New Mythology of German Idealism TaeYeoun Keum Harvard University First I will speak of an idea here that as far as I know has still not occurred to anyone else We must have a new mythology but this mythology must be in the service of the ideas it must be a mythology of reason ID: 584083
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Slide1
Plato and theNew Mythology of German Idealism
Tae-Yeoun Keum
Harvard UniversitySlide2
First I will speak of an idea here that, as far as I know, has still not occurred to anyone else. We must have a new mythology, but this mythology must be in the service of the ideas; it must be a mythology of reason.Zuerst werde ich hier von einer Idee sprechen, die, soviel ich weiß, noch in keines Menschen Sinn gekommen ist – wir müssen eine neue Mythologie haben, diese Mythologie aber muß im Dienste der Ideen stehen, sie muß eine Mythologie der Vernunft werden.
-
Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism
(1795/6)Slide3
First I will speak of an idea here that, as far as I know, has still not occurred to anyone else. We must have a new mythology, but this mythology must be in the service of the ideas; it must be a mythology of reason.
Zuerst werde ich hier von einer Idee sprechen, die, soviel ich weiß, noch in keines Menschen Sinn gekommen ist
–
wir müssen eine neue Mythologie haben
, diese Mythologie aber muß im Dienste der Ideen stehen, sie muß eine Mythologie der Vernunft werden.
-
Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism
(1795/6)Slide4
First I will speak of an idea here that, as far as I know, has still not occurred to anyone else. We must have a new mythology, but this mythology must be in the service of the ideas; it must be a mythology of reason.
Zuerst werde ich hier von
einer Idee
sprechen,
die, soviel ich weiß, noch in keines Menschen Sinn gekommen ist
– wir müssen eine neue Mythologie haben, diese Mythologie aber muß im Dienste der Ideen stehen, sie muß eine Mythologie der Vernunft werden.
-
Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism
(1795/6)Slide5
What is new
about
the new mythology?Slide6
Johann Gottfried von Herder,
“On
the New Use of Mythology”
(1767)
// Vom neurern Gebrauch der Mythologie
Francis Bacon, “The Wisdom of the Ancients” (1609) // De Sapientia Veterum
Giambattista Vico, The New Science (1725) // Scienza Nuova
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
,
Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture
(1755)
// Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst
History of Ancient Art
(1764)
// Geschichte der Kunst des Altertuns (1764)Slide7
Johann Gottfried von Herder,
“On
the New Use of Mythology”
(1767)
// Vom neurern Gebrauch der Mythologie
Goethe Friedrich SchillerSlide8
“By the time of Goethe it was possible to speak rationally of myth.” Christopher
Jamme
,
“Portraying Myth More Convincingly: Critical
Approahces
to Myth in the Classical and Romantic Periods,” in
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 12, no. 1 (2004): 29-45, 34.Slide9Slide10
What is new
about
the new mythology?
The New Mythology
The Platonism of the German Romantics
Platonic mythology for the new ageSlide11
1
The New MythologySlide12
What did the German Romantics mean by the new mythology?Slide13
The argument of theOldest Systematic Program for:
the abolition of the state
a new mythology
*
The
OSP
calls for “an ethics” for the coming age. Ethics as a system of all ideas• However, the state is not an idea. •“We must therefore go beyond the state!”Slide14
The argument of theOldest Systematic Program for:
the abolition of the state
a new mythology
*
The state is not one of the ideas that make up the ethics, but other ideas are.
