch-projektive Bedürfnisstrukturen, entsprechende Deutungsmuster und mit Alltagsgewalt verbundene strukturelle Angstregime reproduziert. Für Jüdinnen und Juden gehören Universitäten zu jenen Regimen, da im akademischen Milieu mit dem „progressiven“ Ticket, das auf bestimmten schützenswerten, rigiden Gruppenidentitäten gründet, die Widerstandskraft gegen jede Form des Antisemitismus (insb. israelbezogen) schwindet. Indirekt können humanistische Kernmissionen der Akademie (A. Rosenfeld) und ihre Strukturprinzipien (R. K. Merton) Schlimmeres verhindern. Allerdings wäre eine kritische Theorie skeptisch, da jene humanen Missionen und Prinzipien im Antisemitismus als einer „Ontologie der Reklame“ (Adorno) verhöhnt würden. Mehr noch, die ‚Grenzen der Aufklärung‘ stecken in der Wissenschaftsfreiheit selbst: Unter der formalrechtlichen Freiheit kann sich der antisemitische Wahn in wissenschaftlichen Meinungen ‚frei‘ äußern und reproduzieren – das ist der ‚Antagonismus im freien wissenschaftlichen Meinen‘ (in Anlehnung an Adorno). Eine kritische Theorie zielt auf eine antinomische Moralkritik unter den Bedingungen des herrschenden Allgemeinen, die jede sozial und von vernünftigen Zwecken abstrahierende Ethik zur schlechten Unendlichkeit verleiten. Die formale Freiheit zur Wissenschaft bedarf mündiger Subjekte, die diese in bewusster gesellschaftlicher Negativität entfalten und Verfolgte unterstützen. Nicht zuletzt würden sie sich gegen instrumentalisierende Praxisanweisungen stellen und für den Vorrang des zu erkennenden Objekts eintreten, von dem keine unliebsamen Erscheinungen subjektiv abzuwehren sind.

Berlín es reconocida como una de las ciudades más inclusivas y diversas de Alemania, de ahí que se considere como la capital de lo queer-trans*. Aspecto que motivó mi interés personal y académico por comprender de qué manera se inscriben las diferentes identidades en este espacio diaspórico creado en Berlín, y como esta comunidad queertrans* latinoamericana, logra configurarse en un espacio donde ser Queer hace parte de la normalidad. Desde un enfoque interseccional y de género logro profundizar en estas dinámicas y comprender los contextos en que surge la agencia de la diáspora queer y trans* latinx, en relación con su construcción identitaria y su posicionamiento en este nuevo entorno como resultado de su proceso migratorio. Utilizando una metodología cualitativa, exploré los significados otorgados a las prácticas y relaciones migratorias, así como los itinerarios y puntos de inflexión que moldean su experiencia. Se concluye que la agencia surge en contextos de constreñimiento, se caracteriza por ser adaptativa, centrándose en el cuerpo como un espacio de significado y en la interacción constante con el entorno. La creación de un espacio diaspórico, constituye igualmente, una forma de agencia colectiva que proporciona seguridad y les ayuda a enfrentar la pérdida y la expatriación. La capacidad reflexiva y la adaptación al entorno son evidentes, lo que les permite deconstruirse y recrear sus identidades a partir de la configuración de espacios seguros para expresar sus creatividades y resistencias.