DOCSLIB.ORG

Franz Rosenzweig's Hegel and the State

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

FRANZ ROSENZWEIG'S HEGEL AND THE STATE: BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND TRAGEDY by JOSIAH B. SIMON A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of German and Scandinavian and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Josiah B. Simon Title: Franz Rosenzweig's Hegel and the State: Biography, History and Tragedy This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of German and Scandinavian by: Jeffrey Librett Chairperson Martin Klebes Core Member Kenneth Calhoon Core Member John McCole Institutional Representative and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2014 ii © 2014 Josiah B. Simon iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Josiah B. Simon Doctor of Philosophy Department of German and Scandinavian June 2014 Title: Franz Rosenzweig's Hegel and the State: Biography, History and Tragedy Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) is known today as one of the most influential German Jewish intellectuals of the twentieth century. His most celebrated work, The Star of Redemption, has earned him a reputation as a challenging religious thinker with increasing relevance for contemporary religious, philosophical and historical debates. However, this legacy has largely ignored his first published book, Hegel and the State (1920). My dissertation is the first English-language monograph to fully explore Rosenzweig's intellectual biography of Hegel, making a contribution to contemporary Hegel and Rosenzweig scholarship alike. I offer an analysis that draws on the formal characteristics of the work—such as the epigraph, the narrative and biographical structure, as well as the historical presuppositions of the foreword and the conclusion—to show how Rosenzweig's interpretation of Hegel's key texts, culminating in the Philosophy of Right, is informed by his own biographical development and the influence of thinkers such as Wilhelm Dilthey and Friedrich Meinecke. By recasting his critique of Hegel’s political thinking into biographical and historical terms, I ultimately argue that Rosenzweig's narrative in Hegel and the State is a tragic foil for his own development as a German historian. In Rosenzweig's interpretation, the relationship between the individual and the state championed by Hegel ends in the tragic separation of the iv individual from the reconciliatory promise of Idealist thought. By unearthing Rosenzweig's latent theory of tragedy in Hegel and the State—evidenced most clearly in how he situates the figures of Friedrich Hölderlin and Napoleon—I argue that the historical and philosophical crisis that marked the beginning of the twentieth century, and particularly Rosenzweig's own biographical crisis, shapes his work as the author of Hegel and the State. In addition to providing a critical commentary on the cultural, philosophical and literary history of the German nation, as well as providing the first English translation of many passages from Hegel and the State, my dissertation lays the necessary groundwork for a reinterpretation of Rosenzweig's critique of German Idealism in The Star of Redemption. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Josiah B. Simon GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Universität Kassel, Kassel, Germany University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, German, 2014, University of Oregon Master of Arts, German, 2006, University of New Mexico Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy and Germany, 2004, University of New Mexico AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: 19th and early 20th Century German Literature and Philosophy Intellectual History Critical Theory Film History German Jewish Studies and Religious Thought Translation PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of German and Scandinavian, University of Oregon, 2008-2014. German Instructor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of New Mexico, 2004-2006. PUBLICATIONS: Simon, Josiah. "On the Origins of Rosenzweig's "Metaethics": Kant, Hegel and Goethe." Proceedings of the Internationale Rosenzweig Gesellschaft. Forthcoming. Web. vi Schmied-Kowarzik, Wolfdietrich. "Brief Illuminations on the Dialogue between Franz Rosenzweig and Hans Ehrenberg." Trans. Josiah Simon. Das Rosenzweig Jahrbuch/Rosenzweig Yearbook, Band 8. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, Forthcoming. Schmied-Kowarzik, Wolfdietrich. "Philosophy of Revelation. Remarks on Schelling, Jaspers and Rosenzweig." Trans. Josiah Simon. Philosophical Faith and the Future of Humanity. Ed. Wautischer. New York: Springer, 2012. 147-158. Simon, Josiah and Jules Simon. "Hegel und der Staat." Franz Rosenzweig. Religionsphilosoph aus Kassel. Ed. Schmied-Kowarzik and Schulz- Jander. Kassel: Euregio Verlag, 2011. 