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.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Bruell / It is only in "erotic matters" that Plato's Socrates is wise, or so he claims at least on several occasions, and since his Socrates makes this claim, it is necessary for Plato's readers to investigate the content of Socrates' wisdom about eros. This dissertation undertakes such an investigation. Plato does not, however, make Socrates' view of eros easy to grasp. So diverse are Socrates' treatments of eros in different dialogues and even within the same dialogue that doubt may arise as to whether he has a consistent view of eros; Socrates subjects eros to relentless criticism throughout the Republic and his first speech in the Phaedrus, and then offers eros his highest praise in his second speech in the Phaedrus and a somewhat lesser praise in the Symposium. This dissertation takes the question of why Socrates treats eros in such divergent ways as its guiding thread and offers an account of the ambiguity in eros' character that renders it both blameworthy and praiseworthy in Socrates' estimation. The investigation is primarily of eros in its ordinary sense of romantic love for another human being, for Socrates' most extensive discussions of eros, those of the Phaedrus and Symposium, are primarily about romantic love. Furthermore, as this investigation makes clear, despite his references to other kinds of eros, Socrates distinguishes a precise meaning of eros, according to which eros is always love of another human being. Socrates' view of romantic love is then assessed through studies of the Republic, Phaedrus, and Symposium. These studies present a unified Socratic understanding of eros; despite their apparent differences, Socrates' treatment of eros in each dialogue confirms and supplements that of the others, each providing further insight into Socrates' complete view. In the Republic, Socrates' opposition to eros, as displayed in both his discussion of the communism of the family in book five and his account of the tyrannic soul in book nine, is traced to irrational religious beliefs to which he suggests eros is connected. Socrates then explains this connection by presenting romantic love as a source of such beliefs in the Phaedrus and Symposium. Because eros is such a source, this dissertation argues that philosophy is incompatible with eros in its precise sense, as Socrates subtly indicates even within his laudatory treatments of eros in the Phaedrus and Symposium. Thus, as a source of irrational beliefs, eros is blameworthy. Yet eros is also praiseworthy. Despite his indication that the philosopher would be free of eros in the precise sense, Socrates also argues that the experience of eros can be of great benefit in the education of a potential philosopher. Precisely as a source of irrational religious belief, the erotic experience includes a greater awareness of the longing for immortality and hence the concern with mortality that Socrates believes is characteristic of human beings, and by bringing lovers to a greater awareness of this concern, eros provides a first step towards the self-knowledge characteristic of the philosophic life. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

This dissertation examines the relationship between sympotic and rhapsodic discourses and the Homeric epics and specifically considers how an understanding of sympotic discourse can affect an external audience’s perception of events within the narrative. Heroic feasting is examined and defined as an activity which signifies different attitudes and aesthetics than the symposium. Yet a case is made for the possibility that Greek people are practicing symposia at a time when rhapsodes – the creative composers-in-performance of the epics – would have been freely incorporating material from the contemporary world into their performances. This is a period of time extending over much of the 7th century, and perhaps even into some time before and after. I analyze both the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses, using literary, archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence to define markers – certain signs, gestures, attitudes, accoutrement, and behavior specific to each – of each discourse. By treating the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses with their own markers, I establish a methodology with which to examine certain passages of the epics and the implicit meanings conveyed in them. Odysseus is thus shown to be manipulating sympotic discourse in the Phaeacian episodes of the Odyssey in order to win a favorable return home – at least as the contemporary external audience familiar with sympotic conventions of speaking and behaving would have understood it. Achilles too is treated, with specific reference to his behavior in the embassy scene of the Iliad. The sympotic discourse conveyed by the actions and attitudes of Achilles and Patroclus can be shown to communicate additional layers of meaning to the external audience and perhaps reference extra-Iliadic motifs concerning Achilles’ behavior at symposia. A proper understanding of rhapsodic and sympotic discourses within the epics not only contributes to a more nuanced understanding of character behavior within the epics and audiences’ perception of such behavior, but also challenges our understanding of the role of archaic social institutions such as the symposium within the epics.

