Als Valentin Weigel 1588 in Zschopau starb, hinterliess er ein umfangreiches handschriftliches Werk aus Traktaten, Predigten und Dialogen, das er zu seinen Lebzeiten nur einem kleinen Kreis von Freunden und Bekannten zuganglich gemacht hatte. Allen seinen Schriften ist eine lehrhafte Ausrichtung eigen; diese Beobachtung oeffnet den Blick auf den Seelsorger Weigel. Seinen Anliegen ist die vorliegende Arbeit nachgegangen, in der Weise, wie dies unter der gegebenen UEberlieferungslage moeglich ist, namlich durch die Berucksichtigung der historischen und kirchenpolitischen Verhaltnisse und durch die Analyse zentraler Schriften. Durch Ersteres erhellen sich die Bedingungen, unter denen eine so radikal introvertierte Glaubensform, wie Weigel sie vertritt, hatte entstehen koennen, Letzteres zeigt Weigels Strategien, in prekaren Lebenssituationen sichere Orientierung zu finden und anderen weiterzugeben.

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was a Dutch humanist, scholar, and social critic, and one of the most important figures of the Renaissance. The Praise of Folly is perhaps his best-known work. Originally written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, this satiric celebration of pleasure, youth, and intoxication irreverently pokes fun at the pieties of theologians and the foibles that make us all human, while ultimately reaffirming the value of Christian ideals. No other book displays quite so completely the transition from the medieval to the modern world, and Erasmus's wit, wisdom, and critical spirit have lost none of their timeliness today. This Princeton Classics edition of The Praise of Folly features a new foreword by Anthony Grafton that provides an essential introduction to this iridescent and enduring masterpiece.

If there is a heaven and you get there, could you still sin? If not, why not, if you're still free? If there is a hell and you end up there, why couldn't you choose to repent and get out? If not, why not, if you're still free? However esoteric these questions may seem, they forced thinkers in the fourteenth century to think hard about just what it is to be free. In what, exactly, does human freedom consist? By addressing a number of theological 'limit situations', such as those mentioned above, Robert Greystones, while at Oxford University in the 1320s, developed his own philosophical theory of human freedom, which is remarkably coherent and persuasive. This volume presents for the first time the Latin critical edition of his discussions, with a clear English translation on facing pages, along with an extensive introduction, describing his life and teaching on human freedom. This volume presents the Latin critical edition, with English translation on facing pages, of six questions from Robert Greystones's Sentences commentary. Greystones's discussions provide an excellent window onto debates concerning the will at Oxford in the early 1320s, since he works out his solutions in critical dialogue with contemporaries such as William of Ockham, William of Alnwick, Robert Cowton, Richard Conington, Henry of Harclay, and Peter Aureol. In order to show the cut and thrust of these debates, the editors include many ample quotations from these thinkers, including material found only in manuscript. A clear and extensive introduction describes Greystones's life and doctrine of the will. The editors also provide a complete list of Greystones's numerous questions in the four books of his commentary, found only in Westminster Abbey MS 13.

Ausgangspunkt der Arbeit ist Galileis Versuch, das kopernikanische Weltsystem mit der heiligen Schrift in UEbereinstimmung zu bringen. Anhand zahlreicher Originaltexte, zum grossen Teil erstmalig in deutscher UEbersetzung publiziert, werden wichtige Phasen der Auseinandersetzung mit der Kosmologie von Aristoteles bis in die Zeit der Scholastik und von Kopernikus und Kepler aufgezeigt. Eine wichtige Rolle spielten dabei die Argumente fur oder gegen die Bewegung der Erde, wie auch fur oder gegen die Bewegung des Himmels. Die Grunde fur das Festhalten am aristotelisch-ptolemaischen Weltbild durch die Fachastronomen, Philosophen und Theologen werden dargelegt. Schliesslich wird die Rolle der reformatorischen Theologie, insbesondere von Calvin, fur die Durchsetzung des kopernikanischen Weltsystems untersucht.