These ideas are subordinate to higher idea: beauty
In the service of the idea of beauty, philosophy must become aesthetic, like poetry. “The philosophy of the spirit is an aesthetic philosophy.”Slide15
The argument of theOldest Systematic Program for:
the abolition of the state
a new mythology
*
Similarly in the service of the ideas, we must have a new mythology
Just as philosophy must become aesthetic in accordance with the highest idea,
Ideas themselves should be made “aesthetic, i.e. mythological” “mythology must become philosophical … philosophy must become mythological”Slide16
the abolition of the state a new mythologySlide17
“… through reason itself the overthrow of all superstition…”
“…absolute freedom of all sprits, which carry the intellectual world in themselves…”
“…the highest act of reason is an aesthetic act since it comprises all ideas…”
“Monotheism of reason and the heart…”Slide18
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesiePoetry befriends and bonds all those who love it with indissoluble ties.Alle Gemüter, die sie lieben, befreundet und bindet Poesie mit unauflöslichen Banden.Slide19
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesieReason is unitary and is the same in everyone; but just as each person has his own nature and his own love, so too does he carry his own poesy inside himself.Die Vernunft ist nur eine und in allen dieselbe: wie aber jeder Mensch seine eigne Natur hat und seine eigne Liebe, so trägt auch jeder seine eigne Poesie in sich.Slide20
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesieOur poesy … lacks a midpoint as mythology was for the poetry of the ancients, and modern poetic art’s inferiority to classical poetic art can be summarized in the words: we have no mythology.Es fehlt ... unsrer Poesie an einem
Mittelpunkt, wie es die Mythologie für die der Alten war, und alles Wesentliche, worin die moderne Dichtkunst der antiken nachsteht, läßt sich in die Worte zusammenfassen: Wir haben keine Mythologie.Slide21
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesieOur poesy … lacks a midpoint as mythology was for the poetry of the ancients, and modern poetic art’s inferiority to classical poetic art can be summarized in the words: we have no mythology.Es fehlt ... unsrer Poesie an einem Mittelpunkt, wie es die Mythologie für die der Alten war, und alles Wesentliche, worin die moderne Dichtkunst der antiken nachsteht, läßt sich in die Worte zusammenfassen: Wir haben keine Mythologie.Slide22
unity in diversity
the new mythology providesSlide23
A shared “midpoint” of poetry and of poetsParallel in Greek mythology (canonical)
Diverse poetry grounded in it (poetry draws from mythology)
Diverse poetry arrive at it (poetry builds up material for mythology)
Celebrates diverse individuality of poetry and its poets
Community-building
the new mythology
isSlide24
F.W.J. Schelling,
System of Transcendental Idealism
(1800)
// System des
transcendentalen IdealismusPhilosophy was born and nourished by poetry in the infancy of knowledge, and with it all those sciences it has guided toward perfection. We may thus expect them, on completion, to flow back like so many individual streams into the universal ocean of poetry from which they took their source. Nor is it in general difficult to say what the medium [Mittelglied] for this return of science to poetry will be; for in mythology such a medium existed, before the occurrence of a breach now seemingly beyond repair…Slide25Slide26
A shared “midpoint” of poetry and of poets
A midpoint between historical stages of human knowledge (sciences and poetry)
the new mythology
isSlide27Slide28
A shared “midpoint” of poetry and of poets
A midpoint between historical stages of human knowledge (sciences and poetry)
The apparatus of the organic state
the new mythology
isSlide29
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesieMythology has one great advantage. What otherwise eternally flees consciousness can be seen here sensually-spiritually and held fast … This is actually the point: because of the highest, we do not depend so entirely on our mind alone. Einen großen Vorzug hat die Mythologie. Was sonst das Bewußtsein ewig flieht, ist hier dennoch sinnlich geistig zu schauen, und festgehalten ... Das ist der, daß wir uns wegen des Höchsten nicht so ganz allein auf unser Gemüt verlassen.Slide30
A shared “midpoint” of poetry and of poets
A midpoint between historical stages of human knowledge
The apparatus of the organic state
A way of grasping knowledge that escapes conscious reason
the new mythology
isSlide31
“Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism”
(1795/6)
//
Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus
Finally, the idea that unites all others, the idea of beauty, taking the word in a higher Platonic sense.
