Philosophy and Religion - Philosophy and Ethics

Politics and Religion: often a confused mixture – an interview with Hans Joas

What does politics have to do with religion and values? About the religion debates in Germany and the relationship between politics and religion in the Arab world.More ...

The philosopher Martin Gessmann. Photo: Martin Gessmann

“Sometimes you’re the cog, sometimes the football god” – An interview with Martin Gessmann

In an interview the philosopher and author Martin Gessmann tells why football is an untimely phenomenon and why society can learn something from FC Barcelona.More ...

In the Maelstrom of Time – Hartmut Rosa’s “Global Relationships in the Age of Acceleration”

Rosa examines how acceleration has changed our relationship to the world and threatens to derail democraticy.More ...

In What Era Are We Living?

An Interim Summary of the Recent Debate on “Post-Modern”, “Post-Capitalism” and “Post-Democracy” by Hans-Martin Schönherr-Mann.More ...

Thinker of the Best Option – Two Philosophy Prizes for Avishai Margalit

Two major awards within a week: at the end of September 2012 Avishai Margalit received both the Philosophy Book Prize and the Ernst Bloch Prize.More ...

Meg Stuart „Built to last“, Münchner Kammerspiele; © Julian Röder

The Body as Discourse: Dance and Image of the Body

Like every line of thought in philosophy, every cultural practice develops its own distinct concept of the body. What image of the body is produced when we understand it as being the result of discourse?More ...

Sociology Infiltrates Our Everyday Lives – An Interview with Martina Löw

Since the debates of the 1970s and 1980s the realm of sociology have receded more and more into the background. Does it has lost its significance?More ...

The “Programmed Human Being” – genetic engineering and the future of society

Scientific progress offers the possibility of escaping to some extent the accidental character of nature. This raises questions of enormous importance.More ...

Detail of the promotional poster for the degree program Philosophy & Economics; © Universität Bayreuth

“Economics and …” – Philosophical Degree Courses with the Focus on Economics

Do we see the start of a new philosophical approach to economics?More ...

The Blind Spot of Philosophy: Dance

For a long time dance was largely non-existent in the fields of aesthetics, art theory and philosophy. Yet movement is an eminently philosophical problem.More ...

Reader of a philosophy magazine; © Südpol-Redaktionsbüro/T. Köster

Reflection For Everyman: New Philosophy Magazines

2011 saw two new philosophy magazines launched onto the German market, their aim being to set current events into their philosophical context for non-experts and help to master “the art of living”.More ...

Members of the German Ethics Council; © Deutscher Ethikrat

Fundamental Questions of Human Life: The German Ethics Council

The German Ethics Council prepares opinions on debates in which fundamental decisions about human lives are to be taken. Its members, however, do not always vote unanimously.More ...

Philosophy and the Technological Sciences –
Four Questions for Petra Gehring

Do philosophers and scientists really have something to say to one another?More ...

Eszter Salomon „Dance for nothing“; © Alain Roux

Dancing is thinking – on the relationship between philosophy and dance

At first glance, dance and philosophy seem to be a contradictory pair. Yet both disciplines share a troubled history.More ...

Coverausschnitt von „Das Recht der Freiheit“; © Suhrkamp

Something of a Masterpiece – Axel Honneth’s “Das Recht der Freiheit”

Axel Honneth’s book Das Recht der Freiheit (The Right to Freedom) is something of a masterpiece.More ...

“‘The civilizing mission’ of the West has become irrelevant.” An Interview with Sarhan Dhouib

The first winner of the Goethe-Institut’s Newcomer Award for Philosophy argues for the transcultural and universal validity of human rights.More ...

“Animal and Human Rights Are Inseparable” – An Interview with Bernd Ladwig

Does the way we treat animals have something to do with our western concept of human rights? Goethe.de talked to Bernd Ladwig.More ...

“A World of Reasons” – A Philosophy Conference as Social Event

With its XXII conference, the German Society for Philosophy advertises for thinking.More ...

Philosophy and Popular Culture: “No path leads from Kant to the Sex Pistols”

It was not until they were influenced by Anglo-American philosophers that German thinkers began seriously engaging with popular culture.More ...

Section of the cover of “Nach uns die kernschmelze”; © Klett-Cotta

“That is frivolous” – Robert Spaemann on “hubris in the atomic age”

The small volume Nach uns die Kernschmelze holds up a mirror to our conduct with technology. What we see in it should shame us!More ...

Love of Wisdom – Philosophy is Booming!

A lively exchange of ideas is taking place in debating clubs and philosophical cafés.More ...

Iceberg in Greenland; © Martin Schwan / Fotolia.com

Morality as a Question of Survival – Bernward Gesang’s climate ethics

In his book Klimaethik, Bernward Gesang wants to find a solution to the climate crisis.More ...

Naked man with owl butterfly in Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag’s “Yellow Cell”; © Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag

Climate? Art? Research? – “ClimateArtResearch”!

How, and how far, can art and science profit from one another – especially in respect to a phenomenon such as climate change? A new book finds some surprising answers.More ...

Section of the cover of `Der Untergang des Abendlandes`; © C.H. Beck Verlag

Talk of the Decline of the West? The 75th anniversary of the death of Oswald Spengler

Talk of the decline of the West repeatedly haunts the media. Its author, Oswald Spengler, on the other hand, seems to be forgotten. Cultural scientist Johann Pall Arnason in an interview.More ...

