The University of Basel was founded in 1460 on the basis of a privilege from Pope Pius II. As a young man, this pope had spent several years in the town and felt a strong affinity with it throughout his life. This volume begins with an examination of this prominent humanist and describes the contexts of the founding of the university in a series of further articles. The other examined dimensions are the urban and university contexts, as well as the church and art.

Seit einem Paradigmenwechsel in Griechenland um 400 v. Chr. wird der Mensch als Produkt der Zusammensetzung von Koerper und Seele verstanden. Zwischen ihnen wurde der ohne Beistand von Sehen und Tasten spurbare Leib vergessen, zu dem Schreck, Angst, Schmerz, Hunger, Durst, Wollust, Entzucken, Mudigkeit, affektives Betroffensein von Gefuhlen, gespurte Bewegung und Richtungen (wie der Blick) gehoeren. Das damals Vergessene wird hier ans Licht gezogen und mit neuen Begriffen durchleuchtet. Das betrifft die Eigenart der Ausdehnung und Dynamik des Leibes. Die leibliche Dynamik erweitert sich zur leiblichen Kommunikation, der Grundform der Wahrnehmung und sozialer Kontakte. Anschliessend wird die Bedeutung des Leibes in vielen Bezugen eroertert: als Grundlage des Personseins, als Resonanzstatte fur Gefuhle als ergreifende Atmospharen, als pragende Kraft in Kunst und Geschichte, als Faktor der Strukturen von Raum und Zeit, ferner mit Bezug auf die Seelenvorstellung und den Koerper. Eine Skizze der Stationen des Denkens uber den Leib als Thema von Homer bis zur Gegenwart schliesst das Buch.

Is philosophy endangered by a scientific culture increasingly influenced by demands of utility and efficiency? What are the goals and intentions of philosophy, and what are the reasons that one practices philosophy at all? The main questions of this collection concern the self-understanding of philosophy. Prominent authors consider historical, systematic, and social approaches to this question and discuss possible answers. The purpose is not merely to legitimate philosophical practice but to understand what such practice consists in at all.

Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders is the only full-length interpretive study on Machiavelli's controversial and ambiguous work, Discourses on Livy. These discourses, considered by some to be Machiavelli's most important work, are thoroughly explained in a chapter-by-chapter commentary by Harvey C. Mansfield, one of the world's foremost interpreters of this remarkable philosopher. Mansfield's aim is to discern Machiavelli's intention in writing the book: he argues that Machiavelli wanted to introduce new modes and orders in political philosophy in order to make himself the founder of modern politics. Mansfield maintains that Machiavelli deliberately concealed part of his intentions so that only the most perceptive reader could see beneath the surface of the text and understand the whole of his book. Previously out of print, Mansfield's penetrating study brings to light the hidden thoughts lurking in the details of the Discourses on Livy to inform and challenge its readers at every step along the way.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), the great Renaissance skeptic and pioneer of the essay form, is known for his innovative method of philosophical inquiry which mixes the anecdotal and the personal with serious critiques of human knowledge, politics and the law. He is the first European writer to be intensely interested in the representations of his own intimate life, including not just his reflections and emotions but also the state of his body. His rejection of fanaticism and cruelty and his admiration for the civilizations of the New World mark him out as a predecessor of modern notions of tolerance and acceptance of otherness. In this volume an international team of contributors explores the range of his philosophy and also examines the social and intellectual contexts in which his thought was expressed.

John Perry revisits the cast of characters of his classic A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality in this absorbing dialogue on consciousness. Cartesian dualism, property dualism, materialism, the problem of other minds . . . Gretchen Weirob and her friends tackle these topics and more in a dialogue that exemplifies the subtleties and intricacies of philosophical reflection. Once again, Perry's ability to use straightforward language to discuss complex issues combines with his mastery of the dialogue form. A Bibliography lists relevant further readings keyed to topics discussed in the dialogue. A helpful Glossary provides a handy reference to terms used in the dialogue and an array of clarifying examples.

"Every page contains thought at a high level." -British Weekly Rudolf Steiner begins these three lectures by depicting the background of early Christian thought, from which scholastic philosophers arose. He focuses on the "unanswered question" of the scholastic movement: How can human thinking be made Christlike and develop toward a vision of the spiritual world? A study of subsequent European thought, especially that of Kant, leads to the possibility of deepening into spiritual perception the scientific thinking that arose from scholasticism. Steiner explains that, since the beginning of the twentieth century, this is true Christianity.

