Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palackı University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):158-175 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.009 
The main focus of the article is to study two of Erasmus' approaches to tolerance that are connected with the vision of unity and peace and the humanistic emphasis on dialogue. The justification of tolerance, which is most typical for Christian humanism as a whole, is to be found in many of Erasmus' works. Attention is initially paid to Erasmus' understanding of tolerance on the background of his central concept of philosophia Christi and around his antidogmatic and tolerant concept of Christianity. Tolerance is fundamentally connected to ideas about religious peace, piety and concord (pax, pietas, concordia). Tolerance also represents...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):176-188 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.010
This paper contributes to the study of a mostly neglected work of the fifteenth-century Italian literature: Sperone Speroni's collection of short treatises ("trattatelli") published in the fifth volume of his Opera in 1740. In particular, I focus on Della Pace (On Peace), probably a draft of a never-written longer treatise. I provide a transcription and English translation of the text as well as an analysis of its content and linguistic aspects. The focus of Speroni's text is the discussion of the meaning of 'concord', which goes beyond the classical definition and brings to an unconventional analysis of also its opposite terms:...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):190-215 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.011
Until ten years ago, the existence of vernacular Aristotelianism as a philosophical movement in the Italian Renaissance was virtually ignored by scholarship. After a series of international research projects, we know much more about the Aristotelian vernacular tradition and of its impact on Renaissance and early modern thought, especially regarding its role in disseminating knowledge, in its settling into informal contexts like academies and artisanal workshops, and also in breaking the boundaries between high and low cultures. Vernacular Aristotelianism changed how Aristotle's works were read, understood and used, leading to a better grasp of specific...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):216-230 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.012
The aim of the article is to analyse Johannes Jessenius' book (1565-1621) De divina humanaque philosophia (Padua 1591). The book is titled progymnasma peripateticum and was a product of Jessenius' philosophical studies in Padua. Although it was earlier characterized as a disputation written in a traditional Aristotelian- Scholastic way, the analysis shows that Jessenius followed up on Platonising the Aristotelianism of his teacher Francesco Piccolomini and incorporated certain Platonic elements into an Aristotelian pattern. In addition, the book contains passages that appear to be inspired by the works of Nicolas of Cusa at least with...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):232-248 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.013
This paper opens by reviewing Aristotle's conception of the natural slave and then familiar treatments of the internal conflict between the ruling and subject parts of the soul in Aristotle and Plato; I highlight especially the figurative uses of slavery and servitude when discussing such problems pertaining to incontinence and vice-viz., being a 'slave' to the passions. Turning to Campanella, features of the City of the Sun pertaining to slavery are examined: in sketching his ideal city, Campanella both rejects Aristotle's natural slave and is critical of the European institutions of slavery. The fact that slavery has no place in the City of...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):250-268 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.014
One of the central topics of Jakob Böhme (1575-1624) is the problem of evil. In contrast to the Neoplatonic tradition, which has inspired much of the Christian theology, he does not believe that evil can be explained simply as a deficiency of good. His innovative notion of "Ungrund" (the Divine "Abyss") has grown out of his strong belief that both has to be maintained: God is Good and evil is something real. Now, his fundamental question is: How is it possible that good and omnipotent God created the world in such a way that there can be evil in it? In this paper, I follow up the ancient, and more specifically, the Neoplatonic, concepts of the first...
Aither 24/2020 (International issue no. 8):270-281 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.015
This article is a coda to Paul Oskar Kristeller's criticism of the scholarly behavior of Raymond Klibansky (d. 2005) found in my 2015 article "Kristelleriana: Two Biographical Notes." In a letter of 24 February 1995 to the independent scholar W. Cameron McEwan, Kristeller (d. 1999) accused Klibansky of refusing to acknowledge Kristeller's discoveries concerning the Renaissance philosopher Nicholas of Cusa and explained how he had been warned against Klibansky by the distinguished contemporary scholars Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panoksky, David Ross, and Richard Walser.
