Die Reihe Beitrage zur Altertumskunde (BzA) wurde 1990 begrundet. Sie enthalt vorwiegend deutschsprachige Monographien und Tagungsbande, jedoch auch Texte, Ubersetzungen und Kommentare von antiken Werken, die von bleibender Wirkung sind. Die einzelnen Bande der Beitrage zur Altertumskunde sind nutzliche Arbeitsinstrumente und bieten einen klaren Zuwachs an Erkenntnissen zur Altertumskunde. Pro Jahr erscheinen etwa acht Bande.

The treatise known as book Lambda of Aristotle’s Metaphysics has become one of the most debated issues of recent scholarship. Aristotle adresses here fundamental questions of his theory of substance, his idea of causes and principles, and his concept of motions. Furthermore, the importance of the text is due to the fact that it contains an outline of what was traditionally understood as Aristotle’s theology.

This volume dispels the idea that Platonism was an otherworldly enterprise which neglected the study of the natural world. Leading scholars examine how the Platonists of late antiquity sought to understand and explain natural phenomena: their essays offer a new understanding of the metaphysics of Platonism, and its place in the history of science.

Werner Jaeger (1888–1961) was at his time the most brilliant and the most influential German classicist. His most important project was a tripartite study that he finally published under the title of Paideia. Die Formung des griechischen Menschen (1933–1947). Paideia was much more than a detailed scholarly book on pedagogy in the ancient world. It was an attempt to interpret the history of ancient thought—from Homeric epics to Attic tragedy and Platonic philosophy—as rooted in the intention to educate (or rather (...) to ‘form’) human beings. And it was the attempt to contribute to a contemporary German movement called ‘Third Humanism’. In this article, I give a critical overview of this work, its strengths and its shortcomings. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 107 Heft: 1 Seiten: 89-110.

The paper first analyses the Ciceronian sources of Augustine’s idea of justice, then argues that Augustine maintains a kind of “supernatural” view of politics , which leaves no room for a normative evaluation of the socio-political sphere. The specific feature of Augustine’s political “supernaturalism”, in fact, is the idea that original sin, depriving man of divine grace, prevents the earthly world from being an improvable copy of an ideal model.

According to a wide-spread opinion, the history of moral philosophy is divided into two major parts. Whereas ancient ethics is concerned with agent-relative prudential volitions, modern ethics is based upon agent-neutral moral obligations. The article questions this opposition by indicating that the mainstream of ancient ethics should rather be characterized by its typical theory of action. This theory doesn’t rest on prudential rationality but on the idea that a rational agent has to follow a number of non-arbitrary principles which conduct (...) his or her deliberating, choosing and acting. The model in question starts with an intellectualist concept of the will , and develops an account of human flourishing which is the basis of subtle further distinctions between relevant and incidental goods. Finally, it opens the possibility to bridge the gap between the issue of human flourishing and the Kantian concept of morality. (shrink)

Bevor man sich der antiken Tierethik aus einer moralphilosophischen Perspektive zuwenden kann, sollte man sich einige allgemeine kulturhistorische Fakten vor Augen führen. Die Art und Weise, wie Tiere in der Antike im allgemeinen Bewusstsein betrachtet wurden und wie man sie faktisch im Alltag behandelt hat, divergiert ganz erheblich von unseren eigenen landläufigen Auffassungen.