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Johann Georg Hamann | |
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| Born | (1730-08-27)27 August 1730 |
| Died | 21 June 1788(1788-06-21) (aged 57) |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Königsberg (1746–1752; no degree) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 18th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Post-Kantian Counter-Enlightenment Sturm und Drang |
| Main interests | |
| Notable ideas | "Reason is language" ("Vernunft ist Sprache")[1] |
Johann Georg Hamann (/ˈhɑːmɑːn/;German:[ˈhaːman]; 27 August 1730 – 21 June 1788) was a GermanLutheran philosopher fromKönigsberg known as "the Wizard of the North" who was one of the leading figures ofpost-Kantian philosophy. His work was used by his studentJ. G. Herder as the main support of theSturm und Drang movement, and is associated with theCounter-Enlightenment andRomanticism.[2][3]
He introducedKant, also from Königsberg, to the works of bothHume – waking him from his "dogmatic slumber" – andRousseau. Hamann was influenced by Hume, but he used his views to argue for rather than against Christianity.[4]
Goethe andKierkegaard were among those who considered him to be the finest mind of his time.[5] He was also a key influence onHegel andJacobi.[6] Long before thelinguistic turn, Hamann believedepistemology should be replaced by thephilosophy of language.
Hamann was born on 27 August 1730 in Königsberg (nowKaliningrad, Russia). Initially he studied theology at theUniversity of Königsberg,[7] but became a clerk in a mercantile house and afterward held many small public offices, devoting his leisure to reading philosophy.[8] His first publication was a study in political economy about a dispute on nobility and trade.[9] He wrote under thepen name of "the Magus of the North" (German:Magus im Norden).[8] Hamann was a believer in the Enlightenment until a mystical experience inLondon in 1758. There, he underwent a profound Christian conversion, reorienting his whole life and philosophy around the prophetic illuminating power of the Bible. This shift influenced all his subsequent work, shaping his views of nature, reason, and human identity.[10]
His translation ofDavid Hume into German is considered by most scholars to be the one that Hamann's friend Immanuel Kant, also fromKönigsberg, credited with awakening him from his "dogmatic slumber". Hamann and Kant held each other in mutual respect, although Hamann once declined an invitation by Kant to co-write aphysics textbook for children.[11] Hamann also introduced Kant to the work ofRousseau.[12]
Hamann was alutenist, having studied this instrument withTimofiy Bilohradsky (a student ofSylvius Leopold Weiss), a Ukrainian virtuoso then living in Königsberg.
His distrust of autonomous, disembodiedreason andthe Enlightenment ("I look upon logical proofs the way a well-bred girl looks upon a love letter" was one of his many witticisms) led him to conclude that faith inGod was the only solution to the vexing problems ofphilosophy.
One of Kant's biographers compared him with Hamann:
Kant made reason the rule of his life and the source of his philosophy; Hamann found the source of both in his heart. While Kant dreaded enthusiasm in religion, and suspected in it superstition and fanaticism, Hamann reveled in enthusiasm; and he believed in revelation, miracles, and worship, differing also in these points from the philosopher. In some respects they complemented each other; but the repelling elements were too strong to make them fully sympathetic. The difference in their stand-points, however, makes Hamann’s views of Kant all the more interesting.[13]
In Hamann's own terms Kant was a "Platonist" about reason, believing it disembodied, and Hamann an "Aristotelian" who believed it was embodied.[citation needed] Hamann was greatly influenced by Hume. This is most evident in Hamann's conviction that faith and belief, rather than knowledge, determine human actions.[12] Also, Hamann asserted that the efficacy of a concept arises from the habits it reflects rather than any inherent quality it possesses.
Hamann's writings consist of small essays. They display two striking tendencies. The first is their brevity, in comparison with works by his contemporaries.[4] The second is their breadth of allusion and delight in extended analogies.[4] His work was also significantly reactive; rather than advance a "position" of his own, his principal mode of thinking was to respond to others' work.[4] For example, his workGolgotha and Scheblimini! By a Preacher in the Wilderness (1784) was directed againstMoses Mendelssohn'sJerusalem, or on Religious Might and Judaism (1782).[14]
Hamann famously used the image ofSocrates, who often proclaimed to know nothing, in hisSocratic Memorabilia, an essay in which Hamann critiques the Enlightenment's dependence on reason. InAesthetica in nuce, Hamann counters the Enlightenment by emphasizing the importance of aesthetic experience and the role of genius in intuiting nature.
Fragments of his writings were published by Cramer, under the title ofSibyllinische Blätter des Magus aus Norden (1819), and a complete edition by Roth (7 vols., 1821–25, with a volume of additions and explanations by Wiener, 1843).Hamann's des Magus in Norden Leben und Schriften, edited by Gildemeister, was published in 5 vols., 1857–68, and a new edition of hisSchriften und Briefen, edited by Petri, in 4 vols., 1872–74.[8]
Hamann argued that thecommunicatio idiomatum, namely, the communication of divine messages through material embodiments, applies not just to Christ, but should be generalised to cover all human action: "This communicatio of divine and human idiomatum is a fundamental law and the master-key of all our knowledge and of the whole visible economy."[15]Hamann believed all of creation weresigns from God for us to interpret.[16]
His most notable contributions to philosophy were his thoughts on language, which have often been considered as a forerunner to the linguistic turn in analytic philosophy such asWittgenstein's. He famously said that "Reason is language" ("Vernunft ist Sprache").[1] Hamann thought the bridge between Kant'snoumenal andphenomenal realms was language, with its noumenalmeaning and phenomenalletters.
Hamann was one of the precipitating forces for theCounter-Enlightenment. He was, moreover, a mentor toHerder and an admired influence onGoethe,Jacobi,Hegel,Kierkegaard,Lessing, andMendelssohn.Roman Catholic theologianHans Urs von Balthasar devoted a chapter to Hamann in his volume,Studies in Theological Styles: Lay Styles (Volume III in the English language translation ofThe Glory of the Lord series). Most recently, Hamann's influence can be found in the work of the theologiansOswald Bayer (Lutheran),John Milbank (Anglican), andDavid Bentley Hart (Eastern Orthodox). Finally, inCharles Taylor's important summative work,The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity (Taylor, 2016),[17] Hamann is given credit, along withWilhelm von Humboldt and Herder, for inspiring Taylor's "HHH" (Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt) approach to the philosophy of language, emphasizing the creative power and cultural specificity of language.
However, recent scholarship, such as that by Bayer, contradicts the usual interpretation by people such as historian of ideasIsaiah Berlin, and describes Hamann as a "radical Enlightener" who vigorously opposed dogmatic rationalism in matters of philosophy and faith.[18] Bayer views him as less the proto-Romantic that Herder presented, and more a premodern-postmodern thinker who brought the consequences of Lutheran theology to bear upon the burgeoning Enlightenment and especially in reaction toKant.[19]
Quotations related toJohann Georg Hamann at Wikiquote
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