Bernhard Huss

Patrizia Marzillo

Thomas Ricklin

The Early Modern Period is increasingly perceived as a time of antagonism and conflict in different discursive fields. In the context of this topic the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 573 organized an international conference in March 2010 on Para/Textual Negotiations between Poetry and Philosophy in the Early Modern Period . The results of this conference are presented in this volume. The specific question of the book results from combining two key topics: the agonal relationship between poetry and philosophy, and the specificity through which this agon not only occurs in the text itself but even at the fringe between text and framework texts (paratexts and epitexts). "

Para/Textuelle Verhandlungen zwischen Dichtung und Philosophie in der Frühen Neuzeit

Michael Bernsen

Einer der Inauguratoren der europäischen Frühen Neuzeit ist Francesco Petrarca. An ihn knüpft man unter thematischen, formal-ästhetischen, poetologischen, geschichts- und kunstphilosophischen sowie gesellschaftlichen oder kulturprogrammatischen Gesichtspunkten an. Die europäischen Intellektuellen orientieren sich am ›Gesamtmodell Petrarca‹. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist der höfisch-elitistische Selbstpräsentationsgestus unter Maßgabe eines sozial kompatibel gemachten, dignitätsträchtigen petrarkistischen Sprechens. Dieser Band fragt, inwieweit der Petrarkismus der Frühen Neuzeit eine identitätsstiftende Kraft für ganz Europa hat. Diskutiert wird, wie sich in der Auseinandersetzung mit Petrarcas Werk das Selbstverständnis des modernen europäischen Menschen konstituiert und inwieweit der Diskurs des Petrarkismus an der Ausformung dieses Selbstverständnisses beteiligt ist. Erörtert werden mediale, poetologische, sozial- und kulturhistorische Voraussetzungen und Implikate, die den Petrarkismus als einen Gründungsmythos für Europa erscheinen lassen.

Ein europäischer Gründungsmythos

Der Petrarkismus

R. Scott Smith

Libanius

Marc Mastrangelo

William Musgrave Calder

Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of history's most enigmatic figures. Our knowledge of him comes to us second-hand, primarily from the philosopher Plato, who was Socrates' most gifted student, and from the historian and sometime-philosopher Xenophon, who counted himself as a member of Socrates' inner circle of friends. We also hear of Socrates in one comic play produced during his lifetime (Aristophanes' Clouds) and in passing from the philosopher Aristotle, a student of Plato. Socrates is a figure of enduring interest. He is often considered the father of Western Philosophy, yet the four most famous accounts we have of him present a contradictory, confusing picture. Just who was Socrates? A brilliant philosopher, at times confounding and infuriating, morally serious and yet ironic; the ever-worldly man, sometime mystic, and uncommon martyr depicted by Plato? Or did Plato conflate Socrates' views with his own startling genius, as Aristotle suggests? Was So rates instead the less impressive, more mundane man whose commonsense impressed the laconic Xenophon? Or was Socrates the charlatan, the long-winded phony of Aristophanes' play? The Socratic works of Diogenes Laertius (3rd century AD), Libanius (AD 314 -- c. 393), Maximus of 'Tyre (2nd century AD), and Apuleius (born c. AD 125) add important dimensions to the portrait of Socrates: Diogenes Laertius' Life of Socrates emphasizes Socrates' deep ethical nature and his extraordinary personality; Libanius' Apology of Socrates is based on sources now lost to us; Maximus of Tyre's Whether Socrates Did the Right Thing When He Did Not Defend Himself makes the star ling claim (against testimony of Plato and Xenophon) that Socrates never spoke athis own trial; from Apuleius' On the God of Socrates we hear at length of Socrates' infamous daimonion: the "divine sign" only mentioned elsewhere, the sign that warned Socrates against certain courses of action. In short, from these four texts we are reintroduced to Socrates, and new wrinkles are added to an already intriguing historical figure.

Translations, with Introductions and Notes, of Four Important Documents in the Late Antique Reception of Socrates the Athenian

The Unknown Socrates

Bernhard Huss

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