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Die Bezeichnung "Gottesknecht" begegnet überraschenderweise auch in der Bildungswissenschaft, und zwar als anthropologische Metapher für das mittelalterliche Menschenbild. Mit diesem Begriff verbindet sich nicht nur ein negatives Menschenbild, sondern auch ein ebensolches Gottesbild: Der Mensch unterwirft sich Gott als seinem Herrn. Damit verliert der Mensch auch seine Würde, insofern er auf eigenständigen Vernunftgebrauch verzichtet (sacrificium intellectus). Erst die Aufklärung habe darauf mit einer konsequenten Detheologisierung reagiert. Nur so könne der Mensch seine Würde verteidigen, gestützt auf die eigene Vernunft. – Wie kann die alttestamentliche Bibelwissenschaft darauf reagieren? Ist Detheologisierung notwendig zur Verteidigung der Menschenwürde? Oder gibt es auch eine theologisch begründete Menschenwürde? Klassische biblische Zeugnisse (Gen 1,26; Ps 8) bieten ein nahezu postmodern anmutendes theologisches Konzept der Menschenwürde. Sie besteht darin, dass Gott den Menschen zu seinem Stellvertreter auf Erden einsetzt. Die deuteronomische Rechtsordnung kann so verstanden werden: Das Gottesrecht sichert in Gestalt der Menschenrechte die Würde aller Menschen. Die Anerkennung der Menschenrechte zeichnet eine "gebildete Gesellschaft" aus. Laut Weisheitstradition (Spr; Sir) setzt die Anwendung der Tora übrigens die menschliche Vernunft voraus. Von der Notwendigkeit einer Detheologisierung zur Wahrung der Menschenwürde kann also keine Rede sein, im Gegenteil: Das Gottesrecht (Tora) sichert die allgemeine Menschenwürde. Die Würde des biblischen Gottesknechts (DtJes) besteht schließlich in seinem Auftrag, die Tora zu universalisieren. ; Surprisingly, the term "servant of God" is also used in educational science, namely as an anthropological metaphor for the medieval image of man. This term is not only associated with a negative image of man, but also with a similar image of God: man submits to God as his master. With this, man also loses his dignity, insofar as he renounces the independent use of reason (sacrificium intellectus). Only the Enlightenment reacted to this with a consistent detheologisation. Only in this way man is said to defend his dignity, based on his own reason. ‒ How can Old Testament biblical scholarship react to this? Is detheologisation necessary for the defense of human dignity? Or is there also a theologically based human dignity? Classical biblical testimonies (Gen 1:26; Ps 8) offer an almost postmodern theological concept of human dignity. It consists in God appointing man as his representative on earth. The Deuteronomic legal order can be understood in this way: God's law secures the dignity of all human beings in the form of human rights. The recognition of human rights characterises an "educated society". According to the wisdom tradition (Prov; Sir), the application of the Torah presupposes human reason. So there is no question of the necessity of detheologisation to preserve human dignity, on the contrary: God's law (Torah) secures universal human dignity. The dignity of the biblical servant of God (DtJes) ultimately consists in his mission to universalise the Torah.

