Basic Concepts in the Philosophy of Gottfried Keller
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Basic Concepts in the Philosophy of Gottfried Keller From 1949 to 2004, UNC Press and the UNC Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures published the UNC Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures series. Monographs, anthologies, and critical editions in the series covered an array of topics including medieval and modern literature, theater, linguistics, philology, onomastics, and the history of ideas. Through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, books in the series have been reissued in new paperback and open access digital editions. For a complete list of books visit www.uncpress.org. Basic Concepts in the Philosophy of Gottfried Keller herbert w. reichert UNC Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures Number 1 Copyright © 1949 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons cc by-nc-nd license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses. Suggested citation: Reichert, Herbert W. Basic Concepts in the Philoso- phy of Gottfried Keller. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1949. doi: https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469658179_Reichert Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Reichert, Herbert W. Title: Basic concepts in the philosophy of Gottfried Keller / by Herbert W. Reichert. Other titles: University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures ; no. 1. Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [1949] Series: University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages and Literatures. | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: lccn 49011614 | isbn 978-1-4696-5816-2 (pbk: alk. paper) | isbn 978-1-4696-5817-9 (ebook) Subjects: Keller, Gottfried, 1819-1890. Classification: lcc pd25 .n6 no. 1 FOREWORD This study is a revision and elaboration of my doctoral disser tation, "Studies in the Weltanschauung of Gottfried Keller," written at the University of Illinois in 1942 under the late Pro fessor Albert W. Aron. It was at the suggestion of Professor Aron, to whom I shall ever remain indebted for his kindly guid ance and wise counsel, that I undertook to revise the dissertation for publication. It will be uoted that the term "Weltanschauung" used in the original title has been replaced in the book title and all chapter titles of the present study by the word "philosophy." This has been done merely to obtain an easily read title, and the more appropriate term Weltanschauung (more appropriate because of the approach used in the study) is retained in the body of the text. I am deeply grateful to the North Carolina Center of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, at the University of North Carolina, for the generous grant-in-aid which made actual publication possible. I wish also to thank Mrs. Marguerite Rust and Mrs. Elaine Miller for their assistance in typing the manuscript. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER I. The Basic Concepts Natur and Freiheit, 1837-1849 .................................... 13 II. The Basic Concepts Natur and Freiheit, 1849-1886 .................................... 51 III. Natur and Freiheit in the Major Fields of Keller's Thought ............... 93 A. Ethics ........................... ....................................................................................................................... 93 B. Aesthetics .......................................................................................................................................... 106 C. Politics ................................................................................................................................................... 116 D. Social Relations ........................................................................................................................... 120 IV. Schiller and Keller .............................................................................................................................. 125 APPENDIX. A Brief Survey of the Critical Studies on Keller's Philosophy ..................................................................................................................... 137 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................ 161 INTRODUCTION This study of Gottfried Keller was undertaken because there is still little agreement among scholars regarding his Welt anschauung.1 Despite the number of investigations which have probed the innermost recesses of Keller's mind from aesthetic, political, philosophical, and psychological points of view, opin ions still diverge as profusely as rays of a beam broken through a prism. The only feature characteristic of the critical literature as a whole, its extreme divergence, may readily be seen by glanc ing at the conclusions of some Keller scholars.2 Edward Hauch, Ernst Howald, A. von Gleichen-Russwurm, and Hans Kriesi ex pressed the conviction that Keller was primarily a political per sonality with a democratic philosophy of life; Erwin Acker knecht, that Keller's political views were based on a philosophy of cultural nationalism; Ernst Corrodi, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Ricarda Huch, that Keller's political interests were sec ondary since he was essentially a religious person. Max Hoch dorf believed at first that Keller had been an adherent of Balzac till 1855, had then become a mystic, and finally in his old age, a determinist; later, Hochdorf decided that Keller had been a determinist ever since 1849. Emil Ermatinger, Hans Diinnebier, and a number of other scholars felt that Keller had adhered to German Romanticism in his youth and become a devotee of Lud wig Feuerbach in his maturity. Jonas Frankel expressed the opinion that Keller's main views had become fixed before he came to know Feuerbach. Kathe Heesch voiced the belief that Keller's early conception of nature differed radically from the subjective world of German Romanticism. One might continue in similar fashion with the lesser studies, but the point is clear: the challenge that is extended is not so much to uncover new facts as to resift material already dealt with, in an endeavor to uncover the true nature of Keller's basic views. The present investigation began as a word study since an objective approach seemed called for, but it soon became apparent that by itself, word-study would produce only limited results. 1 Webster, Unabridged: "A conception of the course of the events in, and of the purpose of the world as a whole, forming the philosophical view or apprehension of the Universe: the general idea embodied in a cosmology." • A detailed analysis of the important studies of Keller's Weltanschauung is given in the appendix, pp. 137-160. 10 GOTTFRIED KELLER Not only had Keller often used words recurrently for purely stylistic reasons,3 but he had also directly avoided the use of key· words4 because he disliked labeling his ideas.5 Furthermore, in his maturity he had become increasingly reluctant to reveal his views to what he considered an unappreciative public,6 and felt the desire as an artist to express his ideas in symbolical pic· tures rather than in categorical terms.7 The search for recurrent words was accordingly broadened into a search for recurrent concepts whether the related key. word was present or not, and with interesting results. Two con· cepts which remained active and relatively unchanged in Keller's attitude throughout his life were found to have been the corner· stone of his Weltanschauung. These were Natur, the purpose· fully.ordered world, and Freiheit, moral freedom based on en· lightenment. Natur reflected Keller's cosmology and implied a dynamic monism resembling Herderian pantheism, whereas Freiheit formed the basis of his understanding of man. Though not strictly parallel concepts, Natur and Freiheit were used on at least one occasion for the opposing philosophical ideas of determinism and moral idealism. 8 These findings determined the specific aim of this study, name ly, to demonstrate the active presence of the two concepts in Keller's thought throughout his life and to show that they re· mained virtually unchanged from fi.rst to last. As the opinion prevails9 that Keller's Weltanschauung is characterized by transition, the temporal sequence is particular· ly important, and consequently the study of the basic concepts has been undertaken in a chronological order. Furthermore, it has • Cf. Priscilla M. Kramer, The Cyclical Method of Composition in Gottfried Keller' a Sinngedicht, p. 236. Also p. 114 in this study. ' uKey-word" as used here has the same force as the term Lieblingswort usQd in German research. Cf. Julius Petersen in Die Wissenschaft von der Dichtung (1, 215): "Was sich Ieicht einstellt, sind die Lieblingsworter, in denen ein Zeitalter sein eigenstes Lebensgefiihl ausgedriickt findet." Key-words are words which have a special significance for persons who use them to refer to their basic concepts. • Emil Ermatinger: Gottfried Kellers Leben, Briefe, und Tagebilcher (this much-quoted work wiiJ henceforth be referred to by naming its author), II, 355. Keller wrote in a letter: "Wer die Worte Natur, Biederkeit, Gefiihl, Herz usw. immer im Munde fiihrt ist gewOhnlich ein verzwickter Gesell e." 6 Cf. the poem of 1846 (Frankel edition XIV, 247)