Werkprofile

Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi helped to found the fields of public policy, administration studies, and economics in the Age of Enlightenment. He proposed and developed his political theories in a series of foundational works. Justi also published as a philosopher, literary author, and political commentator. This volume brings together studies on the various areas of his work, which was received throughout Europe.

The extensive oeuvre of Carl Christian Erhard Schmid (1761–1812) has been largely overlooked in research on the history of philosophy, with the exception of his teachings on intelligible fatalism. This volume presents analyses and interpretations of not just his moral philosophy but also the unknown parts of his philosophical system: aesthetics, logic, metaphysics, legal doctrine and theology, anthropology, and physiology.

Christoph Meiners (1747–1810) was one of the most productive academic, popular-philosophical and journalistic authors of the late Enlightenment. His oeuvre encompasses works on psychology and anthropology, on historiography, ethics, and political theory. Meiners made use of almost all the text types that were available in the late eighteenth century.

Christoph Meiners (1747–1810) was one of the most unusual members of Göttingen University, which he belonged to from 1767 to 1810 as a student and professor. What made his work unusual was that, for example, he spent more than 40 years publishing in all fields of philosophy and historiography, in many areas of the popular philosophy of the time, and as a travel author.

As soon as it was published, the correspondence between Jakob Mauvillon (1743–1794) and Ludwig August Unzer (1748–1774), Ueber den Werth einiger Deutschen Dichter [On the Value of Some German Poets], unleashed a storm of outrage. While the authors critically dissect and dismantle Gellert’s entire poetic oeuvre in the first part, in the second part they carry out a ranking of German poets.

Jakob Mauvillon combined radical Enlightenment positions with Christian theological convictions and even anti-Catholic ressentiments. This volume reconstructs the various fields in which the Enlightenment thinker reflected and took action, and attempts to synthesize them.

As a novelist and journalist as well as a philosopher and scientific policymaker, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi had a significant impact around 1800. This volume brings together the research on his work that is scattered throughout various disciplines and puts it up for discussion.

This volume is the first to provide an overview of the works of the philologist, philosopher, and bible critic H. S. Reimarus. Alongside his famous "Apology," it focuses on his three main published works on logic, metaphysics, and natural philosophy, analyzing their content in individual chapters and placing them within the context of the philosophical and academic discussions of his time.

The volume offers insight into the rich universe of Lambert’s oeuvre. Alongside texts on logic and metaphysics, it presents examples of Lambert’s perspectives on theology, politics, and aesthetics. A comprehensive explanatory apparatus discloses the breadth of the historical contexts.

In his time, Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777) was considered one of Europe’s polymathic geniuses. His research encompassed mathematics, the philosophy of logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and linguistics, as well as astronomy and physics. Through his numerous publications, he not only exerted an influence on his fellow academics; as a popular philosopher, he also impacted public debate in the Enlightenment era.

This volume contains the first new edition and a German translation of the master’s thesis that Christian Garve wrote in Halle. Neglected in the literature thus far and missing from Garve’s collected works, this text provides a systematic examination of the concept of probability in the fields of logic, metaphysics, and the sciences. Garve thus took leave of school philosophy as early as in 1766.

In the late 18^th century, Christian Garve’s works were considered the pre-eminent example of a learned yet popular style. The Wrocław-based Enlightenment thinker nonetheless also enjoyed the respect of his philosopher and philologist colleagues, and his translations of and commentaries on English authors and Latin classics influenced generations of writers and philosophers. This collection offers an insight into Garve’s wide-ranging work.

From the early 1770s on, Christian Garve (1742–1798) was considered one of the luminaries of the German Enlightenment and was well known across Europe more widely. His commentaries and translations of Ferguson and Cicero earned him the reputation of a distinguished scholar. The studies in this volume address Garve’s theoretical and practical philosophy, as well as his aesthetic and anthropological thinking.

Heinrich Friedrich von Diez was one of the most dazzling figures of the late Enlightenment era. A freethinker from an early age, this highly ambitious figure with idiosyncratic views became Prussia’s chargé d’affaires in Constantinople in 1780. Here he engaged intensively in political life while also undertaking oriental studies and building a vast library of handwritten manuscripts and books.

On the basis of the Thomist and Pietist tradition, Christian August Crusius (1715–1775) elaborated a philosophically challenging and influential alternative to the philosophy of Christian Wolff. For the first time, this edited collection offers a rigorous overview of the work of the Leipzig-based philosopher and theologian.

The collection addresses one of the formative philosophers and publicists of the European Enlightenment 1770-1800, both within broad sections of the professional or academic philosophy as well as in the context of literary and philosophical discourses of public. Feder took decisive influence on important debates, controversies and research developments of his time.

Johann Georg Heinrich Feder’s writings offer a representative view of the development of philosophical thought in German empiricism between the late 1760s and the early 1790s. They present a vivid picture of the “New Göttingen Sciences” in the late Enlightenment period. Along with journal articles and reviews, the volume presents excerpts from difficult to access monographs.

The Göttingen philosopher Michael Hißmann (1752–1784) has been the subject of considerable attention from historians of philosophy due to his materialistic positions. He conducted an extensive correspondence with friends and colleagues, including Christian Garve, Christian Konrad Wilhelm Dohm, Franz von Irwing, and Jakob Mauvillon. Hißmann’s recently discovered legacy now makes possible an extensive documentation of this correspondence.

Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777) was among the most influential philosophers and journalists of the European Enlightenment. He was active in all the sub-areas of academic philosophy and also in the context of literary and popular philosophical discourse. He was held in high esteem by Mendelssohn, Lessing, Herder, and Kant, but until now, there has been no overall presentation of Meier’s oeuvre. This book fills that gap.

