Finiteness is an essential experience of the human condition. As a universal reflexive, it includes individual as well as collective perspectives, encompasses time and space, material and immaterial things, and is also a resonator for ethical debates. Finiteness not only denotes the individual existential experience of mortality and its transcendence, but experiences of finiteness are always also part of the societal perception of crises. This also includes the realization of the limitations of natural resources. The contributions to this volume investigate the encounters with and treatment of finiteness in different periods and cultures.

Andreas Bihrer (Dr. phil.) lehrt Mittelalterliche Geschichte und Historische Hilfswissenschaften an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. Anja FrankeSchwenk (Dr. phil.) forscht bis 2014 im Bereich Politikwissenschaft an der ChristianAlbrechtsUniversität zu Kiel. Tine Stein (Dr. phil.) lehrt Politische Theorie- und Ideengeschichte an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.