This "Key" to the Khamsa consists of thirteen essays by eminent scholars in the field of Persian Studies, each focusing on different aspects of the Khamsa, which is a collection of five long poems written by the Persian poet Nizami of Ganja. Nizami (1141-1209) lived and worked in Ganja in present-day Azerbaijan. He is widely recognized as one of the main poets of Medieval Persia, a towering figure who produced outstanding poetry, straddling mysticism, romances and epics. He has left his mark on the whole Persian-speaking world and countless younger poets in the area stretching from the Ottoman to the Mughal worlds (present-day Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India) have found him an inspiration and have tried to emulate him. His work has influenced such other immense poets as Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi. His five masnavis (long poems) address a variety of topics and disciplines and have all enjoyed enormous fame, as the countless surviving manuscripts of his work indicate. His heroes, Khosrow and Shirin, Leili and Majnun, Iskandar count amongst the stars of the Persian literary firmament and have become household names all over the Islamic world. The essays in the present volume constitute a significant development in the field of Nizami-studies, and on a more general level, of classical Persian literature. They focus on topics such as mysticism, art history, comparative literature, science, and philosophy. they show how classical Greek knowledge mingles in a unique manner with the Persian past and the Islamic culture in Nizami's world. They reflect a high degree of engagement with the existing scholarship in the field, they revive and challenge traditional views on the poet and his work and are indispensable both for specialists in the field and for anyone interested in the movement of ideas in the Medieval world. - Deze "sleutel" om de 'Khamsa' te ontsluiten bestaat uit dertien essays door specialisten op het gebied van Perzische Studies. Elk essay richt zich op een ander aspect van de 'Khamsa', een verzameling van vijf lange gedichten geschreven door de Perzische dichter Nizami van Ganja. Nizami (1141-1209) woonde en werkte in Ganja, in het huidige Azerbeidzjan. Hij wordt algemeen erkend als een van de belangrijkste dichters van het middeleeuwse Perzië. Hij schreef poëzie op het breukvlak mystiek, romances en heldendichten en drukte zijn stempel op talloze jonge dichters, zoals Hafez, Rumi en Saadi, over een gebied dat zich uitstrekt van het huidige Turkije, Azerbeidzjan, Armenië, Georgië, Iran, Afghanistan, oezbekistan, Tadzjikistan, Pakistan, India. De essays dit boek zorgen voor een nieuwe kijk op de 'Khamsa'. Zij richten zich op onderwerpen als mystiek, kunstgeschiedenis, vergelijkende literatuur, wetenschap en filosofie. Ze laten zien hoe de klassieke Griekse kennis zich op een unieke manier vermengde met het Perzische verleden en de islamitische cultuur. Dit boek is onmisbaar voor de specialisten op het gebied van Perzische literatuur, maar ook goed leesbaar voor de geïnteresseerd leek.

Six faience jugs on display at the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum serve as examples of the importance of privately owned objects bearing guild marks, a topic hitherto ignored by research. Guild marks, especially on drinking vessels, rendered the latter objects of prestige, and reflect a strict system of social rank and representation among the guild masters: In their eyes, the most magnificent items were the faience jugs with their brilliant colours. Only merchants used even more valuable works of goldsmithery or glass goblets for private occasions. If the guild masters worked on the water, they belonged to the same guild in every harbour town on the Main and the Danube, yet distinguished themselves from most other masters in that their work was far more diversified and their voyages of very different lengths. These varied activities of fishing and shipping masters, reflecting different levels of social rank, were represented by different guild marks. Recognized and understood by all at that time, they fell into obscurity when the guilds were dissolved in the mid nineteenth century; here their meaning is rediscovered. The collection at the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum includes not only an example once owned by a member of the highest-ranking group - the shipmen in distant trade - who was also active in rafting and the wood trade, but also jugs once belonging to fishermen operating only within a limited local framework, as well as cargo shipmen only active on short voyages. The jugs also show the expenses the masters were willing to go to for these status symbols, ranging from individually ordered jugs to objects selected from mass-produced series. Wherever possible, the municipal fishermen and shipmen lived on the water front in order to have direct boat access to their property. Originally, authorization to fish was closely associated with these parcels of land. It can be shown that, even before the development of the medieval municipal constitution, fishermen were the subjects of a local landlord who owned the fishing grounds, and were compelled not only to supply him with fish but also to transport goods and people across the water. They also had to build their own boats, maintain them and keep them at the ready. The variety of professional occupations typical of the fishing and shipmen guilds thus predates the formation of those guilds by a long period.

[ES] By examining the main reprisals that took place in the 17th century against French, English and Dutch, and the general embargoes that gave rise to, this article helps to shed light on the real impact of the economic war measures taken by the Catholic Monarchy against its most pervasive adversaries on the dominance of world trade. To this end, the work explores the medieval roots of the right of retaliation, which is highly "private", and its transformation already in modern times into a widespread practice among Western European governments, subject to a profound legislative reformulation. This work is part of the ESCOMARIN project (BHA2000-0183-C02-01) of the National Programme for General Knowledge Promotion ; Peer reviewed ; [ES] By examining the main reprisals that took place in the 17th century against French, English and Dutch, and the general embargoes that gave rise to, this article helps to shed light on the real impact of the economic war measures taken by the Catholic Monarchy against its most pervasive adversaries on the dominance of world trade. To this end, the work explores the medieval roots of the right of retaliation, which is highly "private", and its transformation already in modern times into a widespread practice among Western European governments, subject to a profound legislative reformulation. This work is part of the ESCOMARIN project (BHA2000-0183-C02-01) of the National Programme for General Knowledge Promotion ; [EN] Through an analysis of the main reprisals carried out against French, English and Dutch in the seventeenth century, and the general embargoes to which they gave rise, this study addresses the impact of the economic war measures adopted by Spanish Hapsburgs against their most stubborn adversaries in the struggle for global commercial power. The article also explores the medieval roots of the law of reprisal, of a marked «private» character, and its transformation during the early modern period into a extended normative practice widely used by Western European ...

