Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East are published as supplement to Der Islam founded in 1910 by Carl Heinrich Becker, an early practitioner of the modern study of Islam. The mission of the series is the study of past societies of the Middle East, their belief systems, and their underlying social and economic relations - in their aim to cover the entire spectrum of the historically oriented humanities and social sciences.

The article presents the catechumenal theology of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, highlighting in the former, four elements proper to the baptismal itinerary of Milan, such as the agonistic character of the baptismal preparation, the biblical catechesis related to the biblical characters of the Old Testament, the virtues and the rite of the Effetá. Thirdly, the importance of the Traditio Symboli in Milan with its theology is highlighted, and finally the secret that St. Ambrose kept on the rites of Christian (...) initiation, in order to arise curiosity in those who were going to receive them. Subsequently, the theology of two rites belonging to the Easter Vigil, namely, the washing of the feet and the post-baptismal anointing with myrum, is discussed. The second part of the article, presents the Augustinian theology of the catechumenate, stressing three elements of the catechumenal process, namely, the fasting and other ascetic practices, the traditio symboli and the traditio orationis. On the post-baptismal rites the article emphasises the Eucharistic catechesis preached on Easter Sunday with its special characteristics and the final procession that was done on the last day of the Easter Week to a memoria martyrum. (shrink)

[1. Heft]. Beiträge von Kolloquien des Arbeitskreises Philosophie-Naturwissenschaften, insbesondere vom 31. 5. und 7. 6. 1972.--2. Heft. Beiträge von der wissenschaftlichen Tagung des Arbeitskreises Philosophie-Naturwissenschaften am 9. und 10. April 1974. v.

In this paper I propose to examine the concept of discrimination from an ethical viewpoint. In a preliminary part, I will point out which aspects of the subject matter I will focus on and which I will leave aside (II). On the basis of the Aristotelian principle “treat like cases alike”, I will continue with a very formal definition, according to which discrimination can be understood as acting in a way that implies that like cases are not treated alike. This (...) leads to the difficult question of which cases are to be considered as “alike”, or which traits can serve as morally valid reasons for identifying cases as “unlike” (III). I will argue that this question cannot be answered independently from the specific circumstances and the normative premises referred to for describing these circumstances. My conclusion is that the concept of discrimination derives its “moral strength” solely from these normative premises. As a consequence, the use of the con- cept of discrimination can often be misleading since it falsely presupposes that there is agreement about the underlying normative premises (IV). Finally, I will illustrate the argumentation using “genetic discrimination” in connection with insurance contracts as an example (V). (shrink)

book I. The nature of the state.-- book II. The social foundations of the state.-- book III. The constitution of the state.-- book IV. The administration of the state.-- book V. The state in international intercourse.

This is a complicated and ingenious study of one of the famous friendships of German intellectual history. Miss Knoll's aim is not so much to analyze philosophical ideas as to find the major structural elements of this highly emotional literary friendship between Hamann and Jacobi. The book begins with a short review of Hegel's and Dilthey's treatment of the "subject," Hamann-Jacobi. The author objects to these treatments which, like practically all other students of the question viewed the letters from an (...) exclusively philosophical and speculative viewpoint, and never tackled the deeply personal structure of this metaphysical-religious correspondence. This is exactly what the present author attempts to do. The analysis of Hamann's highly complex reactions to Jacobi's famous book on Lessing's Spinozism reveals to us how strongly and on how many levels the "magician of the North" criticized Jacobi—and through him any attempt to combat the Enlightenment which does not reject it in integro. On the other hand Hamann continuously sent his manuscripts to Jacobi to be read and criticized, and, in this way, he sought to help the latter to grow by making him contribute to works of a dimension and depth completely alien to his own thought But the destiny of Hamann was to be misunderstood by Jacobi, and this misunderstanding was recognized and corrected only by Schelling. Though H. Fuhrmans has already forcefully pointed out what Schelling owed to Hamann, the present book is the first to do justice to Schelling's Hamann-interpretation, until now entirely overshadowed by that of Hegel.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Bd. 1. Die geschichtlichen Wurzeln des Platonismus (Bausteine 1-35) -- Bd. 2. Der hellenistische Rahmen des kaiserzeitlichen Platonismus (Bausteine 36-72) -- Bd. 3. Der Platonismus im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert nach Christus (Bausteine 73-100) -- Bd. 4. Die philosophische Lehre des Platonismus (Bausteine 101-124) -- Bd. 5. Die philosophische Lehre des Platonismus (Bausteine 125-150) -- Bd. 6. Die philosophische Lehre des Platonismus (2 v.; Bausteine 151-181) -- Index zu den Bänden 1-4.