31-37. Simon, Josiah. Rev. of Rosenzweig im Gespräch mit Ehrenberg, Cohen und Buber, by Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik. Das Rosenzweig Jahrbuch/Rosenzweig Yearbook, Band 3. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, 2008. 273-83. Simon, Josiah. "Walter Benjamin’s "The Life of Students"." Best Student Essays, Fall 2004. University of New Mexico: Student Publications Board, 2004. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my dissertation committee: John McCole, for his insightful questions and suggestions, which helped better orient my project historically; Ken Calhoon, for his inspiration as a teacher in general and especially for offering his course on tragedy in the Fall of 2008, which significantly informed the direction of my dissertation; Martin Klebes, to whom I owe perhaps the greatest gratitude. Martin was the chair of my MA committee at the University of New Mexico, where the first phase of this project was carried out. He graciously supported and encouraged me then and has ever since. But moreover, as a teacher, Martin always pushed me into new areas of inquiry and knowledge. I cannot overstate the degree to which he has shaped my intellectual development; Jeffrey Librett, the chair of my committee, for his unfailing trust in this project and the freedom he gave me to follow my own trajectory. Also for organizing a reading group on Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption, which helped me to keep the spark for Rosenzweig alive. For reading over the many drafts of my dissertation, especially the very early drafts, which were surely unbearable at times. And finally, I would like to thank Jeffrey for the fine example his has set as an academic scholar, an example I am honored to follow. I owe a very special thanks to the International Rosenzweig Society, and especially Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik, who from very early on acknowledged the importance of my work for the field. Over the years, the Rosenzweig Society provided me with both financial and intellectual support, without which I could not have finished viii this project. While writing my dissertation, my thoughts were often directed towards the many fine minds of this Society and I hope my work is a worthy addition to our field. I would especially like to thank my family: My brother Jared for the many years of stimulating discussion and for always helping to keep my wits sharpened; my sister Rebekah, for he constant emotional and intellectual support, for always being there when I needed someone to lean on; my mother Kate, for her trust and encouragement—always believing in me, whether my interests where in skateboarding, juggling or Hegel—and for providing me with the maternal support and faith without which I may have given up on this project long ago; finally my father, Julius, whose own work on Rosenzweig and example as a teacher were my inspirations for beginning a career as an academic. Julius was always there to offer me advice both in academia and in life. Many of the ideas and interpretations in my dissertation I owe directly to our conversations over the years. Our planned translation of Hegel and the State into English was the main catalyst for my dissertation and I sincerely hope that this dream will see the light of day before another ten years have passed! Finally, I would like to thank my wife and best friend, Kirstin, whose faith in me is inestimable. Kirstin, this dissertation is as much yours as it is mine. Despite the difficulty of the work itself, I learned more from your own strength, wisdom and love than from all the books I could ever read. It is our shared life of love and the vision of our shared future—together with our daughter Iris—that inspired me to finish this work. I am lucky and blessed to have such a wonderful soul by my side. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCING HEGEL AND THE STATE ........................................................... 1 Preface: A Letter to Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik ......................................... 1 Introductory Remarks ............................................................................................ 6 Personality and Work ............................................................................................. 12 On Historicism ...................................................................................................... 16 Biography as Form ................................................................................................. 19 Rosenzweig's "Vorwort" .......................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • 1 Thomas Meyer Leo Strauss's Religious Rhetoric

