The Relevance of Romanticism

Abstract

In the last two decades, philosophers have become increasingly aware of the fact that, in spite of significant differences between the contemporary and romantic contexts, romanticism continues to “persist,” and the questions that the romantics raised remain relevant today. The Relevance of Romanticism: Essays on Early German Romantic Philosophy is the first collection of essays that directly considers the reasons why philosophers have recently become deeply interested in romantic thought. Through historical and systematic reconstructions, the volume offers greater understanding of romanticism as a philosophical movement and deeper insight into the role that romantic thought plays—or can play—in contemporary philosophical debates. Sixteen essays by both established and emerging scholars discussing key romantic themes and concerns highlight the diversity within both romantic thought and its contemporary reception. Part 1 consists of the first published encounter between Manfred Frank and Frederick Beiser, in which the two major scholars discuss their differing interpretations of philosophical romanticism. Part 2 draws significant connections between romantic conceptions of history, sociability, hermeneutics, and education and explores the ways in which these views can illuminate questions in contemporary social-political philosophy and theories of interpretation. Part 3 consists in some of the most innovative takes on romantic aesthetics, which seek to bring romantic thought into dialogue, with, for instance, contemporary analytic aesthetics and theories of cognition. Part 4 offers a rare rigorous engagement with romantic conceptions of science, and demonstrates ways in which the romantic view of nature, experimentation, and mathematics need not be relegated to historical curiosities.