Friedrich Hölderlin: Essays and Letters on Theory (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 139 I do not want to say or imply that the book lacks insights. For example, MacAdam points out that inequality arises not from property but "with successive developments of the human mind" (94; see also 117). This is important. Also, Cell's account of Rousseau's view that social man bases his own self-esteem on the esteem of others, in contrast with natural man who bases it on his own desires, is very good. My complaint here is with Rousseau. As Aristotle said, a man outside of society, as Rousseau's natural man is, is a beast or a god, not a human being. He does not have even language, which is surely characteristic of humans. Worse, a person in society who cares not a whit for its opinions is a sociopath. So, while there are mistaken ways of valuing the opinions of others, there are also good ones, and Rousseau does little to distinguish the two. A. P. MARTINICH University of Texas at Austin Friedrich Htlderlin. Essays and Letters on Theory. Translated and Edited by Thomas Pfau. Intersections: A SUNY Series in Philosophy and Critical Theory. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. Pp. xiv + 193. Cloth, $39.5 o. Paper, $19.95. No history of German Idealism today can ignore the important role Friedrich H61derlin played in its formation. Thanks to the groundbreaking work especially of Dieter Henrich, we can no longer see Htlderlin simply as the great poet who befriended Hegel and Scheiling when, as young theology students, they shared rooms at the Tiibinger Stift; who after his graduation briefly studied in Jena where he attended Fichte's lectures and frequented Schiller's house; and who, two years later, was reunited with Hegel in Frankfurt where both held positions as Hauslehrer before their paths parted forever. To this familiar picture we must now add the knowledge that Htlderlin, while in Jena, had formed a philosophical position of astonishing sophistication . This position combined insights of Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre, Schiller's Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, and Jacobi's Briefe ftber Spinoza, but went beyond them in the direction of the Vereinigungsphilosophie that would soon replace the Reinholdinspired search for a "first principle" of all philosophy. It was this rich, up-to-date philosophy, with its powerful critique of Fichte, that confronted Hegel when he joined his friend in Frankfurt in 1797. Almost immediately he converted to Htlderlin's view and abandoned the Kantianism he had nourished during his Hofmeister years in Bern. For about two years, Hegel's and H61derlin's thoughts developed in friendly collaboration, until in 1799, for reasons not entirely clear, they parted philosophical company. What is clear, however, is that it was during these shared years in Frankfurt that Hegel "found" the dialectical method that would give his philosophy its characteristic mark. It is not only the speed of Hegel's conversion to the new way of thinking that indicates Htlderlin's standing as a philosopher. While he was still a student in Jena, the editor of the important Philosophisches Journal had invited him to contribute to its pages--which H61derlin promised to do in an article entitled "New Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man." He also thought of habilitating in philosophy and lectur- 14o JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 29:1 JANUARY 1991 ing next to Fichte. H61derlin's habilitation plans collapsed when he abruptly left Jena in the summer of 1795, but he continued to work on his "New Letters," and when Hegel joined him in Frankfurt, it seems to have been this project that fired their early philosophical discussions. We only have fragments of it. H61derlin could never complete it; his intuitive poetic sensibility constantly rebelled against the demands of abstract philosophical speculation . Eventually all his theoretical energy focused on poetological questions--first for the journal lduna that he planned to edit, then, after its failure, for himself~ "Memorial einer vorauseilenden Reflexion, die bis heute nicht eingeholt ist" (D. E. Sattler). Anyone interested in H6lderlin's thought must welcome the publication in English of his theoretical writings, together with selected letters. The translation is largely successful in dealing with the extraordinary problems...