PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Laura Anna Macor TI - Die Herausforderung der Sprache. Die umstrittene ,Bestimmung des Menschen‘ (1748–1800) AID - 10.1353/mon.2014.0111 DP - 2014 Dec 21 TA - Monatshefte PG - 547--562 VI - 106 IP - 4 4099 - http://mon.uwpress.org/content/106/4/547.short 4100 - http://mon.uwpress.org/content/106/4/547.full AB - This article deals for the first time with the history of the concept ‘Bestimmung des Menschen’ from a linguistic point of view. Since its coinage in the 1730s and its official introduction in 1748, it assumed a central role which it maintained until the very end of the 18th century. In fact, it represented a central issue not only from a general theological and philosophical perspective, but also from a genuinely linguistic one. For the noun ‘Bestimmung’ was assumed to mean different things, depending on whether it was applied as a general religious or Christian—and precisely protestant—term, or in the ethical or logical realm. Not least thanks to this linguistic potential, its charm survived both Criticism and Idealism. (LAM; in German)