Gadamer was fond of telling of his last meeting with his old teacher Martin Heidegger: ‘You are right’, said Heidegger, ‘language is conversation [Sprache ist Gespräch].’1 We might argue as to what such a comment, assuming Gadamer remembered it aright, would really have meant for Heidegger – whether it would have constituted a significant revision of any view to which Heidegger was himself committed.2 The fact that Gadamer felt it worth repeating, however, does indicate something of Gadamer’s conception of the (...) relation between his thought and that of Heidegger, as well as of the centrality of the idea at issue in his own thought. Indeed, elsewhere Gadamer has commented that. (shrink)

Obwohl nur in einer anonymen Kopie überliefert, zählt die in diesem "Gespräch" von 1648 vollzogene Erörterung der wesentlichen Punkte der cartesischen Lehre zu den meistzitierten Texten Descartes'. Die Ausgabe bietet die aufgrund des Manuskripts bereinigte lateinische Originalfassung mit Lesarten und parallel dazu eine erste deutsche Übersetzung.

Since 1923 the Sammlung Tusculum has published authoritative editions of Greek and Latin works together with a German translation. The original texts are comprehensively annotated, and feature an introductory chapter. In the new volumes, additional essays delve into specific aspects of the works, illuminating their historical context and reception to the present day. The high academic quality of the new editions together with clearly written essays and annotations make the Sammlung Tusculum essential reading for students who are discovering an ancient (...) author for the first time as well as professional scholars who would like to gain a deeper understanding of specific aspects of a given work. Moreover, the series is ideal for lay readers who would like to engage with antiquity through a reliable German translation. The series contains over 270 titles, available in print and eBook editions, making previously out-of-print titles and rarities available again for the first time. In order to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the series, De Gruyter is proud to present Tusculum Online, an eBook package which contains all titles that appeared between 1923 and 2013 - a fitting tribute to an important part of German publishing history. For more information, please see www.degruyter.com/tusculum. (shrink)

Since 1923 the Sammlung Tusculum has published authoritative editions of Greek and Latin works together with a German translation. The original texts are comprehensively annotated, and feature an introductory chapter. In the new volumes, additional essays delve into specific aspects of the works, illuminating their historical context and reception to the present day. The high academic quality of the new editions together with clearly written essays and annotations make the Sammlung Tusculum essential reading for students who are discovering an ancient (...) author for the first time as well as professional scholars who would like to gain a deeper understanding of specific aspects of a given work. Moreover, the series is ideal for lay readers who would like to engage with antiquity through a reliable German translation. The series contains over 270 titles, available in print and eBook editions, making previously out-of-print titles and rarities available again for the first time. In order to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the series, De Gruyter is proud to present Tusculum Online, an eBook package which contains all titles that appeared between 1923 and 2013 - a fitting tribute to an important part of German publishing history. For more information, please see www.degruyter.com/tusculum. (shrink)

“Conversations with Dionysus”. Nietzsche’s Playful Riddles. Nietzsche has written several short dialogues that are rarely studied. Based on the mysterious ‘conversations with Dionysus’, which also include the Dionysian Dithyramb „Ariadneʼs Lament“, the paper outlines their enigmatic structure and, on this basis, proposes an interpretive model for Nietzscheʼs labyrinthine texts.

This book provides detailed transcriptions of two notebooks written by Kurt Gödel in Vienna in 1937/38 in the nearly forgotten Gabelsberger shorthand system. The first of these notebooks, simply entitled as the Protokoll-book, contains notes on conversations Gödel had with people like Rudolf Carnap, Rose Rand, Friedrich Waismann, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, and many others who were—at least to some degree—connected to the Vienna Circle. It also covers detailed descriptions of the regular meetings organized by Edgar Zilsel. The second notebook includes notes (...) on a series of lectures given at the Vienna Psychological Institute, which was led by Karl Bühler at the time. Both notebooks are part of Gödel’s huge Nachlass kept at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which consists of literally thousands of stenographic pages covering logic and the foundations of mathematics, philosophy, physics, and theology. The now transcribed and commented notes reveal a very personal side of Gödel which has—to a large extent—been unknown to a mainly scientific-oriented audience. The book is of interest to people wanting to learn about Gödel’s personal background in Vienna in the late 1930s as well as his keen interest in philosophy, psychology, and parapsychology. (shrink)

