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Ideen und Transzendentalien bei Francsico Suárez im Kontext der RenaissancephilosophieIn Darge Rolf, Bauer Emmanuel J. & Frank Günter (eds.), Rolf Darge et al. (eds.), Der Aristotelismus an den europäischen Universitäten der frühen Neuzeit, Kohlhammer. 2010.Transcententals such as 'being', 'one', 'good', and 'something' are part and parcel of the medieval heritage in Aristotelian philosophy. Since transcendentals must be predicated of every particular thing, they are essential both to argumentation and to metaphysics, specifically to the theory of Platonic Forms. Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) hence concluded that 'thing' (res) is the only transcendental, distinct from metaphysical universality that applies to God exclusively. Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499…Read more
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7Giovanni Pico’s warning against pantheistic implications in Ficino’s NeoplatonismIntellectual History Review 34 (1): 49-66. 2024.The famous controversy between Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola is known to regard the proper use of Platonism in humanist and Christian context. With special attention to Pico’s Commentary on a Canzone, the point of disagreement with Ficino, which is not at all obvious, is examined through a close reading. The result is that Pico sees the temptation of a pantheistic and anthropocentric understanding of the relationship between the human realm and God. Whereas Ficino engaged in …Read more
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32Pantheism and panpsychism in the Renaissance and the emergence of secularismIntellectual History Review 34 (1): 1-3. 2024.Pantheism, Panpsychism, and secularism? To any historian of ideas still under the die-hard spell of the Enlightenment narrative, this would appear as an unlikely connection.1 If ever the theory of...
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28This edition of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s “De ente et uno” (“On being and the one”) offers for the first time a key text for the reformation of metaphysics in Renaissance philosophy in German translation. The Latin text is added. The detailed introduction and careful commentary reveal the guiding points Pico has set with this work.
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15Philosophy in the Renaissance: an anthology (edited book)The Catholic University of America Press. 2022.The Renaissance was a period of great intellectual change and innovation as philosophers rediscovered the philosophy of classical antiquity and passed it on to the modern age. Renaissance philosophy is distinct both from the medieval scholasticism, based on revelation and authority, and from philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who transformed it into new philosophical systems. Despite the importance of the Renaissance to the development of philosophy over time, it has remain…Read more
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Ramón Llull (1232-1316) : Felix, or the Book of WondersIn Paul Richard Blum & James G. Snyder (eds.), Philosophy in the Renaissance: an anthology, The Catholic University of America Press. 2022.
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4Giordano Bruno’s Changing of Default PositionsIn Anne Eusterschulte & Henning S. Hufnagel (eds.), Turning traditions upside down: rethinking Giordano Bruno's enlightenment, Central European University Press. pp. 11-18. 2013.
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16Giordano BrunoInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2021.Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher of the later Renaissance whose writings encompassed the ongoing traditions, intentions, and achievements of his times and transmitted them into early modernity. Taking up the medieval practice of the art of memory and of formal logic, he focused on the creativity of the human mind. Bruno … Continue reading Giordano Bruno →
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9American slave narratives as autoethnographic paradigmHuman Affairs 31 (2): 236-245. 2021.Ever since the publication of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, autobiographical testimonies were a mainstay of the abolition movement in the United States. Being or having been held as slaves and all the attendant injury is the very theme of the documents in question, which are testimonies, rather than theoretical works, because the authors maintained the first-person point of view. Since autoethnography aims at overcoming the preset mentality of the researcher in order t…Read more
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9Studies on Early Modern AristotelianismBrill. 2012.In Studies on Early Modern Aristotelianism Paul Richard Blum shows that Aristotle’s thought remained the touchstone of modern philosophy; for it was the philosophy taught at universities. The concept of philosophy at Jesuit schools forms the first part of this book. Their impact on the sciences and mathematics in combination with Renaissance ideas of nature is the topic of the second part. The transformation of Aristotelian metaphysics and theology under the influence of the Renaissance is the t…Read more
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4History and theory: the paradox in Francesco PatriziIntellectual History Review 29 (4): 649-654. 2019.
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6Principles and powers: How to interpret Renaissance philosophy of nature philosophically?Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy 5 (1). 2001.The history of philosophy has to understand the problems to which past theories are intended as answers, rather than taking the latter as sets of doctrines, which may be correct or mistaken. Examples from the Renaissance are Nicholas of Cusa, Marsilio Ficino, Bernardino Telesio, Girolamo Cardano, and Benedictus Pererius: they show that Renaissance thinkers sought for principles of nature in terms of active powers. Whoever denies the validity of such ideas has the burden of proof that alternative…Read more
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25In fugam vacui– Avoiding the Void in Baroque ThoughtQuaestio 17 427-460. 2017.The era of the Baroque witnessed a fierce debate over the interpretation of some experiments about the vacuum. It was riddled with fear of annihilation. My focus will not lie on the development of...
