Die Arbeit beginnt mit einer kritischen Rekonstruktion des Gedenk- und Forschungsdiskurses über ,Herder in Riga‘. Dabei werden drei Schwerpunkte gesetzt: Erstens werden ,Denkmäler‘ seit der Einweihung des Herder-Denkmals in Riga 1864 auf ihre kulturpolitischen Implikationen hin befragt. Zweitens werden ,Werkausgaben, Briefwechsel und Lebensbilder‘ seit der ersten postumen Gesamtwerkausgabe untersucht. Drittens werden ,Neuere Ansätze zur Edition und Interpretation‘ seit der Neuerschließung des handschriftlichen Nachlasses betrachtet. Im Zusammenspiel dieser drei Betrachtungsebenen wird die rückblickender Verfertigung verschiedener Bilder von ,Herder in Riga‘ metareflexiv nachvollzogen. Der Schwerpunkt der Arbeit liegt dann auf einer konzentrierten Relektüre der Schriften der Rigaer Jahre 1765 bis 1769. Blickleitend ist dabei die These, dass Herder in diesen Texten ein zentrales Problem bearbeitet, das Problem der Volksbildung. Dieses wird erstmals im philosophischen Diskurs der sogenannten ,Philosophieschrift‘ identifiziert, um in angrenzenden Diskursfeldern weiter bearbeitet zu werden. Ein besonderes Augenmerk gilt dabei den Feldern der praktischen Bildungsarbeit von Homiletik (,Der Redner Gottes‘), Pädagogik (,Von der Gratie‘) und Politik (,Publikumsabhandlung‘). Darüber hinaus wird das Projekt einer ,Revitalisierung der Poesie‘ nachgezeichnet, wie es in den poetologischen und literaturkritischen Reflexionen der Rigaer Jahre skizziert wird (,Dithyrambische Rhapsodie‘, ,Odenfragmente‘, ,Literaturfragmente‘). Analog dazu werden die Ansätze zu einer ,Reform der Prosakultur‘ rekonstruiert, wie sie im literaturkritischen und ästhetischen Diskurs entwickelt werden (,Literaturfragmente‘, ,Torso von einem Denkmal‘, ,Viertes Kritisches Wäldchen‘). Den Fluchtpunkt der Studie bildet das Volksliedprojekt: Im Ausgang der Rigaer Konstellation wird das Volkslied als privilegiertes Medium der Volksbildung entdeckt (,Briefwechsel über Ossian‘, ,Alte Volkslieder‘, ,Volkslieder‘). / The study begins with a critical reconstruction of the memorial and research discourse on 'Herder in Riga'. Three focal points are set: First, the monument culture, beginning with the Herder monument in Riga 1864, is examined with regard to its political implications. Secondly, the philological disourse on Herders life and letters since the first posthumous edition of his complete works is considered. Thirdly, new approaches on edition and interpretation since the new catalogization of Herder’s ,Nachlass‘ are evaluated. In the interplay of these three levels of observation, the retrospective production of various images of 'Herder in Riga' is retraced. Departing from these observation, the study develops a series of close-readings of the writings of the Riga years 1765 to 1769. The guiding thesis is that Herder continuously works on a central problem in these texts, the problem of popular education (,Volksbildung‘). The study argues that this topic is discovered in the so-called ,Philosophieschrift‘ and subsequently processed in adjacent fields of discourse. A focus lies on the practical fields of popular education in homiletics ('Der Redner Gottes'), pedagogics ('Von der Gratie') and politics ('Publikumsabhandlung'). In addition, the project of a 'revitalization of poetry' is retraced, as outlined in the poetological and literary-critical reflections of the Riga years ('Dithyrambische Rhapsodie', 'Odenfragmente', 'Literaturfragmente'). Analogously, Herder’s approaches to a 'reform of the prose culture' are reconstructed, as developed in literary criticism and aesthetic discourse ('Literaturfragmente', 'Torso von einem Denkmal', 'Viertes Kritisches Wäldchen'). The last chapter is dedicated to the folk song project: The study argues that folk songs are finally discovered as the ideal medium of popular education and can thus be considered as the ,telos‘ of the Riga project of ,Volksbildung‘ ('Briefwechsel über Ossian', 'Alte Volkslieder', 'Volkslieder').

