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.

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.

Byzantine philosophy is an almost unexplored field. Being regarded either as mere scholars or as primarily religious thinkers, Byzantine philosophers, for the most part, have not been studied on their own philosophical merit, and their works have hardly been scrutinized as works of philosophy. Thus, although distinguished scholars in the past have tried to reconstruct the intellectual life of the Byzantine period, there is no question that we still lack even the beginnings of a systematic understanding of the philosophy of the Byzantines. Byzantine Philosophy and its Ancient Sources is conceived as a concerted attempt in this direction. It examines the attitude the Byzantines took towards the ancient philosophical tradition and the specific ancient sources which they relied upon to form their theories. But did the Byzantines merely copy ancient philosophers or interpret them the way they already had been interpreted in late antiquity? Does Byzantine philosophy as a whole lack a distinctive character which differentiates it from the previous periods in the history of philosophy? Eleven scholars, representing different disciplines from philosophy and history to classics and medieval studies, approach these questions by thoroughly investigating particular topics which give us some insight as to the directions in which we should look for possible answers. These topics range, in modern terms, from philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, and logic, to political philosophy, ethics, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. The philosophers whose works our contributors study belong to all periods from the beginnings of Byzantine culture in the fourth century to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the fifteenth century.

The Greek Tradition in Republic Thought completely rewrites the standard history of republican political theory. It excavates an identifiably Greek strain of republican thought which attaches little importance to freedom as non-dependence and sees no intrinsic value in political participation. This tradition's central preoccupations are not honour and glory, but happiness (eudaimonia) and justice - defined, in Plato's terms, as the rule of the best men. This set of commitments yields as startling readiness to advocate the corrective redistribution of wealth, and even the outright abolition of private property. The Greek tradition was revived in England during the early sixteenth century and was broadly influential throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its exponents included Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, Montesquieu and Thomas Jefferson, and it contributed significantly to the ideological underpinnings of the American Founding as well as the English Civil Wars.

In this new introduction to a classic philosophical text, Catherine Wilson examines the arguments of Descartes' famous Meditations, the book which launched modern philosophy. Drawing on the reinterpretations of Descartes' thought of the past twenty-five years, she shows how Descartes constructs a theory of the mind, the body, nature, and God from a premise of radical uncertainty. She discusses in detail the historical context of Descartes' writings and their relationship to early modern science, and at the same time she introduces concepts and problems that define the philosophical enterprise as it is understood today. Following closely the text of the Meditations and meant to be read alongside them, this survey is accessible to readers with no previous background in philosophy. It is well-suited to university-level courses on Descartes, but can also be read with profit by students in other disciplines.

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.

Brian Davies offers a full-scale introduction to Aquinas's philosophy, collecting in one volume the best recent essays on Aquinas by some of the world's foremost scholars of medieval philosophy. Taken together they illuminate the entire spectrum of Aquinas's thought: philosophy of nature, logic, metaphysics, natural theology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action and ethics. Philosophically rigorous, readable, informative, critical, and evaluative of the texts of Aquinas, the essays are framed by a detailed introduction providing an account of Aquinas's life, works, and his major philosophical conclusion.

John Duns Scotus (1265/6-1308) was (along with Aquinas and Ockham) one of the three principal figures in medieval philosophy and theology, with an influence on modern thought arguably greater than that of Aquinas. The essays in this volume systematically survey the full range of Scotus's thought. They clearly explain the technical details of his writing and demonstrate the relevance of his work to contemporary philosophical debate.

This book offers an introduction to medieval economic thought, as it emerges from the works of the twelfth to the fifteenth century academic theologians, lawyers and other sources. Using Italian merchants' writings, vernacular poetry, parliamentary legislation, and manorial court rolls, it discusses property, charity, the role of money, weights, measures, coinage, trade, fair price and fair wage. It makes a relatively neglected subject accessible by exploring the relationship between theory and practice.

