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[German Version] I. Concept – II. History and Theoretical Development – III. Current Situation and Evaluation I. Concept Ever since its first appearance, the concept of Marxism has stood less for a fixed teaching than for a movement within the various socialist groupings. It is accordingly characterized by a primarily polemical meaning that was decisively shaped by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin during the controversies surrounding the First International. Initially, however, the term “Marxists” was only used …

[German Version] I. Philosophy The natural condition is to b…

[German Version] I. Concept – II. Philosophy – III. Greco-Roman Antiquity – IV. Bible – V. Church History – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology and Pedagogy – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Concept Traditionally, “education” has denoted the intentional interaction of adults with the younger generation in order-usually-to …

[German Version] (Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier; Jan 19, 1798, Montpellier – Jul 5, 1857, Paris), French philosopher and sociologist who acted as secretary to C.H. de Saint-Simon and as an examination coach in…

[German Version] I. History – II. Philosophy – III. Social Sciences and Ethics – IV. Religion I. History 1. General Since the 18th century, European liberalism has fought for a civil society, demanding…

[German Version] (Jan 1, 1729, Dublin – Jul 9, 1797, Beaconsfield), British politician and publisher, who with effective rhetoric defended the interests of the American colonies. Burke came to prominence as the author of an empiricist-sensualist aesthetics ( A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757). With his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) he became a leading critic of the French Revolution and the founder of European conservatism. Burke represented an enlightened institutionalism, rooted in liberal thinking, which looked to tradition and historically anchored reason and rejected …

[German Version] I. Philosophy In philosophical usage, the term power is perhaps more protean than any other. Its spectrum of meanings extends from subtle influence to threat backed by naked violence; it therefore encompasses such diverse phenomena as intellectual and spiritual power, the modern media, the economy, technology, political institutions, and military might. These attributions are arbitrary until the ¶ term is defined more precisely. Power is defined too broadly as possession of technical or technological tools and the ability to employ them…

[German Version] I. Philosophy The term first appears in controversies about Italian Fascism, but in theoretical discussions it is also applied to Bolshevism (Communism) (see II below). When the National Socialists (National Socialism) seized power it became a central theme of political theory. The term became popular because the traditional categories of…

[German Version] (May 5, 1818, Trier – Mar 14, 1883, London), socialist theoretician, co-founder with F. Engels of historical materialism (see also Marxism). In his philosophical thinking Marx was particularly indebted to G.W.F. Hegel and the left-wing Hegelians, from whom, however, he soon distanced himself. Marx found his own perspective above all by thorough investigation of L. Feuerbach's criticism of religion. Against Hegel's interpretation of the Christian religion, Feuerbach held that human…

[German Version] I. Philosophy - II. Dogmatics - III. Ethics - IV. Practical Theology I. Philosophy The term “alienation,” made particularly prominent through the influence of Marxist literature,…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy I. Religious Studies Optimism (from Lat. optimus, “best”) and pessimism (from Lat. pessimum, “worst”) are used in the history of religions to characterize attitudes towards the world and this life. Some religions (e.g. Judaism) are described as having an optimistic view of life, while others have been characterized as pessimistic, as for instance religions which originated in India in the 7th to 5th centuries bce: Upanishadic religions (Upanisạds), Jainism, and Buddhism. Also Neoplatonism and Gnostic varieties of Christianity have been regarded as having a relatively pessimistic outlook on life, and to convey a feeling of isolation and alienation towards this world. A pessimistic attitude to life usually corresponds with a belief in a better life to come. In Buddhism, for instance, life in this world is characterized by suffering, while salvation is characterized as liberation and lack of suffering. ¶ In different religious traditions, similar beliefs may be regarded from d…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. History – III. Philosophy – IV. Philosophy of Religion, Dogmatics, Ethics – V. Practical Theology and Education – VI. Social History I. Terminology This article deals with formative education, corresponding to the German term Bildung (cf. Fr. …

[German Version] (baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu; Jan 18, 1689, La Brède – Feb 10, 1755, Paris), prominent political philosopher of the Enlightenment. The publication of his Lettres persanes (1721; ET: Persian Letters, 1722; many later ¶ eds.), a satirical epistolary novel criticizing conditions in France from a fictitious Persian perspective, rapidly brought Montesquieu fame as a witty proponent of the Enlightenment. His style is characterized by a sober historical perspective, as documented in his Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur decadence (1…

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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Philosophy – V. Dogmatics – VI. Sociology, Ethics – VII. Practical Theology…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Church History – III. Philosophy – IV. Philosophy of Religion and Dogmatics I. Religious Studies Thomas Hyde seems to have coined the term dualism, which he used in his Historia religionis veterum Persarum (Oxford 1700) to describe the essential theological objectives of Zoroastrianism (Zarathustra/Zoroastrianism). The term comes into Western European languages between the mid-18th and the mid-19th century. It refers to a doctrine that postulates…

