Panajotis Kondylis und die Metamorphosen der Gesellschaft

»Panajotis Kondylis and the Transformations of Society. Nothing can be done without Power«

The contributions in this volume are intended to facilitate access to the extensive work of the philosophical and social historian Panajotis Kondylis (1943–1998). The aim is, on the one hand, to expound two of his works on the history of ideas and their reception and, on the other hand, to demonstrate the scope of his anthropology, which understands man as a social being. Kondylis’ theory provides a model for explaining events and processes in the history of ideas, and it also conveys insights into epistemology. As a descriptive model, it provides a basis for the making of social theory and paves the way to a non-ideological assessment of modern social theories. One of the advantages of the model is that it combines the positions of prominent theoreticians who inspired Kondylis with the positions of others, mentioned in this volume to form a coherent whole.


Panajotis Kondylis (1943–1998) studied Philology and Law in Athens, Philosophy, History and Politics in Heidelberg. He received his Ph.D. at Heidelberg University with a thesis on the Genesis of Dialectics. He has published several basic works on the History of Ideas, including topics such as the European enlightenment, critique of metaphysics, history of conservatism and the emergence of civil society. He contributed to the encyclopedia »Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe« and commented now and again on current events in German newspapers. His final major work »Das Politische und der Mensch« remained unfinished, but managed to present a critical reading of social phenomena, encompassing socio-ontological and anthropological aspects. Kondylis was awarded the Goethe Medal and as a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Prize he also was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.