Since communicating the results of this work is an essential part of the task of the Institute, the staff gives various courses in medieval philosophy at the University of Cologne.

The Thomas-Institut likewise participates in the Aristoteles Latinus project organized by the International Union of Academies, it hosts the Meister Eckhart Archiv and has recently started the critical edition of Durandus of St. Pourçain.

For further information about the publications of the Thomas-Institut, see [1] Scientific discourse in the Middle Ages has its common ground in the reception of Greek learning from late Antiquity.

When one examines the modern debate on the background just sketched, it becomes clear that medieval philosophy provides models and perspectives both richer in arguments and truly interdisciplinary.

This topic has already been made the object of research by an international network of institutions working on medieval philosophy (the EGSAMP members Leuven, Amsterdam, Pisa, Lecce, Bari, Sofia) in which the Thomas-Institut participates.

In this project "rhizomatics" and nomadism as developed by the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari are employed to address transcultural issues.

But if one takes into account the dynamics proper to different cultural frameworks which transferred the philosophical inheritance from late Antiquity into modernity, one must try to describe its interactions more closely, disregarding the classical narratives of medieval philosophy.

Edith Stein's translations of Aquinas are not only an important document for the intellectual development of Husserl's former assistant but also show in an exemplary case the encounter of Neoscholasticism and modern philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century.

The project is dedicated to the historical development of the theory of transcendentals from its formation in the thirteenth century (Philip the Chancellor) up to its treatment in the Disputationes metaphysicae by Francesco Suárez.

The project attempts at the same time to reconstruct Eckhart's Opus propositionum, especially the 9th tractate: "De natura superioris, et inferioris eius oppositi".

This is where the planned investigation begins: Disregarding its reception during the Reformation, the Theologia deutsch is examined it its original formative context and thus as a mystical treatise of a special type, which does not at all transmit a timeless spirituality but rather - like other Latin and colloquial texts - sounds out possibilities of expression.

With the preparation of the critical edition and German translation of the Kitâb al-nafs Ibn Bâjja's most central writing on psychology shall be rendered accessible in a reliable form supplemented with guides to its sources.

The edition will be accompanied by a study which - for the first time - examines in detail the philosophical questions and solutions of this early period of the reception of De anima.

It enquires into the conceptual and historical background of problems like the concept of intention (ma'nâ) or the so-called "conjunction with the Active Intellect" - ideas which came to exercise a longstanding and varied influence.

The project consists in the study of the Latin reception of the commentaries on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics composed and assembled in twelfth century Constantinople at the initiative of Princess Anna Comnena.

This project forms part of the edition of the Opera omnia, supervised by the International Union of Academies (Director: Gerhard Endress; responsible for the Averroes Latinus: Andreas Speer).

Prepared by a large number of publications, the work currently in progress continues the edition of the Middle Commentary on Peri Hermeneias which has already been published.

In order to prove that the translator was not Michel Scot, but probably Hermannus Alemannus, this edition will be accompanied by a detailed comparison of technical terms and of important portions of the text.

The edition will be introduced by a philological study and accompanied by an English translation, in order to render the text available for a larger group of scholars in medieval philosophy.

The foundation of the Thomas-Institut on October 10, 1950, grew out of efforts to reinstall a centre for the study of medieval philosophy in Germany after World War II, one that would be able to inspire research into a philosophical tradition representing positive ideas and humanistic values.

Josef Koch (1885–1967), then one of the rare German scholars internationally renowned in the field of medieval philosophy, had been chosen in 1948 to become a professor at the University of Cologne with a view to the Institute's founding.

In close connection with the founding of the Institute stood the creation of the Mediaevistentagung, and the series Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, both of which were devised by Koch and are still carried on today.

The development of the Institute was boosted by a grant from the American High Commissioner for Germany, arranged by Professor John O. Riedl of the Educational and Cultural Relation Division, and later of Marquette University in Milwaukee - a personal friend of founder Josef Koch.

The first tasks of the newly created Institute consisted in building up a research library and in procuring the necessary microfilm copies of medieval manuscripts in order to render critical editions possible.

The collection concentrated at first on Meister Eckhart and Nicolaus Cusanus, who were then studied by Koch and editions of whose works were prepared at the Institute in continuation of projects begun before the war.

The library was designed to include not only primary texts from the Middle Ages and bibliographical material but a historical section spanning from Antiquity to contemporary philosophy that permits the systematic studies intended by the aims described in 1950.

The 4th Symposium Averroicum, combined with the sixth conference of the editors of Averroes's works, was held in Cologne in 1996 in collaboration with Gerhard Endreß (Bochum).

Josef Koch had invited scholars from Germany and from the Institut supérieur de philosophie of Louvain with the declared aim to assemble - not for a "congress" but in "friendly discussion" - all those interested in medieval studies: philosophers, theologians, historians, philologists, art- and music-historians.

While remaining true to its original concept, the Mediaevistentagung has become more fully international, bigger - the record was set with circa 300 participants in 1994 - and, not to mention, longer - it now lasts a week.

The "Köln-Bonner Philosophisches Kolloquium", organized together with the Philosophy Department of Bonn University, is a semester long reading course for graduate and older undergraduate students (taking place every two weeks).