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9How to think with the head of another? The historical dimension of philosophical problemsIntellectual History Review 26 (1): 153-161. 2016.
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35Philosophie des Humanismus und der RenaissanceStudia Neoaristotelica 14 (2): 219-224. 2017.This paper is a review of the book "Philosophie des Humanismus und der Renaissance (1350–1600)" by Thomas Leinkauf.
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336Die Geschmückte Judith. Die Finalisierung der Wissenschaften bei Antonio Possevino S. JNouvelles de la République des Lettres 1 113-126. 1983.Es ist wahr, die frühe Neuzeit hatte nur einen Descartes. Aber sie hatte hunderte schreibende Gelehrte. Auch solche, die Descartes und allen anderen zeigten, wer was wo schon geschrieben hatte. Solche Universal-Gelehrten dachten an den einzelnen Schreiber, sie halfen ihm absichtlich nicht, die Quellen zu verbergen, sondern sie zu finden. Keine Träumereien an französischen oder schwäbischen Kaminen, sondern effiziente Arbeit am Jesuitenkolleg waren Ziel und Inhalt z.B. der Bibliotheca selecta , i…Read more
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10Istoriar la figuraAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 77 (2): 189-212. 2003.Syncretism is a challenge to modern philosophy, but it was the main characteristic of Giordano Bruno’s thought. This has been made clear by Frances A. Yates, who in interpreting Bruno and Renaissance Hermeticism was not afraid of connecting theories and cultural expressions which on the surface are alien to philosophy. In doing so Yates was congenial to her object of study, as syncretism of theory was no mere side effect of Hermeticism, but had a philosophical aim. This aim can be identified as …Read more
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Trinity and Triangle -- Giordano Bruno's Secularizing of the Cusanian TrinitySoter 14 (42). 2004.Nicholas of Cusa (1402-1464) explored the boundaries of human reason for the sake of making religious belief believable. Unwillingly, he became a milestone in the process of rationalizing Christian theology. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is a proof to this perspective by the way he makes use of Cusanus’s approach. In his ’Spaccio de la bestia trionfante’, Bruno discusses Cusanus’s attempts at the geometrical problem of squaring the circle. Bruno not only promotes his atomistic geometry, he also use…Read more
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30Giordano BrunoBeck. 1999.Vorbemerkung „Nichts unter der Sonne ist neu," war Giordano Brunos Leitspruch. Dennoch ist es angebracht, ihn als einen Denker vorzustellen, der eine eigene ...
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100Inhalt: Descartes und das scholastische Argumentieren - Scholastik und Humanismus im Bildungsprogramm der Jesuiten - Nikolaus Cusanus - Marsilio Ficino - Giordano Bruno - Studienordnung und Philosophiebegriff: die Ratio studiorum SJ - Der ...
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Pourchot EdmundIn Luc Foisneau (ed.), The Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers: L-Z, Thoemmes. 2008.
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9Epistemology and Cosmology in Neoplatonism: Is Cognition a Mind-Body-Problem? Paper at Cosmos, Nature, Culture - A Transdisciplinary Conference Metanexus Conference July 18-21, 2009, Phoenix, Arizona (review)http://www.metanexus.net/conference2009/articles/Default.aspx?id=10790. 2009.
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69Michael Polanyi: the anthropology of intellectual historyStudies in East European Thought 62 (2): 197-216. 2010.Scientific and political developments of the early twentieth century led Michael Polanyi to study the role of the scientist in research and the interaction between the individual scholar and the surrounding conditions in community and society. In his concept of “personal knowledge” he gave the theory and history of science an anthropological turn. In many instances of the history of sciences, research is driven by a commitment to beliefs and values. Society plays the role of authority and commun…Read more
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180Francesco Patrizi in the "Time-Sack": History and Rhetorical PhilosophyJournal of the History of Ideas 61 (1): 59-74. 2000.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 61.1 (2000) 59-74 [Access article in PDF] Francesco Patrizi in the "Time-Sack": History and Rhetorical Philosophy * Paul Richard Blum Contemporary theory of history is much concerned with the narrative structure of history, its nature, and its epistemic status. 1 The problem is not only that sources present events mostly wrapped in narrative language but also that temporality is an inherent feature bot…Read more
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A Természet, Mint Személy: Adalékok a természet fogalmának történetéhezMagyar Filozofiai Szemle 4. 2001.
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18Kants Vorsehungskonzept auf dem Hintergrund der deutschen Schulphilosophie und -Theologie (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (1): 161-164. 2009.
Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München
Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Study of Religion
PhD, 1978
Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Religion |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |