Many observers are concerned that the growth of globalization will undermine and destroy national economies. For the past six years, Professor Suzanne Berger, the Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science at MIT, our keynote speaker, has worked with a cross-disciplinary research team at the MIT Industrial Performance Center to study the globalization strategies of 500 major companies in the United States, Asia, and Europe. This study addressed such questions as which functions companies were out-sourcing and which they were keeping in-house in the electronics and textile and apparel industries in order to see how faster and slower industries have been impacted by globalization. / MIT-Japan Program

Dieser Sammelband bringt alle Vorträge des in November 1995 von der Musikakademie und der Theologischen Fakultät in Ljubljana organisierten Premrl-Symposiums sowie des in Premrls Geburtsort Podananos veranstalteten Symposiums.

In September 2013, the „International Symposium on Service Science (ISSS)“ offered various participants a unique platform for advancing research and discussions in service science for the fifth consecutive year. Being held as part of the “Leipzig Days of Applied Informatics/Leipziger Tage der Angewandten Informatik”, researchers and practitioners alike joined in their effort to better understand the emergence of system services providers in complex value chains and service systems. The proceedings book documents some of their insights and wants to serve as reference for the advancing discussion.

In September 2013, the „International Symposium on Service Science (ISSS)“ offered various participants a unique platform for advancing research and discussions in service science for the fifth consecutive year. Being held as part of the “Leipzig Days of Applied Informatics/Leipziger Tage der Angewandten Informatik”, researchers and practitioners alike joined in their effort to better understand the emergence of system services providers in complex value chains and service systems. The proceedings book documents some of their insights and wants to serve as reference for the advancing discussion.:Research Paper Session: Stefan Kirn, Johannes Murray, Marc Premm, Michael Schüle, Tobias Widmer Towards a Research Framework for Multiagent Organizations Sven Tackenberg, Sönke Duckwitz, Christopher M. Schlick Simulation- and Optimization-based Development of Proposals for Service and Engineering Projects Michael Sonnenberg, Boris Ansorge, Michael Becker Potential of Service Engineering in the Field of Renewable Energies Discussion Paper Session: Sebastian Schneider, Susanne Mütze-Niewöhner Process-Oriented Simulation of Complex Service Provision Based on the Design Structure Matrix Axel Hummel, René Keßler, Arndt Döhler, Stefan Kühne Simulation as a Decision-Making Support Tool for Full-Service E-Commerce Providers Bernd Pfitzinger, Thomas Jestädt, Dragan Macos Enhancing dependability through simulations: The example of the German toll system Routis Forum: Nicola Saccani Towards a maturity assessment of service business development by manufacturers. A framework Deniz Özcan, Christina Niemöller, Michael Fellmann, Michel Matijacic, Gerald Däuble, Michael Schlicker, Oliver Thomas, Markus Nüttgens A Use Case-driven Approach to the Design of Service Support Systems: Making Use of Semantic Technologies Sibylle Hermann, Walter Ganz, Philipp Westner The path to a computer-aided design system for services Lars-Peter Meyer, Michael Thieme, Kyrill Meyer Round-Trip Engineering for System Services

My examination of Plato’s valuation of eros in the Symposium and Phaedrus dialogues in its manifold elements in general has resulted in a more concrete definition of eros as a relational entity. The transition of an initially natural cosmic force in archaic times into a more valid ethical quality so as to encourage betterment in human relations is evident in Plato’s philosophy. The terms ‘Platonic love’ and ‘eros’ are misinterpreted and my thesis purports to prove that Plato’s eros is a spiritual quest for beauty (kalos), truth (alethes) and the good (agathos). Modern scholastic commentaries were referred to and proved helpful in assessing the differences in ancient and current ethical schools of thought. The argument purports that Platonic eros is not a static condition of soul but a continuous movement/progress towards the highest spiritual love. / Ancient Languages and Cultures / M.A. (Ancient Languages and Cultures)

The purpose of the current study is to present an interpretation of Eros and its demonical aspect as it is described in Plato’s dialogues Phaedrus and The Symposium as well as to attempt to throw some light over the question in which way the erotic as such influences Plato’s notion of how to pursue philosophy. In the first part of the essay an account is given of the Platonic Eros as a unifying element and as striving for being. I defend the position that in the context of the interpreted dialogues philosophy is thought of as an erotic enterprise which takes place as a coming closer to the object of love. This coming closer takes place as remembering in Phaedrus and as creating in beauty in The Symposium. Further I suggest that the creative activity in which the philosophical lover is involved lets a certain demonic time arise. In the second part of the study I change perspective and look at the erotic desire as a twofold process. In order to clarify the underlying dynamics in this process I introduce the concept of demonic appeal. The erotic desire takes place according to this twofold structure as a demonic appeal on the side of the beloved which gives rise to an erotic striving on the side of the lover. The lover is pulled towards the beloved which is perceived by the lover as something demonic, as the effect of a foreign commanding power over him. What pulls the lover towards itself is the beautiful and I argue that the beautiful is the way in which being appears to the philosophic lover. In the last part of this section I discuss the consequences of this way of appearing of being for Plato’s thinking. In the third and last part of this study I focus on mindfulness of one’s erotic desires as the necessary condition for initiation of philosophic life. I maintain that the purpose of mindfulness according to the dialogues is the attainment of freedom and a reflective stance in respect to one’s desires.