No description available.

Privatbibliotheken, so die durch zahlreiche Beispiele belegte Meinung der Bibliothekshistoriker, existieren oft nur eine oder zwei Generationen...

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Lebenslauf.

No description available.

In this project I examine pantheistic views in the history of philosophy and advocate for pantheism as a philosophical position in contemporary philosophy of religion. I take pantheism to be the view that everything that exists constitutes a unity, and that that unity is divine. My contention is that what I call <i>rationalistic pantheism</i>, sufficiently articulated with the help of historical figures, is a position worthy of consideration in contemporary philosophy of religion and metaphysics and not merely as an historical artifact. Pantheism is usually not even considered as an alternative to the belief in the God of perfection theism, a perfect personal God. Often people see atheism as the only alternative to the perfect God of traditional theism. A primary aim of this project is to articulate a version of pantheism that is distinct both from perfection theism and atheism. I discuss in what way the rationalistic pantheist sees all of existence as forming a unity, and what it is about this unity that warrants calling it divine or God. Pantheism has a powerful tradition in the history of philosophy, and the rationalistic pantheism that I develop is based on the views of Spinoza, Herder, and Hegel. In the first three chapters I consider the views of each of these philosophers as distinct but closely related versions of pantheism. I attempt to provide a systematic and charitable account of each of their views while also considering objections to those views from various directions. In the final chapter I provide the basis for what I take to be the most plausible version of pantheism resulting from this historical analysis, which I call rationalistic pantheism. According to this view, God, or the divine, should be conceived of as an all-encompassing unity that exists necessarily, is radically independent, is structured in accordance with rational principles, and provides an explanatory basis for everything that exists. In addition, the recognition of the rational principles of existence on the part of rational agents such as human beings constitutes one of the highest achievements of this divine unity. I briefly consider additional argumentative resources that could support such a view, as well as what I take to be the distinct philosophical advantages of rationalistic pantheism over perfection theism. Ultimately, I think pantheism is worthy of serious consideration as a viable position both in philosophical debates, as well as in discussions of religion at large, providing a refreshing middle ground between traditional theism and atheism.

