Das Leben

This is the first of four planned volumes which study the definition of life. It presents important basic inherent structures of the concept of life from Aristotle to Schelling in chronological order. Using various examples, the authors show how life was talked about in European cultural history, when and why the concept of life became more important and why the mention of life is connected to its own history of conflicts. Particularly interesting are those discussions which became relevant for Christian traditions either directly or latently, since these could provide a stimulating counterbalance for the discourses on life within bioethical debates. In order to be able to decide what should or should not be done for the welfare of living things with the use of living material, it could be helpful to determine what exactly should be increased, protected, renaturalized, cultivated or left in peace.