[German Version] (May 20, 1806, London – May 8, 1873, Avignon), English philosopher, famous as the polymath author of influential works on logic, moral philosophy, economics, and politics. His authoritative study on the methodological principles of scientific research ( A Syste…

[German Version] Political philosophy is a discipline within philosophy that focuses on the ordering of human life in community. Plato provided its crucial initial stimulus, while Aristotle was responsible for laying its systematic and methodological foundations. Political philosophy has its own field of study: human interaction and the constitution of different forms of community. According to Aristotle, it rests on methodological principles that differ from those of theory, for political philoso…

[German Version] G.W.F. Hegel's works of the Jena period name diremption (splitting, division) as the impetus for and starting point of all philosophy. Diremption is a characteristic of that education …

[German Version] I. Philosophy Natural law is the essence of the legal norms that claim to be binding on all human beings, independent of positive laws and conventions. The term goes back to the distinction between nature( phýsis) and law ( nómos; Law/Natural law), put forward by the Sophists of the 5th century bce in order to challenge the traditional positive laws. According to Antiphon, the precepts of such laws are arbitrary, whereas the precepts of nature, which articulate individual benefit, are necessary (DK, frgm. B 44). Plato presents a v…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Ancient Near East and Israel – III. Judaism – IV. Greece and Rome – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Philosophy I. Religious Studies History is a major aspect of the study of religion. Apart from its roots in the Enlightenment idea of tolerance, it owes its scholarly development to the historicism of the 19th century. As a result, the expression history of religions ( Religionsgeschichte, histoire des religions, storia delle religioni) has remained dominant in continental Europe, in contrast to the fuzzy religious studies or study of religion(s). This philological and historical approach to the world of religions, as in other areas of social studies and the humanities, had consequences that influenced both the material under study and the self-conception of the scholars studying it. Strict histo…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Peace (negatively: absence of fighting and war; positively: security, wellbeing, and harmony) is considered desirable in all traditional religions, although they also have their specific legitimations of war. In archaic religions, peace is primarily related to the community and understood as a present reality. Howe…

[English Version] I. Philosophisch Der Begriff taucht erstmals auf in den Auseinandersetzungen um den ital. Faschismus, wird aber in der Theoriebildung auch auf den Bolschewismus (Kommunismus [und Bolschewismus]) bezogen (s.u…

[English Version] . Der Begriff der polit. Philos. bez. eine Disziplin der Philos., die das geordnete menschliche Zusammenleben thematisiert. Ihren entscheidenden Anstoß erhielt sie von Plato, während Aristoteles die syst. und methodische Grundlegung zu verdanken ist. Polit. Philos. bezieht sich auf ein eigenes Sachgebiet: das menschliche Handeln und die Verfassung der unterschiedlichen Gemeinschaften. Sie beruht nach Aristoteles auf methodischen Prinzipien, die von denen der Theorie verschieden s…

[English Version] I. Philosophisch Das N. gilt als Inbegriff derjenigen Rechtsnormen, die unabhängig von positiven Gesetzen und Konventionen für alle Menschen Verbindlichkeit beanspruchen. Der Ursprung des N. liegt in der Unterscheidung von Natur (phy´sis) und Gesetz (no´mos; Gesetz/Naturgesetz), die von der Sophistik des 5.Jh. v.Chr. veranschlagt wird in der Absicht, die tradierten positiven Gesetze in Frage zu stellen. Nach Antiphon sind die Gebote der Gesetze willkürlich, die der Natur dagegen, …

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[English Version] Tocqueville, Alexis de (29.7.1805 Paris – 16.4.1859 Cannes), bedeutender franz. Staatstheoretiker. Seine während eines ausgedehnten Aufenthalts in den USA gewonnenen Einsichten legte T. nieder in den umfassenden Studien »De la démocratie en Amérique« (4…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich O./P. (von lat. optimum, das Beste und pessimum, das Schlechteste) sind in der Religionsgesch. verwendete Termini, um Haltungen gegenüber der Welt und dem Leben zu charakterisieren. Einigen Rel. wie z.B. dem Judentum wird eine positive Sicht des Lebens zugeschrieben, anderen eine pessimistische. Zu letzteren zählen die in Indien vom 7. – 5.Jh. v.Chr. entstandenen Rel. (upaniṣadische Rel. [Upaniṣaden], Jinismus und Buddhismus). Auch dem Neuplatonismus un…