La sátira se expresó genuinamente como la potencia disruptiva e irritante contra el status quo de la sociedad medieval y renacentista. Un elemento retorico y poético único, cargado de expresiones criticas de talante político, moral y pedagógico, asociados a una visión hedonista e impulsiva de la vitalidad. Por consecuencia, relacionada al sentido común y feliz del vulgo, la plebe "estulta" o "necia" frente a la ascética, la reflexión y la vivencia mortificada y racionalista del sabio o erudito solitario. Una bíblica sentencia lo ilustra: Stultorum infinitus est numerus ("El número de los necios es infinito"). La sátira nos presenta el mundo al revés, la sociedad boca abajo, el mundo revolucionado, la felicidad como necedad. En fin, nos muestra otra perspectiva en la que el placer y la expresión hedonista del cuerpo tienen su lugar privilegiado frente a la regla y la normativa moral monástica y eclesiástica. Los escritos Elogio de la Locura de Erasmo de Rotterdam y Gargantúa y Pantagruel de François Rabelais (siglo XVI), marcan antecedentes importantes de la sátira (y su derivación grotesca) en la filosofía y en la literatura, en donde se expresa en la primera obra una recuperación de la filosofía epicúrea y en la segunda el hedonismo extremo en su carácter grotesco. El fin de nuestro trabajo es indicar la visión carnavalesca- hedonista y la crítica moral que se expresan en tales obras. ; Satire was genuinely expressed as the disruptive and irritating power against the status quo of medieval and Renaissance society. A unique rhetorical and poetic element, loaded with critical expressions of a political, moral and pedagogical nature, associated with a hedonistic and impulsive vision of vitality. Consequently, related to the common and happy sense of the vulgar, the plebe "estulta" or "foolish" in front of the ascetic, the reflection and the mortified and rationalistic experience of the wise or solitary scholar. A biblical sentence illustrates it: Stultorum infinitus est numerus ("The number of fools is infinite"). Satire presents the world upside down, society upside down, the world revolutionized, happiness as foolishness. Finally, it shows us another perspective in which the pleasure and the hedonistic expression of the body have their privileged place in front of the rule and the monastic and ecclesiastical moral regulations. The writings Praise of the Madness of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Gargantúa and Pantagruel by François Rabelais (sixteenth century), mark important antecedents of satire (and its grotesque derivation) in philosophy and literature, where it is expressed in the first work a recovery of the epicurean philosophy and in the second the extreme hedonism in its grotesque character. The aim of our work is to indicate the carnivalesque-hedonistic vision and moral criticism expressed in such works.

We invite systematic consideration of the metaphors of cycles and circulation as a long-term theme in the history of the life and environmental sciences and medicine. Ubiquitous in ancient religious and philosophical traditions, especially in representing the seasons and the motions of celestial bodies, circles once symbolized perfection. Over the centuries cyclic images in western medicine, natural philosophy, natural history and eventually biology gained independence from cosmology and theology and came to depend less on strictly circular forms. As potent 'canonical icons', cycles also interacted with representations of linear and irreversible change, including arrows, arcs, scales, series and trees, as in theories of the Earth and of evolution. In modern times life cycles and reproductive cycles have often been held to characterize life, in some cases especially female life, while human efforts selectively to foster and disrupt these cycles have harnessed their productivity in medicine and agriculture. But strong cyclic metaphors have continued to link physiology and climatology, medicine and economics, and biology and manufacturing, notably through the relations between land, food and population. From the grand nineteenth-century transformations of matter to systems ecology, the circulation of molecules through organic and inorganic compartments has posed the problem of maintaining identity in the face of flux and highlights the seductive ability of cyclic schemes to imply closure where no original state was in fact restored. More concerted attention to cycles and circulation will enrich analyses of the power of metaphors to naturalize understandings of life and their shaping by practical interests and political imaginations.

