The definitive scholarly edition and new translation of all three versions of Hölderlin’s poem, The Death of Empedocles, and his related theoretical essays.

Dr Schaffer outlines the development of the mythological school of European Biblical criticism, especially its German origins and its reception in England, and studies the influence of this movement in the work of specific writers: Coleridge Hölderlin, Browning, and George Eliot. The 'higher criticism' treated sacred scripture as literature and as history, as the product of its time, and the highest expression of a developing group consciousness; it challenged current views on the authorship and dating of the Pentateuch and the (...) Gospels, on inspiration, prophecy, and canonicity, and formulated a new apologetics closely linked with the growth of Romantic aesthetics. The importance of this study is that it shows that readings of specific literary texts can intersect with general movements of thought and action through the scrutiny of a clearly defined intellectual discipline, here the higher criticism, which developed as a particular expression of the larger trends in the history of the period. Dr Shaffer throws light on individual works of literature, the formation between England and Germany, and the bases of European Romanticism. (shrink)

Martin Heidegger’s 1942 lecture course interprets Friedrich Hölderlin’s hymn "The Ister" within the context of Hölderlin’s poetic and philosophical work, with particular emphasis on Hölderlin’s dialogue with Greek tragedy.

Martin Heidegger’s 1934–1935 lectures on Friedrich Hölderlin’s hymns "Germania" and "The Rhine" are considered the most significant among Heidegger’s lectures on Hölderlin. Coming at a crucial time in his career, the text illustrates Heidegger’s turn toward language, art, and poetry while reflecting his despair at his failure to revolutionize the German university and his hope for a more profound revolution through the German language, guided by Hölderlin’s poetry. These lectures are important for understanding Heidegger’s changing relation to politics, his turn (...) toward Nietzsche, his thinking about the German language, and his breakthrough to a new kind of poetic thinking. First published in 1980 as volume 39 of Heidegger’s Complete Works, this graceful and rigorous English-language translation will be widely discussed in continental philosophy and literary theory. (shrink)

In this article, I aim to demonstrate that in Die Bedeutung der Tragödien Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) takes distance from the Aristotelian interpretation of Tragedy. In this fragment, the poet suggests this literary genre should be understood on the bases of the notion of paradox and on how this concept relates to the tragic hero. In order to prove this, I first clarify what the German poet means when he proposes paradox as the easiest way to understand Tragedy. Second, I highlight (...) the correlations between the assertions of this text and Hölderlin’s former stances about Tragedy in the Grund zum Empedokles, the Anmerkungen zum Oedipus and the Anmerkungen zur Antigonä. Finally, I argue that the approach regarding paradox is evidence of the distance Hölderlin took from the Aristotelian definition of Tragedy as mimesis of an action. (shrink)

In this essay, a translation into English of Martin Heidegger's paper Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry, Paul de Man demonstrates his significant engagement with the work of Heidegger. He considers Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin's five key-passages on the subject of poetry, suggesting that the order in which these passages appear as well as the inner coherence that links them together will reveal the essence of poetry. He first comments on Hölderlin's claim that poetry is ‘the most innocent of all (...) crafts’ and goes on to discuss the four other key-passages: ‘Therefore, man was given language, the perilous of all blessings... that he bear witness to what he is... ’; ‘There is much that men have experienced. They have called the many of the heavenly by name, since we are an exchange of words, and one can hear from another’; ‘The poets found what will endure’; ‘With merit, and yet poetically, man dwells on this earth’. (shrink)

Thomas Windisch Problème fondamental de la tradition philosophique occidentale, la justification de l’existence du mal dans le monde est un thème inépuisable pour le philosophe. Particulièrement d’actualité au moment où les effets directs et indirects de la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19 n’épargnent personne, la forme de ce questionnement a évolué au fil des révolutions philosophiques. Le présent article tente de se replacer à la fin du xviiie siècle pour prolonger la parole du poète Friedrich Hölderlin à partir d’une réinterprétation du (...) mal kantien. En adoptant une perspective à la fois philosophique et littéraire, il est possible de démontrer comment le concept d’unité, compris à l’aune du Beau, se révèle en tant que cause irrémédiable, mais justifiée, du mal vécu par l’humain. À partir de son roman Hypérion, Hölderlin nous proposerait une théodicée tacite qui, sans renier les critères épistémologiques de la philosophie kantienne, lui échapperait, autant qu’à toute justification exclusivement philosophique de l’existence du mal tentée depuis la modernité. (shrink)

