tgl@mailer.uni-marburg.de

A picture of the function and the role of controversies in intellectual history and in practical life can draw mainly on two sources: on the analysis of actual controversies and on contemporary 'theories of controversy'. Where theories of controversy were not explicitly formulated by the authors themselves (e.g. in Juan Maldonado's "Oratio de disputatione"), we can try to reconstruct them, mostly from criticisms and other kinds of reflexive moves made in the course of a controversy.

In my outline of Early Modern theories of controversy, I want to give a sketch of how the development of this family of forms of communication is mirrored in contemporary views (roughly: from disputation as an instrument of academic education to controversy as a means of scientific research, of the formation of public opinion and of public decision making).

In accordance with the general framework of the Pisa workshop, I shall highlight certain 'aspects of the subject', i.e. those aspects of theories of controversy which are pertinent to the persons contributing to or reading controversies. Generally speaking, in the Early Modern game of controversy, there seems to have been a desire to purify the communication from certain 'aspects of the subject' or at least to strongly regulate the involvement of certain aspects of the subject that were thought to be less fruitful in respect of the overall aims of controversies.