Abstract

The history of the concept of ›discretion‹ has not yet been written. This lacuna may be due to the complexity of the historical semantics of ›discretion‹, thevariety of its synonyms, antonyms, derivatives and compounds. Furthermore, there are signifi cant differences in what ›discretion‹ means and has meant up tonow in Romance languages, in English and in German. Proceeding from the rich semantics of ›discernere‹ / ›discretio‹ in late Latin, the present study focusses onthe semantical differentiation and multidisciplinarity today in Romance languages as well as in German and in English. It is only since the 18th and 19th centuries that ›discretion‹ normally means tact and secrecy. Beyond the patristical (theological), scholastical (logical), the mathematical and technical and a juridical sense of ›discretion‹, this essay concentrates on the philosophical and epistemological meanings of the term (designating the faculty of discernement, prudence, soundjudgment, precise perception). During the Italian Renaissance, ›discrezione‹ had become a key word of an empirically based epistemology. Hegel, in his Phänomenologie des Geistes, quite surprisingly returns to elder meanings of ›discreteness‹ as a ›Diskretion der Einzelnheit‹.