The writings of Volker Gerhardt have had substantial influence on recent Nietzsche research. This volume collects a variety of his influential essays and makes them available to scholars and causal readers alike. The present collection takes stock of Nietzsche s most prominent ideas. Gerhardt investigates which of these ideas still offer solutions for the problems of today. In the process, it becomes clear what sort of inspiration a future-oriented philosophizing can draw from Nietzsche."

Culture is a uniquely human property. Although precursors to cultural practices are found in (non-human) primates and other animals, these precursors differ in kind from the conditions of human culture that have emerged through evolutionary processes. In order to illuminate the mutual dependence of biological-genetic and cultural evolution, the author investigates technology and the use of tools, as well as the way these abilities are transmitted, in order to understand what properties and abilities separate human beings from animals.

Everybody who thinks or speaks possesses consciousness a " but nobody is capable of defining exactly what consciousness is. The phenomenon a ~consciousnessa (TM), therefore, is a persistent enigma which is being continually addressed by various disciplines. This volume encompasses the functions of consciousness as analysed by a consortium of scholars from the life sciences and humanities. Empirical results taken from psychiatry and psychology,linguistic and philosophical act and speech analyses, as well as, historical perspectives are all placed in context with one another. renowned contributors provides an extensive and systematic introduction

The last work published by Kant himself is a study of the relationship of philosophy to other academic disciplines. The very title of the work, Streit der Fakultaten (Dispute between the Faculties), published in 1797, makes it clear that the various disciplines are related critically, even polemically, to each other. As academic disciplines they share common obligations of knowledge, enlightenment and education; in their relationship with each other, however, they have the duty to contest the means and aims of knowledge. There can only be living science where this dispute about knowledge is conducted with the means of knowledge. In this volume, representatives of the faculties addressed by Kant give their assessment of Kant's relevance for their disciplines. As the Dispute between the Faculties was and is of importance for the foundation of the University of Berlin, Kant's contribution to university reform is also considered.

Uber die Geltung der Evolutionstheorie fur den Bereich der lebendigen Natur besteht Einigkeit. Doch man kann auch fragen, ob und inwieweit sie sich auf andere Bereiche ubertragen lasst. So wird heute der Kultur nicht nur eine Stellung im Prozess der Evolution zuerkannt, sondern es werden auch besondere Gesetze der kulturellen Evolution ermittelt. Zwar ist die Evolutionstheorie im strengen Sinne keineswegs eine globale Totaltheorie fur kontinuierliche Entwicklungsprozesse jedweder Art. Gleichwohl ist es reizvoll und ertragreich, den Gemeinsamkeiten von Natur, Technik und Kultur in der Perspektive der Evolution nachzugehen. Dies ist das Ziel des vorliegenden Bandes. Die historischen, methodologischen und systematischen Dimensionen der Evolutionstheorie werden interdisziplinar vermessen. Es zeigt sich, dass tatsachlich viele Prozesse in Technik und Kultur auffallige Analogien zu den Entwicklungsprozessen der Natur haben. Das gilt fur die grossen technischen Veranderungen unserer Welt ebenso wie fur das Entstehen und Vergehen von Ideologien und kulturellen Umwalzungen. Mit Beitragen von: Jan Assmann, Bettina Bock von Wulfingen, Horst Bredekamp, Olaf Dossel, Wolfgang Forstmeier, Andreas G. Franke, Volker Gerhardt, Gerd Gigerenzer, Onur Gunturkun, Gangolf Hubinger, Nicole Karafyllis, Kristian Kochy, Dirk Lanzerath, Klaus Lieb, Klaus Lucas, Hubert Markl, Randolf Menzel, Axel Meyer, Jurgen Mittelstrass, Jens Reich, Ortwin Renn, Hans-Jorg Rheinberger, Arnold Sauter, Hans-Paul Schwefel, Karl Sperling, Gunter Stock, Markus Vogt und Hans-Gunther Wagemann"

Th. A. Szlezak's book Platon und die Schriftlichkeit der Philosophie. Interpretationen zu den fruhen und mittleren Dialogen published in 1985 rapidly became an internationally recognised classic in the interpretation of Plato. A close textual analysis of the Dialogues revealed new insights into the relationship of Plato's textual criticism and his auctorial activity. Following on logically from this, Szlezak now brings the same approach to bear on Plato's late dialogues. With this, he presents the first comprehensive study of Socrates the dialectician in the totality of Plato's work with results which are highly relevant for Plato's concept of philosophy."

Die Frage des Menschen nach sich selbst beschaftigt Menschen zu allen Zeiten und an allen Orten, so auch in der Gegenwart. Die hier versammelten Wissenschaftler, Politiker, Theologen, Journalisten und Schriftsteller aus verschiedenen kulturellen Traditionen geben in uber funfzig pragnanten Beitragen ihre persoenliche Antwort auf die aufgeworfene Frage. Was ist davon zu erwarten? Sicherlich keine abschliessende Loesung der Frage. Doch ist ein schillerndes Spektrum aktueller Positionen zum menschlichen Selbstverstandnis entstanden - zugleich kritisch und konstruktiv, pointiert und tiefgrundig. Eingeleitet und kommentiert wird die Sammlung mit Beitragen von Volker Gerhardt, Julian Nida-Rumelin, Detlev Ganten und Jan-Christoph Heilinger.