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1. Term In Germany the term “Philosemitismus” was originally a political rather than a theological one. It was coined with an anti-Semitic thrust in Berlin during the anti-Semitism controversy of 1880. H. von Treitschke (1834–96) used it for the first time in December 1880 when, in a debate in the Chamber of Deputies, he spoke of the “blind philo-Semitic zeal of the party of progress.” T. Mommsen (1817–1903) had referred earlier to pro- and anti-Semitic attitudes and had spoken of “friends of the …

[German Version] (Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ben Muḥammad ben Ṭarkān ben Awzalugh al-Fārābī; c. 870, Fārāb–950, Damascus), Islamic philosopher. Fārābī combined Alexandrian Greek philosophy (6th cent.) with Christian Aristotelianism in Baghdad (10th cent.). Over 100 works are attributed to him. From Plato, Fārābī adopted his political philosophy, from Aristotle his philosophy of language, metaphysics and nature (Aristotle, Reception: II). He considered philosophy to have reached its end, while reason was ageless and un…

[German Version] The collective name “Averroists” ( Averroistae) was first used in 1270 by Thomas Aquinas in De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas. At the end of the 15th century, H. Savonarola first called the Averroisti a school ( scuole). The term “Averroism” was first used in 1852 by E. Renan on the title page of his Averroès et l'averroïsme. Renan claimed that M. Maimonides (died 1204) and his disciples were the first to teach a peripatétisme averroistique. Today scholars speak of various kinds of Averroism: Jewish Averroism (represe…

[German Version] Antiquity knew various Epicurean schools, nourished especially by the popularity of Epicureanism in Rome. These schools did not adopt Epicurus's philosophy as a system; rather they treated natural philosophy, ethics, and wisdom teaching separately. They paid particular attention to his ethics, but rarely to his philosophy of nature. It was typical of Epicureanism since antiquity that the adoption of Epicurean ideas was always associated with polemic against Epicurus. Because of his atomism and his denial of providence and immortality, Epicurus was the heretic pa…