German human rights campaigner Karl Heinrich Ulrichs advocated for same-sex marriage in the nineteenth century. Over a century later, we still have a long way to go. Arguing before his time, he took the Church, both Catholic and Protestant, head on. Ulrichs’s insights seem to have been all but forgotten. No one, to my knowledge, has invoked Ulrichs in contemporary debates about same-sex marriage, and yet he expertly diagnosed the problem and proposed a solution: start with the Church. In (...) this paper, I resurrect his insights, and strengthen his case, for same-sex marriage. (shrink)

Die Erforschung Kants ist langst zu einem weltumspannenden Unternehmen geworden. Welch reiche Frucht der Wissenschaft dadurch zufallt, zeigen die Beitrage dieser Festschrift, die dem Nestor der deutschen Kantforschung, Norbert Hinske, gewidmet ist. Bekannte Vertreter der italienischen, japanischen, russischen und deutschen Kantforschung kommen zu Wort. Von besonderer Bedeutung fur die - in diesem Punkt ganzlich neu zu schreibende - Lebens- und Entwicklungsgeschichte Kants ist ein neu entdeckter, erstmals im Faksimile abgedruckter Brief von J. E. Biester an J. N. Tetens, der belegt, (...) dass der preussische Kultusminister v. Zedlitz zunachst nicht etwa Kant, sondern Tetens nach Halle berufen hat. Hinskes vollstandige Bibliographie rundet den Band ab - und zeigt eindrucksvoll, wie viel die Kantforschung weltweit gerade ihm zu verdanken hat. The study of Kant has long been a global undertaking. The articles in this Festschrift for the leading German expert on Kant, Norbert Hinske, show how richly productive this has been for scholars. Leading Italian, Japanese, Russian and German representatives of research on Kant have provided contributions to it. What is particular significant for the history of Kant's life and development, which has to be completely rewritten in this regard, is a newly discovered letter, reprinted in facsimile for the first time, from J. E. Biester to J. N. Tetens, which proves that Prussian Minister of Culture v. Zedlitz initially did not appoint Kant but rather Tetens to the position in Halle. Hinske's complete bibliography is included in the volume and is impressive evidence of how much Kant research worldwide owes to him. (shrink)

A highly interesting collection of lectures on the central themes of contemporary philosophy and theology in the European tradition. Out of twenty-seven fascinating titles a few especially interesting ones are: Heinrich Ott, "The Structure of the Act of Faith," Karl Kerényi, "The Myth of Faith," Antoine Vergote, "Myth, Belief, and Theological Faith," Henri Bouillard, "To Believe and to Understand," Geo Widengren, "Myth and Faith in the Light of Religious Phenomenology," Giulio Girardi, "Demythisation and Atheism," René Marlé, "Is the Christian (...) Faith a Religion?" Huguette Fugier, "Time and the Sacred in the Religious Vocabulary of the Romans," Renato Lazzarini, "Myth and Faith in Eschatological Perspective." All the lectures and the discussions centered around them are in French.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Do predictions of novel facts provide stronger evidence for a theory than explanations of old ones? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Which obtains has nothing to do with whether the evidence is predicted or explained, but only with the selection procedure used to generate the evidence. This is demonstrated by reference to a series of hypothetical drug cases and to Heinrich Hertz's 1883 cathode ray experiments.