In den Essays dieses Buches geht es darum, in problemorientierter Durchmusterung dreier historisch wirksamer Denkansatze Perspektiven fur integrale Zukunftsgestaltung zu gewinnen. Thematisiert werden Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), der zu den Pionieren moderner Tiefenpsychologie gezahlt wird und in seinen Analysen des "Archetyps" der Trinitat ein Modell fur menschliche Selbstfindung vorlegt, der protestantische Theologe Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), der das Trinitarische im Medium seiner aprioristisch deduzierten Dialektik als die alles bewirkende Selbstentfaltung des reinen Begriffes darstellt, der lateinische Kirchenvater Aurelius Augustinus (354-430), der wahrend seiner Auseinandersetzung mit den antiken Skeptikern in menschlicher Geistinnerlichkeit das lebendig pulsierende Ineinander von Sein, Erkennen und Wollen entdeckt und diese onto-logo-ethische Ganzheit als in-ek-kon-sistenzalen Prozess erlautert, welcher, in Bedingtes und Unbedingtes spezifiziert, ein universales Format aufzuweisen hat. In ganzheitlich orientierten Eroerterungen wird die unloesbare Verflochtenheit von Welt-, Selbst- und Gotteserkenntnis hervorgehoben. Im Bezug auf Hegel und den (bisweilen) "hegelianisierenden" C. G. Jung ist dabei anzumerken, dass reines Begriffsdenken, das methodisch die Totalabstraktion alles Inhaltlichen voraussetzt, zu einer Hypostasierung des Negativen fuhrt. Die dadurch entstehenden Aporien finden eine Aufloesung, sobald die inhaltsbezogene Abstraktion rekultiviert wird und - von Augustinus her - alles Raumzeitliche in spezifisch begrenzter Teilhabe an der an sich unbegrenzten Positivitat des trikausalen Seinsgrundes betrachtet wird. Das prozess- und relationstheoretisch interpretierte Theologumenon der Trinitat lasst sich, kurz gesagt, als dasjenige auffassen, was es ermoeglicht, die in fruher Neuzeit entstandene Diastase zwischen Glaubens- und Wissensanspruchen (zwischen einem Fideismus, der nichts wissen will, und einem Rationalismus, der nichts glauben will) zu uberwinden.

Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) directed the Platonic Academy in Florence, and it was the work of this Academy that gave the Renaissance in the 15th century its impulse and direction. During his childhood Ficino was selected by Cosimo de' Medici for an education in the humanities. Later Cosimo directed him to learn Greek and then to translate all the works of Plato into Latin. This enormous task he completed in about five years. He then wrote two important books, "The Platonic Theology" and "The Christian Religion", showing how the Christian religion and Platonic philosophy were proclaiming the same message. The extraordinary influence the Platonic Academy came to exercise over the age arose from the fact that its leading spirits were already seeking fresh inspiration from the ideals of the civilizations of Greece and Rome and especially from the literary and philosophical sources of those ideals. Florence was the cultural and artistic centre of Europe at the time and leading men in so many fields were drawn to the Academy: Lorenzo de'Medici (Florence's ruler), Alberti (the architect) and Poliziano (the poet). Moreover Ficino bound together an enormous circle of correspondents throughout Europe, from the Pope in Rome to John Colet in London, from Reuchlin in Germany to de Ganay in France. Published during his lifetime, "The Letters" have not previously been translated into English. Following the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478, Florence was at war with both the Pope (Sixtus IV) and King Ferdinand of Naples. Prompted by the appalling conditions under which Florence suffered as a result of the war, Ficino wrote eloquent letters to the three main protagonists. In his three letters to Sixtus, who was the main architect of the war, Ficino states in magnificent terms the true work of the Pope - to fish in the "deep sea of humanity", as did the Apostles. King Ferdinand of Naples spent most of his life in intrigue, not only against other states, but also against his own barons. Yet, Ficino addresses him in the words of his father, the admirable King Alfonso. This extraordinary letter, written in the form of a prophesy, speaks of his son's destiny on Earth. "In peace alone a splendid victory awaits you..., in victory, tranquility; in tranquility, a reverence and worship of Minerva" (wisdom). Negotiations for peace were in fact begun about five months later. In his letter to Lorenzo de 'Medici, Ficino presented, with dramatic clarity, the two sides of Lorenzo's nature. The letter may have prompted Lorenzo's bold visit to King Ferdinand's court and the ensuing negotiations for peace. In insisting on the reality of unity and peace in the face of war and division, Ficino uses a number of analogies. He speaks in at least two letters of all the colours emerging from simple white light, just as all the variety of the universe issues from one consciousness. "For the Sun, to be is to shine, to shine is to see, and to illuminate is to create all that is its own and to sustain what it has created."

