The Idolatry of Philosophy Johann Georg Hamann’s Critique of his Contemporaries as Driven by his Notion of Philosophical Superstition and Idolatry Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn vorgelegt von Matthew Cierzan aus Iowa, die Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika Bonn 2019 Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission: Prof. Dr. Rainer Schäfer (Vorsitzender) Prof. Dr. Michael Schulz (Betreuer) Prof. Dr. Phil. Andreas Pangritz (Gutachter) PD Dr. Christian Rode (weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 13.7.2018 2 Table of Contents Abbreviations and Translations .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7 Course of Argumentation .................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Superstition (Aberglaube) – Idolatry (Abgotterei, Idolatrie, Götzendienst) ....................................................................... 8 Tracing the Thread .................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Contribution of this Study ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Example: Socratic Memorabilia.................................................................................................................................................... 15 Glimpsing the Issue............................................................................................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER I ................................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Review of Scholarship ............................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Faith, Superstition, and Idolatry .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Critique Criticized ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Empiricism and the Blind Philosophers ........................................................................................................................................... 28 Setting the Stage: Hamann’s Interlocutors ..................................................................................................................................... 30 A Post-Cartesian Epoch .................................................................................................................................................................... 31 The Rationalism of Christian Wolff ............................................................................................................................................ 32 Encyclopedic Knowledge ................................................................................................................................................................ 34 The Berlin Enlightenment .............................................................................................................................................................. 36 Idolatry, Superstition, and Atheism ................................................................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Turning Things on Their Head: The Superstition of His Century ........................................................................................... 45 The Enlightenment Critique of Superstition .................................................................................................................................. 47 Purging Religion of Superstition ......................................................................................................................................................... 49 Foundation of Faith: the Foundation of Knowledge ................................................................................................................... 51 The Empirical Starting Place of Faith .............................................................................................................................................. 53 Empiricism, Language, Reason ........................................................................................................................................................... 56 Language and Communication ........................................................................................................................................................... 57 Religious Faith ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 59 The Singularity of the Christian Faith ....................................................................................................................................... 60 Faith and Historical Revelation .................................................................................................................................................... 61 Christian Faith: a Framework for Philosophy........................................................................................................................ 64 Condescension of God....................................................................................................................................................................... 67 3 Faith and Reason: Two Interdependent Faculties of Human Knowledge .......................................................................... 71 Philosophical Superstition ..................................................................................................................................................................... 76 Hamann's Critique of Superstition and Hans Blumenberg's Metaphorology ................................................................... 77 Foundations of Philosophy beyond Reason: Blumenberg's Absolute Metaphors ................................................. 78 Hamann’s Notion of History .......................................................................................................................................................... 85 The Road to Superstition: Its Causes ................................................................................................................................................. 88 Limitations of Abstract Reason .................................................................................................................................................... 88 Reason, Knowledge, and Eschatology ....................................................................................................................................... 90 Contingency of Reason and Faith ................................................................................................................................................ 91 System as the Worst Form of Abstraction ............................................................................................................................... 94 Abstraction Relativized .................................................................................................................................................................... 96 Examples of Superstition ....................................................................................................................................................................... 98 Superstition in Kant’s System of Pure Reason ....................................................................................................................... 98 Superstitious Elements in the Thought of Moses Mendelssohn: “The State of Nature” .................................. 103 Chapter III .............................................................................................................................................................................. 107 From Superstition to Idolatry ........................................................................................................................................................... 107 Philosophical Idols Specified ............................................................................................................................................................