CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
Citations xvii
Preface xix
Introduction 1
Chapter One The Concept 'System of Philosophy1: The
Case of Jacob Brucker's Historiography of Philosophy 11
I. Introduction 11
II.The Notion 'System of Philosophy' as a
Historiographical Tool in Brucker's HisLoria critica
philosophiae 13
III. Brucker's Historiographical Notion 'System of Philosophy' and the Notions 'Syncretism' and 'Eclecticism ' 22
IV The Usefulness of the Concept 'System of
Philosophy ' 31
Chapter Two Brucker's Practice I: His Exposition of
Bruno 35
I. Brucker's Exposition of Bruno's Philosophy and
Earlier Histories of Philosophy 36
II. Direct Sources: Brucker's List of Bruno's Works and
his Use of them 37
III.Brucker's Exclusion of Bruno's Lullian Works 41
IV Indirect Sources 43
V Bruno's so-called Circumstances 44
VI.Brucker on Bruno's 'System of Philosophy' 50
VII.Did Bruno Endorse a System of Philosophy? 54
Conclusion 59
Chapter Three Brucker's Practice II: His Expositions of
Thales, Plato and Aristotle 63
I. Is Brucker's Exposition of Bruno Representative? 63
II.Brucker on Thales 64
(i)Sources to Thales' Philosophy 64
ii)Does Brucker Attribute a System of Philosophy to
Thales? 65
iii)General Principles in Thales' System o
Philosophy 67
iv)Brucker's Reconstruction of Thales' System of
Philosophy 68
v)Is Brucker's Exposition of Thales' Philosophy
Adequate? 70
III.Brucker on Plato 73
i) Brucker's Approach to Plato's Philosophy 73
ii) Sources to Plato's Philosophy 77
iii) Does Brucker Attribute a System of Philosophy to
Plato? 79
iv) General Principles in Plato's System of
Philosophy 81
v) Brucker's Reconstruction of Plato's System of
Philosophy 82
vi) Is Brucker's Reconstruction of Plato's Philosophy
Adequate? 87
IV Brucker on Aristotle 94
(i)Sources to Aristotle's Philosophy 94
ii) Does Brucker Attribute a System of Philosophy to
Aristotle? 97
iii) General Principles in Aristotle's System of
Philosophy 97
iv) Brucker's Reconstruction of Aristotle's System of
Philosophy 99
v) Is Brucker's Exposition of Aristotle's Philosophy
Adequate? 102
Conclusion 109
Chapter Four Giordano Bruno's Hermeneutics: Observations
on the Bible in De monade (1591) 115
I. The Main Source for Bruno's Interpretation of the
Bible 115
II.The Historiographical Tradition 117
III. Bruno's Theory of Nine Levels of Meaning in
Divinely Inspired Texts 124
i) The Range of Texts on which the Theory can be
Applied 126
ii) The Infinity and Profundity of Divine
Language 131
iii) The Application of the Theory 132
iv) The Sources for the Nine Individual Levels of
Meanig 137
IV Uses of the Hermeneutic Theory outside De
monade 140
Conclusion 143
Chapter Five Apologetic Strains in Brucker's Historiography
of Philosophy 147
I.Conflicting Statements regarding the Objectivity of
Brucker's Historiography 147
II. Brucker on the Relationship between Philosophy and
Revelation 150
III.Historiographical Implications of Brucker's
Conception of Philosophy 156
IV Heumann on the Relationship between Philosophy
and Revelation 159
V Melanchton on the Relationship between Philosophy
and Revelation 165
VI. Heumann's Scheme of Periodization 169
VII.Keckermann's Pedagogical and Methodological
Reform 177
VIII.Brucker's Immediate Background: Eclecticism 185
Chapter Six The Influence of the Historiographical
Concept 'System of Philosophy' 193
I. Internal and External Influences 193
II.History of Philosophy 195
(i)Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann (1761 1819) 197
ii) Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768 1834) 205
iii)Friedrich Ast (1778-1841) 209
iv)Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) 212
(v) Victor Cousin (1792-1867) 227
(vi) Eduard Zeller (1814-1908) 229
vii) Kuno Fischer (1824- 1907) 238
viii) Friedrich Ueberweg (1826-1871) 240
(ix) Hans Brochner (1820-1875) 252
(x) Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) 257
III. History of Problems 260
IV History of Ideas 265
Conclusion 276
Chapter Seven The Legitimacy of the Historiographical
Concept 'System of Philosophy' 283
I. Prevailing Models in Modern Historiography of
Philosophy 283
II.Problems in the Historiographical Concept 'System
of Philosophy' 284
(i)Autonomy of Individual Systems of Philosophy 286
ii) Autonomy of Philosophical Movements Inspired
by a Classical Philosopher 288
iii) Deduction from Principles in Individual Systems
of Philosophy 292
iv) Comprehensiveness in a System of Philosophy:
All Branches of Philosophy 292
v) Internal Coherence in an Individual System of
Philosophy 294
vi) Pedagogical Problems in Teaching Histories of
Systems of Philosophy 295
vii) A Priori Exclusion of Thinkers and Periods 297
viii) The Last Advocate of the Old Historiography of
Philosophy: Gadamer 299
III. Skinner's Historiography of Moral and Political
Philosophy 304
(i) Skinner's Criticism of Lovejoy's Method for the
History of Ideas: The Three Mythologies 304
(ii) Skinner's Methodological Alternative 314
iii) The Historiography of Moral and Political
Philosophy and Its Context 317
iv) For which Historical Disciplines is Skinner's
Alternative Methodology Valid? 319
v) Are there Limits to Skinner's Alternative
Methodology? 324
Appendices
A.Portraits of Jacob Brucker 331
B.Jacob Brucker's Citations in his Exposition of
Giordano Bruno 335
C.Christoph August Heumann's Scheme of
Periodization 341
D.Jacob Brucker's Scheme of Periodization 345
Bibliography 351
Index of Names 369
Index of References to Jacob Brucker's Writings 378