Cover Image -- Title Page -- Epigraph -- Table of Contents -- PREFACE. Provenance -- A Note about the Timing of This Book -- PART ONE. THE LOST PILLARS IN ANTIQUITY -- Chapter 1. Saving Knowledge from Catastrophe: The World's First Archaeological Story -- THE NEPHILIM -- WHERE COULD JOSEPHUS'S SURVIVING PILLAR BE FOUND? -- Chapter 2. "Sethites" in Egypt? -- Chapter 3. Enoch and Hermes: Guardians of Truth -- TRACING THE MYTH -- THE EMERALD TABLET -- Chapter 4. A Sense of Loss Pervades -- THE FALLEN -- GNOSTICS: RETURN OF THE SETHITES -- Chapter 5. How Ancient Is the Ancient Theology? -- Chapter 6. A Concise History of Religion -- Chapter 7. From Apocalyptic to Gnosis-and Back to Religion -- PART TWO. HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY: Seeking Concordance, or Reuniting the Fragments -- Chapter 8. The Unitive Vision -- KABBALAH -- RAMON LLULL (1232-CA. 1316) -- THE ALEMBIC OF FLORENCE: HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY REBORN -- Chapter 9. Restoring Harmony: From the Sun to Infinity -- FRANCESCO GIORGI: COSMIC HARMONY -- COPERNICUS -- GIORDANO BRUNO (1548-1600) -- Chapter 10. The Lost Pillars of Freemasonry -- LATE MEDIEVAL EVIDENCE FOR ANTEDILUVIAN PILLARS -- ANTEDILUVIAN MASONRY -- Chapter 11. Esoteric Masonry and the Mystery of the "Acception" -- JOHN DEE AND PRIMAL MATHEMATICS -- Chapter 12. The Return of Enoch -- "OUT OF EGYPT I HAVE CALLED MY SON" -- Chapter 13. Enter Isaac Newton -- Chapter 14. "A History of the Corruption of the Soul of Man" -- THE TEMPLE OF WISDOM -- THE ANCIENTS KNEW ALREADY -- NEWTON AND THE "DAIMON" -- Chapter 15. Antiquarianism: Stukeley and Blake -- STUKELEY, FREEMASONRY, AND THE PRISCA SAPIENTIA -- Chapter 16. Blake and the Original Religion -- ALL RELIGIONS ARE ONE -- Chapter 17. From the Enlightenment to Theosophy: Persistence of Antediluvian Unity of Science and Religion -- THE TRADITION -- SAINT-YVES D'ALVEYDRE -- THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

This is the first encyclopedic guide to the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today. Richly illustrated and beautifully produced, the book features more than 150 authoritative and accessible articles by an international team of leading experts in history, politics, literature, anthropology, and philosophy. Organized thematically and chronologically, this indispensable reference provides critical facts and balanced context for greater historical understanding and a more informed dialogue between Jews and Muslims. Part I covers the medieval period; Part II, the early modern period through the nineteenth century, in the Ottoman Empire, Africa, Asia, and Europe; Part III, the twentieth century, including the exile of Jews from the Muslim world, Jews and Muslims in Israel, and Jewish-Muslim politics; and Part IV, intersections between Jewish and Muslim origins, philosophy, scholarship, art, ritual, and beliefs. The main articles address major topics such as the Jews of Arabia at the origin of Islam; special profiles cover important individuals and places; and excerpts from primary sources provide contemporary views on historical events. Contributors include Mark R. Cohen, Alain Dieckhoff, Michael Laskier, Vera Moreen, Gordon D. Newby, Marina Rustow, Daniel Schroeter, Kirsten Schulze, Mark Tessler, John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and many more. Covers the history of relations between Jews and Muslims around the world from the birth of Islam to today Written by an international team of leading scholars Features in-depth articles on social, political, and cultural history Includes profiles of important people (Eliyahu Capsali, Joseph Nasi, Mohammed V, Martin Buber, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Edward Said, Messali Hadj, Mahmoud Darwish) and places (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Baghdad) Presents passages

