Jane Ellen Kneller

This paper describes the model of sociability developed by the early German romantics with the aim of showing its relevance to academic discourses aiming to be more diverse and inclusive. The paper begins by linking the early German romantics’ conception of “symphilosophizing” to the art of “reciprocal communication” hinted at by Kant at the end of the “Critique of Aesthetic Judgment” and to the transformation of academic discourse in Jena during that period. It discusses the ways in which the work of three of the central figures of early German romanticism—Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, and Friedrich Schleiermacher—developed Kant’s notion of a “sociability that befits our humanity” by in effect socializing Kant’s account of genius, giving rise to a theory of genial conversation that is still worthy of study and emulation.

In what follows I begin with a summary of Sebastian Gardner’s criticism of Jonathan Israel’s work on the historical influence of Spinoza on the German Aufklärung, and in particular Israel’s claim that German intellectuals contributed very little to the radical enlightenment that transformed European politics and society. Granting Gardner’s claim that post-Kantian German enlightenment thought did in fact have several representatives of the radical enlightenment, I take issue with his claim that these were one and all anti-naturalist accounts. In the main part of the paper I discuss Novalis’ view of Spinoza’s philosophical naturalism, and offer an interpretation of its influence on what Novalis referred to as his own “interesting discovery of the religion of the visible world”.

“Novalis, Nature and the Absolute” examines the ways in which the early German romantics understood nature as a world both independent from and constitutive of the human sphere. Drawing upon the works of Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), the essay shows that this period of post-Kantian German philosophy (for which Novalis is taken to be paradigmatic) offers a neglected but much needed antidote to instrumental views of nature. The essay examines the role of the “Absolute” or noumenal nature in early German romanticism, as well as the notions of “inner” and “outer” nature as the early German romantics understood them. Inner nature, i.e. individual human subjectivity, is fundamentally determined by the individual’s relationship to nature outside the subject. This outer nature includes both the non-human and the human environment, and the reunification of the individual with that environment is what the early German romantics came to see as the Absolute. In this regard, their ontological commitments are far different from those of the German idealists after Kant.Human inner nature can reunite with outer nature, both in other individual human beings and with the environment. The chapter argues that this process involves a twofold imaginative operation. On the one hand, it involves the imaginative engagement of the individual with the ordinary, everyday objects and occurrences in outer nature, in a process that enlivens these objects for the individual and recreates in her a sense of nature’s intrinsic value. On the other hand, imaginative engagement with nature also recasts the experience of nature’s incomprehensible size and power into a moment of acceptance and even a sense of belonging to nature. It is shown that these philosophers view nature within us as capable of respectfully embracing nature outside us. The essay concludes with a reflection on the work of the contemporary artist Wolfgang Laib, considered as the successor to Novalis.

Kant's account of aesthetic value is easily ignored or subordinated by the recent stress on the primacy of the practical in his system. For Kant, vindicating reason not only requires a methodological distinction between principles of thought and knowledge on the one side, and of action and morality on the other, but the introduction of a third "faculty," feeling, along with its own principle of judgment. Christine Korsgaard has interpreted Kant's overall account of rationality in terms of a kind of rationalist constructivism, the spirit of which she traces to his humanism. She argues that, for Kant, the source of all value is ultimately humanity itself, or, to be more precise, humanity insofar as it is capable of full rational autonomy. Kant's own statement of the primacy of practical reason turns out to be far from clear

Rita Felski presents a critical account of current American and European feminist literary theory, and analyzes contemporary fiction by women to show that no theorist can identify a specifically "female" or "feminine" kind of writing without reference to what gender means at a given historical moment. She argues that the idea of a feminist aesthetic is a non-issue needlessly pursued by feminists. She calls for a consideration of the social and cultural context in which these texts were produced and received, and demonstrates her method of an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of literature which can integrate literary and social theory. ISBN 0-674-06894-7: $25.00; ISBN 0-674-06895-5 (pbk.): $9.95.

Neste livro, Jane Kneller foca o papel da imaginação como uma força criativa na estética de Kant e em toda sua filosofia. Ela analisa a explicação de Kant para a liberdade imaginativa e a relação entre a representação imaginativa livre, o social humano e o desenvolvimento moral, mostrando várias formas nas quais sua estética da reflexão desinteressada explica o interesse moral. Ela localiza esses aspectos da teoria estética de Kant dentro do contexto estético alemão do século XVIII, argumentando que sua contribuição é uma ponte entre as primeiras teorias da educação moral estética e o Pré-Romantismo da última década daquele século. Ao fazer isso, seu livro dialoga com os dois filósofos alemães do Iluminismo e do Romantismo - Kant e Novalis.

ABSTRACTI argue that by limiting the objects of genuine or purely aesthetic pleasure to the products of human artifice, Matthen wrongly excludes aesthetic pleasure in natural items. Cases of aesthetic reflection that yield the ‘facilitating pleasure’ he takes to be definitive of our experience of art regularly occur also in our aesthetic experience of nature. That is, many kinds of aesthetic appreciation of nature meet his criteria of ‘learned’ engagements that are ‘difficult’ and ‘costly’. Aesthetic appreciation of nature thus represents a kind of facilitating pleasure that enlarges our conception of ourselves and our connection to the world in ways that are at least as sophisticated as art appreciation.

This volume presents the first complete translation of Fichte Studies, a powerful, creative and sustained critique of Fichtean philosophy by the young philosopher-poet Friedrich von Hardenberg, who under the pen-name Novalis went on to become the most well-known and beloved of the early German Romantic writers. Anyone interested in the fate of German philosophy and literature immediately after Kant will find this collection of notes and aphorisms a treasure-trove of original contributions on the nature of self-consciousness, the relation of art to philosophy, and the nature of philosophical inquiry. There are also the beginnings of a strikingly contemporary-sounding semiotic theory. The text is translated by Jane Kneller, who also provides an introduction situating the Fichte Studies in the context of Novalis' life and work.