Christoph Otto von Schönaich hatte im März 1751 sein Epos Hermann, oder das befreyte Deutschland an Gottsched geschickt. Schönaichs Briefe des Bandes 17 dokumentieren Gottscheds intensive Beschäftigung mit dem Werk, das im September 1751 der Öffentlichkeit mit Gottscheds Einleitung als Nationalepos präsentiert wurde. Als Ratgeber oder Publizist unterstützte Gottsched auch weitere literarische Aktivitäten, so verdankt sich die erste deutsche Ausgabe der Satiren Antioch Dmitrijewitsch Kantemirs einer Anregung Gottscheds. Briefe aus Potsdam informieren über Publikationsvorhaben Julien Offray de La Mettries und anderer (...) Personen im Umfeld des preußischen Hofes. Eine Übersetzung der Poetik des Aristoteles hatte Gottsched 1730 mehrfach in Aussicht gestellt. Nach dessen höflicher Anfrage über den Stand der Dinge begrüßte Gottsched die Übersetzung, die Michael Conrad Curtius fertiggestellt hatte, wenn die Veröffentlichung auch erst 1753 gelang. Der Zürich-Leipziger Literaturstreit findet in mehreren Briefen Ausdruck. So ist einem Bericht des Schleusinger Rektors Johann Heinrich Hausmann zu entnehmen, dass kontroverse Debatten über Klopstocks Messias auch auf gymnasialer Ebene ausgetragen werden. Franz Ignaz (Gregorius) Rothfischer ist erstmals mit einem Brief vertreten, den er noch als Benediktiner unterzeichnet, während Briefe anderer Absender schon den spektakulären Konfessionswechsel erahnen lassen, dessen Vollzug in Leipzig im November 1751 die Öffentlichkeit bewegt. (shrink)

Ein Hauptthema des 18. Bandes mit Briefen von November 1751 bis April 1752 ist die Sorge um den prominenten katholischen Theologen Franz Ignaz Rothfischer, der im November 1751 in Leipzig zur lutherischen Konfession konvertierte. In enger Abstimmung mit dem Reichsgrafen Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff bemühte sich Gottsched um dessen beruflichen Neustart, Rothfischer wurde Professor in Helmstedt. Gottscheds vertraute Korrespondenten Flottwell, Scheyb und Brucker berichten aus Königsberg, Wien und Augsburg wie gewohnt über ihre Projekte und Ereignisse aus ihrem Umfeld. Christoph (...) Otto von Schönaich verfolgte die öffentliche Resonanz auf sein Epos Hermann und sandte Gottsched bereits Umdichtungen für die Neuauflage. 1751 begann die Korrespondenz mit dem Dichter Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer, nachdem Gottsched Lichtwers Fabeln glänzend rezensiert hatte. Zu den 19 neuen Korrespondenten gehörte auch Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan, Mitglied zahlreicher europäischer Akademien. Er reagierte auf das Angebot, eine deutsche Übersetzung seiner Arbeit über das Eis anzufertigen, deren eminenten Wert Gottsched in einer seiner seltenen Rezensionen naturwissenschaftlicher Publikationen herausgestellt hatte. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Peter Abelard (1079–1142 ce) was the most wide‐ranging philosopher of the twelfth century. He quickly established himself as a leading teacher of logic in and near Paris shortly after 1100. After his affair with Heloise, and his subsequent castration, Abelard became a monk, but he returned to teaching in the Paris schools until 1140, when his work was condemned by a Church Council at Sens. His logical writings were based around discussion of the “Old Logic”: Porphyry's Isagoge, aristotle'S Categories and (...) On Interpretation and boethius'S textbook on topical inference. They comprise a freestanding Dialectica (“Logic”; probably c.1116), a set of commentaries (known as the Logica [Ingredientibus], c. 1119) and a later (c. 1125) commentary on the Isagoge (Logica Nostrorum Petititoni Sociorum or Glossulae). In a work Abelard called his Theologia, issued in three main versions (between 1120 and c.1134), he attempted a logical analysis of trinitarian relations and explored the philosophical problems surrounding God's claims to omnipotence and omniscience. The Collationes (“Debates,” also known as “Dialogue between a Christian, a Philosopher and a Jew”; probably c.1130) present a rational investigation into the nature of the highest good, in which the Christian and the Philosopher (who seems to be modeled on a philosopher of pagan antiquity) are remarkably in agreement. The unfinished Scito teipsum (“Know thyself,” also known as the “Ethics”; c.1138) analyses moral action. (shrink)