    1 Thomas Meyer Leo Strauss's Religious Rhetoric

    Thomas Meyer Leo Strauss’s Religious Rhetoric (1924-1938) Although he had been regarded as shy and restrained since his period of study in Marburg, Strauss was a master of religious rhetoric in his letters and [published] texts. This rhetoric was, for him, neither a [form of] compensation [for insufficient argument], nor a superficial adornment. On the contrary, he deployed religious rhetoric in same way that he analysed [its function] in Plato and Aristotle, through Maimonides and Abravanel, into Spinoza and Hobbes, and up to Hermann Cohen and Julius Guttmann: as an expression of the complex contest between philosophy and religion. After his engagement with Hermann Cohen’s critique of Spinoza in 1924, religious rhetoric was, for Strauss, no longer a feature of Zionist debates alone. Instead, it was a constitutive element of a problematic that Strauss strikingly and provocatively dubbed the “querelle des anciens et des modernes.” In order to understand this change in the function of religious rhetoric [in Strauss’ work], I shall consider three stations of Strauss’ intellectual development. First of all, I shall present several articles that I found in the “Jewish Weekly for Cassel, Hessen, and Waldeck”, which have remained unknown to scholarship until now. Strauss published these articles between February 1925 and January 1928. If we connect these texts with Strauss’s conclusions regarding Spinoza, we can develop a stable account of his religious rhetoric up to about 1934. But [Strauss’s use of religious rhetoric in these texts] can be understood only if we consider it in light of Strauss’ translation of a different religious rhetoric [into the terms of his own thought]: namely, the way Strauss enriched his religious rhetoric through an understanding of, and in dialogue with, the most radical position in Protestant [thought]—that of the dialectical theologian Friedrich Gogarten.
  • KIERKEGAARD and EXISTENTIALISM. Edited by Jon Stewart

    KIERKEGAARD and EXISTENTIALISM. Edited by Jon Stewart

    KIERKEGAARD AND EXISTENTIALISM. Edited by Jon Stewart. Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources 9. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. Pp. xvii+427. ISBN: 978-1-4094-2641-7. The series, Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources, collects articles that treat the sources of Kierkegaard’s own thought, the reception of his thought in philosophy, theology, drama, aesthetics, literature, and political life, and reference works in order to guide scholars in their engagement with Kierkegaard’s writings. This ninth volume in the series, Kierkegaard and Existentialism, comprises part of this series’ goal by exploring the reception of Søren Kierkegaard’s thought in the movement that, on some accounts, begins with the Dane himself. In the preface, Jon Stewart maintains that though Kierkegaard’s thought has been influential for the development of existentialism and has been cast, particularly by Sartre in L’existentialisme est un humanisme, as a forerunner to existentialism, “recent scholarship has been attentive to the ideological use of Kierkegaard in this context.” Thus, this volume, continues Stewart, aims to “reexamine the complex relation between Kierkegaard and the existentialist thinkers” in order to determine whether or not Kierkegaard is misrepresented and distorted in this reception (x). The contributors to this volume accomplish this task with great aplomb by addressing the reception of Kierkegaard’s thought in the phi- losophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Miguel de Unamuno, Lev Shestov, Nicholas Berdyaev, Martin Buber, Jacques Maritain, Karl Jaspers, Franz Rosenzweig, Jean Wahl, Martin Heidegger, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Albert Camus, and Michel Henry. One essay is devoted for each of these figure’s reception of Kierkegaard’s thought.
  • Jegór Von Sivers' Herderian Cosmopolitanism

