hu wissen 3 (pdf) - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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english
Teil der Tabula Peutingeriana, die das Straßennetz
im spätrömischen Reich zeigt.
Part of the Tabula Peutingeriana, which shows the
road network of the late Roman Empire.
Where am I – and if so, how many
of me are there? If the soul, in the Aristotelian sense, is not a material
object, then where does it reside? In a non-dimensional
place? But then how can we speak of the different »parts« of the
soul? For clearly it has different parts: We taste, smell, think and
procreate, and each of these processes is governed by a different
faculty of the soul.
Beginning in the 6th century B.C. the term psychê, which was
originally used to designate a person’s life energy (or »life breath«),
was associated with the concept of a special area in our bodies
that is responsible for emotional states, thoughts and volition.
Both Plato and Aristotle regarded the soul as a complex unity of
functions. But how can this compound of various abilities and
capabilities still be a single entity? Are the different parts of our
soul located in different parts of the body? And if so, how do they
interact?
»We believe that geography, if it belongs to anything at all,
belongs to philosophy…« said the great ancient Greek geographer
Strabo around the time Christ was born. From our modern scientific
point of view, it seems strange that the quest for knowledge in
the humanities should be associated with the exploration of physical
space. In Antiquity, however, the concept of the inner unity
and interdependence of space and knowledge was ubiquitous.
Anyone seeking a better understanding of the cradle of Western
culture needs to examine the »Formation and Transformation of
Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations« of the Mediterranean
and the Near East in the period between the 6th century B.C.
to the 6th century A.D.
This is the focus of the Topoi Cluster of Excellence, which was
founded in 2007 and is jointly coordinated by Humboldt-Universität
and Freie Universität Berlin. More than 200 academics and
researchers work here in about 40 research groups and in close
collaboration with other schools of classical and ancient studies
in Berlin.
Perhaps the most intimate connection of space and knowledge
is found in the long tradition of attempts to localise the organs of
thought, which is the focus of the Topoi research group Mapping
Body and Soul. Two of the group’s principal members, Dominik
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