Matthias Perkams - Böcker

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the text which had the single greatest influence on Aquinas's ethical writings, and the historical and philosophical value of Aquinas's appropriation of this text provokes lively debate. In this volume of new essays, thirteen distinguished scholars explore how Aquinas receives, expands on and transforms Aristotle's insights about the attainability of happiness, the scope of moral virtue, the foundation of morality and the nature of pleasure. They examine Aquinas's commentary on the Ethics and his theological writings, above all the Summa theologiae. Their essays show Aquinas to be a highly perceptive interpreter, but one who also brings certain presuppositions to the Ethics and alters key Aristotelian notions for his own purposes. The result is a rich and nuanced picture of Aquinas's relation to Aristotle that will be of interest to readers in moral philosophy, Aquinas studies, the history of theology and the history of philosophy.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the text which had the single greatest influence on Aquinas's ethical writings, and the historical and philosophical value of Aquinas's appropriation of this text provokes lively debate. In this volume of new essays, thirteen distinguished scholars explore how Aquinas receives, expands on and transforms Aristotle's insights about the attainability of happiness, the scope of moral virtue, the foundation of morality and the nature of pleasure. They examine Aquinas's commentary on the Ethics and his theological writings, above all the Summa theologiae. Their essays show Aquinas to be a highly perceptive interpreter, but one who also brings certain presuppositions to the Ethics and alters key Aristotelian notions for his own purposes. The result is a rich and nuanced picture of Aquinas's relation to Aristotle that will be of interest to readers in moral philosophy, Aquinas studies, the history of theology and the history of philosophy.

Während Aristoteles’ De anima Seele als Lebensprinzip des körperlichen Wesens definiert, ist sie für die neuplatonischen Kommentatoren dieser Schrift eine geistige, vom Körper trennbare Größe, die sich auf sich selbst zurückwenden kann. Die Studie untersucht, wie die Ausleger Johannes Philoponos, Priskian von Lydien (Pseudo-Simplikios) und Stephanos von Alexandrien (Pseudo-Philoponos) mit dieser Problematik umgingen. In einem ersten Teil werden die philosophischen Konzeptionen der einzelnen Kommentare je für sich dargestellt und historisch eingeordnet. Deren Wert für die De anima-Interpretation wird ebenso diskutiert wie die Identität ihrer Autoren und das Verhältnis des Philoponos zu seinem Lehrer Ammonios. Der zweite Teil ist die erste philosophische Rekonstruktion von Priskians Konzeption des Selbstbezugs der Seele, die als detaillierteste antike Darstellung des menschlichen Selbstbewusstseins gelten kann. Plotins Überlegungen zur Selbsterkenntnis des Geistes werden so auf die menschliche Person übertragen, dass diese sich konstituiert, indem sie um die Wiedergewinnung ihrer ursprünglichen Identität als geistiges Wesen ringt. Um dies zu erläutern unterscheidet Priskian mehrere Formen des Selbstbezugs und setzt sie in Beziehung zueinander.

The peer-reviewed series Transmissions aims to constitute a space for documentation, theoretical and methodological reflection and critical discussion on the transmission of texts. The focus is on textual production in Greek and Latin, while remaining open to comparisons with the dynamics of transmission in the graphic and textual production of other cultures and languages, especially in the cases where the latter function as vehicles for the transmission of Greek and Latin texts. The series hosts studies on the various aspects of conservation and transformation, in all their manifold processes, from antiquity to the modern period. Its concern is above all with the material factors and practices of use and reception of texts and their physical supports, with the aim of reconstructing the cultural and social history that serves as a foundation for their transmission. The scope of reflection is thus the itineraries of texts, books and book collections, with particular attention to the role of the actors and institutions that participate in these dynamics, leading towards a phenomenology and theory of the processes of transmission. The series responds to an increasing critical awareness, and to the search for theoretical systematisation in the field of the transmission of ancient texts. In the most recent research, alongside the philological approach to the text, an attention to the technical-material aspects of transmission has become widespread, and so also to the editorial and historical-cultural fortunes of the textual product right from antiquity itself, in the eastern and western Middle Ages and the whole of European humanism, up to the modern period. The philological approach to the book, with the observation of the physical signs of the material support, is ever more central to the investigation of texts, to the reconstruction of the paths taken by books and to a historical contextualisation of their use, in the need to tie the text to the fortunes of its vehicle. Increasingly conscious attention is being given to the transitions and arrivals of texts and books in different cultural and cultural-linguistic contexts, with their dynamics of confrontation and adaptation, resulting in new material outcomes of textual production, for example translations and commentaries, paraphrases, abbreviations and anthologisations. In general, there is a strong need to trace the social and cultural environments and scenarios in which the journeys of books and texts occur, by observing morphological shifts and ways of use both in textual products and in their material witnesses, and so also in the role of the actors in the practices of writing and reading – scribes, readers, scholars, humanists – and of institutions – schools, universities, public and private libraries – in the production, circulation and conservation processes of written culture. These are Transmissions, thus, not only of texts, but also of praxeis, of books and of collections of books, in the encounter between cultures. Transmissions publishes monographs, edited volumes and critical editions with commentary of texts which are particularly relevant for the study of the dynamics of textual transmission. The preferred language of publication is English, but German, Italian, and French are also accepted. Series Editor: Rosa Maria Piccione (Università di Torino) Advisory Board: Rodney Ast (Universität Heidelberg); Daniele Bianconi (Sapienza Università di Roma); Caterina Carpinato (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia); Paolo Eleuteri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia); Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich (Universität Bern); Juan Pedro Monferrer (Universidad de Cordoba); Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute-University of London); Matthias Perkams (Universität Jena); Elisabetta Sciarra (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana); Sofia Torallas Tovar (University of Chicago)

