Hamanns letztes Werk wird hier begriffen als Selbstdeutung und bewusster Abschluss der Autorschaft. Hamann formuliert in diesem Text seinen prophetischen Anspruch, mit dem er der Philosophie seiner Zeit entgegentrat. Die Basis dieses Anspruchs, Hamanns figurales Denken, erweist sich als Zentrum seines Denkens überhaupt. Daraus ergibt sich auch eine differenzierte Einschätzung seiner Aufklärungskritik. Im «Anhang» wird eine neue Edition des «Fliegenden Briefes» mit kritischem Apparat und Kommentar geboten.

THE PROBLEM OF THE INTERPRETATION OF HAMANN Johann Georg Hamann is an intriguing but poorly known figure in the contemporary intellectual world. Yet this is the man whom Kierkegaard saluted as "Emperor!", whose writings were to have been arranged for publication by none other than Goethe himself, and whom Dilthey numbered among the primordial figures in the rise of modern historical consciousness. There are reasons for the persistence of this general ignorance. Hamann is deep. And, in addition, there is his (...) forbidding style. The readers of Kierkegaard and Dilthey, two other giants who them selves achieved late recognition, have not had to face this kind of imposing obstacle. Not only does Hamann expect his readers to handle themselves in deep water, but to intuit their way between his ideas which bob up like islands with no visible connection between them. Like Kierkegaard too, Hamann has had his troubles with the public. He himself referred to the hope that he would be understood by a "better posterity". In fact only the last few years have seen the printing of some of his more controversial writings, in particular his theories on the nature of human sexuality. (shrink)

Johann Georg Hamann was a German philosopher who offered in his writings a radical critique of the Enlightenment's reverence for reason. A pivotal figure in the Sturm und Drang movement, his thought influenced such writers as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Gottfried Herder. As a friend of Immanuel Kant, Hamann was the first writer to comment on the Critique of Pure Reason, and his work foreshadows the linguistic turn in philosophy as well as numerous elements of twentieth century hermeneutics (...) and existentialism. Johann Georg Hamann and the Enlightenment Project addresses Hamann's oeuvre from the perspective of political philosophy, focusing on his views concerning the public use of reason, social contract theory, autonomy, aesthetic morality and the politics of 'taste, ' and the technocratic ideal of enlightened despotism. Robert Alan Sparling situates Hamann's work historically, elucidates his somewhat difficult writing, and argues for his relevance in the ongoing culture wars over the merits of the Enlightenment project. (shrink)

This essay is a response to Robert Norton's "The Myth of the Counter-Enlightenment". Norton's essay raises two issues. Is Isaiah Berlin's interpretation of Hamann and Herder based on one-sided and faulty scholarship, naively putting itself in the service of an anti-liberal myth about those figures originated by early twentieth-century German ideologues? A second issue flows from the first: if Berlin was mistaken in his reading of the work of Hamann and Herder, mistaking what they contributed to the Enlightenment, is Berlin's (...) very notion of a Counter-Enlightenment a fiction-a myth? Thorough analysis of those issues would require several essays. Instead, I try to sketch an alternative reading of Berlin's style of doing intellectual history, while highlighting the limitations of Norton's critique. (shrink)

Use of the word "Counter-Enlightenment" has become increasingly frequent in scholarly and journalistic writing. The word was almost certainly invented by the late Sir Isaiah Berlin, and it is owing to his enormous prestige and on-going influence that it has gained its current familiarity. In Berlin's view, two of the most important sources of the supposed Counter-Enlightenment are J. G. Hamann and J. G. Herder. But as I show, Berlin's numerous accounts of their thought are profoundly flawed and reflect not (...) Herder's or Hamann's own thought, but rather that of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German historians, who wished to legitimate their own anti-democratic, and hence anti-Enlightenment, ideology through the construction of a false historical genealogy. (shrink)

It is well known that the eighteenth century Scottish philosopher and sceptic David Hume was a severe critic of religious belief, but what may not be so familiar, and has been brought to our attention in recent years by Isaiah Berlin, is that some religious believers have found in Hume's sceptical arguments a source of nurture for their religious faith. In particular, Berlin singles out the example of Hume's contemporary, Johann Georg Hamann, a devout but unconventional believer as well as (...) one of the leaders of the German Counter-Enlightenment. Hamann 's primary claim to fame, however, rests upon his influence upon the Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard. Although Kierkegaard never met Hamann, he was familiar with his writings, and calls Hamann ‘his only teacher.’ Kierkegaard's vast influence on modern Christianity, especially Protestantism, is, of course, a commonplace. What, though, is often overlooked, and Berlin calls our attention to, is that this man who influenced Kierkegaard was himself deeply influenced by Hume. The student of religion, as well as the philosopher, cannot help but be struck by this historical connection between Hume and believers such as Johann Hamann and thus, ultimately, between David Hume and modern Protestantism. (shrink)

In the Metaphysics of Morals Kant repeats Hamann's remark that “only the descent into the hell of self-cognition can pave the way to godliness”. This article pursues the question what Kant and Hamann meant by a “descent into the hell of self-cognition” and a “way to godliness”. It will be shown that they share an affinity in their assessment that evil is rooted in humanity and that moral improvement is necessary, but that their views nevertheless differ significantly. For this reason (...) Kant later distances himself from Hamann. Whereas Hamann's view is that the recognition of one's own depravity leads to an experience of one's dependence on God, with the consequence that the concept of godliness is understood as salvation through grace, Kant emphasizes the inscrutability of evil within us and calls for moral improvement through our own effort. In this way the divergent moral conceptions of the age of Enlightenment with their theological and philosophical aspects are reflected in the respective views of these two authors. (shrink)

The Fate of Reason is the first general history devoted to the period between Kant and Fichte, one of the most revolutionary and fertile in modern philosophy.