This dissertation demonstrates how the rise of historical criticism in Germany transformed practices of reading, writing, and public address in the related fields of classicism and biblical criticism in a transnational context. In the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, writers on both sides of the Atlantic rendered these practices foundational to the goals of self-formation, cultural and spiritual renewal, and educational reform. In this process, Germaine de Staël's De l'Allemagne (1814) played a key role in disseminating new historically informed modes of teaching, preaching, translating, and reconstructing secular and religious texts among Transcendentalists. I show that her cultural study epitomizes crucial characteristics and functions of the historically informed textual practices that Johann Gottfried Herder's works articulated paradigmatically in Germany and which we find refracted in reviews, addresses, essays, and translations by many Antebellum American scholars, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Sami people are the Natives of northern Scandinavia. The knowledge of the health and living conditions of the Swedish Sami is extremely limited which is in contrast to the large amount of detailed information on health and socioeconomic issues that is available for other circumpolar Natives. The encounter with the western society and the acculturation process has for many native populations had serious health consequences, causing a dramatic increase of lifestyle related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, stroke, obesity and hypertension as well as a dramatic increase of suicide and drug abuse. The overall objective of this thesis was to investigate the health conditions of the Sami population of Sweden using causes of death and incidences of cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) as health indicators, and to evaluate their possible association with acculturative factors such as assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization. A Sami population was identified containing a total of 41 721 individuals. Specific cohorts were selected from this population for the different studies. A four times as large demographically matched non-Sami control population was used for comparisons. A study of causes of death, 1961-2000, showed small differences in overall mortality and life expectancy between the Sami and the non-Sami. However, Sami men showed significantly lower mortality risks for cancers but higher for external cause of injury and Sami women higher risks for diseases of the circulatory system (CVD) and of the respiratory system. An increased risk of dying from subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) was observed among both Sami men and women. The increased risk of dying from accidents among male reindeer herders is suggested to be caused by the increased socioeconomic pressure and the extensive use of terrain vehicles. It is concluded that commercial reindeer management is one of the most dangerous occupations in Sweden. In a study of the cancer risk among the reindeer herding Sami between 1961-1997, an overall lower risk to develop cancers, particularly prostate and malignant lymphoma was observed among the reindeer herding Sami. The risk for stomach cancer was significantly higher in relation to their non-Sami neighbours. The Sami and the non-Sami had similar risk factor-patterns for CVD. The main differences were related to working conditions and lifestyle factors of the reindeer herding Sami - the women showed a more unfavourable risk factor pattern than the men. Higher incidences of stroke were observed among Sami men and women compared to their non-Sami neighbours while the mortality rates of stroke were similar. The mortality ratio of AMI was increased for Sami women in spite of similar incidence ratios. A higher risk of SAH was observed among all groups of Sami. According to traditional socioeconomic risk factors, the differences in the levels of income and education observed between the Sami and the non-Sami, were poorely associated with the disparities of CVD. As has been shown, only minor differences in the health indicators were found between the Sami and their non-Sami neighbours. This is in clear contrast to several other native populations for which the health situation is largely unfavourable in comparison with that of the general population. The observed differences between the Sami and the non-Sami probably reflect differences in lifestyle, psychosocial and genetic factors. The relation between these factors and the acculturation process is dicussed, and it is suggested that separation or segregation of the reindeer herding Sami and the assimilation of the other Sami have influenced the health condition of the Sami, but with the largest impact probably prior to 1961 and the earliest start of follow-up for the studies in this thesis. Thus, the similarities in health between the Sami and the non-Sami 1961-2002, are probably a result of centuries of close interaction that has caused similarities in culture, attitudes and lifestyle, as well as equal accessibility to the health care services and the social security systems.

This study focuses on Charles Taylor’s educational thought with a view to understanding his contributions to the discipline of Philosophy of Education. No comprehensive study of Charles Taylor’s educational thought has been attempted. There is a single dissertation and a dozen or so published periodical articles that do take Taylor’s educational views into consideration, to be sure. Yet these studies, which limit themselves to Taylor’s account of the recognition and/or non-recognition of identity in multicultural societies, are insufficient on five accounts: i) they are indifferent to the historical nature of Taylor’s scholarly work; ii) they neglect the philosophical sources of his educational thought; iii) they fail to highlight the interconnections between the key educational themes he takes up; iv) they disregard his major critics and the dialectical tensions raised by these critics; and v) they are somewhat dated in that they do not consider his more recent scholarship. My dissertation seeks to fill these scholarly gaps. My thesis is that an inner logic is implicit in Charles Taylor’s educational thought. I argue that Taylor’s views on the modern condition, (i.e. in his readings of Descartes, Kant, Herder, and Hegel), are closely interwoven with his views on modern education, and that interconnected currents in the modern history of ideas elucidated by Taylor, (i.e. scientific rationality, exclusive humanism, and the ethics of authenticity), have contributed to the rise of, and the sensitivity toward, both the theory and the practice of the politics of recognition in contemporary educational institutions. I conclude that an education for culturally diverse minds and hearts, anchored in human, historical, and epistemological recognition, and democratically open to both immanence and transcendence, is the true calling of Taylor’s educational thought.

The body of critical literature on Kant's philosophy of history and religion is examined and criticized for its failure to recognize the consistency of Kant's thought. In opposition to it, a new interpretation based on the critical ideas of freedom, morality and teleology is proposed. The transition from the Critiques to history and religion is justified in terms of the notion of "a priori end" and through the recognition of evil. Kant's ideas are viewed in the historical context of Leibniz, Lessing and Herder. / Kant conceives history as the process of self-creation whereby man overcomes the split within his being between the rational and sensible. Providence and freedom are complementary grounds of this process. Kant's views on biology and history rely on a revolutionary conception of time as a principle of internal development in life. The development of political wisdom and religious symbols add to rational thought an essentially historical dimension.