    Jegór Von Sivers' Herderian Cosmopolitanism

    Ajalooline Ajakiri, 2012, 1/2 (139/140), 79–113 Humanität versus nationalism as the moral foundation of the Russian Empire: Jegór von Sivers’ Herderian cosmopolitanism* Eva Piirimäe No single author is more important for the development of nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe than Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803).1 Yet Herder’s own relationship to nationalism continues to be debated.2 This is partly owed to the ambivalence of the notion “nationalism” itself. There is no doubt Herder is a “nationalist”, if by this term we refer to someone who defends national diversity as valuable and cherishes and cultivates one’s own language and national customs. Yet, it is more common in the anglo- phone world to use the term “nationalist” for someone who supports one’s nation’s aggressive foreign policies. In this case, Herder is rather an oppo- nent of nationalism. There is also a third widely used notion of national- ism, known also as the “principle of nationality” according to which “the * Research for this article has been funded by the Estonian Science Foundation Grant No. 8887 and the Target Financed Program No. SF0180128s08. 1 See Peter Drews, Herder und die Slaven: Materialien zur Wirkungsgeschichte bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (München: Sagner, 1990); Johann Gottfried Herder: zur Herder-Rezeption in Ost- und Südosteuropa, ed. by Gerhard Ziegengeist (Berlin-Ost: Akademie-Verlag, 1978); Holm Sundhaussen, Der Einfluß der Herderschen Ideen auf die Nationsbildung bei den Völkern der Habsburger Monarchie (München: Oldenburg, 1973); Konrad Bittner, “Herders ‘Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit’ und ihre Auswirkung bei den slavischen Hauptstämmen”, Germanoslavica, 2 (1932/33), 453–480; Konrad Bittner, Herders Geschichtsphilosophie und die Slawen (Reichenberg: Gebrüder Stiepel, 1929).
  • Ethics After Auschwitz: Hans Jonas's Notion Of

    Ethics After Auschwitz: Hans Jonas's Notion Of

    INTRODUCTION ETHICS AFTER AUSCHWITZ: HANS JONAS’S NOTION OF RESPONSIBILITY IN A TECHNOLOGICAL AGE Richard Wolin It is worth pausing for a moment at the outset to refl ect on what a remarkable life Hans Jonas led. Born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, in 1903, by the age of thirty Jonas had experienced, in extremis, the full array of early twentieth-century European cultural and political turmoil: World War I (albeit as a civilian), the rising tide of Central European anti-Semitism, Germany’s collapse on the home front accompanied by civil war, the proclamation of the Weimar Republic (Germany’s fi rst), anti-democratic coup attempts from both left and right, devastating hyperinfl ation, and the Crash of 1929, followed by renewed civil strife and the ominous rise of National Socialism. Hitler’s 1933 seizure of power would plunge Germany—and Europe—into a twelve-year night- mare of dictatorship, persecutions, concentration camps, and world war. In 1934, in light of escalating levels of anti-Semitic persecution, Jonas wisely decided to emigrate to Palestine. At the time, he pledged that he would only return to Germany as part of a conquering army. As it turned out, his vow proved prophetic. In 1939, he joined the British army’s Jewish Brigade, reentering his former homeland along with the victorious allies in 1945. Three years later, in 1948, Jonas would don military garb again to fi ght in Israel’s war of independence. Weary of war, Jonas and his wife, Lore, moved to Montreal in 1949, where he began a distinguished career as a university professor.
  • Some Recent Definitions of German Romanticism, Or the Case Against Dialectics

    Some Recent Definitions of German Romanticism, Or the Case Against Dialectics

    SOME RECENT DEFINITIONS OF GERMAN ROMANTICISM, OR THE CASE AGAINST DIALECTICS by Robert L. Kahn When the time came for me to be seriously thinking about writing this paper-and you can see from the title and description that I gave myself plenty of leeway-I was caught in a dilemma. In the beginning my plan had been simple enough: I wanted to present a report on the latest develop- ments in the scholarship of German Romanticism. As it turned out, I had believed very rashly and naively that I could carry on where Julius Peter- sen's eclectic and tolerant book Die Wesensbestimmung der deutschen Romantik (Leipzig, 1926), Josef Komer's fragmentary and unsystematic reviews in the Marginalien (Frankfurt a. M., 1950), and Franz Schultz's questioning, though irresolute, paper "Der gegenwartige Stand der Roman- tikforschungM1had left off. As a matter of fact, I wrote such an article, culminating in what I then considered to be a novel definition of German Romanticism. But the more I thought about the problem, the less I liked what I had done. It slowly dawned on me that I had been proceeding on a false course of inquiry, and eventually I was forced to reconsider several long-cherished views and to get rid of certain basic assumptions which I had come to recognize as illusory and prejudicial. It became increasingly obvious to me that as a conscientious literary historian I could not discuss new contributions to Romantic scholarship in vacuo, but that I was under an obligation to relate the spirit of these pronouncements to our own times, as much as to relate their substance to the period in question.
  • Lebovic on Gordon, 'Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy'

