In the wake of Albrecht Dieterich, in this paper I try to show how the overall arrangement of the hymns in the Orphic hymn book follows the progression of a nocturnal ritual. I insist on the frequency with which the hymns talk about the fear of meeting a divinity or a phasma that would be in an unkind and violent state and could drive the initiates into madness. Thus, the hymns construct the mystery experience as an event that (...) is, at least in part, dangerous and frightening. This concern with madness as a possible negative result of the initiatory experience is just one aspect of the role Bacchic initiation played in healing madness sent by evil demons, and it conveys a seriousness to these rites that makes them into something very different from the hobby of some placid burghers. Far from being only the songs that accompanied the tryphé of a Bacchic social event, the hymns point to the emotional complexity and seriousness of Bacchic mystery cults.Dans le sillage d’Albrecht Dieterich, cette étude entend montrer comment l’arrangement global des pièces reprises dans le recueil des hymnes orphiques épouse la progression d’un rituel nocturne. On insiste sur la récurrence, dans les hymnes, du motif de la crainte de rencontrer une divinité ou un phasma qui pourrait être malveillant, violent, et frapperait les initiés de folie. Ainsi, les hymnes construisent l’expérience mystérique comme un événement qui est, au moins pour une part, dangereux et effrayant. Ce souci pour la folie comme résultat négatif potentiel de l’expérience initiatique n’est qu’un des aspects du rôle que l’initiation bachique jouait dans la folie curative envoyée par de mauvais démons, et cela confère du sérieux à ces rituels qui étaient quelque chose de bien différent d’un passe-temps pour petits bourgeois placides. Loin d’être seulement les chants qui accompagnaient la truphê d’un moment de sociabilité bachique, les hymnes renvoient à la complexité émotionnelle et au caractère sérieux des cultes à mystères bachiques. (shrink)

Wie kam der Mensch zu der Vorstellung, dass es Götter gibt? Enthält die Sprache des Mythos Hinweise auf Ursprung und Entwicklung des religiösen Denkens? In einer wissenschaftshistorischen Studie wird hier die Theorie des Klassischen Philologen Hermann Usener (1834-1905) vom Ursprung der Religion (1896) und deren Rezeption in den Werken von Albrecht Dieterich, Ludwig Radermacher, Aby Warburg und Walter F. Otto untersucht. Mit seiner strukturanalytisch entwickelten Lehre von der religiösen Begriffsbildung hat Usener die seit der Romantik geführte Ursprungsdebatte neu (...) aufgerollt und dazu inspiriert, sein Projekt aufzugreifen und kritisch fortzuschreiben. (shrink)

The essay's main focus will be an examination of Ernst Cassirer's theory of history. This theory is never developed systematically or comprehensively in his works, but is nevertheless discussed in many places, especially in the »Essay on Man« and in Cassirer's unpublished works. The essay is structured around three central questions: firstly, the question as to the relevance of history; secondly, if and to what extent the awareness of history stems from the perception of time; and thirdly, the question concerning (...) the scientific character of historiography. The procedure used here will be mainly one of joining fragments together, thereby revealing a very ambivalent, yet in parts also a quite modern theory of history, which shall be examined and discussed. (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.

¿Por qué del retraso o casi nulo avance de las ciencias sociales al interior del mundo de los socialismos históricos? Ésta es la pregunta que se hace el autor al abordar el caso de Cuba. De su texto se desprende que la respuesta debiera buscarse no tanto en el ejercicio propio de estas disciplinas, sino en el nivel más profundo de los supuestos teóricos que las sostienen. El modelo de acumulación del socialismo real estaba en crisis ya desde fines de (...) los años 60, y sin embargo los países del bloque se empeñaron en continuar con su aplicación, confundiendo -una vez más- los intereses de los sectores populares con aquellos del Estado y de quienes lo controlan. Cuba no sería sino el último representante de un modelo caduco de socialismo del siglo XX que niega la evidencia histórica. (shrink)

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

No one has succeeded better than Theodor W. Adorno in analyzing modern culture with all its ambiguities — ambiguities which herald the possibility of an unleashing of aesthetic and communicative potentials as well as the possibility of a withering away of culture. Since Schopenhauer and Nietzsche — with whose aesthetics and epistemology Adorno's thought secretly communicates — no other philosophy of art, at least in Germany, has had such a sustained influence on artists, critics, and intellectuals. The traces of his (...) influence on the consciousness of those who, be it in a productive, critical, or purely receptive capacity, are involved with modern art cannot be overlooked. (shrink)