The peer-reviewed series Transmissions aims to constitute a space for documentation, theoretical and methodological reflection and critical discussion on the transmission of texts. The focus is on textual production in Greek and Latin, while remaining open to comparisons with the dynamics of transmission in the graphic and textual production of other cultures and languages, especially in the cases where the latter function as vehicles for the transmission of Greek and Latin texts. The series hosts studies on the various aspects of conservation and transformation, in all their manifold processes, from antiquity to the modern period. Its concern is above all with the material factors and practices of use and reception of texts and their physical supports, with the aim of reconstructing the cultural and social history that serves as a foundation for their transmission. The scope of reflection is thus the itineraries of texts, books and book collections, with particular attention to the role of the actors and institutions that participate in these dynamics, leading towards a phenomenology and theory of the processes of transmission. The series responds to an increasing critical awareness, and to the search for theoretical systematisation in the field of the transmission of ancient texts. In the most recent research, alongside the philological approach to the text, an attention to the technical-material aspects of transmission has become widespread, and so also to the editorial and historical-cultural fortunes of the textual product right from antiquity itself, in the eastern and western Middle Ages and the whole of European humanism, up to the modern period. The philological approach to the book, with the observation of the physical signs of the material support, is ever more central to the investigation of texts, to the reconstruction of the paths taken by books and to a historical contextualisation of their use, in the need to tie the text to the fortunes of its vehicle. Increasingly conscious attention is being given to the transitions and arrivals of texts and books in different cultural and cultural-linguistic contexts, with their dynamics of confrontation and adaptation, resulting in new material outcomes of textual production, for example translations and commentaries, paraphrases, abbreviations and anthologisations. In general, there is a strong need to trace the social and cultural environments and scenarios in which the journeys of books and texts occur, by observing morphological shifts and ways of use both in textual products and in their material witnesses, and so also in the role of the actors in the practices of writing and reading – scribes, readers, scholars, humanists – and of institutions – schools, universities, public and private libraries – in the production, circulation and conservation processes of written culture. These are Transmissions, thus, not only of texts, but also of praxeis, of books and of collections of books, in the encounter between cultures. Transmissions publishes monographs, edited volumes and critical editions with commentary of texts which are particularly relevant for the study of the dynamics of textual transmission. The preferred language of publication is English, but German, Italian, and French are also accepted. Series Editor: Rosa Maria Piccione (Università di Torino) Advisory Board: Rodney Ast (Universität Heidelberg); Daniele Bianconi (Sapienza Università di Roma); Caterina Carpinato (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia); Paolo Eleuteri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia); Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich (Universität Bern); Juan Pedro Monferrer (Universidad de Cordoba); Raphaële Mouren (Warburg Institute-University of London); Matthias Perkams (Universität Jena); Elisabetta Sciarra (Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana); Sofia Torallas Tovar (University of Chicago)

The Cause of the foundation of schools, which has been written around 600 by the East Syriac author Barhadbeshabba, is practically unique in intellectual history by explaining the anthropological phenomenon of schools. The author, who was himself a teacher at the famous School of Nisibis in Upper Mesopotamia, describes the history of divine and human schools until his own lifetime by renarrating important parts of biblical history as forms of teachings, paying attention to the Greek philosophical tradition and the teachings of Persian Zoroastrianism. He introduces his work by a sketch of his own philosophical convictions regarding our knowledge of God, the necessity of logic and the status of our soul. Due to its diverse contents, the work finds since a long time the interest not only of specalists of Eastern Christianity, but also of ancient historians, of historians of philosophy and of researchers in the field of religion, esp. Coranic and Zorostrian Studies. A new critical edition of this important text is been for a long time a desideratum, because the first editor Addai Scher could not use all extant manuscripts. For this reason, the text is re-edited here with introduction, translation and notes, using four extant manuscripts as well as the documentation of three, last one’s given by Addai Scher in its 1907 edition. The introduction describes the manuscripts and their relationship as well as the circumstances of the text’s composition. Thus, this new edition will be an indispensable tool for anybody working in the field of intellectual history of the Near East immediately before the rise of Islam.

The topic of this volume consists in discussing the methods used in the different areas of philosophy during the Latin Middle Ages and in the Islamicate world. The different contributions treat the methods of logic, ethics, philosophical psychology, physics, the mathematical disciplines and metaphysics from the end of antiquity towards the thirteenth/fourteenth century. The articles explain the respective roles of logic and of experiments as well as those of mathematics as a model of a purely rational endeavor within the different fields of philosophical research. Thus, the collection gives an impression of how Latin and Arabic thinkers understood and developed the Aristotelian idea that the specific methods of one philosophical discipline cannot be applied in the same way to any other subject area. As a result, a variety of perspectives on what good philosophical practice can look like emerge from both cultural spheres. The volume contributes to comparative studies in the History of Philosophy as well as to actual discussions on philosophical methods.