There can be little doubt that without Spinoza, German Idealism would have been just as impossible as it would have been without Kant. Yet the precise nature of Spinoza's influence on the German Idealists has hardly been studied in detail. This volume of essays by leading scholars sheds light on how the appropriation of Spinoza by Fichte, Schelling and Hegel grew out of the reception of his philosophy by, among others, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Jacobi, Herder, Goethe, Schleiermacher, Maimon and, of course, (...) Kant. The volume thus not only illuminates the history of Spinoza's thought, but also initiates a genuine philosophical dialogue between the ideas of Spinoza and those of the German Idealists. The issues at stake - the value of humanity; the possibility and importance of self-negation; the nature and value of reason and imagination; human freedom; teleology; intuitive knowledge; the nature of God - remain of the highest philosophical importance today. (shrink)

Demetrius of Phalerum (c. 355-280BCE) of Phalerum was a philosopher-statesman. He studied in the Peripatos under Theophrastus and subsequently used his political influence to help his teacher acquire property for the Peripatetic school. As overseer of Athens, his governance was characterized by a decade of domestic peace. Exiled to Alexandria in Egypt, he became the adviser of Ptolemy. He is said to have been in charge of legislation, and it is likely that he influenced the founding of the Museum and (...) the Library. This edition of the fragments of Demetrius of Phalerum reflects the growing interest in the Hellenistic period and the philosophical schools of that age. As a philosopher-statesman, Demetrius appears to have combined theory and practice. For example, in the work On Behalf of the Politeia, he almost certainly explained his own legislation and governance by appealing to the Aristotelian notion of politeia, that is, a constitution in which democratic and oligarchic elements are combined. In On Peace, he may have defended his subservience to Macedon by appealing to Aristotle, who repeatedly recognized the importance of peace over war; and in On Fortune, he will have followed Theophrastus, emphasizing the way fortune can determine the success or failure of sound policy. Whatever the case concerning any one title, we can well understand why Cicero regarded Demetrius as a unique individual: the educated statesman who was able to bring learning out of the shadows of erudition into the light of political conflict, and that despite an oratorical style more suited to the shadows of the Peripatos then to political combat. The new edition of secondary reports by Stork, van Ophuijsen, and Dorandi brings together the evidence for these and other judgments. The facing translation which accompanies the Greek and Latin texts opens up the material to readers who lack the ancient languages, and the accompanying essays introduce us to important issues. The volume will be of interest to those interested in Greek literature, Hellenistic philosophy, Hellenistic history, and generally to persons captivated by the notion of philosopher-statesman. (shrink)

The article provides a brief overview on Hans Mayer’s life and work and his several stays in Jerusalem and with Stéphane Mosès.

Kant declared that philosophy began in 1781 with his Critique of Pure Reason. In 1806 Hegel announced that it had been completed. Förster assesses the steps that led from Kant’s “beginning” to Hegel’s “end” and concludes that both Kant and Hegel were indeed right. His study reveals Goethe’s significant contribution to post-Kantian thinking.

Nach den wenigen sicher überlieferten Fragmenten des Dialogs Über Gerechtigkeit behandelte Aristoteles dort sowohl das Schicksal einer polis als auch das Verhältnis von Gerechtigkeit und Lust. In Politik I 2 formuliert Aristoteles seine Annahmen über die zentrale Bedeutung von Recht und Gerechtigkeit, die hier nicht in unterschiedliche Arten aufgespalten sind, wobei er zwei anthropologische Annahmen macht: Auf der einen Seite ist der Mensch ohne Gesetz und Recht das wildeste ›Tier‹, auf der anderen Seite besitzt nur er einen Sinn für Recht (...) und Unrecht und die Fähigkeit, dieses anderen mitzuteilen. Recht ist die Ordnung der politischen Gemeinschaft, es macht damit das gute Leben, um dessentwillen die polis existiert, erst möglich. Rechtlosigkeit setzt dagegen die schlimmsten zerstörerischen Energien frei. Aristoteles kritisiert Platon, der schon von einer polis gesprochen hatte, obwohl Organe des Rechtsvollzugs noch fehlten. (shrink)

Die Geschichte der internationalen Beziehungen gehort derzeit zu den dynamischsten und innovativsten Feldern der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft. Eine historische Teildisziplin, die lange Zeit als eher traditionell und konservativ galt, erweitert und erneuert sich. Diesen Prozess dokumentieren die Beitrage des vorliegenden Bandes. Sie leisten eine Bestandsaufnahme, entwickeln Perspektiven und reflektieren so die ganze Bandbreite einer modernen Geschichte der internationalen Beziehungen. Gepragt ist der Band durch den Dialog von Historikern, die sich mit unterschiedlicher Ausrichtung - politik-, wirtschafts-, sozial- oder kulturgeschichtlich - fur internationale (...) Geschichte interessieren. Das Spektrum der Beitrage reicht von der Erforschung von Globalisierungsprozessen uber Fragen des Kulturtransfers bis hin zu einer internationalen Politikgeschichte. (shrink)

