Symbol and Intuition: Comparative Studies in Kantian and Romantic-period Aesthetics

229 Pages·2013·14.61 MB·English

by  Helmut Huehn

VH
That a symbolic object or work of art participates IÜ
G
in what it signifies, as a part within a whole, was a UH
controversial claim discussed with particular intensity SN
in the wake of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment. a
n
It informed the aesthetic theories of a constellation of d
writers in Jena and Weimar around 1800, including
Moritz, Goethe, Schelling and Hegel. Yet the twin
concepts of symbol and intuition were not only
tools of literary and mythological criticism: they
were integral even to questions of epistemology and
methodology in the fields of theology, metaphysics,
history and natural philosophy.
The international contributors to this volume further
explore how both the explanatory potential and
peculiar dissatisfactions of the symbol entered the
Anglo-American discourse, focusing on Coleridge,
Crabb Robinson and Emerson. Contemporary debates
about the claims of symbolic as opposed to allegorical
art are kept in view throughout.
Helmut Hühn is Lecturer in Philosophy at the
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Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, where he directs y
m
the Research Unit European Romanticism and
b
Schiller’s Gardenhouse; he is a co-editor of o
l
the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie

a
(Schwabe, 1971-2007). n
d
Symbol and Intuition
James Vigus is Lecturer in English at Queen Mary,
I
University of London; his books include Platonic n
t
Coleridge (Legenda, 2009) and the critical edition u
Henry Crabb Robinson: Essays on Kant, Schelling and it
i
German Aesthetics (MHRA, 2010). o
n Comparative Studies in
Cover: Silhouettes by Philipp Otto Runge,
reproduced by kind permission of the Hamburger
Kantian and Romantic-Period Aesthetics
Kunsthall. Front: Summer day; white silhouette on
grey paper, 107 × 172mm; back: Dog barking at the
moon; white silhouette on blue paper, 24 × 38mm. legenda is a joint imprint
of the Modern Humanities
Research Association and
Routledge. Titles range
from medieval texts to
contemporary cinema and
Edited by Helmut Hühn and James Vigus
form a widely comparative
view of the modern
humanities.
cover illustration: ...
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
Huehn-9781907625046-cover.indd 1 5/11/12 15:21:42
Symbol and Intuition
Comparative Studies in
Kantian and Romantic-Period Aesthetics
legendA
leenda, founded in 1995 by the european Humanities Research Centre of
the University of Oxford, is now a joint imprint of the Modern Humanities
Research Association and Routledge. Titles range from medieval texts to
contemporary cinema and form a widely comparative view of the modern
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Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish literature. An editorial Board of
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edITORIAl BOARd
Chairman
Professor Colin davis, Royal Holloway, University of london
Professor Malcolm Cook, University of exeter (French)
Professor Robin Fiddian, Wadham College, Oxford (Spanish)
Professor Anne Fuchs, University of St Andrews (german)
Professor Paul garner, University of leeds (Spanish)
Professor Andrew Hadfield, University of Sussex (english)
Professor Marian Hobson Jeanneret,
Queen Mary University of london (French)
Professor Catriona Kelly, new College, Oxford (Russian)
Professor Martin Mclaughlin, Magdalen College, Oxford (Italian)
Professor Martin Maiden, Trinity College, Oxford (linguistics)
Professor Peter Matthews, St John’s College, Cambridge (linguistics)
dr Stephen Parkinson, linacre College, Oxford (Portuguese)
Professor Suzanne Raitt, William and Mary College, Virginia (english)
Professor Ritchie Robertson, The Queen’s College, Oxford (german)
Professor david Shepherd, Keele University (Russian)
Professor Michael Sheringham, All Souls College, Oxford (French)
Professor Alison Sinclair, Clare College, Cambridge (Spanish)
Professor david Treece, King’s College london (Portuguese)
Managing Editor
dr graham nelson
41 Wellington Square, Oxford ox1 2jf, UK

