The Romantic Absolute
Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795-1804
9780226084060
9780226084237
The Romantic Absolute
Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795-1804
Publication supported by the Bevington Fund
The absolute was one of the most significant philosophical concepts in the early nineteenth century, particularly for the German romantics. Its exact meaning and its role within philosophical romanticism remain, however, a highly contested topic among contemporary scholars. In The Romantic Absolute, Dalia Nassar offers an illuminating new assessment of the romantics and their understanding of the absolute. In doing so, she fills an important gap in the history of philosophy, especially with respect to the crucial period between Kant and Hegel.
Scholars today interpret philosophical romanticism along two competing lines: one emphasizes the romantics’ concern with epistemology, the other their concern with metaphysics. Through careful textual analysis and systematic reconstruction of the work of three major romantics—Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Schelling—Nassar shows that neither interpretation is fully satisfying. Rather, she argues, one needs to approach the absolute from both perspectives. Rescuing these philosophers from frequent misunderstanding, and even dismissal, she articulates not only a new angle on the philosophical foundations of romanticism but on the meaning and significance of the notion of the absolute itself.
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part One: Novalis
1. Interpreting the Fichte-Studien
2. Beyond the Subjective Self: Hemsterhuis, Kant, and the Question of the Whole
3. Romanticizing Nature and the Self
4. A Living Organon of the Sciences
Conclusion to Part 1: Romanticism and Idealism
Part Two: Schlegel
5. New Philosophical Ideals: Schlegel’s Critique of First Principles
6. From Epistemology to Ontology: The Lectures on Transcendental Idealism
7. Becoming, Nature, and Freedom
8. Presenting Nature: From the System of Fragments to the Romantic Novel
Conclusion to Part 2: Schlegel as Philosopher
Part Three: Schelling
9. The Early Schelling: Between Fichte and Spinoza
10. The Philosophy of Nature
11. From the System of Transcendental Idealism to the Identity Philosophy
12. Identity Philosophy and the Philosophy of Art
Conclusion to Part 3
Conclusion: The Romantic Absolute
Notes
Works CitedBe the first to know
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