In evaluating Alcibiades' speech in Plato's Symposium, modern commentators often either conflate the historical figure and the fictive character, or else fail to make a distinction between Alcibiades the narrator and Alcibiades the eager young man whose adolescent encounters with Socrates which the more mature adult describes. The resulting scholarship tends to cast Alcibiades as a foil for Socrates and to reduce Plato's creation to a philosophic cautionary tale. Such reductions are misleadingly simplistic and require revision.By taking care to let neither history nor reputation supersede the textual evidence the Symposium provides, we can make a compelling case for a more moderate assessment of Alcibiades' philosophical progress. In doing so, we find that he is not lacking in understanding but rather that his understanding is incomplete. As such, Alcibiades occupies the vaguely defined space of intermediacy and intermediaries--the metaxu with which so much of the Symposium is concerned.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation examines the relationship between sympotic and rhapsodic discourses and the Homeric epics and specifically considers how an understanding of sympotic discourse can affect an external audience’s perception of events within the narrative. Heroic feasting is examined and defined as an activity which signifies different attitudes and aesthetics than the symposium. Yet a case is made for the possibility that Greek people are practicing symposia at a time when rhapsodes – the creative composers-in-performance of the epics – would have been freely incorporating material from the contemporary world into their performances. This is a period of time extending over much of the 7th century, and perhaps even into some time before and after. I analyze both the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses, using literary, archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence to define markers – certain signs, gestures, attitudes, accoutrement, and behavior specific to each – of each discourse. By treating the symposium and rhapsodic performances as discourses with their own markers, I establish a methodology with which to examine certain passages of the epics and the implicit meanings conveyed in them. Odysseus is thus shown to be manipulating sympotic discourse in the Phaeacian episodes of the Odyssey in order to win a favorable return home – at least as the contemporary external audience familiar with sympotic conventions of speaking and behaving would have understood it. Achilles too is treated, with specific reference to his behavior in the embassy scene of the Iliad. The sympotic discourse conveyed by the actions and attitudes of Achilles and Patroclus can be shown to communicate additional layers of meaning to the external audience and perhaps reference extra-Iliadic motifs concerning Achilles’ behavior at symposia. A proper understanding of rhapsodic and sympotic discourses within the epics not only contributes to a more nuanced understanding of character behavior within the epics and audiences’ perception of such behavior, but also challenges our understanding of the role of archaic social institutions such as the symposium within the epics.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the potential influence of Plato's Symposium on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, by analyzing similarities between the two texts. Such comparisons, I argue, enhance our reading and understanding of Brontë's novel as a specifically philosophical discourse on metaphysical concepts. By examining the infrastructure of Wuthering Heights, I propose that its specific complexity adheres to models of philosophical inquiry as presented in the Symposium. After my introduction, Chapter 2 investigates the resonances of Aristophanes' speech in Plato's work that are manifest in Brontë's conceptualizations of love: Platonic love, the divided self, and unity of being. Chapter 3 details structural similarities between the two texts, the most important being narrative progression and complexity, are closely examined. Chapter 4 explores similarities between Plato's and Brontë's representations of punishment and discipline, including instances of physical, bodily punishment and examples of punishment aimed at individual reform. In approaching Brontë's novel in terms of, and as, philosophical discourse, this thesis highlights the fair amount of homogeneity between it and the Symposium, and illustrates the validity of an approach to Wuthering Heights which seeks both to clarify and to respect its complexity by searching out its constituent ideas.

