Johann Gottfried Herder
This question was further developed by Herder's lament that Martin Luther did not establish a national church, and his doubt whether Germany did not buy Christianity at too high a price, that of true nationality. Herder's patriotism bordered at times upon national pantheism, demanding of territorial unity as "He is deserving of glory and gratitude who seeks to promote the unity of the territories of Germany through writings, manufacture, and institutions" and sounding an even deeper call:
- "But now! Again I cry, my German brethren! But now! The remains of all genuine folk-thought is rolling into the abyss of oblivion with a last and accelerated impetus. For the last century we have been ashamed of everything that concerns the fatherland."
Herder presented formal defiance of the age of reason and Enlightenment. In his Ideas upon Philosophy and the History of Mankind he even wrote "Compare England with Germany: the English are Germans, and even in the latest times the Germans have led the way for the English in the greatest things."
Herder, who hated absolutism and Prussian nationalism, but who was imbued with the spirit of the whole German Volk, yet as historical theorist turned away from the light of the eighteenth century. Seeking to reconcile his thought with this earlier age, Herder sought to harmonize his conception of sentiment with reason, whereby all knowledge is implicit in the soul; the most elementary stage is sensuous and intuitive perception which by development can become self-conscious and rational. To Herder, this development is the harmonizing of primitive and derivative truth, of experience and intelligence, feeling and reason.
Herder is the first in a long line of Germans preoccupied with this harmony. This search is itself the key to much in German theory. And Herder was too penetrating a thinker not to understand and fear the extremes to which his folk-theory could tend, and so issued specific warnings. While regarding the Jews as aliens in Europe, he refused to adhere to a rigid racial theory, writing that "notwithstanding the varieties of the human form, there is but one and the same species of man throughout the whole earth".
He also announced that "national glory is a deceiving seducer. When it reaches a certain height, it clasps the head with an iron band. The enclosed sees nothing in the mist but his own picture; he is susceptible to no foreign impressions." And:
"It is the apparent plan of nature that as one human being, so also one generation, and also one nationality learn, learn incessantly, from and with the others, until all have comprehended the difficult lesson: No nationality has been solely designated by God as the chosen people of the earth; above all we must seek the truth and cultivate the garden of the common good. Hence no nationality of Europe may separate itself sharply, and foolishly say, "With us alone, with us dwells all wisdom."
The passage of time was to demonstrate that while many Germans were to find influence in Herder's convictions and influence, fewer were to note his qualificatory stipulations.
Herder had emphasised that his conception of the nation encouraged democracy and the free self-expression of a people's identity. He proclaimed support for the French Revolution, a position which did not endear him to royalty. He also differed with Kant's philosophy and turned away from the Sturm und Drang movement to go back to the poems of Shakespeare and Homer.
To promote his concept of the Volk, he published letters and collected folk songs. These latter were published in 1773 as Voices of the People in Their Songs (Stimmen der Völker in ihren Liedern). The poets Achim von Arnim and Clemens von Brentano later used Stimmen der Võlker as samples for The Boy's Magic Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn).
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Bibliography
- To Cyrus, the grandson of Astyages (1762)
- Essay on Being (1763-64)
- On Diligence in Several Learned Languages (1764)
- Treatise on the Ode (1764)
- How Philosophy can become more Universal and Useful for the Benefit of the People (1765)
- Fragments on Recent German Literature (1767-68)
- On Thomas Abbt's writings (1768)
- Critical Forests, or Reflections on the Science and Art of the Beautiful (1769-)
- Journal of my Voyage in the Year 1769 (first published 1846)
- Treatise on the Origin of Language (1772)
- Selection from correspondence on Ossian and the songs of ancient peoples (1773) See also: James Macpherson (1736 – 1796).
- Of German Character and Art (with Goethe, manifesto of the Sturm und Drang) (1773)
- This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity (1774)
- Oldest Document of the Human Race (1774-76)
- Essay on Ulrich von Hutten (1776)
- On the Resemblance of Middle English and Germany Poetry (1777)
- Sculpture: Some Observations on Shape and Form from Pygmalion's Creative Dream (1778)
- On the Cognition and Sensation of the Human Soul (1778)
- On the Effect of Poetic Art on the Ethics of Peoples in Ancient and Modern Times (1778)
- Folk Songs (1778-79; second ed. of 1807 titled The Voices of Peoples in Songs)
- On the Influence of the Government on the Sciences and the Sciences on the Government (1780)
- Letters Concerning the Study of Theology (1780-81)
- On the Influence of the Beautiful in the Higher Sciences (1781)
- On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry. An Instruction for Lovers of the Same and the Oldest History of the Human Spirit (1782-83)
- God. Some Conversations (1787)
- Ideas for the Philosophy of History of Humanity (1784-91)
- Scattered Leaves (1785-97)
- Letters for the Advancement of Humanity (1791-97 or 1793-97?)
- Christian Writings (1794-8)
- Terpsichore (1795-6) (translations & commentary of the Latin poet, Jakob Balde)
- Persepolisian Letters (1798) (fragments on Persian architecture, history & religion)
- Luther’s Catechism, with a catechetical instruction for the use of schools (1798)
- Understanding and Experience. A Metacritique of the Critique of Pure Reason. Part I. (Part II, Reason and Language.) (1799)
- Calligone (1800)
- Adrastea: Events and Characters of the 18th century (6 vols.)
- The Cid (1805; a free translation of the Spanish epic El Cid)
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See also
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External links
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
- Herder Bibliography and more
- www.johann-gottfried-herder.de (German)
- International Herder Society
- Selected works from Project Gutenberg (in German)
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Herder, Johann Gottfried von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 25, 1744 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mohrungen |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 18, 1803 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Weimar, Germany |
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