Goethe' s Phenomenology - Abstract The aim of this thesis was to explain the philosophical foundations and horizons of the work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with an emphasis on his concept of phenomenon and appearing, in which he is presented as a significant contributor to the reflection of the category of mediation in German late Enlightenment and idealistic discourse. The work showed how Goethe's (including poetic) works show some theoretically based or systematizable aspects which genealogy, reception and applicability in general the author attempts to interpret. He also interprets the philosophemes connected with Goethe's work: he puts Goethe in the contexts of the German and European thinking of the age of the Enlightenment, of its rationalist bases and of its rethinking of the nineteenth- century concepts of thought. The work shows the breadth and complexity of Goethe's spiritual resources and their creative appropriation by him, as well as the far-reaching influence of Goethe on the German philosophy already in his time (Hegel, Schelling, Schopenhauer, etc.). He tries to overcome the stereotypes or shortcomings he finds in several previous interpretations, discussing first the philosophical literature about Goethe. In systematic and historical contexts, he represents Goethe confrontations with the...

Goethe' s Phenomenology - Abstract The aim of this thesis was to explain the philosophical foundations and horizons of the work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, with an emphasis on his concept of phenomenon and appearing, in which he is presented as a significant contributor to the reflection of the category of mediation in German late Enlightenment and idealistic discourse. The work showed how Goethe's (including poetic) works show some theoretically based or systematizable aspects which genealogy, reception and applicability in general the author attempts to interpret. He also interprets the philosophemes connected with Goethe's work: he puts Goethe in the contexts of the German and European thinking of the age of the Enlightenment, of its rationalist bases and of its rethinking of the nineteenth- century concepts of thought. The work shows the breadth and complexity of Goethe's spiritual resources and their creative appropriation by him, as well as the far-reaching influence of Goethe on the German philosophy already in his time (Hegel, Schelling, Schopenhauer, etc.). He tries to overcome the stereotypes or shortcomings he finds in several previous interpretations, discussing first the philosophical literature about Goethe. In systematic and historical contexts, he represents Goethe confrontations with the...

The goal of this thesis is to elaborate the place of J.G. Herder’s concept of poetry within his philosophy. Through a discussion of his study of the Old Testament, On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, I examine the relationship between J.G. Herder’s poetics and his naturalism. Herder’s hermeneutic, developed in the context of his literary criticism, is at the heart of his philosophy. I interpret Herder’s views on poetry as an integral part of his criticism of 17th century rationalism, and one that he develops in union with the conclusions he draws from philosophy and the natural sciences.

This dissertation examines pre-Kantian rational philosophy and the development of the discipline of aesthetics in the North German Enlightenment. With emphasis on the historical conception of the physiological and psychological experience of music, this project determines the function of music both privately and socially in the eighteenth century. As a result, I identify the era of rational aesthetics (ca.1750-1800) as a music-historical period unified by the aesthetic function and metaphysical experience of music, which inform the underlying motivation for musical styles, genres, and means of expression, leading to a more meaningful and compelling historical periodization. The philosophy of Alexander Baumgarten, Johann Georg Sulzer, and others enable definitions of the experience of beautiful objects and those concepts related to music composition, listening, and taste, and determine how rational aesthetics impacted the practice, function, and ultimately the prevailing style of music in the era. The construction, style, and performance means of the free fantasia, the most personal and expressive genre of the era, identify its function as the private act of solitude, or a musical meditation. An examination of pleasure societies establishes the role of music in performance and discussion in both social gatherings and learned musical clubs for conveying the morally good, which results in the spread of good taste. Taken together, the complimentary practices of private and social music played a significant role in eighteenth-century life for developing the self, through personal taste, and society, through a morally good culture.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird aufgrund der kommentierten Quellen die Tatsache erhellt, dass der Kantsche Anspruch auf Legitimität des Erkenntnisverfahrens, wie er in seiner Transzendentalphilosophie zum Ausdruck gebracht wurde, von drei Momenten des Gedankenprozesses in der Philosophie der Deutschen Aufklärung vorangekündigt wird: a) der Verschiebung der Problematik der deutschen Philosophie vom „Harmonie“-Gedanken der so genannten Leibniz-Wolff-Schule und ihrer Gegner hin zur Fragestellung nach der „Realisierung der Begriffe“ bei Tetens, in der sich der Mensch als sinnstiftendes Wesen dartut, b) dem bereits bei Thomasius in Sprachparallelen zu Kant auftretenden „empiriorationalistischen“ Moment, das die gesamte Periode des Kampfes um die Wolffsche Lehre begleitet und bei Lambert eine neue Form (a priori durch Erfahrung) bekommt, c) dem Verständnis der Denkbarkeit bzw. Begreifbarkeit als Mitteilbarkeit, das schon in der Frühaufklärung (von Thomasius implizit, von Tschirnhaus explizit) anzutreffen ist und von den Zeitgenossen Kants rehabilitiert und von Tetens als Frage nach der Intersubjektivität (das „Objectivische“ als das „unveränderlich Subjectivische“) betont wird. Mit den Werken von Lambert und Tetens, in denen Gott fast keine Rolle mehr spielt, emanzipiert sich das philosophische Denken endgültig von der religiösen Furcht und dem „metaphysischen Schauder“, die während der Barockzeit durch den Triumph der wissenschaftlichen Revolution hervorgebracht worden waren. In der Philosophie der beiden Zeitgenossen Kants versteht sich der Mensch nicht mehr als „intellectus ectypus“, sondern zum ersten Mal als potentieller Gesetzgeber der Natur. Folglich macht diese Tatsache klar, dass Kant auf bereits gestellte Fragen zu antworten hatte. / The current dissertation, which is based on documented sources, elucidates the fact that the Kantian claim of the legitimacy of the cognitive process, as this claim is expressed in the Kantian “Transcendental Philosophy”, had its precursor in three major elements of the philosophical evolution in the German Enlightenment: a)The shifting of the philosophical problematic in the German Enlightenmentfrom the “harmony”-thinking of the Wolffians and their detractors, to Tetens’ posit of the “realization” of concepts, according to which a human being is proven as a meaning-establishing entity; b) The “empiriorationalistic” element in Thomasius, which finds parallels in Kantian formulations, remains active during the whole controversy surrounding the Wolffian teaching, and then acquires a new form in Lambert (a priori through experience); c) The understanding of “conceivability” as “communicability”, which is already present in the early German Enlightenment, implicitly in Thomasius and explicitly in Tschirnhaus, does not come under discussion in the era of Wolff. However, this element comes under the spotlight by Kant’s contemporaries, especially highlighted in Tetens’ question of intersubjectivity (the objective as the “unchangeably subjective”). The representatives of German Enlightenment Philosophy after 1760 freed from the metaphysical shudder caused by the “scientific revolution”, are the very first to comprehend the human intellect, not as “intellectus ectypus”, but as the legislator of nature. In this way, German philosophical thought is to abandon once and for all the baroque world-view. The systems of Lambert and Tetens show clearly that Kant elaborated on questions that they had already posed in an elementary form.