M'illumino/d'immenso - I'm lit/with immensity is Geoffrey Brock's translation of Giuseppe Ungaretti's poem Mattina. In the poem's minimalism, Ungaretti points to the maximal: the richness of poetry's expressive possibilities and the power of thinking in literature. This book addresses the fascination of readers to transcend the boundaries of their own in fiction, and literature's capacity, according to Kant, even to evoke, with the help of the development of aesthetic ideas, representations that exceed what is empirically and conceptually graspable - in (...) case studies about myths of creativity, images of death and the beyond after the 'death of God', of the soul, of melancholy as the dark ground of genius, of metamorphoses of both evil and good, of ecstasy, of the economy of self-sacrifice, of the art of resistance, and, among others, about figurations of biography and the portrait as approaches to singularity, what is particular and cannot be fully subsumed to any universality. (shrink)

Literatur, die von Pandemien handelt, ist kenntlich oft durch ihren parabolischen Charakter. Sie schildert Pandemien als eine Katastrophe, die die Fragilität gesellschaftlicher Institutionen entlarvt, soziale Normen außer Kraft zu setzen und Menschen auf das Animalische zu reduzieren vermag. Der gewohnte Rhythmus des Lebens, Denkens, Handelns ist während der Pandemie unterbrochen: Die Literatur spiegelt diesen Kontrollverlust und widersteht ihm zugleich in der poetologischen Ordnung ihrer Werke, durch deren freie und autonome Wahl. Sie vermag in Sinnbildern vom begrifflich kaum Fassbaren, von Sterben (...) und Tod und zugleich tröstlich gegen den Tod zu erzählen. Von dieser Macht poetischen Denkens handeln die folgenden Analysen von Giovanni Boccaccios Decamerone, Heinrich von Kleists Der Findling und Die Verlobung in St. Domingo, Albert Camus’ La Peste und Mircea Cārtārescus aktuellem Corona-Tagebuch Nach-Leben. (shrink)

„Literature is Freedom“, so endet Susan Sontags Dankrede zur Verleihung des Friedenspreises des Deutschen Buchhandels 2003. Worin gründet die Wirkmacht der Poesie, Freiräume des Denkens zu eröffnen, Lesern Grenzüberschreitungen der eigenen Zeit, der eigenen Identität, der eigenen Kultur zu ermöglichen und damit das Bewusstsein für gänzlich andere Vermessungen der Welt? Wie können Literaturwissenschaftler die Freiheit der Kunst und damit die Komplexität ästhetischer Erfahrungen verteidigen, angesichts der Reduzierung von Freiheitsgraden in den aktuellen Kulturkämpfen? Wie gelingt es zeitgenössischer politischer Dichtung, denen Gehör (...) zu verschaffen, deren Unfreiheit nur die Konsequenz des rücksichtslosen Freiheitsanspruchs privilegierter Individuen und Nationen ist? Antworten darauf versucht der folgende Artikel in offener, aphoristischer Form – mit Hilfe poetologischer Überlegungen und exemplarischen Hinweisen zur Gegenwartslyrik, u.a. zu Gedichten von Don Mee Choi, Kateryna Kalytko, Mihret Kebede, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Aleš Šteger, Carlos Soto-Román, Anja Utler, Uljana Wolf und Serhji Zhadan. (shrink)

Ten years after the appearance of Günter Blamberger’s award-winning Heinrich von Kleist. Biographie in the original German, the English translation by Sebastian Goth and Kelly Kawar appeared in 202...

This new translation of the first Critique forms part of a fifteen-volume English-language edition of the works of Immanuel Kant under the general editorship of this volume’s editor-translators, Paul Guyer and Allen Wood. The edition, which is almost complete by now, comprises all of Kant’s published works along with extensive selections from his literary remains, his correspondence, and student transcripts of his lecture courses in metaphysics, ethics, logic, and anthropology. The Cambridge edition aims at a consistent English rendition of Kant’s (...) works, both within a given volume and across volumes. In terms of scope and detail, the Cambridge edition is unrivaled in any language, except for the authoritative Academy edition begun under the directorship of Wilhelm Dilthey in 1900, which, however, is still not completed and several volumes of which are in serious need of re-editing. In one case, that of the Opus postumum, the best edition currently available seems to be the one in the Cambridge edition. (shrink)

Categorie -- De interpretatione -- Analitici primi -- Analitici secondi -- Topici -- Confutazioni sofistiche.

