Abstract
Laura Anna Macor’s Die Bestimmung des Menschen (1748-1800): Eine Begriffsgeschichte is atestament of an enormous philological, historical and philosophical work, one that was no doubt necessary to deal with the amplitude and complexity of the concept it discusses. As Macor herself notes at the beginning of the book, while being maybe one of the fundamental ideas of German’s late Enlightenment, the concept of the “Bestimmung des Menschen” (which could be translated as “the destination of man”, but, due to the untranslatable plurality of meanings of the word, we shall use here without translation) has still had very little research done on it, if compared to other central ideas of that branch of Enlightenment (p. 26).
Highlights
Laura Anna Macor’s Die Bestimmung des Menschen (1748-1800): Eine Begriffsgeschichte is atestament of an enormous philological, historical and philosophical work, one that was no doubt necessary to deal with the amplitude and complexity of the concept it discusses
The book offers a very fundamental groundwork for the study of the concept of “Die Bestimmung des Menschen” in specific, as a basis idea of German’s Enlightenment, and for the study of the concept of “Bestimmung” in general and the role it played in German philosophy and German Idealism
In the introduction of the book we are presented with the framework within which the history of the concept will be traced, namely that of Hinske’s typology of the “bearing [trägenden] fundamental ideas of German’s Enlightenment” (p. 19)
Summary
Laura Anna Macor’s Die Bestimmung des Menschen (1748-1800): Eine Begriffsgeschichte is atestament of an enormous philological, historical and philosophical work, one that was no doubt necessary to deal with the amplitude and complexity of the concept it discusses.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