    Lebovic on Gordon, 'Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy'

    H-German Lebovic on Gordon, 'Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy' Review published on Thursday, June 1, 2006 Peter Eli Gordon. Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy. Weimar and Now: University of California Press, 2003. 357 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-23611-0; $25.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-520-24636-2. Reviewed by Nitzan Lebovic (Department of History, University of California-Los Angeles and University of Tel Aviv) Published on H-German (June, 2006) The Radical Horizon of German-Jewish Thought In his recent book, Peter Gordon makes an excellent case for the relevance of German-Jewish thought, pointing out the seminal role it played in the development of modern critical theory and intellectual history. The new role of German-Jewish studies, according to Gordon, is to blaze a new critical path: at the end of protracted efforts to erect a decisive barrier between supporters and critics of humanism, we now need to reconsider the radical and shared legacy of such names as Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger. For Gordon, the current interest in Rosenzweig's "negative theology" is largely political, a classic case of enlightened society questioning norms and conventions. Heidegger sets the stage and allows Gordon to emphasize the "positive possibility" of radical thinking. However, while examining the suppressed topics of the past, Gordon ignores the might- have-beens and the inevitable theoretical horizon of his own investigation. The reader is left to wonder: at what point would Rosenzweig have recognized the terrifying connections between Heidegger's philosophy and his politics? When Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger was published three years ago, it was received enthusiastically and immediately added to syllabi in Jewish history and Jewish studies.
  • DOKUMENTATION Hans-Ehrenberg-Preis 2011

    DOKUMENTATION Hans-Ehrenberg-Preis 2011

    HANS-EHRENBERG-PREIS 2011 "GOTT UND DIE POLITIK" WEGE DER VERSÖHNUNG IM ÖFFENTLICHEN LEBEN Dokumentation der Verleihung des Hans-Ehrenberg-Preises am 22. November 2011 in der Christuskirche Bochum __________________________________________________________________________________ Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Bochum Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen Hans-Ehrenberg-Gesellschaft _________________________________________________________________ Inhalt 2 Begrüßung Peter Scheffler | Superintendent 3 Theologischer Impuls Traugott Jähnichen | Professor für Christliche Gesellschaftslehre an der Ruhr-Uni Bochum 5 Preisverleihung Albert Henz | Vizepräsident der Evang. Kirche von Westfalen 6 Podiumsgespräch Antje Vollmer | Publizistin; Vizepräsidentin des Deutschen Bundestages a.D. Margot Käßmann | Prof. Dr. h.c. an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum Reinhard Mawick | Pressesprecher der Evang. Kirche in Deutschland Mitglieder aus Organisationen Ehemaliger Heimkinder BEGRÜSSUNG PETER SCHEFFLER | SUPERINTENDENT Am 1. Advent 1947 - Hans Ehrenberg war gerade erst aus dem englischen Exil nach Westfa- len zurückgekehrt; er war allerdings nicht von uns, seiner Kirche, zurückgerufen worden, auch seine Pfarrstelle in Bochum hat er nicht zurück erhalten - am 1. Advent 1947 schrieb Hans Ehrenberg in Bielefeld das Vorwort zu einem kleinen Buch. Jahrelang hatte er dieses Buch im Kopf getragen, jetzt, zwei Jahre nach dem Zusammen- bruch der Zivilisation schrieb er es zu Ende. Der Titel des Buches: "Vom Menschen". In diesem kleinen Buch findet sich folgende Erinnerung an das Jahr 1939 - jenes Jahr, in dem Ehrenberg mit seiner Familie nach England entkommen war: Damals, schreibt Ehrenberg, "am Anfang des Krieges wurde häufig betont, dass man kein Recht habe, sich Nazi-Deutschland gegenüber schlechtweg als den Repräsentanten des Christentums aufzuspielen. Man war sich weitgehend bewusst, dass es das Malen in Weiß und Schwarz nicht geben dürfe. Man konnte für sich selbst nur eine Art von Grau, näher zum Weiß oder näher zum Schwarz, und daher nur ein relatives Recht (…) in Anspruch nehmen.
  • Aryan Jesus and the Kirchenkampf: an Examination of Protestantism Under the Third Reich Kevin Protzmann

