JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS最新文献

This paper explores Greek patristic authors as sources for the philosophical and philological endeavors in Lorenzo de' Medici's entourage. Throughout their writings, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola celebrate the Greek Fathers' complex and elegant synthesis of ancient philosophy and Christian wisdom. Ficino also translates and publishes texts by pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and by Athenagoras along with other Platonic undertakings. Pico's affection for and pervasive knowledge of their tradition is even greater, so much so that his zeal seems to have inspired Poliziano's tardy patristic scholarship as well as Lorenzo's relentless efforts to enlarge the Medici library.

A German Society for Ethical Culture, modeled on the Ethical Culture Society that Felix Adler had created in New York in 1876, was founded in Berlin in 1892, winning the support of prominent figures, among them Hermann Cohen. However, Cohen withdrew his support in the first years of the 20th century; he contended that universalistic ethical convictions must be defended politically by means of laws, otherwise they risk becoming marginalized and relapsing into the very "confessionalism" of the sectarian, "religious" communities they purport to eradicate. His argument remains particularly relevant in the realm of education.

Kant's views on human history have been widely studied, but commentators have rarely discussed his speculative account of humanity's origins, assuming that it does not neatly fit into his critical philosophy. My paper challenges this assumption by defending two claims. First, Kant's major essay on this topic, "Conjectural Beginning of Human History," is a key component of his teleological understanding of human history and should be incorporated into the study of his critical philosophy. Second, the story of humanity's origins informs Kant's prescriptions for our moral education by better explaining individual development and providing guidelines for it.

The first three years of Melanchthon's stay in Wittenberg (1518-1521) are marked by the "hybrid" nature of his figure. Until the publication of his Loci communes, he was enrolled as a theology student. Meanwhile, he worked as professor of ancient Greek. In these years, he also moved from an "Erasmian" to a "Lutheran" position. Did his relentless work on the Greek Fathers in a firmly Augustinian environment play a role in shaping Melanchthon's interpretation of Luther's standpoint? To what extent did this investigation affect the incipient theological thinking of the praeceptor Germaniae as we know it?

This article treats the corpus of Hellenistic Royal Wills and argues that the regal testament helps conceive of a State that is not coterminous with the ruler but that is, instead, an entity that keeps on living when the king dies. The article makes this claim by drawing upon legal material, particularly the Roman law of inheritance and the Hellenistic sources on royal and other public wills. Tracing the ability of the testament to secure continuity, the article uncovers a quasi-corporation engendered by the public use of the will and offers a new perspective on the idea of the State.

This article traces the emergence and application of Max Weber's influential concept of charisma in his "Confucianism and Taoism" (1920) and "Politics as a Vocation" (1919), two texts that have not received much attention in the discussion of charisma. Through these texts, we learn to appreciate Weber's engagement with classical Chinese philosophy and the global composition of this key idea in the twentieth century.