This book offers an introduction to medieval economic thought, as it emerges from the works of the twelfth to the fifteenth century academic theologians, lawyers and other sources. Using Italian merchants' writings, vernacular poetry, parliamentary legislation, and manorial court rolls, it discusses property, charity, the role of money, weights, measures, coinage, trade, fair price and fair wage. It makes a relatively neglected subject accessible by exploring the relationship between theory and practice.

An appropriate motto for Augustine's great work On the Trinity is 'faith in search of understanding'. In this treatise Augustine offers a part-theological, part-philosophical account of how God might be understood in analogy to the human mind. On the Trinity can be fairly described as the first modern philosophy of mind: it is the first work in philosophy to recognize the 'problem of other minds', and the first to offer the 'argument from analogy' as a response to that problem. Other subjects that it discusses include the nature of the mind and the nature of the body, the doctrine of 'illumination', and thinking as inner speech. This volume presents the philosophical section of the work, and in a historical and philosophical introduction Gareth Matthews places Augustine's arguments in context and assesses their influence on later thinkers.

An appropriate motto for Augustine's great work On the Trinity is 'faith in search of understanding'. In this treatise Augustine offers a part-theological, part-philosophical account of how God might be understood in analogy to the human mind. On the Trinity can be fairly described as the first modern philosophy of mind: it is the first work in philosophy to recognize the 'problem of other minds', and the first to offer the 'argument from analogy' as a response to that problem. Other subjects that it discusses include the nature of the mind and the nature of the body, the doctrine of 'illumination', and thinking as inner speech. This volume presents the philosophical section of the work, and in a historical and philosophical introduction Gareth Matthews places Augustine's arguments in context and assesses their influence on later thinkers.

The third volume of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts will allow access, for the first time in English, to major texts that form the debate over mind and knowledge at the center of medieval philosophy. Beginning with 13th-century attempts to classify the soul's powers and to explain the mind's place within the soul, the volume proceeds systematically to consider human knowledge, divine illumination, intentionality and mental representation. This volume will be an important resource for scholars and students of medieval philosophy, history, theology and literature.

The third volume of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts will allow access, for the first time in English, to major texts that form the debate over mind and knowledge at the center of medieval philosophy. Beginning with 13th-century attempts to classify the soul's powers and to explain the mind's place within the soul, the volume proceeds systematically to consider human knowledge, divine illumination, intentionality and mental representation. This volume will be an important resource for scholars and students of medieval philosophy, history, theology and literature.

This book is the first systematic study of Descartes' relationship to Augustine. It offers a complete reevaluation of Descartes' thought and as such will be of major importance to all historians of medieval, neo-Platonic, or early modern philosophy. Special features include a reading of the Meditations, a comprehensive historical and philosophical introduction to Augustine's thought, a detailed account of Plotinus, and a contextualization of Descartes' mature philosophical project.

Adam Smith's major work of 1759 develops the foundation for a general system of morals, and is a text of central importance in the history of moral and political thought. Through the idea of sympathy and the mental construct of an impartial spectator, Smith formulated highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment and the virtues. This volume offers a new edition of the text with helpful notes for the student reader, and a substantial introduction that establishes the work in its philosophical and historical context.

Calvin's 1559 Institutes is one of the most important works of theology that emerged at a pivotal time in Europe's history. As a movement, Calvinism has often been linked to the emerging features of modernity, especially to capitalism, rationalism, disenchantment, and the formation of the modern sovereign state. In this book, Michelle Sanchez argues that a closer reading of the 1559 Institutes recalls some of the tensions that marked Calvinism's emergence among refugees, and ultimately opens new ways to understand the more complex ethical and political legacy of Calvinism. In conversation with theorists of practice and signification, she advocates for reading the Institutes as a pedagogical text that places the reader in the world as the domain in which to actively pursue the 'knowledge of God and ourselves' through participatory uses of divine revelation. Through this lens, she reconceives Calvin's understanding of sovereignty and how it works in relation to the embodied reader. Sanchez also critically examines Calvin's teaching on providence and the incarnation in conversation with theorists of political theology and modernity who emphasize the importance of those very doctrines.