In der Reihe werden herausragende monographische Untersuchungen und Sammelbände zu allen Aspekten der Philosophie Kants veröffentlicht, ebenso zum systematischen Verhältnis seiner Philosophie zu anderen philosophischen Ansätzen in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Veröffentlicht werden Studien, die einen innovativen Charakter haben und ausdrückliche Desiderate der Forschung erfüllen. Die Publikationen repräsentieren den aktuellsten Stand der Forschung.

This paper examines the relation between intuition and concept in Kant in light of John McDowell's neo-Kantian position that intuitions are concept-laden.2 The focus is on Kant's twofold pronouncement that thoughts without content are empty and that intuitions without concepts are blind. I show that intuitions as singular representations are not instances of passive data intake but the result of synthetic unification of the given manifold of the senses by the power of the imagination under the guidance of the understanding. (...) Against McDowell I argue that the amenability of intuitions to conceptual determination is not due some pre-existing, absolute conceptuality of the real but to the "work of the subject."3 On a more programmatic level, this paper seeks to demonstrate the limitations of a selective appropriation of Kant and the philosophical potential of a more comprehensive and thorough consideration of his work. Section 1 addresses the unique balance in Kant's philosophy between the work on particular problems and the orientation toward a systematic whole. Section 2 outlines McDowell's take on the Kantian distinction between intuition and concept in the context of the Kant readings by Sellars and Strawson. Section 3 exposes McDowell's relapse into the Myth of the Given. Section 4 proposes a reading of Kant's theoretical philosophy as an epistemology of metaphysical cognition. Section 5 details Kant's original account of sensible intuition in the Inaugural-Dissertation of 1770. Section 6 presents the transition from the manifold of the senses to the synthesis in the imagination and the unification through the categories in the Critique of pure reason . Section 7 addresses Kant's formalism in epistemology and metaphysics.Esse artigo examina a relação entre intuição e conceito em Kant à luz da posição neokantiana de John McDowell de que intuições estão conceitualmente "carregadas". 1 O foco é sobre o duplo pronunciamento de Kant, segundo o qual pensamentos sem conteúdo são vazios e intuições sem conceitos são cegas. Mostro que intuições como representações singuares não são casos de introdução passiva de dados, mas o resultado da unificação sintética do múltiplo dado dos sentidos pelo poder da imaginação sob a orientação do entendimento. Contra McDowell, defendo que a amabilidade das intuições para com a determinação conceitual não é devida a alguma conceitualidade pré-existente, absoluta do real, mas ao "trabalho do sujeito".2 Num nível mais programático, o presente artigo visa demonstrar as limitações de uma apropriação seletiva de Kant e o potencial filosófico de uma análise mais abrangente e aprofundada de sua obra. A seção 1 aborda o equilíbrio único na filosofia de Kant entre o trabalho com problemas particulares e a orientação em direção a um todo sistemático. A seção 2 descreve a posição de McDowell acerca da distinção kantiana entre intuição e conceito no contexto das leituras de Kant por Sellars e Strawson. A seção 3 expõe a reincidência de McDowell no "mito do dado". A seção 4 propõe uma leitura da filosofia teórica de Kant como uma epistemologia do conhecimento metafísico. A seção 5 detalha a explicação original de Kant sobre a intuição sensível na "Dissertação de 1770". A seção 6 apresenta a transição do múltiplo dos sentidos para a síntese na imaginação e para a unificação por meio das categorias na Crítica da razão pura . A seção 7 aborda o formalismo de Kant na epistemologia e na metafísica. (shrink)

The contribution examines the aesthetic aspect of cognition in Kant by exploring the central function of the power of the imagination (Einbildungskraft) in Kant’s critical epistemology, first featured in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781; 1787) and revisited in the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790). First, the focus will be on the relationship between the power of the imagination and the two main sources of (theoretical) cognition in Kant, viz., sensibility and the understanding. Second, special attention will be (...) devoted to the distinction between schema and symbol, as alternative products of the power of the imagination in the service of rendering discursive concepts intuitive – with schemata serving to make sensible the concepts of the understanding (Verstand) and symbols suited to provide intuitional counterparts to the concepts of reason (Vernunft). (shrink)

This article features the contributions of Fichte and Schopenhauer to a philosophical account of action against the background of Kant's earlier and influential treatment of the topic. The article first presents Kant's pertinent contributions in the areas of general epistemology and metaphysics, general practical philosophy, the philosophy of law and ethic. Then the focus is on Fichte's further original work on the issue of action in those same areas. Finally, the article turns to Schopenhauer's radical revision of the Kantian and (...) Fichtean affirmative accounts of acting and willing through the correlated introduction of the irrational will, the self-negated will and ethical inaction. (shrink)

