The series Studien zur deutschen Literatur (Studies in German Literature) presents outstanding analyses of German-speaking literature from the early modern period to the present day. It particularly embraces comparative, cultural and historical-epistemological questions and serves as a tradition-steeped forum for innovative literary research. All submitted manuscripts undergo a double peer-review process.

English summary: Although the idea of a Euro-Asian Axis Age can be traced back to the pioneer of Iranian studies, Anquetil Duperron, ancient Iran usually plays only a minor role in the 20th century Axis Age theory founded by Karl Jaspers, which revolves around the recording and explanation of rationality. In this investigation of the history of Ancient Iranian rationality, Gotz Konig first points out which theory-immanent moments in Jasper's basic text The Origin and Goal of History (1949) may have (...) favored this omission. Examplary analyses show how minimal changes in the ritual, a change in the configuration of intellectual capacity, or the replacement of a metaphysical concept of order by a legal one open up paths that are oriented towards certain central axial categories. A concluding study of the dialectic of the Axis Age shows how the Achaemenid period (6th-4th century BC) can be regarded in various respects as the true Axis Age of Iran, but ultimately misses and reverses its own rational measures. German description: Obgleich sich der Gedanke einer euro-asiatischen Achsenzeit bis auf den Pionier der Iranistik Anquetil Duperron zuruckfuhren lasst, so spielt der antike Iran in der von Karl Jaspers begrundeten Achsenzeittheorie des 20. Jahrhunderts, die um die Erfassung und Erklarung von 'Rationalitat' kreist, in der Regel nur eine Nebenrolle. Gotz Konig stellt in seinen Untersuchungen zur altiranischen Rationalitatsgeschichte zunachst heraus, welche theorieimmanenten Momente in Jaspers Basistext Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (1949) dieses Vergessen begunstigt haben konnen. In Beispielanalysen wird gezeigt, wie durch minimale Veranderungen des Rituals, durch einen Wandel in der Konstellation geistiger Vermogen oder durch die Ersetzung eines metaphysischen durch einen rechtlichen Ordnungsbegriff Wege (im antiken Ost- wie sodann West-Iran) eroffnet werden, die sich auf bestimmte axiale Zentralkategorien hin ausrichten. Eine abschliessende Studie zur Dialektik der Achsenzeit zeigt, wie die Periode der Achameniden (6.-4. Jahrhundert v.Chr.) zwar in verschiedener Hinsicht als die eigentliche Achsenzeit Irans betrachtet werden kann, letztlich aber die eigenen, von ihr aufgestellten rationalen Massstabe verfehlt und verkehrt. (shrink)

This paper argues that despite recent tendencies to minimize the differences between Posidonius and the Early Stoics, there are some important aspects of Stoic ethics in which Posidonius deviated from the orthodox doctrine. According to two passages in Diogenes Laertius, Posidonius counted health and wealth among the goods and held that virtue alone is insufficient for happiness. While Kidd in his commentary dismissed this report as spurious, there are good reasons to take Diogenes’ remarks seriously. Through a careful analysis of (...) the sources, in particular of Galen's De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, this article offers a new interpretation of Posidonius’ ethics. It sheds light on Posidonius’ theory of virtues and shows that Posidonius must have granted a special status to things like health and wealth even if he did not regard them as genuine goods. (shrink)

This article challenges E.P. Thompson's definition of ‘moral economy’ as a traditional consensus of crowd rights that were swept away by market forces. Instead, it suggests that the concept has the potential of improving the understanding of modern civil society. Moral economy was a term invented in the eighteenth century to describe many things. Thompson's approach reflects only a minor part of this conceptual history. His understanding of moral economy is conditioned by a dichotomous view of history and by the (...) acceptance of a model according to which modern economy is not subject to moral concerns. It is on principle problematic to confine a term conjoining two concepts as general as ‘moral’ and ‘economy’ to a specific historical and social setting. Recent approaches that frame moral economy as an emotively defined order of morals are also misleading since they do not address economic issues in the way they are commonly understood. The most promising current approaches appear to be those that consider t.. (shrink)

Fundamental frequency, perceived as pitch, is the first and arguably most salient auditory component humans are exposed to since the beginning of life. It carries multiple linguistic and paralinguistic functions in speech and communication. The mappings between these functions and ƒ0 features vary within a language and differ cross-linguistically. For instance, a rising pitch can be perceived as a question in English but a lexical tone in Mandarin. Such variations mean that infants must learn the specific mappings based on their (...) respective linguistic and social environments. To date, canonical theoretical frameworks and most empirical studies do not view or consider the multi-functionality of ƒ0, but typically focus on individual functions. More importantly, despite the eventual mastery of ƒ0 in communication, it is unclear how infants learn to decompose and recognize these overlapping functions carried by ƒ0. In this paper, we review the symbioses and synergies of the lexical, intonational, and emotional functions that can be carried by ƒ0 and are being acquired throughout infancy. On the basis of our review, we put forward the Learnability Hypothesis that infants decompose and acquire multiple ƒ0 functions through native/environmental experiences. Under this hypothesis, we propose representative cases such as the synergy scenario, where infants use visual cues to disambiguate and decompose the different ƒ0 functions. Further, viable ways to test the scenarios derived from this hypothesis are suggested across auditory and visual modalities. Discovering how infants learn to master the diverse functions carried by ƒ0 can increase our understanding of linguistic systems, auditory processing and communication functions. (shrink)

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

Platynereis dumerilii, a marine polychaetous annelid with indirect development, can be continuously bred in the laboratory. Here, we describe its spectacular reproduction and development and address a number of open research problems. Oogenesis is easily studied because the oocytes grow while floating in the coelom. Unlike the embryos of other model spiralians, the Platynereis embryo is transparent giving insight into the dynamic structures and processes inside the cells that accompany the prevailing anisotropic cleavages. Functional studies on cell specification and differential (...) gene expression in embryos, larvae, and later stages are underway. Lifelong proliferation of uniform trunk segments qualifies Platynereis as a model for the study of gene expression and of the functional circuitry of this process. Platynereis can also become a stepping stone in the comparison of segmentation between annelids and arthropods because it comes closer to the putative ancestral morphology and style of development than other model annelids. BioEssays 26:314–325, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This article describes a rhetorical characteristic of Kierkegaard’s thirteen Discourses “at the Communion” on Fridays, namely, their way of expressing religious truths, theological distinctions, and homiletic statements by a certain concept of space, place and movement, thus making them existentially accessible. It illustrates the fundamental meaning of this series of discourses and especially the last discourse for Kierkegaard’s entire work as an author. By focussing on the topological categories and correlations in the last discourse, the article demonstrates the constitutive role (...) of spatial terms and meanings and so discovers the theological topology of the series as a whole with its coincidences of soteriological, anthropological, liturgical, rhetorical, and existential movements—leading the listener/reader to the “place of rest at the foot of the altar.”. (shrink)

A revision of the author's thesis, Stuttgart, 1972.