“A maximum in its kind” : the problem of the absolute between Novalis and Kant.

Abstract

The problem of the absolute, in its religious, political, aesthetic and/or philosophical scopes, is one of the fundamental propeller springs of 18th century thought, especially in Kant’s time and until the period of German Idealism. This paper intends to approach the problem in its philosophical-aesthetic dimension and to discern how the problem of thinking or experiencing the absolute, in the form of philosophical systematicity, as it was legated by Kant and his generation, was one of the main theoretical questions received by a whole generation of young authors. In order to best demonstrate this, we chose the example of the poet and philosopher Novalis. Our objective is, therefore, to investigate how openly, or how negatively Novalis read Kant’s proposition of the a priori and the critical edifice based upon it, and to render evident Novalis’ negation of the possibility of experiencing the absolute but in an “infinite approximation”. We also seek to suggest what could have been Kant’s reply to the objections, namely, an anthropological reply that might have shown the full reach of Kant’s conception of his critical edifice and his philosophical reflection, which might have displayed a new dimension of the reflection on the human in Kant, and thus might have partially exempted the philosopher from the reproaches of his younger readers. Finally, we want to present both Novalis’ and Kant’s (to a certain extent) surprisingly close conception of poetry as the key for the philosophical problem of the absolute.