Philosophy

Dying, death and grief have to be regarded as fundamental aspects of cultural coexistence because humans cannot avoid dealing with them when they live with others. A diminishing circle of friends and family, the pain of loss, the transformation of a living being into a dead body, the symbols and rituals of saying farewell to the deceased, plus the contribution of medical, religious and other forms of expertise along with many other aspects reveal, on the one hand, the potential of the utter devastation a person’s death can trigger. On the other, these forms of expression and modes of behaviour also underline that dying and death are not purely natural occurrences. They transpire amid societal mechanisms which reflect a large and, at times, contradictory variety of reflective processes in addressing the finite nature of life. Death is a human’s greatest certainty in life. In this respect, the series of publications Thanatological Studies provides a forum for both theoretical and empirical works which address the social, normative, aesthetic, spiritual, bodily, psychological and other facets of death and dying, and by extension grief and remembrance, from the perspectives of different academic disciplines.

The series focusses on the relation between law, ethics and society in the Middle East and in North Africa. It contains works that combine two or more research approaches or works that are situated at the intersection between two or more disciplines, like Middle Eastern Studies and History, Islamic Studies and Gender Studies, Law and Medicine. Books that are based on a differentiated set of sources, ranging from textual to oral sources, are welcome. The series will include excellent PhD dissertations and habilitations, but also monographs and edited collections. On the chronological perspective, books from the pre-modern up to the modern and contemporary era are published. The books will be published in German, English and Italian language.

The series Philosophische Theorie (Philosophical Theory) contains works dealing with the core disciplines of theoretical philosophy: logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, metaphysics and ontology. It will appeal to both academics and all those interested in philosophy who would like to learn more about the respective fields.

Philosophy and literature have been related to each other since the dawn of history, and it seems extremely difficult to draw a clear dividing line between them. At the point where philosophy raises fundamental questions about the world and human existence, it encroaches onto a topic area also addressed by poetry and literature, although they use different means in doing so. This means that the relationship between philosophy and literature is not limited to a collection of related or mutual themes, questions and issues, but that it also particularly involves the reciprocal exchange of forms and formats of philosophical and poetic spoken and written expression. This series of publications intends to shed greater light on the fascinating interconnections between philosophy and literature, their affinity, mutual complementarity and differences, and in doing so to investigate both the literary dimensions of philosophy and the philosophical dimensions of literature using relevant case studies and selected problems.

The series ”Religion – Wirtschaft – Politik“ (Religion–Economy–Politics) provides a platform for academic publications by the Centre for Religion, Economy and Politics (www.zrwp.ch ), a joint venture by the Universities of Basel, Fribourg, Lausanne, Lucerne, Zurich, and the Collegium Helveticum. The ZRWP aims to analyse the interactions between religion, economy, and politics in an inter- and transdisciplinary way by encouraging innovative research on religion. By publishing monographs and edited volumes focused on content and methods, the series contributes to a better understanding and explanation of religion in society at a local, regional, national, and transnational level in a globalizing world.

The series of publications entitled “Ethik in den Sozialwissenschaften” (Ethics in Social Science) provides a forum for academic contributions to the debate on the current moral problems affecting social structures and systems. From an ethical point of view, this series focuses on addressing the question of what ef-fects social institutions and regimes have on human dignity and the welfare of communities. It discusses moral dilemmas so as to highlight general acceptable solutions to them. It takes up the challenge of using normative theories to ana-lyse sociological problems in order to develop ethical criteria for developing operable solutions to them. As a result, the series welcomes contributions from the entire range of subjects related to social science and ethics. Its goal is to constructively criticise structural contexts to which no satisfactory solutions have been found so far.

Anyone who talks about animals makes human beings their subject. Turning to animals as an object of research in various contexts certainly does not only facilitate a better understanding of animals, but also of humans and society. In animals, researchers discover themselves and their world. This ‘animal turn’ now encompasses many academic disciplines and often begins or ends with ethical questions. This series of books deals with different developmental paths in animal ethics, which should not be understood as an isolated field of ethics, but rather as a specific perspective in an interdisciplinary discourse on moral questions of human–animal relations. The series is open to all disciplines in the humanities and natural sciences. It is bilingual (German/English) and is supervised by its editors in conjunction with an academic advisory board. A peer review process is carried out on all submissions to ensure their quality.