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In recent years, few institutions have contributed more intensively than Southampton to the wider appreciation of two of the 19th Century's most influential thinkers, Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. By way of a determined campaign of public engagement, we have shared our research on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche with over three million members of several different publics. This has resulted in genuine cultural enrichment: our interlocutors have encountered new approaches to topics that they find intrinsically compelling, and have been prompted to think and feel differently about issues that are — or that have come to be — of real significance for them.
The principal, interrelated forms of impact claimed for these two new editions/translations are educational and economic.
The educational impact derives from:
The economic impact (totalling £200,328 to date) has been generated by high annual sales (so far 24,204 copies of Nietzsche and 9,866 copies of Weber sold), with £67,279 generated between 2008 and 2012. These sales figures reflect the widespread adoption of the texts on educational courses across a range of disciplines and in many different countries.
The new versions of Weber's foundational political essays also "enhance public understanding" of key issues in "civil society". The new version of "The Birth of Tragedy" has presented a key part of the "cultural capital" of Europe to a wider international readership.
Between 2000 and 2013 Professor Ken Gemes collaborated with one of the Department's Visiting Professors, Simon May, on Nietzsche and the `death of God'. They used Nietzsche's discussion of nihilism as a foundation for exploring the idea that without religious belief, underpinning values lack secure grounding, resulting in a crisis of values. Their insights have been widely disseminated through publications, public lectures and podcasts, and have influenced ideas about the basis for values in a largely secular age.
The Newton Project transforms public understanding of one of the most significant intellectual figures in history. A pioneering initiative that has set international standards for the digital humanities, it provides an open access online scholarly edition of Sir Isaac Newton's complete writings, making available previously unseen material relating to his ideas about science, mathematics and theology. Under the directorship of Rob Iliffe, the Project has reached a wide variety of benefactors, including secondary schools, broadcasters and the performing arts. Through these creative collaborations, it serves as an outstanding resource for the popularisation of scientific thought.
2011 was the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, one of the most significant documents in the history of the English language. In 2010, Professor Gordon Campbell published a monograph on the history of the KJV and an edition of the 1611 text. These two books played a central role in the process whereby the KJV moved from being the private possession of believers and students of literature and achieved renewed significance as the cultural property of the wider Anglophone world. In England, the KJV became the property of school children when the British government bought 21,144 copies of Campbell's edition of the Bible, and presented a copy to every primary and secondary school in the country. Campbell's books generated income that ran well into six figures, and an extensive series of lectures and discussions have deepened understanding of the KJV throughout the world.
Heinrich Böll (1917-1985) was one of post-war Germany's leading writers and public intellectuals. The Edition of Böll's complete works, prepared by a seven-strong international research team which included Finlay, has had significant impact across a number of areas, including commercial publishing (spin-off publications, marketing opportunities); digital humanities (software and platform development for large-scale critical editions, significantly changing working practices); culture and heritage (in particular in the city of Cologne); the media and the public sphere (public debate on the writer's legacy and the Heinrich-Böll foundation's cultural programme in 30 countries).