Why do good things happen to bad people? Can we prove whether God exists? What is the difference between right and wrong? Medieval Philosophers were centrally concerned with such questions: questions which are as relevant today as a thousand years ago when the likes of Anselm and Aquinas sought to resolve them. In this fast-paced, enlightening guide, Sharon M. Kaye takes us on a whistle-stop tour of medieval philosophy, revealing the debt it owes to Aristotle and Plato, and showing how medieval thought is still inspiring philosophers and thinkers today. With new translations of numerous key extracts, Kaye directly introduces the reader to the philosophers' writings and the criticisms levied against them. Including helpful textboxes throughout the book detailing key thinkers, this is an entertaining and comprehensive primer for students and general readers alike.

The Abstractiones is a work in medieval logic from the second half of the 13th century. Clearly a product of the British university culture and much cited, quoted and imitated, it is attributed in two manuscripts to 'Master Richard the Sophist'. This Richard is referred to by other philosophers and logicians as 'The Master of Abstractions' - an honorific title which indicates that his work was a standard textbook. The Abstractiones is a collection of sophismata, or logical puzzles of increasing complexity and difficulty which have been gathered under logical operators like 'all'. Each sophisma is introduced by a proposition that appears to be both provably true and provably false, like 'God knows whatever he knew'. The Master determines the truth or falsity of the proposition and analyses the defects of the arguments that have been offered by detecting logical fallacies, equivocal expressions and the like. The work as we have it is clearly the result of a process of development, modification, and interpolation, probably extending over at least a generation. Although there came to be works that imitated the Abstractions and followed some of its plan and style, these are 'descendants,' rather than variations. The Abstractions gives us a better sense than does an independent and original work of medieval logic like William of Ockham's Summa Totius Logicae of how instruction in techniques of argumentation and reasoning, often of a fairly sophisticated sort, was carried on in British universities in the latter part of the 13th century and well into the 14th century.

Kants Reflexion uber die "Notwendigkeit" ist von entscheidender Wichtigkeit innerhalb der radikalen Transformation der Metaphysik des XVIII. Jahrhunderts. Es ist andererseits sehr schwer, seine vorkritischen Werke uberhaupt zu verstehen und die Idee einer neuen Systematik der Philosophie als Kritik der reinen Vernunft nachzuvollziehen, wenn man die Auseinandersetzung Kants mit den Begriffen der Moeglichkeit, Wirklichkeit und Notwendigkeit (und damit mit den Grundlagen der klassischen Ontologie selbst) nicht in ihren Details begreift. Was heisst uberhaupt "Notwendigkeit" und "Notwendig-Sein" bei Kant?

Die Vorstellung, dass Nichtsein nur die Negation des Seins sei, hat die klassische Ontologie lange beschaftigt. Hier wird Nichtsein als eigenstandige Kategorie beschrieben, die noch vor der Aufteilung in Sein oder Nichtsein zum Tragen gekommen ist. Ihre unmittelbare Darstellung ist im Phanomen der Intentionalitat gegeben: als das, was sein soll und indem es so gedacht wird, auch eine eigene Wirklichkeit begrundet, ist das intentionale Sein die Entgrenzung eines dualistischen Ontologieverstandnisses. In einer historischen und systematischen Perspektive zeichnet sich das Nichtsein als transzendentaler Garant der Einheitlichkeit des Verstandnisses von Sein uberhaupt.