'A ripping read ... fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox' Daily Telegraph Was Niccolo Machiavelli really the cynical schemer of legend - or was he a profound ethical thinker, who tried to save the democratic freedom of Renaissance Florence as it was threatened by ruthless dynasties? This revelatory biography shows us a man of fox-like dissimulation: a master of disguise in dangerous times. 'A gripping portrait of a brilliant political thinker, who understood the dangers of authoritarianism and looked for ways to curb them' The New Yorker 'Compelling ... this unconventional biography questions whether the philosopher deserves his reputation as an advocate for tyranny' Julian Baggini, Financial Times

Critically engaging the thought of Heidegger, Gadamer, and others, William Franke contributes both to the criticism of Dante's "Divine Comedy" and to the theory of interpretation.
Reading the poem through the lens of hermeneutical theory, Franke focuses particularly on Dante's address to the reader as the site of a disclosure of truth. The event of the poem for its reader becomes potentially an experience of truth both human and divine. While contemporary criticism has concentrated on the historical character of Dante's poem, often insisting on it as undermining the poem's claims to transcendence, Franke argues that precisely the poem's historicity forms the ground for its mediation of a religious revelation. Dante's dramatization, on an epic scale, of the act of interpretation itself participates in the self-manifestation of the Word in poetic form.
"Dante's Interpretive Journey" is an indispensable addition to the field of Dante studies and offers rich insights for philosophy and theology as well.

In this portrait of the flamboyant Milanese courtier Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481), Diana Robin reveals a fifteenth-century humanism different from the cool, elegant classicism of Medicean Florence and patrician Venice. Although Filelfo served such heads of state as Pope Pius II, Cosimo de' Medici, and Francesco Sforza, his humanism was that of the "other"--the marginalized, exilic writer, whose extraordinary mind yet obscure origins made him a misfit at court. Through an exploration of Filelfo's disturbing montages in his letters and poems--of such events as the Milanese revolution of 1447 and the plague that swept Lombardy in 1451--Robin exposes the extent to which Filelfo, once viewed as an apologist for his patrons, criticized their militarism, sham republicanism, and professions of Christian piety. This study includes an examination of Filelfo's deeply layered references to Horace, Livy, Vergil, and Petrarch, as well as a comparison of Filelfo to other fifteenth-century Lombard writers, such as Cristoforo da Soldo, Pier Candido Decembrio, and Giovanni Simonetta. Here Robin presents her own editions of selections from Filelfo's Epistolae Familiares, Sforziad, Odae, and De Morali Disciplina, many of these texts appearing for the first time since the Renaissance.

Originally published in 1991.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This volume contains selections of Ockham's philosophical writings which give a balanced introductory view of his work in logic, metaphysics, and ethics. This edition includes textual markings referring readers to appendices containing changes in the Latin text and alterations found in the English translation that have been made necessary by the critical edition of Ockham's work published after Boehner prepared the original text. The updated bibliography includes the most important scholarship produced since publication of the original edition.

Diese Abhandlung ist im Marz 1988 geschrieben, im August 1989 und im Sommer 1990 Uberarbeitet worden. Es ergab sich unbeabsichtigt, daB sie im hun- dertsten Todesjahr Gontscharovs herauskommt. Die in ihr gegebene Erklarung von Gontscharovs drittem und letztem Roman, nach eigener Dberzeugung seinem wichtigsten, will keine vollstandige Interpreta- tion geben. Vieles bleibt offen: das Bild der Statue und das Pygmalionmotiv, das eine wohl aus der Goethe-Kritik des Jungen Deutschlands, das andere aus Schiller genommen; das Instinktmotiv, das Fenstermotiv, das Motiv der Dammerung, das aus Gogol entwickelt ist, des Schusses, das es auch in Turgenevs Vater und Sohne gibt. Bestimmte Stilfiguren wie die Reflexion in Dreierformeln, die gewiB eine Analyse wert sind, werden gesehen, aber nicht behandelt. Literarische Beziehun- gen wie die zu Karamzin, Gogol, Lermontov, Byron sind kaum beriihrt; die zu Ossian und Bellini wurden friiher an anderer Stelle behandelt. Die Tiervergleiche verdienen genauere Betrachtung; hier ist nur einer, der Hundevergleich unter- sucht; ein anderer, der Vogelvergleich, gestreift. Manche wichtige Person, wie die Babuschka und Tuschin, mUBte in ihrer allegorischen Form ausfiihrlicher unter- sucht werden, als es hier geschieht. Vieles ist freilich erwahnt, Einiges in Anmer- kungen angedeutet; Manches haben Andere erschopfend untersucht und es wurde deshalb nicht wiederholt. Das Ziel dieser Abhandlung ist ein anderes. Das Feuer der Kritik hat yom ersten Augenblick an Die Schlucht in eine Beleuchtung getaucht, aus der sie sich bisher nicht hat befreien konnen.

Justus Lipsius' De Constantia (1584) is one of the most important and interesting of sixteenth century Humanist texts. A dialogue in two books, conceived as a philosophical consolation for those suffering through contemporary religious wars, De Constantia proved immensely popular in its day and formed the inspiration for what has become known as 'Neo-stoicism'. This movement advocated the revival of Stoic ethics in a form that would be palatable to a Christian audience. In De Constantia Lipsius deploys Stoic arguments concerning appropriate attitudes towards emotions and external events. He also makes clear which parts of stoic philosophy must be rejected, including its materialism and its determinism. De Constantia was translated into a number of vernacular languages soon after its original publication in Latin. Of the English translations that were made, that by Sir John Stradling (1595) became a classic; it was last reprinted in 1939. The present edition offers a lightly revised version of Stradling's translation, updated for modern readers, along with a new introduction, notes and bibliography.