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Symbol and Intuition
Comparative Studies in
Kantian and Romantic-Period Aesthetics
❖
edited by Helmut Hühn and James Vius
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
2013
First published 2013
Published by the
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
LEGENDA is an imprint of the
Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© Modern Humanities Research Association and Taylor & Francis 2013
ISBN 9-781-907625-04-6(hbk)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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Contents
❖
Preface ix
Notes on the Contributors xi
Introduction 1
helmut hühn and james vigus
1 Kant’s Transformation of the Symbol-Concept 21
stephan meier-oeser
2 ‘Mere Nature in the Subject’: Kant on Symbolic Representation of the
Absolute 44
jane kneller
3 ‘Neither mere allegories nor mere history’: Multi-layered Symbolism in
Moritz’s Andreas Hartknopf 60
jutta heinz
4 Comparative Morphology and Symbolic Mediation in Goethe 81
helmut hühn
5 Friedrich Schlegel’s Symbol-Concept 96
jan urbich
6 Bread, Wine and Water: Hegel’s Distinction between Mystical and
Symbolical in The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate 106
cecilia muratori
7 ‘All are but parts of one stupendous whole’? Henry Crabb Robinson’s
Dilemma 123
james vigus
8 The Spark of Intuitive Reason: Coleridge’s ‘On the Prometheus of
Aeschylus’ 139
james vigus
9 Emerson’s Exegesis: Transcending Symbols 158
jeffrey einboden
10 Pointing at Hidden Things: Intuition and Creativity 172
temilo van zantwijk
11 Aesthetic Cognition and Aesthetic Judgment 185
gottfried gabriel
Afterword 191
nicholas halmi
Bibliography 194
Index 209

PrefaCe
❖
This volume is related to the comprehensive investigations of the literary forms
of philosophy around 1800 conducted within the research project ‘Heuristics
between Science and Poetry’. The latter project formed a component of the Special
Research Center 482 at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, entitled ‘The Weimar-
Jena Phenomenon: Culture around 1800’. In a cross-disciplinary collaboration
combining approaches from the humanities, cultural studies and natural sciences,
the Special Research Center 482 explored the uniquely productive and intensive
communication and interaction that took place in and between Weimar and Jena
around 1800. The over-arching aim of the research was to examine the interrelation
of Enlightenment, Classicism, Idealism and Romanticism.
For financial and infrastructural support we gratefully acknowledge the Special
Research Centre and its spokesperson Prof. Olaf Breidbach. We thank the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) for the provision of essential
funding.
Special thanks to Dr Temilo van Zantwijk und Prof. Gottfried Gabriel for their
collaboration and lively discussion.
Thanks also go to LMUexcellent for funding James Vigus’s postdoctoral research
fellowship at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, from 2009–12, where much
of his work for this volume was completed.
The specific idea for this book arose in the course of a graduate seminar on
symbol-concepts from Kant to Hegel taught by Helmut Hühn at the philosophy
department of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, in 2008. James Vigus was at that
time a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) postdoctoral research fellow
in Jena, whose research on Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Henry Crabb Robinson
as mediators of German thought intersected with the work undertaken in Dr
Hühn’s seminar. As we discussed the desideratum to investigate a key selection from
the extraordinary range of theories of symbol and intuition around 1800 — an
ambitious project intended to build on recent advances in scholarship on Kantian
thought, Weimar Classicism, Jena Romanticism and German Idealism, to explore
affinities and contrasts between Anglo-American and German writers, and to
trace certain traditions of thinking about the symbol into modern approaches in
which continental and analytic aesthetics intersect — it became clear that the most
appropriate method would be to commission a series of essays from scholars with
diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We thank all the contributors to this project:
without them this book would not have been possible.
Thanks go to Kathleen Singles for translating Chapter 3, to Katrin Grünepütt for
translating Chapter 4, and to Aaron Epstein and Christian Kästner for translating
Chapter 11, all from the German.