Ulrich Arnswald

Superficially, the proximity of Wittgenstein's work and its undisputed influence by Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas and concepts suggests that there are also overlaps in the large and in Nietzsche's work decisive field of progress and criticism of progress. The article tries to show that this is not the case. Despite all the overlaps that may exist between Friedrich Nietzsche and Ludwig Wittgenstein, these do not come to light in the concept of progress and the critique of progress. Both thinkers pursue a very different movement of thought; Wittgenstein sees Nietzsche's focus on the "idea of great progress" as a "delusion", which he does not consider to be expedient. Ludwig Wittgenstein explicitly distances himself here from the spirit that defined the prevailing European and American civilization in the 1930s. He does not succumb to the delusions of grandeur of new, higher-level civilization, but leaves progress as the constantly progressing background noise of any civilization.

Hermeneutics can be understood on the one hand as the art of interpretation, and on the other hand as a medium for dealing with the past, for conveying events, contexts or even writings in new ways of speaking for new recipients. The interpretation of writings, however, places special demands on hermeneutics: it does not take place in a sterile vacuum, but is rather embedded in a social and cultural context that shapes the interpretation or mediation and is an expression of a time, a fashion or a specific requirement of modernity. The question therefore arises as to what role reason and experience, science and/or social ideas, tradition(s) and/or community play in interpretation. Using Thomas More's masterpiece Utopia as an example, various resulting interpretative approaches to a concrete writing will be presented. Through the hermeneutic design of a historical horizon in relation to Thomas More's time as well as through the development of a historical awareness of the work, the possibility of an understanding of this world-famous, still controversial writing as well as the efficiency of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics will become recognisable.

Die Nachfrage der Politik nach Ethik nimmt stetig zu. Die neuen Kriege, Menschenrechtsfragen, Parteien- und Spendenskandale sowie die ausufernden Ethikkommissionen zu allem, von der Tierethik über den Umweltschutz zur Genethik, geben der Politik zunehmend Anlaß zu Versuchen der Instrumentalisierung der Ethik. In einem reflexartigen Impuls versucht die Politik, ihre Autonomie zu verteidigen. Vom Interventionismus im Kosovo-Krieg zur Terrorismusbekämpfung und Legitimierung von Partisanenkriegen; von Menschenrechtsfragen zum Verhältnis von Recht und Moral in der Politik bis zur Ethik als Politikum in der Kommissionswirtschaft der Parlamente deckt dieser Band das Spektrum dieses hochbrisanten Themenfeldes ab.