Die Entdeckung der Humanität

This book interprets Juvenal's satires as an important contribution to critical social philosophy. To this end, it employs an interpretive framework that is both philosophical and philological. It demonstrates how Juvenal, through a negativistic and ideologically skeptical engagement with the society of his time, arrives at the development of a specific concept of humanity. This concept encompasses the elements of conscience, a sense of responsibility, solidarity, and civility, and can be understood as an answer to the central ethical question regarding the conditions necessary for a genuinely humane world. Juvenal thus emerges as a philosophical author whose thought can be related to the tradition of critical theory.