“Die Vollkommenste Stimmung”: Novalis on the Tasks and Methods of Philosophizing

Section: History of Journalism

Unlike many outstanding thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries, Novalis was not preoccupied with a search for “objective truth”. Rather, he used philosophy as a means to achieve the “most excellent mood”, which can be basically depicted drawing on his ambiguous and mostly unclassified notes. In this paper, the author examines some essential features of this ideal condition such as inner diversity, integrity of mind, mental flexibility, constant self-awareness, procreative capacities (in the broadest sense of the word) and, finally, inner body balance. Additionally, attention is paid to the methodical approaches used by Novalis in order to achieve his cherished goal, with particular focus on the new, romantic tendencies in his philosophical writings that were alien to the intellectual tradition of the Enlightenment.

Bomski F. (2014) Die Mathematik im Denken und Dichten von Novalis. Zum Verhaeltnis von Literatur und Wissen um 1800 [Mathematics in Novalis’s Thinking and Poetry. On the Connection between Literature and Knowledge around 1800]. Berlin: De Gruyter. (In German)

Gaydenko P. P. (1990) Paradoksy svobody v uchenii Fikhte [Paradoxes of Freedom in Fichte’s Doctrine] Moscow: Nauka Publ. (In Russian)

Hamburger K. (1966) Philosophie der Dichter: Novalis, Schiller, Rielke [Poets’ Philosophy: Novalis, Sciller, Rilke] Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. (In German)

Holland J. (2009) German Romanticism and Science: the Procreative Poetics of Goethe, Novalis and Ritter. New York: Routledge. 

Jaeschke W., Arndt A. (2012) Die Klassische Deutsche Philosophie nach Kant. Systeme der reinen Vernunft und ihre Kritik 1785–1845 [Classical German Philosophy in the time after Kant. Systems of Pure Reason and Their Critique of 1785–1845]. Muenchen: C.H. Beck. (In German)

Janke W. (1993) Vom Bilde des Absoluten. Grundzuege der Phaenomenologie Fichtes [On the Image of the Absolute. Fichte’s Principles of Phenomenology]. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. (In German)

Kubik A. (2006) Die Symboltheorie bei Novalis: eine ideengeschichtliche Studie in aesthetischer und theologischer Sicht [Novalis’s Theory of Symbols: a Study of Ideology History from the aesthetical and theological point of view]. Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck. (In German)

Loheide B. (2000) Fichte und Novalis: transzendentalphilosophisches Denken im romantisierenden Diskurs [Fichte and Novalis. Transcendentalphilo-sophical Thinking in Romantic Discourse]. Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi. (In German)

Nassar D. (2014) The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795–1804. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.

Neumann G. (1976) Ideenparadiese: Untersuchungen zur Aphoristik von Lichenberg, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel und Goethe [The Paradise of Thought: Studies on aphorisms by Lichenberg, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel and Goethe]. Muenchen: Fink. (In German)

Novalis (1975) Dichtungen und Prosa [Poetry and Prose]. Leipzig: Reclam. (In German)

Schrader W. H. (ed.) (1997) Fichte und die Romantik: Hoelderlin, Schelling, Hegel und die spaete Wissenschaftslehre [Fichte and Romanticism: Hoelderlin, Schelling, Hegel and the Late Scientific Doctrine]. Amsterdam: Rodopi. (In German)

Senckel B. (1983) Individualitaet und Totalitaet: Aspekte zu einer Anthropologie des Novalis [Individuality and Totality: the Aspects of Novalis’s Anthropology]. Tuebingen: Niemeyer. (In German)

Shlegel’ F. (1983) Estetika. Filosofiya. Kritika. V 2-kh t. T. 1 [Aesthetics. Philosophy. Criticism. In 2 volumes. Vol. 1]. Moscow: Iskusstvo Publ. (In Russian)

Shul‘ts G. (1998) Novalis, sam svidetel’stvuyushchiy o sebe i svoey zhizni. Per. s nem. M. Benta [Novalis Testifying about Himself and His Life. Transl. from German by M. Bent]. Chelyabinsk: Ural LTD. (In Russian)

Tsouyopoulos N. (1988) The Influence of John Brown’s Ideas in Germany. In W. F. Bynum, R. Porter (eds.) Brunonianism, Medical History Volume 32, January. Pp. 63–74. (In Russian)

Uerlings H. (1991) Friedrich von Hardenberg, genannt Novalis. Werk und Forschung [Friedrich Hardenberg Called Novalis. Work and Research]. Stuttgart: Metzler. (In German)

Uerlings H. (ed.) (1997) Novalis und die Wissenschaten [Novalis and Science]. Tuebingen: Niemeyer. (In German)

Uerlings H. (ed.) (2004) Novalis. Poesie und Poetik [Novalis. Poetry and Poetics]. Tuebingen: Niemeyer. (In German)

Vaynshteyn O. B. (1994) Yazyk romanticheskoy mysli: O filosofskom stile Novalisa i Fridrikha Shlegelya [The Language of Romantic Thought: On the Philosophical Style of Novalis and Friedrich Schlegel]. Moscow: RGGU. (In Russian)

Villinger R. (2012) Gedankenstriche. Theorie und Poesie bei Novalis. [Lines of Thought. Theory and Poetry in Novalis’s Works]. Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 86 (4): 547–577. (In German)

Vishnevskaya N. A. et al (eds.) (2002) Temnitsa i svoboda v khudozhestvennom mire romantizma [Prison and Freedom in the Romantic Fiction]. Moscow: IMLI RAN. (In Russian)

Vol’skiy A. L. (2014) «Fragmenty» Novalisa: poeticheskoe poznanie universuma [Novalis’s “Fragments”]. In F. Novalis (Khardenberg) Fragmenty. Per. s nem. A.L. Vol’skogo. [“Fragments”. Transl. from German by A.L. Volsky]. Saint Petersburg: Vladimir Dal’. Pp. 5–52. (In Russian)

Wiese B. V. (ed.) (1983) Deutsche Dichter der Romantik: Ihr Leben und Werk [German Romantic Poets Their Life and Work]. Berlin: E.Schmidt. (In German)