Friedrich Schlegel’s Transformation of Fichte’s Transcendental into an Early Romantic Idealism*

Bärbel Frischmann

Few people today would stigmatize Romanticism as a sentimental, past- orientated movement. The more recent research-efforts show the modern- ity and innovative potential especially of Early Romantics (Frühromantik) and the great influence of romantic thought on 20th century poetic theory and philosophy.1 Thus the interest of my paper is not to argue against the old Romanticism-picture. Rather I want to show the close connection of the Early Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schlegel to the philosophy of German Idealism and Fichte in particular. My approach to the Early Ro- mantics stresses its philosophical ambitions and contribution and is direc- ted against a reductionist literary and aesthetic reading of it. In the past, a clear distinction was made between idealism and roman- ticism. But the Early Romantics themselves described and understood their own philosophy explicitly as idealism.2 They call it critical, absolute or transcendental idealism (Schlegel), magic idealism (Novalis), or inten- ded a kind of aesthetic and poetical idealism. So in contemporary com- panions to German Idealism we often find sections dealing with Early Ro- mantic Philosophy.3

* I am grateful to Jeffery Kinlaw and to Carola Freiin von Villiez for help with trans- lation, and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert for proofreading. 1 Eldridge speaks about the »Persistence of Romanticism«, 2001. 2 In this point I don’t agree with Frank’s proposal, »zwischen dem Idealismus und der Frühromantik scharf zu unterscheiden« (1997, p. 859). 3 See for example Ameriks (ed.) 2000, Sandkühler (ed.) 2005. 344 Bärbel Frischmann

It is important to see that Fichte is the philosopher with the deepest in- fluence on Early Romantic philosophy. For this reason in my paper I deal with Friedrich Schlegel’s early philosophy and some aspects of his critical reception of Fichte’s philosophy.4 Part one provides some general information about the Early Romantics and some biographical remarks concerning Friedrich Schlegel. Part two draws out some main points of Schlegel’s interpretation of idealism. In part three I would like to sketch the influence of Fichte’s philosophy on Schlegel’s thinking in a summary of points which are significant for Schle- gel’s philosophy. Schlegel’s concept of irony as an important characteristic of his kind of philosophy I point out in part four separately.

1. The Early Romantic Movement

German Early Romantics covered the short period from the middle of the 1790s to the beginning of the 18th century. The main proponents, in theor- etical respect, were the brothers August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis. Because of some obvious parallels, Hölderlin can also be un- derstood as closely related to the early German Romantics. Some specific aspects of their philosophical positions are: – the close connection with Fichte, – the idea of an autonomous, self-creating human being, – a revolutionary, democratic political attitude, – a strong scepticism about a scientific, systematic philosophy, – the alternative concept of a fragmentary and ironical philosophy, espe- cially in Fr. Schlegel, – a strong tendency towards a historical and hermeneutical philosophy, – the programme of the synthesis of philosophy, poetry and, later, reli- gion (it culminates in the idea of a New Mythology), – the notion of an infinite progress of mankind and the idea of a »Golden Age«. Friedrich Schlegel, first of all, was a self-confident, provocative, experi- mental and critical thinker. His philosophical work contains philosophical essays and reviews, philosophical fragments and notebooks, 5 philosophic-

4 For a detailed investigation into Schlegel’s Fichte-reception see Frischmann 2005.