The word "humanism" is associated with the revival of classical antiquity in 13th-15thC Italy. "It involves," as Nicholas Mann writes, "the rediscovery and study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, the restoration and interpretation of them and the assimilation of the ideas and values that they contain" (2). The assimilation was based on archaeological and philological attention to the details of all manner of written records - from inscriptions to epic poems – and pervaded all areas of post-medieval culture, including theology, philosophy, political thought, jurisprudence, medicine, mathematics, and the creative arts. Such a practice allowed humanist scholars to explore the meaning of local or foreign texts, use them for religious, socio-political or economic reasons, and form an international community of texts and discourses. Since the revival of classical learning was related with the popular rise of liberal education, especially literature, philosophy, and the arts, which had an important role in political propaganda, military discourse, and public morality, humanism also had a political role. But, the humanist political thinkers were not political in its ideological sense. As James Hankins tells us, the Italian humanists, because of the central role, the Church played in public and professional life, were seldom critical of establishment politics and spoke mainly about both the positive and negative sides in rhetorical manner, choosing to take the role of a pragmatist (Hankins 120). It was with the rise of Ottoman empire and fall and degradation of humanist learning that new humanist thinking came to take the central stage – mainly by NiccolòMachiavelli and Thomas More with shifting ideals on virtue (which for Machiavelli stood for ability, power, and prowess) and a specific focus on justice, equality and democracy (for More).

The increasing importance of symbolic and emotional forms of labor in capitalism and the democratic profusion of mood disorders such as depression are major dynamics of the social life of late modernity in the US. These elements of human life are treated as separate in our received, cultural categories, but experientially they seem to converge. Using methods of Foucauldian genealogy and critical theory, I excavate the history of this relationship and theorize its contemporary dynamics. The genealogy starts with medieval acedia, a condition in which inability to work and depressed affects appear as a single problem. Acedia is a partial predecessor of modern conditions such as sloth, ennui, and melancholia, the divisions of which trace affective and social divisions emerging over the course of industrial, capitalist modernity. Late modern capitalism generates types of work and work processes which I characterize as subjective labor, forms of work which require symbolic and affective aspects of workers' subjectivities and intersubjective relationships. Management of workers' moods and initiative becomes central to late capitalism. Late modernity articulates mental normalcy as a positive optimization of mood rather than eradicating abnormalities and a range of techniques of self care emerge, including anti-depressants, short-term psychotherapy, and alternative techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, and stress reduction. Both on the job and in "private" life, mood appears as a problem to be managed. Public discourses of depression are anachronistic at best if they treat work as a secondary question. At a philosophical level, this genealogy implies a need to historicize the concept of alienation. Marxian alienation is premised on the production of physical goods in an industrial labor process. Industrial production and managerial techniques are still central to capitalism as a whole, but in advanced capitalist countries, subjective labor becomes politically and arguably economically much more central. Alienation in an economy dominated by subjective labor can be less about a separation between the worker and the product and activity of labor and more about dissociation within the worker's subjectivity. This renders late modern alienation as a problem which is irreducibly psychological and tied up with other dimensions of affective life.

The peculiarities of interpretation of the terms "heresy (ἀϊρεσις)"» and "dogma (δογμα) " in the context of the dynamics of European philosophical and theological thought in late antiquity and early Middle Ages reveals оn the article. Sets the ratio of their content with category «worldview». Determined by the verbal root is meaningful metamorphosis of their interpretation in ancient Greek philosophy and in the teachings of the Church fathers. First, the word "αιρεσις" had a rather broad range of meanings in ancient Greek: from the conquest to the choice or aspirations. It is widely used by Herodotus, Plato, and Plutarch. Palm and many other Greek thinkers. "Semantic revolution" regarding the "αϊρεσις" and "secta" is only the beginning of a complete dominance of Orthodox Christianity in the spiritual life of the Empire after the Council of Chalcedon. These words were given an extremely negative value, and Orthodox "heresy" that won in disputes, acquires the status of the only true "dogma". The Greek word "δογμα", which is a calque migrated to Latin (dogma), was adopted by Christian theologians with the vocabulary of ancient philosophy and Roman law. It comes from the verb "δοκέω" to think, to believe, to think, but unlike close to it by the origin of the word "δοξα" (idea, suggestion, opinion), meant is not a thought (mind), and the end result is a strong belief, position, or resolution or order that began or universally accepted religious truth, which became the subject of undoubted faith. Finally, modern notions of "dogma" takes in the era of the first Ecumenical councils. Neither in ancient nor in the scholastic philosophy, the concept of "worldview" did not exist, although the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, inhabitants of medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire had a certain, though not always systematic world views, religious and political beliefs and beliefs about healthy lifestyles. However, "dogma" and "heresy" were until then neutral in meaning and is quite common terms of the professional thesaurus of ancient philosophy, which suffered some unexpected flair. The first of these has come to mean the basics of Orthodox dogma; the second has become synonymous with negative and hostile worldview. These terms are not identical in content with the modern concept of "worldview", which was formed only in German classical philosophy, but they reflect the historical forms of contemporary philosophical and theological reflection on the human perception of reality and self-determination. ; В статье раскрываются особенности толкования терминов «ересь (ἀϊρεσις)» и «догма (δογμα)» в контексте динамики европейской философско-теологической мысли в эпоху поздней античности и начала средневековья. Устанавливается соотношение их содержания с категорией «мировоззрение». Определяются коренные вербально-содержательные метаморфозы их интерпретации в древнегреческой философии и в учениях Отцов церкви. ; У статті розкриваються особливості тлумачення термінів «єресь (ἀϊρεσις)» та «догма (δογμα)» у контексті динаміки європейської філософсько-теологічної думки у епоху пізньої античності та початку середньовіччя. Встановлюється співвідношення їх змістів з категорією «світогляд». Визначаються докорінні вербально-змістовні метаморфози їх інтерпретації в давньогрецькій філософії та вченнях отців церкви.

The autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija is a historical part of Old Serbia and the central area of the medieval Serbian state of the Nemanjić family, which makes it a historical-geographical and cultural-geographical area of enormous importance for the Republic of Serbia. At the same time, the Serbian Orthodox Church throughout its entire spiritual, historical and cultural existence in Kosovo and Metohija shares the fate of the Serbian people. The destruction of Serbian religious monuments in Kosovo and Metohija has been happening for centuries, so the continuity of the destruction of Serbian churches and monasteries can be traced from the 17th century to the present day. During the NATO intervention on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, which lasted from March 24 to June 9, 1999, Albanian extremists devastated and demolished the largest number of Serbian sacral monuments. At the same time, the period at the end of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st century was marked by the cruel persecution of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija and the devastation of the entire Serbian cultural heritage. By applying the methodology of cultural-geographic research and field research, the goal of the paper is to confirm and document all known cases of devastation and destruction of Serbian sacral heritage in Kosovo and Metohija from 1999 to 2022, which were committed by the Albanian extremists.

History and Wonder is a refreshing new take on the idea of history that tracks the entanglement of history and philosophy over time through the key idea of wonder. From Ancient Greek histories and wonder works, to Islamic curiosities and Chinese strange histories, through to European historical cabinets of curiosity and on to histories that grapple with the horrors of the Holocaust, Marnie Hughes-Warrington unpacks the ways in which historians throughout the ages have tried to make sense of the world, and to change it. This book considers histories and historians across time and space, including the Ancient Greek historian Polybius, the medieval texts by historians such as Bede in England and Ibn Khaldun in Islamic Historiography, and the more recent works by Martin Heidegger, Luce Irigaray and Ranajit Guha among others. It explores the different ways in which historians have called upon wonder to cross boundaries between the past and the present, the universal and the particular, the old and the new, and the ordinary and the extraordinary. Promising to both delight and unsettle, it shows how wonder works as the beginning of historiography. Accessible, engaging and wide-ranging, History as Wonder provides an original addition to the field of historiography that is ideal for those both new to and familiar with the study of history.

Distributive justice in its modern sense calls on the state to guarantee that everyone is supplied with a certain level of material means. Samuel Fleischacker argues that guaranteeing aid to the poor is a modern idea, developed only in the last two centuries. Earlier notions of justice, including Aristotle's, were concerned with the distribution of political office, not of property. It was only in the eighteenth century, in the work of philosophers such as Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant, that justice began to be applied to the problem of poverty. To attribute a longer pedigree to distributive justice is to fail to distinguish between justice and charity. Fleischacker explains how confusing these principles has created misconceptions about the historical development of the welfare state. Socialists, for instance, often claim that modern economics obliterated ancient ideals of equality and social justice. Free-market promoters agree but applaud the apparent triumph of skepticism and social-scientific rigor. Both interpretations overlook the gradual changes in thinking that yielded our current assumption that justice calls for everyone, if possible, to be lifted out of poverty. By examining major writings in ancient, medieval, and modern political philosophy, Fleischacker shows how we arrived at the contemporary meaning of distributive justice