Plato’s Symposium masterfully depicts several different explanations of the phenomenon of Eros or love. The physician Eryximachus depicts Eros as a cosmic force that can bring harmony to a number of areas, from medicine and music to astronomy and divination. Most readers of the Symposium have read Eryximachus in an unflattering way, as a pompous know-it-all who fails to give a speech that meets either his high aspirations or his high opinion of himself. In this paper I argue that this reading of Eryximachus and his speech is unpersuasive. My defense of Eryximachus has three components: (1) Plato treats Eryximachus sympathetically in the Symposium and elsewhere, and has him deliver a modest and perfectly coherent speech about the science of Eros. (2) Eryximachus’s speech can only be properly understood if we read it in the context of Hippocratic medical theory, which infuses the speech throughout. (3) Outside the Symposium, Plato views medicine as a model technē, and health as a central philosophical concept; inside the Symposium, Plato has his mouthpiece Socrates give a speech on behalf of the priestess Diotima that agrees with Eryximachus on nearly every point of his speech. This indicates that Plato would have viewed Eryximachus’s speech quite favorably, and that modern readers should follow suit. I conclude by suggesting how this reading of Eryximachus should influence how we read the Symposium as a whole. / text

Versorgungsforschung untersucht die Wirkungen und Kosten der Kranken- und Gesundheitsversorgung unter Routinebedingungen und berücksichtigt dabei alle Aspekte der gesundheitlichen Beratung, Prävention und klinischen Versorgung. Als wesentliche Determinanten der Effektivität und Effizienz der medizinischen Versorgung fließen in Studien der Versorgungsforschung häufig auch die Rahmenbedingungen und die Organisation des Gesundheitswesens und der sozialen Sicherungssysteme ein. Versorgungsforschung stellt jedoch nicht nur die sogenannte „letzte Meile“ der Gesundheitsforschung dar, sondern generiert darüber hinaus neue Hypothesen für klinische und experimentelle Forschung und trägt damit als Translationsforschung auch zur Klärung von Erkrankungsursachen bei. Aufgrund ihrer zentralen Rolle in der Gesundheitsforschung und einer langjährigen Tradition in diesem Forschungsfeld ist Versorgungsforschung/Public Health neben regenerativer Medizin und Onkologie einer von drei Profilschwerpunkten der Medizinischen Fakultät Carl Gustav Carus an der Technischen Universität Dresden. So bestehen beispielsweise in den Bereichen Dermatologie/Allergologie, Klinische Pharmakologie, Arbeits- und Sozialmedizin, Psychiatrie, Innere Medizin, Orthopädie, Allgemeinmedizin und Neurochirurgie bereits überregional bekannte und renommierte Arbeitsgruppen im Bereich Versorgungsforschung am Standort Dresden. Zur weiteren Profilschärfung in diesem Forschungsbereich wurde im Juni 2011 an der Medizinischen Fakultät Carl Gustav Carus der TU Dresden ein neuer Lehrstuhl „Sozialmedizin und Versorgungsforschung“ eingerichtet. Eines der selbsterklärten Ziele ist es dabei, durch multiprofessionelle Vernetzung von methodischer und klinischer Expertise Innovationen zu entwickeln, zu evaluieren und nachhaltig in der Gesundheits- und Krankenversorgung umzusetzen. Dahinter steht das Primat, dass Versorgungsforschung auf hohem Niveau und mit dem Ziel einer evidenzbasierten Politikberatung letztlich nur im interdisziplinären Austausch zu sichern ist. Unter dem Titel „Versorgungsforschung - Standortbestimmung und Perspektiven“ zielt das 6. Symposium der AG Versorgungsforschung darauf ab, die Akteure der Versorgungsforschung der Medizinischen Fakultät und des Universitätsklinikums Dresden vorzustellen und untereinander sowie mit gesundheitspolitischen Entscheidungsträgern, gesetzlichen Krankenversicherungen, mit Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, Studierenden und allen weiteren Interessierten ins Gespräch zu kommen. Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus 20 Kliniken und Instituten des Universitätsklinikums und der Medizinischen Fakultät Dresden haben insgesamt 36 Poster eingereicht, die die vielen unterschiedlichen Facetten der Versorgungsforschung in Dresden präsentieren. Diese 36 Poster, deren Abstracts in dieser Publikation zusammengestellt sind, stehen im Zentrum des 6. Symposiums der AG Versorgungsforschung. Auch wenn eine eindeutige Zuordnung nicht in allen Fällen möglich ist, wurden die Beiträge unter den Überschriften „Versorgungsepidemiologie“, „Prävention/Früherkennung“, „Ambulante Versorgung“ und „Stationäre Versorgung“ in vier thematisch gegliederte Postersessions eingeteilt.