Powerless Philosophy? - A debate in the Magazine “Merkur”

In Merkur, the “German Journal for European Thought”, philosophers have been arguing about whether philosophy has lost its power of social interpretation and practical relevance.More ...

Wherefrom, Whereto, Why? Barbara Brüning on philosophising with children

Philosophising cannot begin early enough, says the Hamburg educationalist Barbara Brüning. To Goethe.de, she spoke about child-like curiosity.More ...

“Cultural diversity is always an enrichment” – An Interview with Armin Nassehi

With and/or parallel to each other? In the integration debate the value of cultural diversity often gets short-changed.More ...

“Philosophy:Art”: An Interview with Jakob Steinbrenner

A symposium on photography held this year in July will mark the end of the first phase of the series of events known as Philosophy:Art.More ...

Paradoxes of Capitalist Modernisation – An Interview with Axel Honneth

Does capitalism really make man free? Or does lack of freedom only feel better under capitalism?More ...

Animal Eating? The New Vegetarianism

More and more people in Germany are abstaining for reasons of health, morals or politics, in whole or in part, from meat products and other ethically questionable food.More ...

Article 1 Sentence 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany at the regional court builiding in the city of Frankfurt/Main; (CC) Dontworry

Jürgen Habermas’s “Concept of Human Dignity and the Realistic Utopia of Human Rights”

Human dignity is not a product of human rights, but is rather the basis of their normative validity.More ...

“The central democratic capacity is the power of judgement“ – Oskar Negt on Democracy as a Form of Life

In his book Oskar Negt breaks a lance for political education.More ...

What Language Does Europe Speak? Value Terms in different Countries

In an interdisciplinary research project at the Universities of Jena and Halle, scientists want to develop a multilingual concordance of norm and value terms.More ...

Marx in the city of Chemnitz – from the Film “Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike” by Alexander Kluge; © Suhrkamp Verlag

There’s Life in the Old Dog Yet: Karl Marx’s “Capital” Is Profiting from the Crisis

During the world financial crisis, Karl Marx’s magnum opus on political economy underwent a cross-media resurrection as a comic book and a radio play, on the stage and in film.More ...

“I Link, I Like” – Peter Kruse on Cloud Culture

Living in the cloud culture means being constantly online. How does that change society? How does it change friendship? What is the value of pressing an “I like” button? An interview with the psychologist Peter Kruse.More ...

“She always meddled in”. Iris Nachum on Margherita von Brentano

Scholars must take clear positions and be partisan. The philosopher Margherita von Brentano, who died in 1995, called for this again and again. All her life she spoke up in political debates.More ...

“Schopenhauer Is Always Topical”. An Interview with Rüdiger Safranski

21 September marks the 150th anniversary of Arthur Schopenhauer’s death. Goethe.de spoke to Rüdiger Safranski about the philosopher’s timeless modernity.More ...

“Tolerance is a fine art” – Interview with the Philosopher Rainer Forst

For a peaceful and prosperous co-existence in diversity, it is said, tolerance is essential. But what does tolerance really mean?More ...

Plakatausschnitt Essay-Wettbewerb 2010 der Philosophischen Fakultät; © LMU, Philosophische Fakultät

Is There Such a Thing as a Human Right? An Interview with the Philosopher Julian Nida-Rümelin

Are there rights that human beings have apart from any political order? And if so, how can they be justified?More ...

Hans Küng; © Dr. Stephan Schlensog, schlensog@weltethos.org

“Laws without ethics are futile” – An Interview with Hans Küng

Economic globalization needs a transculturally accepted legal and moral framework.More ...

Detail from the bookcover of “Philosophie im Zeitalter der Extreme”; © Primus

Philosophy in the Age of Extremes

The twentieth century is considered the “age of extremes“. Was it also a philosophical age?More ...

Return of the Utopias

After decades of deafening silence the idea of utopia has returned to public discourse.More ...

“There are no longer any real elites”: An Interview with Cultural Boris Groys

Everybody talks about elites – because they no longer exist. Of that, Boris Groys is convinced. With Goethe.de, he talked about the elitist omnipotence of money and the powerlessness of philosophers.More ...

Towards A More Vital Civil Society – An Interview With Otfried Höffe

The philosopher and political theorist, Otfried Höffe, on the viability of democracy in the future.More ...

Acceleration without limit? © iStockphoto

The Financial Crisis as a Speeding Accident – An Interview with Hartmut Rosa

Constant acceleration is increasingly a problem for man and society. The financial crisis too, according to Hartmut Rosa, is above all a “speeding accident”.More ...

Is the Age of Political Utopias Past? – Three Questions for Richard Saage

Thinking in alternatives is part of the inalienable core of the European intellectual tradition, says Germany’s leading utopia researcher utopia researcher.More ...

The Culture of Ecological Responsibility – An Interview with Ludger Heidbrink

Can climate change stimulate a cultural reconstruction of industrial societies? An interview on the culture of responsibility with philosopher Ludger Heidbrink.More ...

Cover of ‘Religionsstifter der Moderne’; © C. H. Beck Verlag

The Faith Market of Possibilities: “Founders of Religion in the Modern Age”

The modern age is not anti-religious; in fact, it is highly prolific as far as religion is concerned. This is the central thesis in a collection of essays edited by A. Christophersen and F. Voigt.More ...

Justice In Times Of Climate Change – An Interview With Social Ethicist, Markus Vogt

“Climate justice is the acid test for the sustainable and peaceable development of our modern civilisation,“ says the Munich social ethicist, Markus Vogt.More ...

Philosophy and Ethics in Germany

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