Early German Romanticism

This research area investigates the intervention of early German Romantics, especially Herder, in revising Spinoza's metaphysics by integrating ideas from English Cambridge Platonists like Cudworth. It explores how concerns about determinism in Spinoza's philosophy were problematized and reconceptualized to introduce mediating principles (e.g., 'plastik' and 'Kraft'), thereby reviving Spinoza’s thought within the Pantheism Controversy and advancing foundational elements of Romantic aesthetics. This theme critically highlights the cross-national intellectual exchanges that shaped German Romanticism's philosophical underpinnings and its aesthetic ideals.

This theme addresses the early German Romantics’ challenge to foundationalist philosophy, especially in opposition to Fichte's system-building. Friedrich Schlegel exemplifies this stance by rejecting linear philosophical starting points and absolute principles in favor of an anti-foundationalist approach that treats philosophy as indeterminate, fragmentary, and self-validating through reciprocal principles. This approach elevates literature and poetic forms as central modes of philosophical expression, underscoring constant change, transformation, and irony. Studying Schlegel’s thought illuminates the Romantic critique of systematic philosophy and its integration of aesthetic and literary strategies into philosophical discourse.

This theme explores early German Romanticism’s engagement with temporality and the concept of totality, especially in relation to emerging Classical German Philosophy. By analyzing figures such as Hegel and documents like 'The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism', researchers investigate constructions of ‘eternal unity’ and ‘absolute becoming’ as temporal concepts that complicate simplistic oppositions between German Idealism and Romanticism. These investigations highlight Romanticism’s nuanced temporal ontology that fosters a complex dialogue rather than a binary opposition with Idealism, underscoring tensions and complementarities concerning historical time, unity, and change.

This research area probes the Romantic valorization of the imagination and poetic genius as the highest manifestations of creative freedom and cognitive transcendence beyond Enlightenment instrumental reason. Through analyses of literary and philosophical texts, including those of Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, and figures such as William Blake and Friedrich Schiller, scholars identify how Romanticism positions artistic creation as a mode of ontological and epistemic innovation. This theme underscores the imbrication of aesthetic experience with metaphysical speculation, showing how Romanticism seeks to reconcile individual creativity with universal concepts and infinite striving.

This theme examines early German Romanticism’s critical redefinition of religion, moving away from eighteenth-century rationalistic or purely philosophical definitions toward a conception rooted in religious feeling, social communication, and historical particularity. Schleiermacher’s Speeches on Religion serve as a seminal text here, presenting religion as an emotive, communicative social phenomenon rather than a private, inward experience. This approach influenced subsequent Romantic and theological discourses by situating religion relationally and dialogically, challenging reductive modern appropriations of religion as solely subjective or doctrinal.

Research on ‘forces of nature’ investigates how early German Romantic thinkers and writers integrated scientific concepts—such as attraction, repulsion, vital forces, and formative drives—with literary and philosophical notions to articulate a dynamic, agentic conception of nature. Drawing from interdisciplinary analyses of literature, natural sciences, and philosophical texts, this theme highlights Romanticism’s efforts to reconceive natural phenomena as imbued with vitality and agency, bridging the gap between mechanistic science and metaphysical speculation.