Prof. Dr. Gyburg Uhlmann
Professor of Classics with special focus on Greek studies and Department Chair
There is no innovation without historical knowledge. This is the only way we can gain the conceptual openness and concrete thought impulses from history that enable us to recognise things in a more differentiated way without limitations and to develop new concepts and technologies. Classical Antiquity, like other historical epochs and cultures, is an important knowledge resource. This is why the Classics Lab forms a first nucleus for the new interdisciplinarity at the UTN.
Team Classics Lab
Prof. Dr. Gyburg Uhlmann
Founding Chair- Phone number: +49 911 92741604
- Email: department-lias-chair@utn.de
The research of the Classic Labs currently focuses on the following two topics:
Liberal Arts and mathematics and their impact on education and science
We examine the epistemological and scientific foundations of the Liberal Arts in antiquity and late antiquity – a concept that has been the most successful in the history of education in Europe and the Arab world. We also analyze its transformations across 2000 years and discuss the effects on modern times and our present days: This also involves the epistemological principles of science and knowledge and their social impact, mathematics as a bridge between the natural sciences and the humanities, and the relationship between basic and applied knowledge but also more generally about what education is and what function and influence it has in a society.
Rhetoric and philosophy: informed cognition and opinion forming and political communication in times of crisis
The Classical world has not only produced different philosophies, but also different concepts of rhetoric. Rhetoric is seen as the art of bringing a particular opinion to victory and a manipulative technique, but also as the art of identifying what is truly persuasive about an issue and communicating it to others. Rhetoric, therefore, first and foremost requires recognizing and giving reason for one’s own opinions. Aristotle called it the sister of dialectics. We examine these different accesses to recognition, opinion and communication and ask which argumentation techniques and which specific arguments can be used in debates about speech, rational argument and persuasion in today’s political and other social contexts, that doesn’t aim to manipulate but to enable recognition. We provide analysis and specific instructions for a dialogue and discussion culture that aims to consensus and rational justification, especially in times of social crisis.
Current research and book projects
SFB 980 Episteme in Motion
Das exklusive Scholiencorpus zu Aristoteles im Codex Parisinus graecus 1853 (E): erste kritische Gesamtausgabe
Homologia – konsensorientierte Praktiken im antiken Griechenland (Buchprojekt, Gyburg Uhlmann)
Platons Laches oder Wiederholung als kulturelle Praxis (Buchprojekt, Gyburg Uhlmann)
PhD-thesis: The Letters of Isocrates. Networking in the Fourth Century BCE
Habilitation project: Memorabilia. Anecdotal Storytelling and Moral Instruction in Roman Imperial Literature
Selected Publications
Publikationen
- Scheitern in den Sokratischen Dialogen Platons , in: Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie 2/2023, 71-94.
- Das Lächeln des Parmenides – Proklos’ Interpretationen zur Platonischen Dialogform,
Berlin: De Gruyter (Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte (UaLG) 78) 2006 (594 Seiten) - Die Kindheit des Mythos – die Erfindung der Literaturgeschichte in der Antike,
München: C.H. Beck 2007 (366 Seiten) [Analysen zur hellenistischen Dichtung und ihrer Theorie und Praxis der Literaturgeschichtsschreibung] - Rhetorik und Wahrheit: Ein prekäres Verhältnis von Sokrates bis Trump,
Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler 2019 (329 Seiten) - Rhetorik und Fakten – Mit klassischer und politischer Bildung gegen populistische Strategien,
in: Forschung und Lehre 10/2019, 902-904 (online abrufbar unter der Überschrift „Rhetorik kann täuschen – oder aufklären“) - Were Platonic Dialogues Read in Late Antique School Lessons on Aristotelian Logic? On Ancient Commentators on Aristotle andTheir Teaching Practices,
in:Working Paper des SFB 980 Episteme in Bewegung,Working Paper No. 20/2019, 1-22 - Kitschige Bildungsfragmente und die Erzählung vom unabhängigen Geist der Deutschen – wie rechte Rhetorik auch im bildungsbürgerlichen Gewand emotionalisieren und manipulieren kann,
in: Politikum 1/2020 - Die rhetorischen Strategien von @realDonaldTrump und die Verweigerung diskursiver Argumentation.
In: Koch, L., Nanz, T., Rogers, C. (eds) The Great Disruptor. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart 2020. - „Programmatische Anfangssätze in Aristotelischen Pragmatien und ihre Auslegung durch die spätantiken Kommentatoren.“ Aristoteles-Kommentare und ihre Überlieferung: Wichtige Etappen von der Antike bis in die frühe Neuzeit, edited by Christian Brockmann, Daniel Deckers and Stefano Valente, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024, pp. 163-190. [im Erscheinen]
- „Erziehung und Vernunft. Herakles am Scheideweg bei Händel und in der Antike“.
Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, Bd. 25, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1. Auflage, 2024 [im Erscheinen] - Homologia. Konsensbildung in der Antike – mit Überlegungen für die Gegenwart [Buchprojekt in Vorbereitung]