Zwischen den Schriften "Was ist Metaphysik?", " Vom Wesen des Grundes", "Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik", 1929, und "Platons Lehre von der Wahrheit", 1942, hat Heidegger nichts publiziert außer zwei kurzen Hölderlin-Vorträgen und seiner Rektoratsrede von 1933. In diesen dreizehn Jahren hat sowohl Heideggers Denkansatz als auch seine Denkhaltung eine Veränderung erfahren; es ist die in der Heidegger-Forschung so genannte "Kehre". Seit der 1976 aus dem Nachlaß begonnenen Herausgabe von Heideggers Vorlesungen fällt von Mal zu Mal mehr Licht auf (...) seinen Denkweg in besagter Zeitspanne. Zu Recht wurde die Vorlesung als die "Heideggers philosophisches Schaffen zentral prägende Darstellungsform" bezeichnet. Studiert man die Vorlesungen, so wird klar, wie es dazu kommt, daß Heideggers Denkwege in dieser Zeit oft "jäh im Unbegangenen aufhören"; so das Motto des Buches "Holzwege", das, 1950 erschienen, Vorträge und Aufsätze aus der Zeit von 1935 bis 1946 enthält.Die These der Autorin lautet: Der Grund für Heideggers gewandeltes Denken am Ende der genannten Zeitspanne besteht in Erfahrungen, die er im Gespräch mit Hölderlin seit der Vorlesung von 1934/35 gemacht hat. Was sich zwischen 1934/35 und der Heraklit-Vorlesung von 1944 abspielt und als "Kehre" angesprochen wird, bereitet Heideggers Denken vor, wie es in "Vorträge und Aufsätze", "Unterwegs zur Sprache" und in allen späteren Schriften zum Ausdruck kommt.Die Vorlesungen ab 1934/35 zeigen drei Schwerpunkte: die Auseinandersetzung mit Hölderlin, mit Nietzsche und mit den griechischen Denkern am Anfang der abendländischen Geschichte. Während die Philosophie Nietzsches in Heideggers Augen die Vollendung des mit Platon beginnenden Zeitalters der Metaphysik artikuliert, kündigt sich in der Dichtung Hölderlins der Anfang einer anderen Geschichte an. Diesen anderen Geschichtsanfang sieht Heidegger in einem Spannungsverhältnis zu dem, was die griechischen anfänglichen Denker gesagt haben. Ihre Gedanken legt er als ein Sprechen aus dem Erfahrungsbereich der Ἀλήθεια aus. Hölderlin und die Ἀλήθεια stehen also, in je verschiedener, jedoch aufeinander bezogener Weise, für den Anfang von Geschichte. Es ist Heideggers Überzeugung, daß sich Geschichte aus ihrem Anfang bleibend bestimmt. In der Untersuchung wird die Herkunft dieser Überzeugung aufgespürt, was auch irn Hinblick auf die unveröffentlichte Abhandlung von 1941 "Über den Anfang" von Bedeutung ist.Die Verfasserin legt den Boden frei, aus dem das Denken von Heideggers Spätschriften erwächst. Dazu analysiert sie die Freiburger Vorlesungen zwischen 1934/35 und 1944. Es geht ihr darum, die zentralen Gedanken Heideggers in statu nascendi und in ihrer Entfaltung, in ihrer Kontinuität und Veränderung zu verfolgen. Eine solche Verfahrensweise ist um so mehr geboten, als in vielen bisherigen Forschungsarbeiten der Wegcharakter von Heideggers Denken nicht ernst genommen wird und frühere Positionen mit späteren unachtsam vermischt werden. Beachtet man dagegen das Weghafte dieses Denkens, so kann eine Reihe gängiger Forschungsmeinungen korrigiert werden. Zum Beispiel tritt die Zeit-Thematik in Heideggers Spätphilosophie keineswegs "deutlich in den Hintergrund", sie hält sich vielmehr unter gewandelten Namen bis ans Ende seines Denkweges durch. (shrink)