Limits of the Conversation about Forms. Types of Knowledge and Necessity of Forms in Plato's "Parmenides". - Forms (ideas) are among the things that Plato is serious about. But about these things he says in his "Seventh Letter": "There neither is nor ever will be a treatise of mine on the subject." (341c, transl. J. Harward). Plato's statement suggests the question, why one does not and never can do justice to the Platonic forms by means of a written text about (...) the forms. Another big question of Plato research is whether the conversations documented in the Platonic dialogues are also affected by this verdict. This paper aims to provide, as far as possible, newly substantiated answers to these two questions. To this end, the systematic limits of the discussion about forms, which are particularly evident in Plato's dialogue "Parmenides", are examined in eight steps: First, two types of knowledge are presented that play an important systematic role in Plato's philosophy with regard to the limits of conversation: knowledge-how (practical knowledge) and knowledge-that (propositional knowledge) (I). Then the Socratic model of these two types of knowledge is interpreted, which is drafted in the tenth book of the "Republic". This model uses the example of bridle, bridlemaker and rider to explain the primacy of practical knowledge and the limits of propositional knowledge (II). Subsequently, it will be shown how the dialogues "Republic" and "Parmenides" are connected with each other in content and form (III). The gradation of the two types of knowledge, which is indicated by the motifs of the bridle and the horse on the image level of the "Parmenides", proves to be the structure that systematically underlies the structure of the entire dialogue (IV). It also makes clear why the conversation about the forms in the first part of the "Parmenides" has to fail (V). The assumption that the two parts of the "Parmenides" express two different types of knowledge in dealing with forms is supported by the results of a logical analysis of the last defence of the acceptance of forms (135b-c). This analysis shows why, for reasons of principle, it is impossible to speak adequately about forms (VI). Forms have the function of being presuppositions of 'talking about something'. Thus forms are always presupposed in conversation when one talks about them, and thus elude appropriate discussion in conversation (VII). That this is not only a methodical insight of the Platonic Parmenides, but can also be attributed to Plato himself, is demonstrated by the concluding reinterpretation of the central sentence of the critique of writing in Plato's "Seventh Letter". It will become apparent that, contrary to the now widespread view of the representatives of the Tübingen school, philosophical and also good philological reasons speak for the fact that Plato related his criticism only to the communicability of forms through treatises, i.e. tract-like writings (VIII). (shrink)

Tacitus behandelt in seinem Rednerdialog die Gründe für den Verfall der römischen Beredsamkeit beim Übergang von der Republik zur Kaiserzeit, ferner Dilettantentum und echte Wissenschaft, die Bedeutung der Philosophie für die Erziehung, das Verhältnis zwischen Zeitgeist und wahrer idealistischer Beredsamkeit. Dem Text und der Übersetzung sind Zeugnisse zur Überlieferungsgeschichte beigegeben; die umfangreiche Einführung enthält eine Biographie des Tacitus unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Tätigkeit als Redner und erörtert in übersichtlicher Weise alle wesentlichen Fragen, die im Zusammenhang mit dem Rednerdialog stehen. Literaturhinweise (...) und ein erklärendes Namenverzeichnis vervollständigen diese Ausgabe. (shrink)

A dialogue on human finitude and its philosophical implications.

Google ist nicht nur ein weltumspannender Konzern, der wie kein zweiter für die Macht einer Suchmaschine im Besonderen und des Internets im Allgemeinen einsteht. Barbara Cassin analysiert in diesem Gespräch aus dem Jahr 2009 die Rhetorik und das Sendungsbewusstsein von Google, das darin besteht, »die gesamte Information der Welt zu organisieren«. Dieser von Cassin als global, gewalttätig und total charakterisierte Anspruch beeinflusst auch zeitgenössische Vorstellungen von Demokratie, Kultur und Wissenschaft. Dass dieser Einfluss nicht nur positive Effekte hat, wird im Verlauf (...) des Gesprächs deutlich. Google is not only a worldwide enterprise that represents like no other the power of search engines and the Internet in general. In this interview from 2009 Barbara Cassin analyzes Google's rhetoric and sense of mission, which is “to organize all the information in the world.” Cassin characterizes this claim as global, violent and total, and shows that it also influences contemporary notions of democracy, culture and science. In the course of the conversation, it becomes clear that this influence not only has positive effects. (shrink)