This essay seeks to present Fichte as a political thinker of European significance. To this end, the first section elucidates the basic political profile of Fichte’s philosophy. The second section further investigates the political character of Fichte’s philosophy by recourse to the triple motto of the French Revolution – „Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” – and its correlation with Fichte’s trinity of „I”, „You” and „We“. The final section addresses the mediating and transitional role and function of the political in Fichte, for (...) whom the state is not a final end but always only a means.Der Beitrag mochte J. G. Fichte als politischen Denker von europaischem Format vergegenwartigen. Zu diesen Zweck exponiert der erste Abschnitt den politischen Grundzug von Fichtes Philosophieren. Der zweite Abschnitt verfolgt die politische Pragung von Fichtes Philosophieren im Ruckgriff auf das triplizitare Motto der Franzosischen Revolution – „Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite“ –, dem die Fichtesche Triade von „Ich“, „Du“ und „Wir“ zugeordnet wird. Der abschliesende Abschnitt behandelt die mediale und transitorische Stellung und Funktion des Politischen bei Fichte, fur den der Staat niemals Selbstzweck und immer nur Mittel zum Zweck ist. (shrink)

Kivy distinguishes between three different claims to authenticity in the historical performance movement: authenticity with respect to the composer’s intention, authenticity with regard to sound, and authenticity in matters of performance practice. To this, Kivy adds a fourth notion of authenticity that does not figure in the idealized self-description of the historical performance movement but rather points to an alternative kind of authenticity championed by Kivy himself: the authenticity that a performance might have due to the sincerity of the artist (...) or artists performing it. Kivy proposes to examine each of those four notions of authenticity in two sets of four chapters each—with the first set operating at the descriptive level of conceptual analysis and the second set moving on to the evaluative level of aesthetic judgment. (shrink)

Karl Popper's work is of great diversity. It touches on virtually every intellectual activity. But he himself considered his philosophy of science one of his most important achievements. And indeed his achievement here is revolutionary. It destroyed the philosophy of inductivism which held sway over science for hundreds of years.

Der Beitrag eruiert den Metaphysikbegriff Kants in der systematischen Spanne zwischen Wissenschaftslehre und Weisheitslehre. Der erste Abschnitt erörtert das architektonischmethodologische Verhältnis von transzendentaler Kritik und theoretischer Metaphysik beim kritischen Kant, insbesondere in der Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Der zweite Abschnitt präsentiert Kants kritische Konzeption einer limitativen Metaphysik des Anti-Materialismus, Anti-Determinismus und Anti-Fatalismus in den Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik. Der dritte Abschnitt behandelt Kants kritische Konzeption einer praktisch-dogmatischen Metaphysik des "Übersinnlichen in uns, über uns und nach uns" im Fragment (...) der Preisschrift über die Fortschritte der Metaphysik. (shrink)

The contribution places Hegel‘s political philosophy, chieflypresented in Elementsof the Philosophy of Right from 1820 but already adumbrated in The GermanConstitution from 1799-1802, intothe context of the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns about the relation between thecitizen andthe stateand the corresponding differentiation of political freedom and civil liberty. In particular, the contribution attributes to Hegel a third, conciliatory position beyond the establishedopposition between the ancient republican ideal of civic commitment and service and the modern emphasis on individual choiceand (...) personal self-fulfillment. (shrink)

In light of the upcoming anniversary of the Berlin University, this study of the philosopher Paul Hofmann analyzes his precarious position as lecturer at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, which was abruptly terminated in 1938 because of his Jewish ancestry and his anti-Nazi position. After years of inner migration, Hofmann resumed teaching as Ordinarius and with new impulses in 1945. At the core of his philosophy was the philosophy of humanity that developed from different positions in his major work “Sinn und Geschichte.” He (...) provided his philosophy with new accents after 1945, while already suffering from severe illness. The study is based on extensive archival material. (shrink)

This lecture tries to show how ancient Chinese philosophy can help us to respond in a more peaceful, defensive way to the continual dangers of war and find a practicable way between outright bellicosity on the one hand and all-too-good pacifism on the other hand. The lecture begins with reflections on Immanuel Kant’s idea of eternal peace, followed by Heraclitus’ view on war as the father of things, and finally proceeds to Sun-tzu’s Art of War, that tells us how to (...) defeat the enemy without fighting. (shrink)