In this essay, I aim to examine Hölderlin’s theory of composition according to the thesis on the compatibility of poetic and philosophical practices. I interpret Hölderlin’s poetological fragments as a response to the epistolary exchange he had held with his master Schiller a few years earlier, concerning the dialectic between philosophy and poetry, enthusiasm and sobriety. I argue that Hölderlin’s fragments prompt us to consider poetry and philosophy as poiesis-based practices. Identifying creativity as their common destination allows one to postulate (...) the interaction between the two disciplines. I finally argue that aesthetics could be the place for this interaction. Hölderlin outlines a productive, namely aesthetic, theory of creation, in which boundaries between philosophy and poetry seem to interact rather than exclude. (shrink)

This paper draws upon my research into the posthumously published fragmentary remains of Hölderlin and Novalis's philosophical reflections to describe how their explanations of the possibility of self-consciousness are far more convincing than those provided by their philosophical contemporaries, and still have much to contribute to contemporary debates concerning the nature of 'consciousness' and 'selfhood.' The paper begins by sketching the background to their accounts of self-consciousness, that is, Fichte's critique of Kant's 'reflection model' of self-consciousness and the subsequent critique (...) of Fichte's 'solution' to this problem by more orthodox Kantians. I shall then present an account of how Hölderlin and Novalis may be said to enact a 'synthesis' of the opposed Kantian and Fichtean positions, to formulate an account of self-consciousness that on one hand acknowledges the power of—in Henrich's words—Fichtes ursprüngliche Einsicht into the inadequacy of the Kantian 'reflection model,' whilst, on the other hand, re-appropriating such a 'reflection model.' They thus argue that I am only aware of myself as T by means of a reflective act, whilst at the same time arguing that such awareness nevertheless involves a non-reflective 'dimension.' For Hölderlin and Novalis, therefore, consciousness is always intentionally directed, and yet in being intentionally directed, it is also non-reflectively related to itself or "self-luminous" sea conception of consciousness which has similarities with Sartre's conception of the 'pre-reflective cogito.'. (shrink)

The present thesis takes its original impetus from the author's conviction that the German philosophy of the "Goethezeit" represents a peak of metaphysical insight and achievement comparable with the original flowering of European philosophical thought in the age of Plato and Aristotle. Until recently, it was fashionable to regard Kant and Hegel as the two 'giants' of this second flowering and to consign other philosophers, such as Fichte and Schelling, to the role of supporting figures. However, in recent years, the (...) pioneer efforts of such scholars as Walter Schulz, plus the interest shown by modern philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, have drawn attention to depths in the philosophy of Schelling which had been ignored by the leading exponents of Idealist philosophy, due to their sympathy for the ideas of Kant and/or Hegel. In addition, again due partly to the insights of Heidegger, there has developed a realisation among ever widening circles that Friedrich Holderlin was also one of these 'giants' of metaphysics. His strictly philosophical works are limited in number and in length. However, his contribution cannot be measured in terms of quantity: I would maintain, and have tried to show in the present work, that it was his original insight and inspiration which formed the basis for all of Schelling's work as of the late 1790's. In the process, I have followed Holderlin 's thought back to what I see as its roots: the ideas of the Presocratics, early Plato and Kant's third "Kritik'.'. (shrink)

En continuidad con una investigación previa, este trabajo se propone mostrar la importancia del tema del silencio en la interpretación heideggeriana de la poesía de Hölderlin y analizar el sentido ontológico que en ella adquiere. Para ello se indaga sobre la íntima conexión que Heidegger establece entre el silencio y el decir poético de Hölderlin, en la problemática pretensión que le atribuye de decir el ser salvaguardando a un tiempo su carácter indecible. Comprender tal pretensión exigirá atender al descubrimiento del (...) poeta de la simultánea alteridad y dependencia de la modernidad con respecto a Grecia, y estudiar el modo en que esta cuestión determina tanto su poetizar como los recursos que, a juicio de Heidegger, utiliza para hacer aparecer el ser en su palabra como lo no-dicho. Following a previous research, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of silence in the Heideggerian interpretation of Hölderlin's poetry, and to analyze the ontological nature that this topic acquires in it. In order to do so, it explores how intimately Heidegger connects the idea of silence and Hölderlin's poetical saying, to which he attributes the problematic endeavour of saying the Being whilst safeguarding its unsayable nature. To fully fathom this effort, special attention should be paid to the poet's discovery of the simultaneous alterity and dependence of modernity with regard to Greece, and to the study of the way in which this matter determines his poetry, as well as the poetical resources which, according to Heidegger, he uses in order to make the Being appear in his saying as the unsaid. (shrink)