Anlässlich des 200. Todestages von Johann Georg Hamann versucht die Arbeit Hamanns Infragestellung von Kants Anspruch subjektiver Allgemeinheit der Vernunft in ihren Grundlagen aufzuweisen. Hamann relativiert, so das Ergebnis der Untersuchung, die Unterordnung des Besonderen und Individuellen unter die transzendentale Allgemeinheit der Vernunft. Diese Kritik führt auf einen Erfahrungsbegriff, der auch Bereiche, die Kants transzendentale Vernunft nicht zu integrieren vermochte, umfasst. Das der Universalität der Vernunft entgegengesetzte individuelle Allgemeine der Subjektivität ist zu verstehen aus dem Zusammenhang von Offenbarung, Sprache und (...) Geschichte - ist doch, wie es bei Hamann heisst, die «Sprache die Mutter der Vernunft und Offenbarung, ihr A und O». (shrink)

This study discusses how J.G. Hamann, the Magus of the North, who stood godfather to Goethe's generation, delved into language and history. His view of language was mediated by the depths and power of the Kabbalah; his treatment of history was activated by the suffering and endurance of the Jews. Language embodied a people's deeper history for Hamann and as such unified his perspective. His concrete approach, directed towards the creative word, went against the grain of received opinion and stirred (...) Benjamin's speculations in the twentieth century. In Hamann's conversion vision, Cain slew Abel: as fratricide would end German "Kultur.". (shrink)

Briefly traces the life of the eighteenth century German philosopher, discusses his major ideas, and looks at the relevance of his work today.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universit'at G'ottingen, 1992.

Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of scholarly interest in the work of Johann Georg Hamann, across disciplines. New translations of work by and about Hamann are appearing, as are a number of books and ar­ticles on Hamann’s aesthetics, theories of language and sexuality, and unique place in Enlightenment and counter-Enlightenment thought. Edited by Lisa Marie Anderson, Hamann and the Tradition gathers estab­lished and emerging scholars to examine the full range of Hamann’s im­pact—be it on German Romanticism or on the (...) very practice of theology. Of particular interest to those not familiar with Hamann will be a chapter devoted to examining—or in some cases, placing—Hamann in dialogue with other important thinkers, such as Socrates, David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. (shrink)

_The Immanent Word_ establishes that the philosophical study of language inaugurated in the 1759 works of Hamann and Lessing marks a paradigm shift in modern philosophy; it analyzes the transformation of that shift in works of Herder, Kant, Fichte, Novalis and Schlegel. It contends that recent studies of early linguistic philosophy obscure the most relevant commission of its thinkers, arguing against the theological appropriation of Hamann by John Milbank; against the "expressive" appropriation of Hamann and Herder by Christina Lafont and (...) Charles Taylor; and against Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jean-Luc Nancy’s uncritical championing of Schlegel’s ideological position. (shrink)

The purpose of this dissertation is not to defend a particular thesis, but to shed light on a figure who, in the words of Hans Urs von Balthasar, "stands in the background of the whole idealist movement, which he mysteriously overshadows yet equally mysteriously supersedes and frames, for no one, not even his closest friend Herder, not even Jacobi and the Munster circle, still less Kant, really understood his purpose; he points to a dimension that has never been filled &ldots; (...) " This figure, too unique to find hospitality in the System, is Johann Georg Hamann . Known as the Magus in Norden , he defended Christianity with nearly unparalleled wit against the "purisms of pure reason," doing so on the basis of a profound theological vision. The introduction gives a brief history of Hamann's influence and the interpretation of his writings, from Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, and Jean Paul to Schelling, Hegel, and Kierkegaard. The first chapter introduces Hamann's confessional writings, his biblical hermeneutics, and his understanding of trinitarian condescension. The second chapter then sets the contemporary stage, as it were, to which Hamann presents and provokes a response, addressing Kant and postmodern interpretations of the sublime from the vantage of trinitarian kenosis. The third chapter then continues this response to Kant and modern philosophy in the form of a corresponding theology of perception, which develops Hamann's radical, Lutheran interpretation of Hume. The dissertation then attempts to correct an oversight in Kierkegaard scholarship, namely, Kierkegaard's profound indebtedness to Hamann. The fifth chapter then gives a close reading of Hamann's "linguistic turn," his reduction of reason to language, and his corresponding deconstructive "metacritique" of Kant's theoretical philosophy. Having attempted to show how reason ends in philology and a "grammar of scripture," the dissertation then concludes with a chapter on the relation between being and language; and, finally, in response to Nietzsche, with a Hamannian account of genius and "what it means to be an author.". (shrink)