BDSL-Klassifikation: 12.00.00 18. Jahrhundert > 12.08.00 Aufklärung
Refine
Document Type
- Part of a Book (3)
- Article (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (4)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (4)
Keywords
- Aufklärung (3)
- Deutsch (3)
- Literatur (3)
- Literarische Aufklärung / Deutsch (2)
- Romantik (2)
- Brüder Grimm (1)
- Das Romantische (1)
- Enlightenment (1)
- Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1)
- Freimaurerei <Motiv> (1)
It can hardly be disputed that the theme of popularity is central to the Enlightenment. Popularity is the sociality equivalent to the individual appeal: 'Dare to know.' Parallel to this runs the following imperative: 'Dare to encourage your neighbour and your fellow man and woman to think on their own – even though they do not belong to the erudite elite.' It is also undeniable that Romantic authors and philosophers polemically attempted to tear down the popularity project of the Enlightenment, their main criticism being its tendency towards mediocrity. It is less well known that Romantic authors and philosophers themselves, around the turn of the nineteenth century, made popularity their central concern. To quote Friedrich Schlegel in the journal Athenaeum: 'The time of popularity has come.' This article explores the Romantics' alternative conception of popularity, with especial reference to Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the Grimm Brothers. To this end, it is helpful to reconstruct the background of the Romantic attempt to create an independent concept of popularity: the debate between Immanuel Kant and the German popular philosopher Christian Garve on the necessity, possibilities, and limits of popularity.
Wie sehr gerade Kunst dem Geheimnisbedarf einer modernen Gesellschaft gerecht wird, kann ein Seitenblick auf ein in der Aufklärung gemachtes, faszinierendes und gescheitertes Experiment zeigen, das den Geheimnisbedarf der Gesellschaft auf gesellschaftlicher und lebensweltlicher Ebene zu befriedigen versuchte. Ich denke an die Konjunktur der Freimaurerei als einer Form des modernen Geheimbundes.