En este artículo me propongo discutir algunos puntos de la interpretación de la Ciencia de la lógica delineada por F. Martínez Marzoa en Hölderlin y la lógica hegeliana. La premisa de este opúsculo es que Hölderlin sería el «interlocutor no declarado» de esta obra, la cual habría sido concebida por Hegel como una asunción de su crítica a Fichte en Juicio y ser. En el seno de esta interpretación, la «Doctrina del Concepto» aparece como el lugar lógico de la autosupresión (...) de la reflexión que Hölderlin había considerado originaria e irreductible. A lo largo de estas páginas, me propongo probar: 1) que la mencionada autosupresión no implica la simple negación de la reflexión y la consiguiente afirmación de un absoluto arreflexivo, sino más bien la afirmación de lo absoluto como reflexión; 2) que la negatividad del Concepto se distingue tanto de la nada del Ser, como de la negación de la Esencia, configurando una suerte de «tópica de la reflexión»; 3) que ello no impide entender la reflexión como algo presente en el comienzo mismo de la Lógica, si bien no en la categoría del Ser como tal. Asumir estos tres puntos implica aceptar que la posición de Hölderlin no quedaría simplementeintegrada en la Ciencia de la lógica (convirtiendo al poeta en una suerte de «crítico esencial (no externo) de la obra)», sino superada en el genuino sentido de la Aufhebung hegeliana la Aufhebung hegeliana. (shrink)

Bajo la pregunta por las razones que llevaron al poeta y pensador Friedrich Hölderlin a manifestar en su juventud una atracción especial por la ciudad de Jena, donde permaneció una corta temporada en el semestre de invierno de 1794 a 1795, el autor rastrea y analiza las influencias que ejercieron so..

O presente ensaio pretende estudar a influência da filosofia de Kant no âmbito dos escritos poetológicos de Hölderlin sobre as tragédias de Sófocles _Rei Édipo_ e _Antígona_, _Anmerkungen zum Oedipus _e _Anmerkungen zur Antigone_. O tratamento dos conceitos centrais elaborados por Hölderlin, tais como _Gottes Fehl_ e _kategorische Umkehr_ – que forma o núcleo deste ensaio – apresenta-se desenvolvido segundo o quadro filosófico kantiano. É nosso propósito interpretar a especificidade da leitura hölderliniana de Kant, especialmente do seu carácter não-reconciliatório e (...) não-monista, e diferenciá-la da filosofia posterior do Idealismo Alemão (principalmente de Hegel e de Schelling). A análise de “Hölderlin et Sophocle” de Jean Beaufret e de “Métaphrasis” de Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe constitui o nosso ponto de partida teórico. (shrink)

Holderlin's essays and letters constitute essential documents for an understanding of the transitional period from neo-classical poetics to what can only be characterized as a unique and, in its frequently experimental structure, essentially modernist poetics. This book contains virtually all of Holderlin's theoretical writings translated for the first time. In spite of the great significance of Holderlin's ideas for contemporary critical thought, most of his highly important theoretical oeuvre has been unavailable to English readers until now. Here also are a (...) number of letters which chart the development of Holderlin's thought on issues that today remain fundamental to poetics and philosophy. The work's critical introduction discusses both the historical genesis of Holderlin's theoretical writings out of the enlightenment as well as their systematic interaction with post-Kantian Idealism. Through interpretations of three short fragments, Pfau indicates that it would be insufficient to consider Holderlin as the mere precursor of the great systematic philosophers of German Idealism--Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Instead, Holderlin's earliest theoretical fragments already mark a turn away from the rigorous systematicity that underlies the philosophical discourse of his contemporaries. Holderlin's theoretical writings may be the most seminal texts in the widely discussed interimplication of Idealistic philosophy and Romantic poetry and poetics. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article reevaluates Hölderlin’s social and political thought in the 1790s. Against Georg Lukács, it argues that Hölderlin’s politics of the new mythology, while utopian, are not mystical. In the Fragment of Philosophical Letters and the Oldest System-Programme of German Idealism, Hölderlin instead articulates two fundamental claims. Socially, the new mythical collectivity must elevate (erheben) the social relations produced by bourgeois society, exalting them in aesthetic-religious form, rather than sublating (aufheben) them, modifying both their form and their content. Politically, (...) realizing this new collectivity requires transcending the state, and so is essentially revolutionary. Hölderlin’s prosaic writings thus supplement Hyperion’s romantic critique of modernity. They take as their point of departure a sober exposition of the social relations of the market emerging in Hölderlin’s time and, from within these relations, excavate a new mythical collectivity capable of suturing the fragmentary divisions of modern life. (shrink)