    Aryan Jesus and the Kirchenkampf: an Examination of Protestantism Under the Third Reich Kevin Protzmann

    Aryan Jesus and the Kirchenkampf: An Examination of Protestantism under the Third Reich Kevin Protzmann 2 Often unstated in the history of National Socialism is the role played by Protestantism. More often than not, Christian doctrine and institutions are seen as incongruous with Nazism. Accordingly, the Bekennende Kirche, or Confessing Church, receives a great deal of scholarly and popular attention as an example of Christian resistance to the National Socialist regime. Overlooked, however, were the Deutsche Christen, or German Christians. This division within Protestantism does more than highlight Christian opposition to Nazism; on balance, the same cultural shifts that allowed the rise of Adolf Hitler transformed many of the most fundamental aspects of Christianity. Even the Confessing Church was plagued with the influence of National Socialist thought. In this light, the German Christians largely overshadowed the Confessing Church in prominence and influence, and Protestantism under the Third Reich was more participatory than resistant to Nazi rule. Like the National Socialists, the Deutsche Christen, or German Christians, have their roots in the postwar Weimar Republic. The movement began with the intention of incorporating post-war nationalism with traditional Christian theology.1 The waves of nationalism brought about by the dissolution of the German Empire spread beyond political thought and into religious ideas. Protestant theologians feared that Christianity retained many elements that were not “German” enough, such as the Jewishness of Jesus, the canonicity of the Hebrew Bible, and the subservient nature of Christian ethics.2 These fears led to dialogues among the clergy and laity about the future and possible modification of Christian doctrine.
  • Tbe Confessional Pastor and His Struggle the Rev

    Tbe Confessional Pastor and His Struggle the Rev

    Tbe Confessional Pastor and His Struggle THE REv. HANS EHRENBERG, PH.D. ANY accounts of the Church conflict in Germany have M been published in this country; they have been either historical records or attempts to show the fundamental theological and political principles in-rolved. The present study has a different object, viz., to draw out the lessons of the conflict for the practical or pastoral life of the Church herself. This implies that our attempt must be to survey and sum up the facts as well as the truths of the struggle from the standpoint of one who is engaged in the struggle, i.e., to lay bare its hmer elements. Thus my essay is to present the German Church struggle in such a way that other churches see it as part and parcel of Church history and Church life in general and, hertte, also of their own. Following upon an ,introduction treating the fundamental aspect under which all churches should consider the German church conflict, I present in this essay what I may call the three dramatis persona of the "Church drama" :-the Confessional Pastor, the Heretic (the "German Christian"), and the Confessing Congregation. The study closes on the problem-still unsolved, in the Confessional Church, and the like in all churches--of a Confessional Church Government. Readers of this study are asked to forget, for the time being, all the special traditions of their own churchdom, if they are Anglican, or Nonconformist, or even German (of course pre-Hitler German). For the life and death struggle of a church concerns the "church within the church," and, hence, it is the l?truggle of the Church.
  • The 1916-1924 Dialogue of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstockhuessy

    The 1916-1924 Dialogue of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstockhuessy

    Politics, Theology, Race, and Religion: The 1916-1924 Dialogue of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen RosenstockHuessy By Gregory Kaplan, Rice University [October 18, 2008 draft] In a 1924 paper revised from a 1916 letter sent initially to his friend the Jewish educator and theorist Franz Rosenzweig, the historian of jurisprudence and Christian revolution, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, wrote the following of November 9, 1918. “That day caused everyone, from Hindenburg to Liebknecht, to die, to break through to a new time, to change. So we indeed have a life in common despite it all.” He understood that the communicative force of revolution in time from before to after, the transformation from old to new, also brings the participants together into communal space, a commons and a cosmos. Hindenburg and Liebknecht are opposites bound together in the coincidence of government, polity, time and territory. Rosentock-Huessy made this remark after 1923’s gradual stabilization calmed years of turmoil. Arguing that the practical study of the soul needs more than humanistic and scientific inquiry into mind and body, the paper speculates on immortality, life which proceeds from death in the course of translation, “a venture and an advance into unseen territory.” Translation renders practice transcendent; but to “cross over to another shore: that is the risk of politics.”1 Politics according to Rosenstock-Huessy not only risks life for death, but wagers its life after death. Even before 1924 politics and theology were linked controversially, as the Rosenzweig-Rosenstock debate demonstrates. 1 Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Practical Knowledge of the Soul [PKS] (Argo Books: 1988), 51, 66.
  • PHILOSOPHICAL (PRE)OCCUPATIONS and the PROBLEM of IDEALISM: from Ideology to Marx’S Critique of Mental Labor

    PHILOSOPHICAL (PRE)OCCUPATIONS and the PROBLEM of IDEALISM: from Ideology to Marx’S Critique of Mental Labor

    PHILOSOPHICAL (PRE)OCCUPATIONS AND THE PROBLEM OF IDEALISM: From Ideology to Marx’s Critique of Mental Labor by Ariane Fischer Magister, 1999, Freie Universität Berlin M.A., 2001, The Ohio State University M.Phil., 2005, The George Washington University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 31, 2010 Dissertation directed by Andrew Zimmerman Associate Professor of History The Columbian College of The George Washington University certifies that Ariane Fischer has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of August 25, 2009. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. PHILOSOPHICAL (PRE)OCCUPATIONS AND THE PROBLEM OF IDEALISM: From Ideology to Marx’s Critique of Mental Labor Ariane Fischer Dissertation Research Committee: Andrew Zimmerman, Associate Professor of History, Dissertation Director Peter Caws, University Professor of Philosophy, Committee Member Gail Weiss, Professor of Philosophy, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2010 by Ariane Fischer All rights reserved iii Acknowledgments The author wishes to thank her dissertation advisor Andrew Zimmerman, who has been a continuous source of support and encouragement. His enthusiastic yet demanding guidance has been invaluable. Both his superior knowledge of history and theory as well as his diligence in reviewing drafts have been crucial in the successful completion of the research and writing process. Further, many thanks are extended to Gail Weiss and Peter Caws for joining the dissertation committee, and to Dan Moschenberg and Paul Smith for agreeing to be readers.
  • Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure

    Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure

    Revitalizing Romanticism: Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Jones, Kristin Alise. 2013. Revitalizing Romanticism: Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11124853 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Revitalizing Romanticism: Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure A dissertation presented by Kristin Alise Jones to The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Germanic Languages and Literatures Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2013 © - Kristin Alise Jones All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Peter Burgard Kristin Alise Jones Revitalizing Romanticism: Novalis' Fichte Studien and the Philosophy of Organic Nonclosure Abstract This dissertation offers a re-interpretation of Novalis' Fichte Studien. I argue that several recent scholarly readings of this text unnecessarily exclude "organicism," or a panentheistic notion of the Absolute, in favor of "nonclosure," or the endless,