Andreas Blank
Biographic Data
| ID | 1402098 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andreas Blank |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andreas |
| FAMILY NAME | Blank |
| SIGNATURE | BLANK A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Klagenfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7470-097X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Pierre Nicole on Political Authority, Recognition and Self-Cultivation
Nicole shares with Hobbes the view that the state of nature is a war of all against all andthe view that there is a natural duty not to offend others’ feelings of self-worth. The latter view can be understood as a conception of recognition of others’ basic needs. Nicole uses this idea to defend the political conception of succession through birth which avoids conflicts that would arise over injured feelings of self-worth. How persuasive is Nicole…
Simple esteem and the method of commonplaces in Pufendorf
In his discussion of simple esteem—one of the moral entities meant to regulate human actions—Pufendorf invokes a juridical commonplace: the rule that, before evidence to the contrary, we should presume others to be good. This argumentative strategy is an illuminating example for understanding his method of commonplaces. The present paper has three goals: (1) to analyze how Pufendorf adopted from legal humanism the view that presumptions should be…
Metallic Transmutation in Sennert’s Early Writings
This article discusses a consistency problem arising from the combination of three claims that Sennert makes in both his early and his late writings: The first refers to his belief in the reality of metals changing into metals of a different species; the second to his belief that substantial forms individuate metals and determine their species membership; and the third to his belief that substantial forms have come into being with creation and pe…
Conrad Gessner and the Question of the Confessionalization of Natural History
Did allegorical interpretations of animals disappear from Protestant natural histories due to what has been described as the literalist mentality of the Reformers? This paper uses histories of animals by (or deriving from) the Zurich-based naturalist Conrad Gessner to argue for two claims: First, that not every instance of the disappearance of allegorical meanings can be explained through the emphasis on literal meanings in Reformed hermeneutics;…
Early Modern Natural Philosophy and the Question of Confessionalization
Hobbes, Nicole, and the Question of Dissimulation as Recognition
This article takes a comparative approach to a positive function that Hobbes and Nicole ascribe to dissimulation: Following the norms of civility leaves the self-esteem of others intact, even when one does not believe it is well-founded. This can be understood as a kind of recognition in the sense of supporting the self-image of others. However, Nicole goes beyond Hobbes in analyzing the detrimental effects that complaisance with self-related act…
Mably on historiography and the cure of the imagination
The Morality of Self-Acceptance
This article argues that the reception of Augustinian ideas in Pascal and Nicole can be used to clarify what is distinctive in La Rochefoucauld's treatment of self-relations. La Rochefoucauld does not share the Augustinian dichotomy between self-love at the price of forgetting God and love of God at the price of self-contempt that is prominent in both Pascal and Nicole. Rather, La Rochefoucauld develops a conception of an attitude towards the sel…
Self-Deception and Illusions of Esteem
Esteem and self-esteem in early modern ethics and politics. An overview
The self-worth of political communities is often understood to be an expression of their position in a hierarchy of power; if so, then the desire for self-worth is a source of competition and conflict in international relations. In early modern German natural law theories, one finds the alternative view, according to which duties of esteem toward political communities should reflect the degree to which they fulfill the functions of civil governme…
Christoph Besold on confederation rights and duties of esteem in diplomatic relations
The self-worth of political communities is often understood to be an expression of their position in a hierarchy of power; if so, then the desire for self-worth is a source of competition and conflict in international relations. In early modern German natural law theories, one finds the alternative view, according to which duties of esteem toward political communities should reflect the degree to which they fulfill the functions of civil governme…
Marquard Freher and the presumption of goodness in legal humanism
One of the most detailed early modern discussions of the morality of esteem can be found in the work of the reformed jurist and historian Marquard Freher (1565–1614). Since the question of how much esteem others deserve is fraught with a high degree of uncertainty, Freher relied on the work of other legal humanists, who discussed questions of esteem from the perspective of arguments from the presumption of goodness. The humanist approach to the p…
Vegetative Powers
Missing a Soul That Endows Bodies with Life
Wolff on duties of esteem in the law of peoples
The role that the desire for self‐worth plays in international relations has become a prominent topic in contemporary political theory. Contemporary accounts are based on the notion of national self‐worth as a function of status; therefore, the desire for national self‐worth is seen as a source of anxiety and conflict over status. By contrast, according to Christian Wolff, there exists a duty to take care that both one's own and other political c…
Pufendorf and Leibniz on duties of esteem in diplomatic relations
The striving for self-worth is recognized as a driving force in international relations; but if self-worth is understood as a function of status in a power hierarchy, this striving often is a source of anxiety and conflict over status. The quasi-international relations within the early modern German Empire have prompted seventeenth-century natural law theorists such as Samuel Pufendorf and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to reflect about this problem. …
The morality of the desire for esteem
Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) has not been perceived as one of the early modern philosophers who had something interesting to say about the role of the desire for esteem in social life and the moral duties connected with this desire. Nevertheless, in his Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii (1649) there are some scattered, but interrelated remarks about how the desire for esteem could be supportive of civic virtue. These remarks were …
Introduction
Introduction
Christian Wolff on Common Notions and Duties of Esteem
While contemporary accounts understand esteem and self-esteem as essentially competitive phenomena, early modern natural law theorists developed a conception of justified esteem and self-esteem based on naturally good character traits. This article explores how such a normative conception of esteem and self-esteem is developed in the work of Christian Wolff (1679–1754). Two features make Wolff’s approach distinctive: (1) He uses the analysis of c…
Value, Justice, and Presumption in the Late Scholastic Controversy over Price Regulation
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, theories of price regulation were developed in order to analyze the demands of justice in situations where markets cease to function-be it through natural conditions, wars, or artificially induced shortages in supply. This article investigates the relevance of the methodological notion of presumption for the legally binding power of laws concerning price regulation. In particular, the relation bet…
Anne‐Thérèse de Lambert on Aging and Self‐Esteem
This article studies Madame de Lambert's early eighteenth‐century views on aging, and especially the aging of women, by contextualizing them in a twofold way: (1) It understands them as a response to La Rochefoucauld's skepticism concerning aging, women, and the aging of women; (2) It understands them as being closely connected to a long series of scattered remarks concerning esteem, self‐esteem, and honnêteté in Lambert's moral essays. Whereas L…
Die philosophischen Totengespräche der Frühaufklärung
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Self-knowledge and varieties of human excellence in the French moralists
Contemporary accounts of knowing one’s own mental states can be instructively supplemented by early modern accounts that understand self-knowledge as an important factor for flourishing human life. This article argues that in the early modern French moralists, one finds diverging conceptions of how knowing one’s own personal qualities could constitute a kind of human excellence: François de la Rochefoucauld (1613–80) argues that the value of know…
Common usage, presumption and verisimilitude in sixteenth-century theories of juridical interpretation
The question of how common usage could be constitutive for the meaning of linguistic expressions has been discussed by Renaissance philosophers such as Lorenzo Valla, and it also played an important role in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation. An aspect of the analysis of common usage in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation that concerns the role of presumption has not yet found much attention. Renaissance jurists such as…
Self-knowledge and varieties of human excellence in the French moralists
Contemporary accounts of knowing one’s own mental states can be instructively supplemented by early modern accounts that understand self-knowledge as an important factor for flourishing human life. This article argues that in the early modern French moralists, one finds diverging conceptions of how knowing one’s own personal qualities could constitute a kind of human excellence: François de la Rochefoucauld (1613–80) argues that the value of know…
Anne‐Thérèse de Lambert on Aging and Self‐Esteem
This article studies Madame de Lambert's early eighteenth‐century views on aging, and especially the aging of women, by contextualizing them in a twofold way: (1) It understands them as a response to La Rochefoucauld's skepticism concerning aging, women, and the aging of women; (2) It understands them as being closely connected to a long series of scattered remarks concerning esteem, self‐esteem, and honnêteté in Lambert's moral essays. Whereas L…
Existential Dependence and the Question of Emanative Causation in Protestant Metaphysics, 1570–1620
That the world is dependent on God for its existence is a view that many Scholastic and early modern thinkers took to be a philosophical implication of the biblical creation story. However, they st
Prinzipien des lexikalischen Bedeutungswandels am Beispiel der romanischen Sprachen
The study lays bare the cross-language principles governing semantic innovation. The theoretical approach builds a) on a semantic/semiotic model integrating conceptual knowledge and language knowledge, and b) the associative principles similarity , contrast and contiguity . On this basis it is possible to chart and typologize the development potentials and the linguistic processes determining meaning change over time. In addition, an entirely new…
Topo et al. – Onomasiologie, Semasiologie und Kognition am Beispiel der Bezeichnungen von Maus, Ratte und Maulwurf in der Italoromania
Co-presence and Succession
Einführung in die lexikalische Semantik für Romanisten
This students' manual provides an introductory overview of lexical semantics based on the present state of theoretical discussion. It explains important 'basics' such as lexical relations, the distinction between polysemy and homonymy, and the problems posed by the concept of 'meaning'. Alongside structural semantics and semantic approaches of a generative persuasion, the book also gives an introduction to cognitive semantics (with special refere…
Kognitive romanische Onomasiologie und Semasiologie
Wittgenstein on Colours and Logical Multiplicities, 1930–1932
This article explores Wittgenstein's little known remarks on colour from his notebooks of the early 1930s. It emphasizes the importance of the notion of logical multiplicity contained in these remarks. The notion of logical multiplicity indicates that Wittgenstein, as in the years of the Tractatus, is committed to a theory of logical space in which every colour is embedded. However, logical multiplicities in his remarks of the early 1930s do not …
Existential Dependence and the Question of Emanative Causation in Protestant Metaphysics, 1570–1620
That the world is dependent on God for its existence is a view that many Scholastic and early modern thinkers took to be a philosophical implication of the biblical creation story. However, they st