Tomando como hilo conductor el tema de la comunidad, el siguiente trabajo intenta reconstruir el itinerario intelectual conjunto que llevó a Friedrich Hölderlin y Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel a postular las bases del idealismo especulativo. A partir de la comparación de las fuentes y textos de ambos autores durante el período que va de 1794 a 1799, el trabajo precisará el origen y el uso de algunos términos compartidos, así como también la relevancia que tuvieron los mismos para la realización (...) de su proyecto conjunto. Finalmente, intentaremos mostrar de qué modo muchas de las ideas presentadas por Hölderlin en las diversas versiones de su Hiperión repercutieron en los trabajos de Hegel. (shrink)

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze Hölderlin’s emphasis on the importance of aesthetic comportment for reconceiving the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, and for enabling what he calls a “higher enlightenment.” Hölderlin shares the romantic critique of the mechanistic conception of nature and life, and argues that human beings have to achieve a higher connection than the mechanical one between themselves and their surroundings. In order to establish this, the bond between human beings and their environment (...) needs aesthetic representation. Poetry is able to particularize and concretize that which in discursive knowledge remains abstract and removed from life. A necessary feature of a higher enlightenment is, according to Hölderlin, the salutary remembrance that human creations, such as art and society, are not completely autonomous but, in a Shaftesburian fashion, ultimately dependent on nature. As this chapter shows, for Hölderlin, an authentic poem is not a closed autonomous work of art but rather an open unity that remembers its dependence on nature and thus can be said to reflect on its own aesthetic heteronomy. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss the notion of transcendentalEmpfindung, which plays a central role in Hölderlin's fragmentary essay Wenn der Dichter einmal des Geistes mächtig ist.Thenotion of transcendental Empfindung is introduced in this essay as a replacement for the concept of intellectual intuition, the well-known philosophical notion which represents one of the key-terms for German philosophers between XVIII and XIX century. In this paper I argue that Hölderlin, having made use of this notion for a long time in his works (...) and philosophical writings, now rejects the intellectual intuition and find a substitute for it in the transcendental sensation under the influence of a renewed reading of Kant's writings, especially Kant's Critique of pure reason and Critique of judgement. (shrink)

