The Philosophical Foundations of Early German Romanticism

Manfred Frank, Elizabeth Millán

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780791459485, 9780791459478
• eBook ISBN: 9780791485804
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: German Literary Criticism

Explores the philosophical contributions and contemporary relevance of early German Romanticism.

Often portrayed as a movement of poets lost in swells of passion, early German Romanticism has been generally overlooked by scholars in favor of the great system-builders of the post-Kantian period, Schelling and Hegel. In the twelve lectures collected here, Manfred Frank redresses this oversight, offering an in-depth exploration of the philosophical contributions and contemporary relevance of early German Romanticism. Arguing that the early German Romantics initiated an original movement away from idealism, Frank brings the leading figures of the movement, Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), into concert with contemporary philosophical developments, and explores the role that Friedrich Hölderlin and other members of the Homburg Circle had upon the development of early German Romantic philosophy.

Table of contents

• The Philosophical Foundations of Early German Romanticism
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Frequently Cited Texts and Abbreviations
• Introduction “What is Early German Romanticism?”
• 1. On Early German Romanticism as an Essentially Skeptical Movement
• 2. On the Historical Origins of Novalis’ Critique of Fichte
• 3. On the Unknowability of the Absolute
• 4. On the Search for the Unconditioned
• 5. On Hölderlin’s Disagreement with Schelling’s Ich-Schrift
• 6. On Hölderlin’s Critique of Fichte
• 7. On Isaac von Sinclair
• 8. On Jakob Zwilling’s Über das Alles
• 9. On Novalis’ Pivotal Role inEarly German Romanticism
• 10. On Friedrich Schlegel’s Placein the Jena Constellation
• 11. On the Origins of Schlegel’s Talk of a Wechselerweis and His Move Away from a Philosophy of First Principles
• 12. On Schlegel’s Role in the Genesis of Early German Romantic Theory of Art
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index