Zuletzt die Idee, die alle vereinigt, die Idee der Schönheit, das Wort in höherem platonischen Sinne genommen.Slide32
unity in diversity
the new mythology provides
(through the highest ideal)
(approximations of the highest ideal)Slide33
2
The Platonism of the German RomanticsSlide34
How do the German Romantics’ Platonism relate to their conception
of the new mythology?Slide35Slide36
This is what it is to go aright, or be led by another, into the mystery of Love: one goes always upwards for the sake of this Beauty, starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stairs: from one body to two and from two to all beautiful bodies, then from beautiful bodies to beautiful customs, and from customs to learning beautiful things, and from these lessons he arrives in the end at this lesson, which is learning of this very Beauty, so that in the end he comes to know just what it is to be beautiful.
- Symposium
, 211c-dSlide37
Friedrich Schlegel,
“Dialogue on Poesy
”
(1799)
//
Gesprach über die PoesieFor Plato, on the other hand, representation and its perfection and beauty are not means, but rather an end in themselves. That is why, strictly speaking, his form is already thoroughly poetic.Dem Plato hingegen ist die Darstellung und ihre Vollkommenheit und Schönheit nicht Mittel, sondern Zweck an sich. Darum ist schon seine Form, streng genommen, durchaus poetisch.Slide38
Friedrich Schleiermacher,
Introduction to
Plato’s Works
(1804)
// Einleitung, Platons WerkeWhat is anticipated mythically more often than not appears later in its scientific form.... es wäre im Ganzen mit der hier vorgeschlagenen Folge derselbe Fall, indem nach dieser nicht selten mythisch antizipiert wird, was erst später in seiner wissenschaftlichen Gestalt erscheint.Slide39
Friedrich Schleiermacher,
Introduction to
Plato’s Works
(1804)
// Einleitung, Platons WerkeWhoever first enters the study of Plato will most distinctly appreciate the gradual development and formation of the Platonic myths out of one Ground-myth …Ja wer erst tiefer in das Studium des Platon eindringt, dem wird die allmähliche Entwicklung und Ausbildung der Platonischen Mythen aus Einem Grundmythos ... am deutlichsten wahrnehmen läßt.Slide40
F.W.J. Schelling
“
Timaeus
”
(1794)Slide41
Friedrich
Hölderlin
,
“Hyperion
”
(1797-9)And if I spoke a warm word about ancient Greece, they yawned and declared that one had to live in the present; and another added with an air of significance that still today, good taste had not vanished. … One quipped like a sailor and another puffed out his cheeks and preached maxims.Slide42
Friedrich
Hölderlin
,
“Hyperion
”
(1797-9)To ward off flies, that is our work in the future; and to gnaw at the things of the world as children gnaw at the dried iris root, that is our joy in the end. To grow old among youthful people seems to me a pleasure, but to grow old where all is old seems to me worse than all else.Slide43
Friedrich
Hölderlin
,
Preface to
“Hyperion
”
(1797-9)Holy Plato, forgive us! We havesinned greatly against youHeiliger Plato, vergib! Man hatschwer an dir gesündigtSlide44
unity in diversity
the new mythology provides
(with history and the present time)
(approximations of the highest ideal)
(through the highest ideal)Slide45
A shared “midpoint” of poetry and of poets
A midpoint between historical stages of human knowledge
The apparatus of the organic state
A way of grasping knowledge that escapes conscious reason
the new mythology
is
A way of understanding the present ageSlide46
Friedrich
Hölderlin
,
“Hyperion
”
(1797-9)O! nonetheless, nonetheless I would be a stranger on earth, and no god would link me to the past anymore.… So I came among the Germans.Slide47
3
Platonic Mythology for the New AgeSlide48
the task
Needed a new mythology
But they understood mythology in terms of the old, in particular Plato
The new mythology has to do for the present age what Plato’s myths did for his ageSlide49
unity in diversity
the new mythology provides
(with history and the present time)
(approximations of the highest ideal)
(through the highest ideal)
|
equalitySlide50
Mythic Platonism for the new age
Written collectively, not just by one person
Need to bring classes together
Need to develop full potential of every individual