De Sympathia et Antipathia Rerum, Liber I
Girolamo Fracastoro. De Sympathia et Antipathia Rerum, Liber I. Studi e testi del Rinascimento Europeo 31. Istituto nazionale de studi sul rinascimento. Ed. and trans., Concetta Pennuto. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2008. cii+362 pp. index. bibl. €58. ISBN: 978–88–8498–383–1. - Concetta Pennuto. Simpatia, fantasia e contagio: Il pensiero medico e il pensiero filosofico de Girolamo Fracastoro. Centuria 5. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Lett…
Julius Caesar Scaliger on Plant Generation and the Question of Species Constancy
The sixteenth-century physician and philosopher Julius Caesar Scaliger combines the view that living beings are individuated by a single substantial form with the view that the constituents of the organic body retain their identity due to the continued existence and operation of their own substantial forms. This essay investigates the implications of Scaliger's account of subordinate and dominant substantial forms for the question of the constanc…
Spätrenaissance-Philosophie in Deutschland, 1570-1650. Entwürfe zwischen Humanismus und Konfessionalisierung, okkulten Traditionen und Schulmetaphysik
Julius Caesar Scaliger on Plants, Species, and the Ordained Power of God
Argument The sixteenth-century physician and philosopher Julius Caesar Scaliger suggests that in particular cases plants can come into being that belong to a plant species that did not exist before. At the same time, he holds that God could not have created a more perfect world. However, does the occurrence of new species not imply that the world was not the best possible world from the beginning? In this article, I explore a set of metaphysical …
Presumption, Torture and the Controversy Over Excepted Crimes, 1600–1632
How should a legal system deal with crimes that are perceived as threatening the very existence of a state and the security of its citizens? Obviously, such crimes pose problems concerning suitable
Kognitive Romanische Onomasiologie und Semasiologie
Philosophiæ Triumphus, hoc est, Metaphysica Philosophandi Methodus
Nicolaus Taurellus. Philosophiæ Triumphus, hoc est, Metaphysica Philosophandi Methodus. Trans. Henrik Wels. Editionen zur Frühen Neuzeit 3. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 2012. xlv + 596 pp. €248. ISBN: 978–3–7728–2374–9. - Volume 66 Issue 3
Johannes von Felden on Usucaption, Justice, and the Society of States
In his response to Grotius, the seventeenth-century German jurist and philosopher Johannes von Felden rejects Grotius's view that usucaption-the acquisition of ownership through long-standing possession-could be a suitable means for settling territorial conflicts. At the same time, he defends a conception of a society of states. For him, the human need for security from the risks of war and the human need for justice demand from rulers that they …
Nicolaus Taurellus on Forms and Elements
Argument This article examines the conception of elements in the natural philosophy of Nicolaus Taurellus (1547–1606) and explores the theological motivation that stands behind this conception. By some of his early modern readers, Taurellus may have been understood as a proponent of material atoms. By contrast, I argue that considerations concerning the substantiality of the ultimate constituents of composites led Taurellus to an immaterialist on…
Domingo de Soto on justice to the poor
Discussionsof poverty insixteenth-centuryscholasticismtend tostand onthe shoulders of thecorresponding discussions in late medieval legal and political theory. To a large extent, the relevant passages from sixteenth-century works summarize and systematize views that have been formulated by late medieval thinkers such as the thirteenth-century English canonist Alanus, the Parisbased secular master Godfrey of Fontaines (active at the end of the thi…
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe
Leibniz, Locke, and the Early Modern Controversy over Legal Maxims
This article investigates the context of a side line in Leibniz's critique of Locke on maxims. In an enigmatic and little-explored remark, Leibniz objects that Locke has overlooked some legal maxims that fulfil the function of ‘constituting the law’. I propose to read this remark against the background of the divergence between conceptions of legal maxims in the common law tradition and conceptions of legal maxims in the Roman law tradition. In a…
Striving Possibles and Leibniz’s Cognitivist Theory of Volition
Common usage, presumption and verisimilitude in sixteenth-century theories of juridical interpretation
The question of how common usage could be constitutive for the meaning of linguistic expressions has been discussed by Renaissance philosophers such as Lorenzo Valla, and it also played an important role in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation. An aspect of the analysis of common usage in Renaissance theories of juridical interpretation that concerns the role of presumption has not yet found much attention. Renaissance jurists such as…
Anne‐Thérèse de Lambert on Aging and Self‐Esteem
This article studies Madame de Lambert's early eighteenth‐century views on aging, and especially the aging of women, by contextualizing them in a twofold way: (1) It understands them as a response to La Rochefoucauld's skepticism concerning aging, women, and the aging of women; (2) It understands them as being closely connected to a long series of scattered remarks concerning esteem, self‐esteem, and honnêteté in Lambert's moral essays. Whereas L…
Die philosophischen Totengespräche der Frühaufklärung
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Self-knowledge and varieties of human excellence in the French moralists
Contemporary accounts of knowing one’s own mental states can be instructively supplemented by early modern accounts that understand self-knowledge as an important factor for flourishing human life. This article argues that in the early modern French moralists, one finds diverging conceptions of how knowing one’s own personal qualities could constitute a kind of human excellence: François de la Rochefoucauld (1613–80) argues that the value of know…
Introduction
Philosophy (33 works) · Epistemology (24 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Political science (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · History (12 works) · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity (11 works) · Law (10 works)