Seit jeher gilt der Gesellschaftsvertrag als eine auf dem Sinai der Aufklarung empfangene, gluckverheissende Weltgabe. Auflehnende Stimmen dawider sind langst im Dunkel verflossener Zeitalter verstummt. Indes lohnt ein Blick auf diejenigen Denker, welche den Finger auf signifikante Unzulanglichkeiten des Sozialkontrakts gelegt haben. Denn insbesondere, um bei unseren zunehmend komplexeren Gesellschaftsproblemen eine fruchtbringende Aussenperspektive zu erlangen, ist es als sinnstiftend anzusehen, sich den Anti-Gesellschafts-Vertrags-Theorien zuzuwenden. Mithin ist dieser Band bemuht, vermoege einer Gegenuberstellung ihrer massgeblichsten Reprasentanten, Carl Ludwig von Haller und Joseph Graf de Maistre, im Kontext der politischen Ideengeschichte erhellende Einsichten zu gewinnen.

Of the great philosophers of pagan antiquity, Marcus Tullius Cicero is the only one whose ideas were continuously accessible to the Christian West following the collapse of the Roman Empire. Yet, in marked contrast with other ancient philosophers, Cicero has largely been written out of the historical narrative on early European political thought, and the reception of his ideas has barely been studied. The Bonds of Humanity corrects this glaring oversight, arguing that the influence of Cicero's ideas in medieval and early modern Europe was far more pervasive than previously believed. In this book, Cary J. Nederman presents a persuasive counternarrative to the widely accepted belief in the dominance of Aristotelian thought. Surveying the work of a diverse range of thinkers from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, including John of Salisbury, Brunetto Latini, Marsiglio of Padua, Christine de Pizan, and Bartolome de Las Casas, Nederman shows that these men and women inherited, deployed, and adapted key Ciceronian themes. He argues that the rise of scholastic Aristotelianism in the thirteenth century did not supplant but rather supplemented and bolstered Ciceronian ideas, and he identifies the character and limits of Ciceronianism that distinguish it from other schools of philosophy. Highly original and compelling, this paradigm-shifting book will be greeted enthusiastically by students and scholars of early European political thought and intellectual history, particularly those engaged in the conversation about the role played by ancient and early Christian ideas in shaping the theories of later times.

This book reveals how Moses ibn Ezra, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, and Shem Tov ibn Falaquera understood metaphor and imagination, and their role in the way human beings describe God. It demonstrates how these medieval Jewish thinkers engaged with Arabic-Aristotelian psychology, specifically with regard to imagination and its role in cognition. Dianna Lynn Roberts-Zauderer reconstructs the process by which metaphoric language is taken up by the imagination and the role of imagination in rational thought. If imagination is a necessary component of thinking, how is Maimonides' idea of pure intellectual thought possible? An examination of select passages in the Guide, in both Judeo-Arabic and translation, shows how Maimonides' attitude towards imagination develops, and how translations contribute to a bifurcation of reason and imagination that does not acknowledge the nuances of the original text. Finally, the author shows how Falaquera's poetics forges a new direction for thinking about imagination.

In a work that illustrates how Jewish philosophy can make a genuine contribution to general philosophical debate, Daniel Rynhold attempts to formulate a model for the justification of practices by applying the methods of modern analytic philosophy to approaches to the rationalization of the commandments from the history of Jewish philosophy. Through critical analysis of the methods of Moses Maimonides and Joseph Soloveitchik, Rynhold argues against propositional approaches to justifying practices that he terms Priority of Theory approaches and offers instead his own method, termed the Priority of Practice, which emphasizes the need for a more pragmatic take on this whole issue.

Husserls Phanomenologie ist als Erscheinungslehre auf den logischen Urteils- und Formenkanon angewiesen und partiell mit ihm identisch. Daruber hinaus ist sie als transzendentale Logik die Begrundung jeder formallogischen Urteilstatigkeit, d. h. sie ist eine Wahrheitslehre vor dem Hintergrund der Bestimmung und Anwendung des Urteils sowie seiner Verlaufsgesetze. Die Analyse der einschlagigen Schriften und Vorlesungsmanuskripte Husserls von den Logischen Untersuchungen bis hin zu Erfahrung und Urteil soll dazu dienen, den bislang oftmals zu Unrecht vernachlassigten, aber gleichwohl konstitutiven Zusammenhang zwischen Phanomenologie, Urteilslehre und Wahrheitserkenntnis aufzuweisen.

Ausgehend von der Einsicht in die unberechtigte Gleichsetzung der physikalischen Theorie Mechanik mit dem mechanistischen Weltbild wird die Mechanik als Modell der neuzeitlichen Naturwissenschaft historisch und epistemologisch charakterisiert und ihre Bedeutung fur Kants erkenntnistheoretische Wende bestimmt sowie die Rolle ihrer philosophischen Rezeption fur die spatere Mechanismus-Organismus-Bestimmung diskutiert. Vor allem wird Hegels kritische Verarbeitung des Kantschen Organismusbegriffs untersucht, die sich in der begriffslogischen Entwicklung vom Mechanismus zur Teleologie und dem damit verknupften Konzept von der Rolle des Werkzeugs fur das Mensch-Natur-Verhaltnis niederschlug. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass an dieses philosophische Gedankengut angeknupft werden muss, wenn man den heutigen Mechanizismus uberwinden will.

"Machiavelli's Ethics" challenges the most entrenched understandings of Machiavelli, arguing that he was a moral and political philosopher who consistently favored the rule of law over that of men, that he had a coherent theory of justice, and that he did not defend the "Machiavellian" maxim that the ends justify the means. By carefully reconstructing the principled foundations of his political theory, Erica Benner gives the most complete account yet of Machiavelli's thought. She argues that his difficult and puzzling style of writing owes far more to ancient Greek sources than is usually recognized, as does his chief aim: to teach readers not how to produce deceptive political appearances and rhetoric, but how to see through them. Drawing on a close reading of Greek authors--including Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, and Plutarch--Benner identifies a powerful and neglected key to understanding Machiavelli.

This important new interpretation is based on the most comprehensive study of Machiavelli's writings to date, including a detailed examination of all of his major works: "The Prince, The Discourses, The Art of War, " and "Florentine Histories." It helps explain why readers such as Bacon and Rousseau could see Machiavelli as a fellow moral philosopher, and how they could view "The Prince" as an ethical and republican text. By identifying a rigorous structure of principles behind Machiavelli's historical examples, the book should also open up fresh debates about his relationship to later philosophers, including Rousseau, Hobbes, and Kant.

Peter Lombard is best known as the author of a celebrated work entitled Book of Sentences, which for several centuries served as the standard theological textbook in the Christian West. It was the subject of more commentaries than any other work of Christian literature besides the Bible itself. The Book of Sentences is essentially a compilation of older sources, from the Scriptures and Augustine down to several of the Lombard's contemporaries, such as Hugh of Saint Victor and Peter Abelard. Its importance lies in the Lombard's organization of the theological material, his method of presentation, and the way in which he shaped doctrine in several major areas. Despite his importance, however, there is no accessible introduction to Peter Lombard's life and thought available in any modern language. This volume fills this considerable gap. Philipp W. Rosemann begins by demonstrating how the Book of Sentences grew out of a long tradition of Christian reflection-a tradition, ultimately rooted in Scripture, which by the twelfth century had become ready to transform itself into a theological system. Turning to the Sentences, Rosemann then offers a brief exposition of the Lombard's life and work. He proceeds to a book-by-book examination and interpretation of its main topics, including the nature and attributes of God, the Trinity, creation, angelology, human nature and the Fall, original sin, Christology, ethics, and the sacraments. He concludes by exploring how the Sentences helped shape the further development of the Christian tradition, from the twelfth century through the time of Martin Luther.

The early modern era produced the Scientific Revolution, which originated our present understanding of the natural world. Concurrently, philosophers established the conceptual foundations of modernity. This rich and comprehensive volume surveys and illuminates the numerous and complicated interconnections between philosophical and scientific thought as both were radically transformed from the late sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The chapters explore reciprocal influences between philosophy and physics, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other disciplines, and show how thinkers responded to an immense range of intellectual, material, and institutional influences. The volume offers a unique perspicuity, viewing the entire landscape of early modern philosophy and science, and also marks an epoch in contemporary scholarship, surveying recent contributions and suggesting future investigations for the next generation of scholars and students.

Dieses Studien- und Handbuch macht ausfuhrlich mit Dante Alighieris Goettlicher Komoedie bekannt. Geboten wird in einem ersten Teil - und zwar erstmals konsequent und systematisch - eine erzahltheoretisch fundierte Einfuhrung in den grossen "Jenseitsroman aus Versen". Hierauf folgt ein detaillierter UEberblick zur Wirkungsgeschichte vom 14. Jahrhundert bis heute: dargestellt werden Handschriftenuberlieferung, Kommentarwesen, Druckentwicklung, Kritikverlauf, das Phanomen der zahllosen UEbersetzungen sowie das der mannigfaltigen Bearbeitungen in Kunst, Literatur, Musik, Film und in den neuen Medien. All dies geschieht unter Einbindung internationaler Forschung. Der zweite Teil ist ein kompakter Studienfuhrer in 70 Sektionen zur weltweiten Dantistik allgemein sowie zu samtlichen Gebieten der europaischen und aussereuropaischen Forschung uber das poetische Meisterwerk des Florentiners: Auf rund 200 Seiten findet man alles Wichtige betreffend Bibliotheken, Institutionen, Verbande, kritische Editionen, sonstige Ausgaben, UEbersetzungen, Untersuchungen (Bucher und Aufsatze), Sammelbande, Nachschlagewerke, Zeitschriften und sonstige gedruckte oder im Internet verfugbare Materialien, die man fur Lekture, Studium, Referat, Prufung, eigene Forschung oder die Lehre benoetigt.

In der Kantforschung zahlt Locke problemgeschichtlich gesehen zu den wichtigsten Vorgangern Kants. Die Forschung hat sich dabei - ahnlich wie Kant selbst - an Lockes opus magnum, dem Essay concerning Human Understanding, orientiert. Die Arbeit revidiert die landlaufige Ansicht, nach der die englische Aufklarung keinen massgeblichen Einfluss auf die deutsche gehabt habe. Lockes Nachlassschrift Of the Conduct of the Understanding hat u.a. auf Wolffs mathematische Methode und auf seine Unterscheidung zwischen mathematischer, historischer und philosophischer Erkenntnis eine erhebliche Wirkung ausgeubt sowie - uber die Vermittlung von Knutzen und Kypke - auch auf Kant. Die Erstlingsschrift Kants, die Gedanken von der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Krafte, verdankt Lockes Nachlassschrift ebensoviel wie die skeptische Methode der Vernunftkritik, die quellengeschichtlich auf Lockes Konzept der "Gleichgultigkeit" des Verstandes zuruckverweist.

This book offers a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of Boethius. After a survey of Boethius's life and work, Marenbon explicates his theological method, and devotes separate chapters to his arguments about good and evil, fortune, fate and free will, and the problem of divine foreknowledge. Marenbon also traces Boethius's influence on the work of such thinkers as Aquinas and Duns Scotus.