Johann Gottfried von Herder is one of the most important German philosophers of the eighteenth century, who had enormous influence on later thinkers such as Hegel, Schleiermacher and Nietzsche. His wide-ranging ideas were formative in the development of linguistics, hermeneutics, anthropology and bible scholarship, and even today they retain their vitality and relevance to an extraordinary degree. This volume presents a translation of Herder's most important and characteristic philosophical writings in his areas of central interest, including philosophy of language, (...) philosophy of mind, philosophy of history and political philosophy, as well as his general philosophical program. An introduction sets the writings in their historical context and examines their philosophical achievement. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 68J The Theology of Henri de Lubac: An Overview. By HANS URS VON BALTHASAR. Translated by Joseph Fessio, S. J., Michael M. Waldstein (Preface), and Susan Clements (Conclusion). San Fran· cisco: Ignatius Press/Communio, 1991. Pp. 127. $9.95 (paper). Except for the preface and conclusion, Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Theology of Henri de Lubac first appeared as the long essay, "Henri de Lubac-L'oeuvre organique d'une vie," (...) in Nouvelle Revue Theologique 97 (1975), 897-913 and 98 (1976), 33-59, and translated by Joseph Fessio, S.J., as "The Achievement of Henri de Luhac" in Thought 51 (1976), 7-49. The preface was added soon after for the German edition, Henri de Lubac: Sein organisches Lebenswerk (Frei· burg im Breisgau: Johannes Verlag, 1976). The conclusion was added for Balthasar's and Jesuit Georges Chantraine's Le Cardinal de Lubac: L'Homme et son oeuvre (Paris: Ed. Lethielleux, 1983). While de Lubac denied " a true, personal philosophical or theo· logical synthesis " in the multiplicity of his oeuvre, he did believe that there could he found " a pattern that constitutes its unity " (de Luhac on p. 10). A more systematic work had been planned with Bruno de Solages, Peres Congar, Chenu, and others. In de Luhac's words, " the lightning bolt of Humani Generis killed the project" (p. 11). We can only wonder at what might have been. At the center of de Lubac's thought is a spiritual perception of "the essence of Christian mysticism" (p. 11). A hook on this subject was planned hut never completed; its fundamental importance was indicated by de Luhac in 1956: "I believe my hook on mysticism has inspired me for a long time in everything I work on; in its light I make my judgments and gain the criteria for ordering my thoughts and ideas" (p. 11). The purpose of Balthasar's little book is to trace these "great spiritual options of the master" (p. 26). Balthasar wrote his preface after he had received from de Luhac the manuscript that would he published as his Memoire sur l'occasion de mes ecrits (1989; ET: At the Service of the Church (1993]). Accord· ing to Balthasar, this "meandering" text has great value in display· ing the organic unity of de Luhac's writings in the contexts which occasioned them-" as well as the legendary condemnations and banish· ments prepared for him by his order and by the Church" (p. 9). De Luhac adopted the " fundamental elan " (p. 13) of Blondel, Marechal, and Rousselot. They enabled de Lubac to see in Thomas Aquinas " the paradox of the spiritual creature that is ordained beyond itself by the innermost reality of its nature to a goal that is unreachable for it and that can only he given as a gift of grace " (p. 13). Balthasar is unambiguous in his belief in the correctness of their interpretation. 684 BOOK REVIEWS Blondel, Marechal, and de Lubac were " martyrs for truth " (p. 13). De Lubac " exposed himself to the attacks of a tutiorist scholastic theology, armed with nothing but the historical and theological truth" (p. 13). Of the three, de Lubac was the most persecuted. The conflict with scholasticism is presented in all its sharpness. One must go back to Thomas himself, over the commentatorial tradition of John of St. Thomas and Cajetan, whose work represents, in the words of Gilson, " a successful ' corruptorium Sanctae Thomae.'... Thomas has been castrated by it" (p. 14). Gilson's "unqualified assent" to de Lubac's Thomistic conclusions means much to Balthasar, because it is "the assent of the greatest authority in the field of the history of phi· losophy" (p. 15). Upon reading Sumaturel (1946), Gilson wrote to de Lubac that the difference between the scholastic and the humanist theologians, like de Lubac, in part lies in the way they understand propositions. The scholastics " understand only univocal propositions and those that seem to be univocal. The former [humanist theologiansJ, by contrast, are more interested in the truth that the proposition attempts to formulate and that partly escapes it" (p. 14). In their incomprehension and fear of analogy, the scholastics are represented as hankering after a security that... (shrink)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is most famous for his work on color theory, but he was also an accomplished all-round scientist, studying and writing on anatomy, geology, botany, zoology and meteorology. This book draws together, in Goethe's own words, his key ideas on nature, science and scientific method. Goethe believed that we should study our world and nature as people at home in it, rather than removedly, as if we were aliens from another planet. He adopted a qualitative approach (...) to science at odds with Newton's quantitative methods that were so popular in his day. His is a sensitive science which does not ignore our relationship to nature. The extracts in this book are fascinating and essential reading for anyone who feels that we've lost our spiritual connection to nature. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain (...) in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Featuring summaries of postmodernism's greatest literary, cultural, and political champions written by a diverse group of scholars, Postmodernism: The Key Figures captures the dominance of a theoretical paradigm that has done nothing less than re-define the very terms of our knowledge and experience. Features summaries of postmodernism's key figures, written by a diverse group of scholars. Highlights over fifty of postmodernism's greatest literary, cultural and political champions. Includes an extensive bibliography of resources in postmodernism.

