The Science of Freedom: Galvanism and Organism in Schleiermacher's Early Thought Open Access
Boekhaus, Corbin M.H. (2017)
Abstract
This study argues that Schleiermacher's system is a form of organicism, which he developed after being exposed to the natural sciences and philosophy of nature early in his career. The story of his organicism originated in the 1780s and when Schleiermacher was fixated on "the question of freedom" and causal determinism. By the time Schleiermacher wrote On Freedom around 1790, one can see his interest shift towards fundamental relations, specifically the intra-personal relations within self-consciousness and the inter-personal relations between individuals in community. There, Schleiermacher conceived of freedom as a dynamic intermeshing between reason and understanding, mind and body, and individual and community. This view of freedom would be further shaped in the 1790s through contact with the natural sciences of his day. Through this research, Schleiermacher would identify certain fundamental forms of relation within the biological and chemical production of electricity that would fund a new way of thinking about individuals and communities as organisms. Further, Schleiermacher's organicism is not merely descriptive, but funds a religious and normative claim of how individuals and communities can better coordinate and self-organize, trading self-interest for a higher good. As a result, Schleiermacher convincingly argues that only a religious community can enable the increase in one's freedom, rationality, and coherence.
Table of Contents
Introduction
A. Freedom, and Other Misunderstandings………………………………….…….………1
B. Life After Freedom………………………………………………………..........…..……….…5
C. Historical Method for Historical Organisms………………………………….…….…16
D. Outline……………………………………………………………………..................….………24
Chapter I: "The Current Situation": Freedom in Crisis….....……………31
A. The World of On Freedom: 1787-1793……………………………………….…..……31
B. Pantheism Controversy……………………………………………………..........…………34
C. Kantian Transcendental Idealism…………………………………...…...………………51
Chapter II: On Freedom as Relation………………………….....….....….…..…72
A. Writings prior to On Freedom……………………………………………….…....….……73
B. On Freedom …………………….……………………………………………..…............……79
C. Schleiermacher's Early View: Freedom as Relation……………..….…..….…97
Chapter III: Thinking Organism…………..……………………...….........………106
A. Emerging Organism……………………………………………………...…..........………110
B. Schleiermacher in Berlin…………………………………………………..…......….……126
C. The Philophysical Revolution: Electricity and Organ……….…….….….……136
D. Philophysicists in the Jena Orbit……………………………………………….....….…142
E. Linking Nature………………………………………………………….……….............……167
Chapter IV: Organicism in The Speeches…………….…………...........……170
A. Toward a Chemical Connection, 1798-99……………………………………...……172
B. Organs and Organism in The Speeches………………………………………...……183
C. Toward a Higher Religious Organism: Community……...…………………..…211
D. Toward Religion, and not a Metaphysics of Nature………………………..……242
Conclusion…………………………………………………………..............…………..….……253
A. Institutional Disenchantment and Social Deconsolidation……….…………256
B. Schleiermacher's Organicism: Rethinking Social Solutions…………..……260
Bibliography……………………………….……………..……………………….........…………271
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