Johann August Eberhard (1739-1809) was one of the most renowned and controversial proponents of German popular philosophy during the late 18th century. By 1800 at the latest, the triumphal march of Kantian criticism had swept aside this last main proponent of the once popular Philosophy for the World . The present volume aims to facilitate interdisciplinary access to the Eberhard s work by critically scrutinizing existing research studies, with the ultimate intent of reevaluating the work of this philosopher."

When the University of Halle-Wittenberg founded the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies in 1993, it was following the destiny of its history as a centre of the early Enlightenment in Germany which affected the whole of Europe. Research foci of the Centre are at the moment aesthetics, discourses of history, cultures of learning and erudition, university history and not least the wide field of early Enlightenment as a field of experimentation and the foundation of cultural models for the Modern Age. The results of this research have been published since Autumn 1995 in the Centres' research publications series entitled University of Halle Series on the European Enlightenment. In addition, there have been relevant works produced outside the Centre. Two to four volumes are published annually (monographs, collected volumes, commentaries on sources).

The volume assembles papers presented at a conference held at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into the European Enlightenment. The aim of the meeting was to close a conspicuous research gap by looking at the status of journeys on foot in 18th and 19th century travel literature in German. The articles examine autobiographical and literary texts giving representative information on the phenomenon of the new social prestige accorded to journeys on foot (and reflection upon them) identifiable in the second half of the 18th century. Central to this reevaluation was an appreciation of the heightened experience of space and distance denied to coach travelers. The volume closes with a source bibliography of works pertaining to journeys on foot in the period in question.

The volume assembles papers delivered at a conference in Halberstadt marking the 200th anniversary of BA1/4rger's death and the 275th anniversary of Gleim's birth. They centre around such topics as the friendship between Gleim and BA1/4rger, the concepts of literature and friendship in Gleim's later works, and his correspondence. New light is cast on BA1/4rger's biography, his "MA1/4nchhausen," and his teaching at GAttingen University. An annexe contains hitherto unpublished source material on BA1/4rger's social background.

Der Band versammelt die Ergebnisse eines wissenschaftlichen Kolloquiums am InterdisziplinAren Zentrum fA1/4r die Erforschung der EuropAischen AufklArung der Martin-Luther-UniversitAt Halle-Wittenberg (28.-30.10.1993). In europAischer Perspektive steht im Vordergrund die Batteux-Rezeption in der Halleschen A"sthetik. Im Bereich der Prosa geht es um die dichtungstheoretische SelbstverstAndigung fA1/4r utopische Genres. Das Gros der BeitrAge beschAftigt sich mit Problemstellungen der sich in Halle konstituierenden A"sthetik (A.G. Baumgarten, G.F. Meier), deren Relevanz fA1/4r den poetologischen Diskurs der FrA1/4haufklArung und ihre Wirksamkeit in der Dichtungspraxis vornehmlich der beiden Halleschen Dichterschulen (Pietismus, Anakreontik).