Roger Bacon (1210-1292), einem bislang noch weithin vernachlassigten Denker, verdanken wir bahnbrechende Ideen auf dem Gebiet der Sprachtheorie, der "Scientia experimentalis" sowie der Moralphilosophie. Im vorliegenden Band sind philosophisch und wissenschaftsgeschichtlich bedeutsame Forschungsarbeiten aus den letzten 50 Jahren versammelt.

Norman Kretzmann expounds and criticizes Aquinas's theology of creation, which is `natural' (or philosophical) in that Aquinas developed it without depending on the data of Scripture. Because of the special importance of intellective creatures like us, Aquinas's account of the divine origin and organization of the universe includes essential ingredients of his philosophy of mind. The Metaphysics of Creation is a continuation of the project Kretzmann began in The Metaphysics of Theism; as before, he not only explains Aquinas's natural theology, but advocates it as the best available to us.

Aristotle's On the Soul is among the most important books on the pre-modern account of soul. Here, Aristotle presents a view of the psyche that avoids the simplifications both of the materialists and those who believe in the soul as something quite distinct from body. On the Soul also includes Aristotle's idiosyncratic and influential account of light and colors. On Memory and Recollection continues the investigation of some of the topics introduced in On the Soul. Aristotle lived from 384 to 322 BCE. he was a student of Plato for twenty years, and for the next twenty five years he was one of the most prolific of philosophic writers, as well as a keen biological observer. For almost 2000 years his teachings dominated the centers of learning in Europe and the Middle East. For all those willing to make the effort to follow his arguments, he is still a living thinker of great power.

Can ecstatic experiences be studied with the academic instruments of rational investigation? What kinds of religious illumination are experienced by academically minded people? And what is the specific nature of the knowledge of God that university theologians of the Middle Ages enjoyed compared with other modes of knowing God, such as rapture, prophecy, the beatific vision, or simple faith? Ecstasy in the Classroom explores the interface between academic theology and ecstatic experience in the first half of the thirteenth century, formative years in the history of the University of Paris, medieval Europe's "fountain of knowledge." It considers little-known texts by William of Auxerre, Philip the Chancellor, William of Auvergne, Alexander of Hales, and other theologians of this community, thus creating a group portrait of a scholarly discourse. It seeks to do three things. The first is to map and analyze the scholastic discourse about rapture and other modes of cognition in the first half of the thirteenth century. The second is to explicate the perception of the self that these modes imply: the possibility of transformation and the complex structure of the soul and its habits. The third is to read these discussions as a window on the predicaments of a newborn community of medieval professionals and thereby elucidate foundational tensions in the emergent academic culture and its social and cultural context. Juxtaposing scholastic questions with scenes of contemporary courtly romances and reading Aristotle's Analytics alongside hagiographical anecdotes, Ecstasy in the Classroom challenges the often rigid historiographical boundaries between scholastic thought and its institutional and cultural context.

During most of the Christian millennia Aristotle has been the most influential of all philosophers. This selection of essays by the eminent philosopher and Aristotle scholar Anthony Kenny traces this influence through the ages. Particular attention is given to Aristotle's ethics and philosophy of mind, showing how they provided the framework for much fruitful development in the Middle Ages and again in the present century. Also included are some contributions to the most recent form of Aristotelian scholarship, computer-assisted stylometry. All who work on Aristotle and his intellectual legacy will find much to interest them in these Essays on the Aristotelian Tradition.

The long-awaited second volume of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts offers first-time English translations of major texts in ethics and political thought from one of the most fruitful periods of speculation and analysis in the history of Western thought. The seventeen texts in this anthology offer late medieval treatments of fundamental issues in human conduct that are both conceptually subtle and of direct practical import. This is an important resource for scholars and students of medieval philosophy, history, political science, theology and literature.