Freiheit

What is freedom? The idea of freedom is a hallmark of modern Western thought and life. Already in the early modern period, a rich discussion about this fascinating concept of freedom began among Europe’s greatest thinkers, like Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Valla, Sebastian Brant, Martin Luther, Thomas Müntzer, Erasmus von Rotterdam, Michel de Montaigne, Niccolò Machiavelli, etc. From the question of free will to revolutionary political freedom, all the important questions of freedom that still preoccupy us today were already discussed in the Renaissance and Reformation periods. Under the term rhetoric of ideas, the book also examines above all the rhetorical mediation paths and strategies that were used in elaborating the idea of freedom.