My examination of Plato’s valuation of eros in the Symposium and Phaedrus dialogues in its manifold elements in general has resulted in a more concrete definition of eros as a relational entity. The transition of an initially natural cosmic force in archaic times into a more valid ethical quality so as to encourage betterment in human relations is evident in Plato’s philosophy. The terms ‘Platonic love’ and ‘eros’ are misinterpreted and my thesis purports to prove that Plato’s eros is a spiritual quest for beauty (kalos), truth (alethes) and the good (agathos). Modern scholastic commentaries were referred to and proved helpful in assessing the differences in ancient and current ethical schools of thought. The argument purports that Platonic eros is not a static condition of soul but a continuous movement/progress towards the highest spiritual love. / Ancient Languages and Cultures / M.A. (Ancient Languages and Cultures)

This thesis explores the presence of canonical texts in the Hellenistic period beyond individual reading habits. It utilises the interpersonal context of the symposium to understand the place and significance of literature as a social phenomenon. Methodologically, it combines art and text, synthesising literature which represents, and literature visualised and depicted at, Hellenistic symposia. My over-arching argument is not simply that the post-classical symposium persists, contrary to much scholarship which represents it as dead or as vain re-enactments. Rather, I claim that studying the Hellenistic symposium exposes the social mechanisms which ensured that a Greek literary past remained relevant even in the Hellenistic world. Chapter One discusses the historical shift from the Archaic and Classical symposium to the Hellenistic symposium, and defends the latter’s often-questioned existence. It also theorises a new approach for handling images and texts related to the Hellenistic symposium. the subsequent chapters offer case studies showing the utility of this approach. Chapter Two considers the reception of the Phaeacians in relation to the symposium and Chapter Three looks at the theatrical tradition. Chapter Four focuses on Callimachus’ Iambi and the Letter of Aristeas, texts which in different ways have the symposium as a structuring principle and are concerned with the literary past. The aim is to highlight how the argument obtains even when the symposium is an imagined, textual one. The Conclusion advances the thesis in two ways. First, it extends my argument beyond the Hellenistic period with a short study of the visual and verbal reception of the comic poet Menander at Late Antique symposia. Second, its theorises the greater significance of studying the literary past and the Hellenistic symposia for a wider conception of how literary reception works.

Our symposium will bring together experts from the German and international 'Inverse Problems Community' and young scientists. The focus will be on ill-posedness phenomena, regularization theory and practice, and on the analytical, numerical, and stochastic treatment of applied inverse problems in natural sciences, engineering, and finance.

This thesis contends that to uncover the 'real' symposion from its literary and artistic representations is a difficult task. Every representation of the symposion is informed by its author's wider textual ambitions. Its shape, the roles it plays, and the meanings it conveys are all determined by considerations other than providing an authentic snapshot of sympotic life. However, by acknowledging and investigating these authorial strategies, it might just be possible to catch a glimpse of the event they purport to represent, as this close reading of the Symposia of Plato and Xenophon aims to show. For, at the heart of Plato and Xenophon's ambitions lies an interest in the protocols and procedures of the symposion, even as these are shaped for philosophical ends. Chasing the symposion via this route will lead us into a world of philosophy and education, where the democratic city clashes with and is subsumed into processes of elite self-fashioning. The performances in Plato's idealised symposion are epideixeis which affirm (at the same time as they open up and explore) their performers' claims to be well-educated, symposion-gomg kaloi kagathoi. By contrast, the epideixeis of Xenophon's symposiasts take part in a discussion of kalokagaihia, and suggest how the symposion might (or might not) facilitate its learning. Both Plato and Xenophon are concerned with the symposion as a location for kalokagathia and with kalokagathia as a process. In its quest for the symposion, this thesis uncovers two distinct, but related, conceptions of the symposion and suggests some new ways of reading Plato and Xenophon's Symposia. For Plato, the symposion operates alongside the more traditionally 'philosophical' content of his dialogue. By contrast, Xenophon imposes his writerly agenda on top of his symposion, extolling the merits of his textual Symposium over the symposion.