Abstract

The contribution tries to summarize and arrange our knowledge of the universities of the 17th. century Empire. According to the general theme of the symposium it concentrates on the 'philosophy of the baroque'. On the whole it must be stated that our knowledge is highly inadequate ; we lack a lot of reliable case-studies, e.g. on the important dissertations of the age etc. Denominationalism, territorialism and, with respect to the substance and methods of studies, Aristotelism were the dominating factors. Philosophy was still regarded as a servant maid, Cartesianism and calvinistic universities played hardly any part at all. Though the 30 Years' War did bring about profound change here and there, it was not that general turning point as we used to think it was. Within the Catholic Empire the Ratio studiorum of the Societas Jesu provided the general frame as well as the subject matter for the studies of humanities. Ingolstadt and Dillingen were the main centres. There existed hardly any points of contact between protestant and catholic religion. In the protestant states the universities of Helmstedt, Jena and Gießen excelled as did Rostock and Königsberg for some time. During the second part of the century ruling protestant orthodoxy slowly gave way to a less rigid theory of science, which led the way to the beginnings of the Enlightenment. Further information on further universities and on the authors dealt with in the article can only be gained, though, by turning from this summary to the article itself