Il saggio ripercorre la formazione del pensiero di Hölderlin a cominciare dal suo punto di partenza, la dottrina kantiana del primato della ragion pratica e la dottrina della libertà. Il trapasso dal dualismo kantiano ad un pensiero estetico della mediazione avverrà attraverso la ricezione della critica schilleriana all’imperativo categorico, così come dell’idea fichtiana della «determinazione reciproca». Il nuovo punto di vista di Hölderlin maturerà durante il periodo jenese, inizialmente come ricerca di una mediazione tra Kant, Jacobi, Spinoza, Fichte e Reinhold. (...) Esso troverà una traduzione sul piano della teoria estetica nella prefazione alla penultima versione dell’Iperione, scritta nei primi mesi del 1795. Questa prefazione è significativa, soprattutto perché rappresenta la prima formulazione compiuta della filosofia dell’unificazione, che afferma l’analogia di teoria e prassi, in quanto forme della riflessione, che dovrebbero venire elevate da un terzo principio, la bellezza. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy and Literature 26.1 (2002) 125-142 [Access article in PDF] Hölderlin's Poetic Self-consciousness James H. Donelan Nur ihren Gesang sollt' ich vergessen, nur diese Seelentöne sollten nimmer wiederkehren in meinen unaufhörlichen Träumen. I should forget only her song, only these notes of the soul should never return in my unending dreams. Hölderlin, Hyperion I FOR MANY YEARS, Friedrich Hölderlin has occupied a crucial position in both literary and philosophical (...) history. Well-known literary theorists, such as Walter Benjamin, Peter Szondi, and Paul de Man, have described him as the poet who made the transition from German Classicism to Romanticism. Several major philosophers, including Dieter Henrich and Manfred Frank, claim that Hölderlin's insights into Kantian and Fichtean metaphysics were vital to Schelling's and Hegel's far more famous accounts of subjectivity. Either contribution alone would make Hölderlin an important figure in intellectual history; it is almost miraculous that he managed both, especially when one considers the brevity of his career, a span of only ten or twelve productive years.What accounts for this remarkable dual achievement? Historical accident and tremendous talent give us only a partial answer. Hölderlin was fortunate to have Hegel and Schelling as close friends at the Tübinger Stift, and to move to Jena precisely when it had become a center for new thinking in both literary and philosophical circles. He had enormous ability both for ancient Greek and poetic meter, allowing him to benefit from his predecessors and his contemporaries [End Page 125] in remarkable ways. However, his parallel accomplishments in philosophy and poetry are linked by more than just happenstance and genius. In my view, they represent the continuous development of a solution to a single problem, that of self-consciousness, realized in poetic form through an idea of music. For Hölderlin, making the transition from philosopher to poet required him to establish a connection between Idealist theories of self-consciousness and the material world. To meet this challenge, he constituted himself as a self-conscious poet through both theoretical and actual poetic creations, and constituted a musical-poetic voice, or Gesang, within his poetry as a means of joining the abstractions of philosophy with the concrete voice of the poet.The background of this transformation lies in the complex history of the idea of self-consciousness, or subjectivity. In the early Idealist accounts of self-consciousness of Kant and Fichte, the subject recognizes its existence by juxtaposing itself with an object. However, the nature of this object, and the connection between the abstract, theoretical construction of the subject and the actual, practical experience of the conscious self posed a problem that neither philosopher solved definitively. For Kant, self-consciousness emerges from a pre-reflective sense of the self's existence as the subject of different experiences of phenomena over time; self-consciousness therefore arises from a deduction of empirical experience. However, this formulation contains a surprisingly belated and unmotivated version of the self, with no clear account of its origin.Fichte answered the question about the origin of the self by stating that the self posits itself through its opposition to a material object, a non-self he calls the Nicht-ich, and becomes self-conscious by differentiating the Ich from the Nicht-ich and declaring "I am I." Fichte's explanation of self-consciousness as an act rather than an entity nevertheless relies on a kind of solipsism and still does not sufficiently address the ultimate cause of the process. The Ich that declares its own existence must distinguish itself from the Nicht-ich somehow; the relation between the two terms presupposes a subject that already possesses sensory apprehension to create the distinction between Ich and Nicht-ich necessary for the initial positing of the self.Either explicitly or implicitly, both Kant's and Fichte's versions of subjectivity rely on the category of the aesthetic, defined as the experience of precognitive sensation in general, to mediate the encounter between subject and object. Kant later expanded his inquiry [End Page 126] into... (shrink)

The term Bildungstrieb, which was used toward the end of the eighteenth century by thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder, Immanuel Kant, or Friedrich Schiller, but which is obsolete in today’s vernacular, was of great importance for Friedrich Hölderlin. In this article, I explore the historical roots of this concept in the biology of the time, which was then still searching for the right concepts to describe the organic. Bildungstrieb is found in Kant’s teleology in the Critique of Judgment, where Kant (...) with the help of this concept works out the specificity of organic life as well as its vicinity and difference to the teleology of human acts and action. Kant himself refers to the Göttingen anatomist, zoologist, and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, in whose writings Kant found the term which he reinterpreted for his own purposes. Friedrich Schiller adopts the word Bildungstrieb in his work On the Esthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters, reinterpreting it from the point of view of the history of ideas. It is Friedrich Hölderlin, finally, who in his Essay The Perspective from which We Have to Look at Antiquity, and in related texts, gives the Bildungstrieb an important role. The Bildungstrieb needs to be awakened, if art is going to draw in an original way from an undeformed source. During work on the tragedy The Death of Empedocles, the poet further developed the concept of Bildungstrieb to include the idea of an opposition between what he calls the ‘aorgic’ and the ‘organic’, which mutually condition, complete, and penetrate one another, in a manner similar to Nietzsche’s even more powerful formulation of the Janus-faced artistic impulse, as embodied in the opposition of the Dionysian and the Apollonian. (shrink)