Johann Nikolaus Tetens (1736–1807) was among the most influential figures of the European Enlightenment. He systematically studied the philosophy of John Locke and David Hume, and made them accessible to the epistemological and moral philosophical discourses of the period. In this volume renowned scholars analyze Tetens’s broad range of work.

Johann Nikolaus Tetens’s Philosophical inquiries into Human Nature and its Development (1777) is one of the most important philosophical works of the late Enlightenment. In 14 essays, Tetens attempts to resolve the fundamental problems of Enlightenment philosophy. This is the first complete and annotated edition of this major work of late Enlightenment empiricism since its initial publication.

Johann Christoph Gottsched is one of the key figures in the early German enlightenment. This volume covers the entire gamut of Gottsched research, re-examines all accepted wisdom, and proposes new assessments for discussion. It pays particular attention to lesser known aspects of Gottsched’s work, such as his contributions to the natural sciences, political science, and his growing interest in questions related to anthropology and aesthetics.

Es gehört zu den wirksamsten Dogmen der Aufklärungsforschung, dass die deutschsprachige Philosophie keine materialistische Theorie ausgebildet habe Die Texte Michael Hißmanns (1752–1784) zeigen dagegen, dass sich im Kontext der Göttinger empiristischen Schule im späten 18. Jahrhundert durchaus ein ambitionierter Materialismus entwickelte. Hißmann hat seine materialistische Grundlagentheorie auf vielerlei Feldern der Philosophie umzusetzen gesucht; so in der Psychologie, Anthropologie, praktischen Philosophie, in den Geschichtswissenschaften, der Sprachphilosophie und Poetik. Vor dem grundsätzlich materialismuskritischen Hintergrund der deutschen Spätaufklärung wirkt diese affirmative Aufnahme und systematische Ausarbeitung eines Materialismus durch Michael Hißmann besonders auffällig, und sie wurde daher von vielen Zeitgenossen argwöhnisch begleitet. Dieser Band versammelt erstmalig Texte Michael Hißmanns aus allen – z. T. schwer zugängigen – Werkbereichen, so den popularphilosophischen „Briefen über Gegenstände der Philosophie“ sowie eine vollständige Präsentation seines Hauptwerkes „Psychologische Versuche“ von 1777. Darüber hinaus werden Studien und Aufsätze zum Naturrecht, zur Philosophiegeschichte und Geschichtsphilosophie sowie zur Religionsphilosophie und Ästhetik vorgestellt und kommentiert, die ein facettenreiches Bild des Materialismus in der deutschen Aufklärung bieten.

Michael Hißmann gehört zu den großen Unbekannten der deutschsprachigen Spätaufklärung in den 1770er und 1780er Jahren. Diese Position gründet vor allem in der materialistischen Konzeption, die der Philosoph im Kontext der Göttinger empiristischen Schule entwarf. Der seit der Mitte 18. Jahrhundert europaweit intensiv diskutierte Materialismus konnte sich in der deutschsprachigen Philosophie der Spätaufklärung schwerer durchsetzen als etwa in England oder Frankreich, da sich in ihr der Einfluss des Leibnizschen und Wolffschen Rationalismus als dominierend erwies. Vor diesem materialismuskritischen Hintergrund wird die affirmative Aufnahme und systematische Ausarbeitung eines Materialismus durch Michael Hißmann besonders auffällig, und sie wurde daher von vielen Zeitgenossen argwöhnisch begleitet. Die Forschung hat sich bisher weder mit der spezifischen Rezeption des Materialismus durch Michael Hißmann noch gar mit dessen eigener materialistischer Philosophie befasst. Auf den Feldern der Psychologie, der Anthropologie, der Metaphysik, der praktischen Philosophie, der Geschichtswissenschaften und Poetik suchte der Göttinger Philosoph seine materialistische Grundlagentheorie zu realisieren.

Johann Georg Sulzer gehörte zu den prägenden Gestalten der europäischen Aufklärung in den 1750er und 1760er Jahren, sowohl in der Philosophie als auch in einer Reihe von Einzelwissenschaften - wie der Mathematik und der Pädagogik - sowie im Kontext literarischer und ästhetischer Diskurse. Federführend nahm er an den wichtigen Debatten, Kontroversen und Forschungsentwicklungen teil, die etwa in Berlin, in Leipzig oder in Paris die Aufklärung beschäftigte. Der vorliegende Band versammelt Studien von Philosophen, Literaturwissenschaftlern und Wissenschaftshistorikern zu allen Werkbereichen Sulzers, insbesondere zur lange Zeit vernachlässigten Erkenntnistheorie und Psychologie. Zugleich wird seine bislang weitgehend unbekannte praktische Philosophie diskutiert. Darüber hinaus werden auch Sulzers Sprach- und Kunsttheorie sowie seine Enzyklopädistik analysiert.
Mit Beiträgen von: Élisabeth Décultot, Werner Euler, Frank Grunert, Jutta Heinz, Marion Heinz, Dieter Hüning, Heiner Klemme, Hans-Peter Nowitzki, Udo Roth, Gideon Stiening, Udo Thiel, Achim Vesper und Falk Wunderlich.

August Wilhelm Rehberg (1757–1836) has mainly been portrayed as a conservative politician, although he made important contributions to the metaphysical, moral-philosophical, and literary discussions of his time. This volume draws attention to Rehberg as a philosopher and essayist. The works address his philosophy of religion, anthropology, ethics, and legal philosophy, as well as his thoughts on mathematics and literature.