Bøger af Martin Mulsow

The early German Enlightenment is seen as a reform movement that broke free from traditional ties without falling into anti-Christian and extremist positions. But how did the works which were radical and critical of religion during this period come about? And how do they relate to the dominant 'moderate' Enlightenment?

When the University of Halle-Wittenberg founded the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies in 1993, it was following the destiny of its history as a centre of the early Enlightenment in Germany which affected the whole of Europe. Research foci of the Centre are at the moment aesthetics, discourses of history, cultures of learning and erudition, university history and not least the wide field of early Enlightenment as a field of experimentation and the foundation of cultural models for the Modern Age. The results of this research have been published since Autumn 1995 in the Centres' research publications series entitled University of Halle Series on the European Enlightenment. In addition, there have been relevant works produced outside the Centre. Two to four volumes are published annually (monographs, collected volumes, commentaries on sources).

Im 17. Jahrhundert wird der Begriff der conservatio sui (Selbsterhaltung) durch Hobbes und Spinoza zu einem der philosophischen Leitkonzepte der Neuzeit. Doch wie ist es zu dieser Konjunktur gekommen? Das Buch verfolgt die Entwicklung des Begriffs innerhalb der Naturphilosophie der Renaissance, insbesondere bei Bernardino Telesio (1509-1588). Gegen die Interpretationen von Dilthey und Blumenberg und die Schlagworte von 'Stoa-Rezeption', 'Renaissance-Pantheismus' und '-Animismus' wird die Herkunft von Telesios Denken aus der Transformation des Aristotelismus seit dem 15. Jahrhundert vorgefuhrt. Ausfuhrlich die Kontexte von Medizin, Optik, Astronomie und Theologie berucksichtigend, schlagt die Studie einen Bogen von den 'Oxford Calculatores' und ihrer Rezeption in Italien bis zu den naturphilosophischen Metaphysikern von Patrizi, Bruno und Campanella. Begriffe wie Spiritus, Antiperistasis, Species oder Calidum innatum (Lebenswarme) stellen sich als Impulsgeber fur die philosophische Theoriearbeit dar. Und es wird deutlich: neuzeitliche Selbsterhaltung entsteht als 'defensive Modernisierung', namlich als Naturalisierung spiritualistischer Entwurfe im Norditalien des fruhen 16. Jahrhunderts.

Frechheit oder Freiheit? Was galt als respektlos, ketzerisch oder obszon? Und was wurde als akademische Freiheit toleriert? Acht Essays decken die Spielraume auf, die Gelehrte der Fruhen Neuzeit nutzten, um neues Gedankengut zu entfalten. Ein faszinierender Blick auf die Ideengeschichte.

<p><p><b>Online supplement,</b> <a href="e;http://history.as.virginia.edu/sites/history.as.virginia.edu/files/MulsowAdditionstoNotes3.pdf"e;>"e;Mulsow: Additions to Notes drawn from the 2002 edition of <i>Moderne aus dem Untergrund"e;</i></a>: full versions of nearly 300 notes that were truncated in the print edition. Hosted on <a href="e;http://history.virginia.edu/user/43"e;>H. C. Erik Midelfort's website</a>. </p><p>Martin Mulsows seismic reinterpretation of the origins of the Enlightenment in Germany won awards and renown in its original German edition, and now H. C. Erik Midelfort's translation makes this sensational book available to English-speaking readers. In <i>Enlightenment Underground,</i> Mulsow shows that even in the late seventeenth century some thinkers in Germany ventured to express extremely dangerous ideas, but did so as part of a secret underground. Scouring manuscript collections across northern Europe, Mulsow studied the writings of countless hitherto unknown radical jurists, theologians, historians, and dissident students who pushed for the secularization of legal, political, social, and religious knowledge. Often their works circulated in manuscript, anonymously, or as clandestinely published books. </p> <p>Working as a philosophical microhistorian, Mulsow has discovered the identities of several covert radicals and linked them to circles of young German scholars, many of whom were connected with the vibrant radical cultures of the Netherlands, England, and Denmark. The author reveals how radical ideas and contributions to intellectual doubt came from Socinians and Jews, church historians and biblical scholars, political theorists, and unemployed university students. He shows that misreadings of humorous or ironic works sometimes gave rise to unintended skeptical thoughts or corrosively political interpretations of Christianity. This landmark book overturns stereotypical views of the early Enlightenment in Germany as cautious, conservative, and moderate, and replaces them with a new portrait that reveals a movement far more radical, unintended, and puzzling than previously suspected.</p></p>