Schon als Schüler erlernte Ignaz von Döllinger so hervorragend die englische Sprache, dass ihn später viele seiner britischen Korrespondenzpartner und Freunde für einen native speaker hielten. Seine ausgezeichneten Englisch-Kenntnisse ermöglichten dem Münchner Kirchenhistoriker und Präsidenten der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften nicht nur eine intensive Wahrnehmung und Lektüre englischsprachiger Publikationen, darunter auch politischer Zeitungen und Zeitschriften, sondern auch eine sehr genaue Beobachtungen der kirchenpolitischen Auseinandersetzungen in der Church of England, die er als die faszinierendste aller nachreformatorischen Kirchenbildungen hoch schätzte. (...) Der Beitrag macht zunächst an Döllingers The Church and the Churches aus dem Jahre 1861, sodann an den kurz nach der deutschen Reichsgründung, 1872 gehaltenen Lectures on the Reunion of the Churches, weiterhin an den von Döllinger initiierten Bonner Unionskonferenzen 1874/75 und kurz auch an The History of Religious Freedom die wachsende Sympathie Döllingers für den anglikanischen Kirchentypus deutlich. Zwar litter stark unter Edward B. Puseys Ablehnung der Bonner Konsensgespräche. Aber langfristig bereitete Döllinger mit seinen zahlreichen ökumenischen Initiativen den Weg für die 1931 vereinbarte Abendmahlsgemeinschaft zwischen Anglikanern und Altkatholiken. (shrink)

An essay by philosopher Slavoj Zizek, with an English translation of Schelling's beautiful and evocative "Ages of the World, " second draft.

The term of responsibility is ambiguous. In a general sense it means nothing more than answering questions about human behaviour (in Greek: logon didonai; in Latin: rationem reddere). In order to get a more precise sense of responsibility this article discusses concepts of responsibility, worked out by Albert Schweitzer, Hans Jonas, Richard Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The discussion is concentrated on two problems: (1) extensification of responsibility in accordance with the expansion of technological power; (2) limitation and intensification of responsibility (...) in accordance with human capability and readiness. The central question is that of the subject of responsibility: How becomes man, who abdicates responsibility, ‘the responsible self’ (Niebuhr)? Referring to this question the biblical language is of great importance as the word, which re-establishes communication between God and man. Responsibility in the biblical sense means the response to this word of God. Therein lies not only a radicalising and intensifying of responsibility, but also its enabling and limiting. (shrink)

System of Transcendental Idealism is probably Schelling's most important philosophical work. A central text in the history of German idealism, its original German publication in 1800 came seven years after Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre and seven years before Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit.

SummaryThe discovery of dark lines in the spectrum of the sun as well as in some fixed stars since 1802 by William Hyde Wollaston, Joseph Fraunhofer and Johann Lamont is a relatively isolated phenomenon in the history of astronomy of the first half of the 19th century. Wollaston's representation of the sun's spectrum of 1802 can be seen as a simplification and reduction of the phenomenon by way of a seemingly clear connection with contemporary knowledge. Fraunhofer's famous colour (...) etching of the dark lines, of about 1817, can be regarded as a meticulous and painstaking representation of the known facts, taken to a high aesthetic level.Lamont's spectra of the fixed stars from 1836 are the first sketches of all of these phenomena. He emphasized the ‘oddness’, that is, the chaotic variety of identifiable lines. What was common to all of these representations was the general belief that something new and unimaginable could now be established as a scientific subject. The observations of these lines were coincidental with the thinking in other fields, as for example, in Alexander Humboldt's understanding of nature, in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's theory of light and his interest in pictorial representations of nature, and in the new concept of landscape of the romantic painters. (shrink)