The way in which a nation’s economy is structured is of great importance for the material welfare of its people as well as the people’s relationship with the state and the operation of the state itself. It is also important for the proper functioning of a nation as a people and its psychological welfare. If the gap between rich and poor increases, the structure of an economy, and therefore the welfare of the state and the nation, is at risk. Two (...) important documents of antiquity, Plato’s Nomoi and the Book of Deuteronomy, which even today influence life, dealt intensively with the fissures between rich and poor within society as a danger to political welfare and harmony. This article will examine these documents to make use of these two books for improving a societal situation. This will be done by a comparative perspective on both of these books. (shrink)

Die Frage nach dem Subjekt politischen Handelnsist eines der aktuellen Themen politischer Theoriebildung. Das Neue Testament zeigt im Zuge seiner vielfältigen Interpretationen der Geschichte Jesu Christi aufschlussreiche Aspekte der Subjektwerdung. Dabei werden lohnende Perspektiven auf gegenwärtige Theorien des politischen Subjekts sichtbar, deren interdisziplinäre Reflexion einen Beitrag zum gegenwärtigen Diskurs des Politischen bildet.

This volume is the first ever English translation of Kant's last major work, the so-called Opus Postumum, a work Kant himself described as his 'chef d'oeuvre' and as the keystone of his entire philosophical system. It occupied him for more than the last decade of his life. Begun with the intention of providing a 'transition from the metaphysical foundations of natural science to physics,' Kant's reflections take him far beyond the problem he initially set out to solve. In fact, he (...) reassesses a whole series of fundamental topics of transcendental philosophy: the thing in itself, the nature of space and time, the concept of the self and its agency, the idea of God, and the unity of theoretical and practical reason. Though never completed, the text reaches a logical albeit not fully developed, conclusion. (shrink)

A family reconstitution study of the Krummhörn population (Ostfriesland, Germany, 1720–1874) reveals that infant mortality and children’s probabilities of marrying or emigrating unmarried are affected by the number of living same-sexed sibs in farmers’ families but not in the families of landless laborers. We interpret these results in terms of a “local resource competition” model in which resource-holding families are obliged to manipulate the reproductive future of their offspring. In contrast, families that lack resources have no need to manipulate their (...) offspring and are more likely to benefit from allowing their offspring to capitalize on whatever opportunities to reproduce present themselves. (shrink)

Im hellenistischen Schriftenverzeichnis der Werke des Aristoteles, das bei Diogenes Laertios V 22–27 erhalten ist, wird etwa ein Dutzend von Titeln zitiert, die auf eine philosophische Auseinandersetzung mit politischen Themen hindeuten. In den wenigen sicher überlieferten Fragmenten des Dialogs Über Gerechtigkeit, in vier Büchern, behandelte Aristoteles auch das Schicksal einer polis. In dem Dialog Staatsmann, in zwei Büchern, dessen Thema Cicero mit »Über den Staat und den herausragenden Mann« angibt, war Aristoteles selber einer der Sprecher.

Aristoteles verrät in Politik auf Schritt und Tritt, dass sich schon andere Autoren zu den von ihm behandelten Themen geäußert hatten. Besonders wichtig ist für ihn der Einfluss Platons, dessen Auffassungen er häufig kritisiert, obwohl er ihm doch in so vielem verpflichtet ist.

Politeia bezeichnet in Aristoteles’ Politik einmal Verfassung als die je verschieden ausgeprägte politische Ordnung einer polis. Besonders in Politik IV und V stellt Aristoteles häufig politeia monarchischen Staatsformen gegenüber – die poleis unter diesen Verfassungen wären damit etwa ›Gemeindestaaten‹. Normativ kann die Geltung von politeia eingeengt sein, wenn gesetzlosen bzw. autokratischen Regierungsformen die Kennzeichnung politeia bestritten wird.

While the utopian fiction film is dominated by dystopian cautionary tales, the real home of the "eu-topian" film can be found in its nonfiction, documentary modes. This is one of the central tenets of this study of nonfiction utopian film that deserves a wide readership and maybe an English-language translation.1 Not only does it cover a widely neglected genre of films, it does so in a knowledgeable and stylistically elegant way, uncovering many texts along the way that turn out to (...) be gifts that keep giving. An added bonus to the study is the fact that most of the films discussed are readily available on platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. The author is well versed in documentary film and utopian studies and is... (shrink)

The relevance of Wolfgang K hler's psychoneural isomorphism principle to contemporary cognitive neuroscience is explored. K hler's approach to the mind—body problem is interpreted as a response to the foundational crisis of psychology at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some aspects of his isomorphism doctrine are discussed, with a view to reaching an interpretation that is both historically accurate and pertinent to issues currently debated in the philosophy of psychology. The principle was meant to be empirically verifiable. Accordingly, some (...) similarities between K hler's approach and current neural network modeling are pointed out, and it is shown that some recent trends in the neurosciences are broadly compatible with K hler's views on cortical functioning. Isomorphism is interpreted as a form of neuroreductionism constrained by bridging laws relating mental phenomena to macrosocopic parameters of neural function. While isomorphism is probably valid for perceptual phenomena, its applicability to higher mental processes remains doubtful. (shrink)