Die Neuen Diskurse fuhren den 2011 erschienenen Band fort, bringen Diskurse verschiedener Disziplinen zusammen und sind daher fur Fragen der Disziplinen- undWissenschaftsgeschichte interessant. Uber 20 Beitrage zur fruhneuzeitlichen Gelehrtenkultur behandeln Themen wie Gelehrtenrepublik, Bucherzensur, Politik- und Theologiekonzepte, Bildstreit, Atheismus, Kosmographie, Technik, das Problem des Todes in der Medizin, die Neue Welt uvm."

The Handbook presents a total of 23 exemplary studies of the discourses and complex topics in the culture of scholarship and science in the Early Modern Age (15th - 18th cents.) which set trends and established directions in this epoch between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. Each study traces its particular dialogue with its variants, protagonists and historical progress. Six headings are considered in all: 1. Philology / Rhetoric / Literature, 2. Cultures, 3. Theology / Denominations, 4. Philosophy, 5. Law / Politics, 6. Natural science / Medicine.

The volume goes back to a symposium in Halle in 1998. It essays an examination of the relationship of Christian Thomasius (1655-1733) to the literature and scholarly culture of the period in terms of Pierre Bourdieu's theories on literary and intellectual 'fields'. Taking the concept of field as a more or less explicit heuristic focus on a given subject, the articles inquire into Thomasius' literary and cultural knowledge, his aesthetic and poetological concepts and ideals and the 'economic' aspects of his practical efforts as a scholar, satirist and critic. They also cast light on the impulses he provided for the literary environment. The remaining contributions examine the field structures themselves in which he and the authors he refers to were active, both locally (in Leipzig and Halle) and more widely as a result of the dissemination by print media.