Johann Gottfried Herder biography. Johann Gottfried Herder

, Critic , Poet

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) was a German philosopher, critic and esthetician. The leading figure of the late Enlightenment, the creator of one of the first versions of the natural historical development of nature and human culture.

In 1764-1769 he was a pastor in Riga, from 1776 - in Weimar, the theorist of "Storm and Onslaught", a friend of Johann Wolfgang Goethe. He preached the national identity of art, asserted the historical originality and equivalence of different eras of culture and poetry. A treatise on the origin of language, a work on the philosophy of history, which, according to Herder, is the realization of "humanity". Collected and translated folk songs. Influenced German Romanticism.

The fault of any woman is the fault of a man.

Herder Johann Gottfried

Life and writings of Herder

Johann Gottfried Herder was born on August 25, 1744, in Morungen. He studied at the University of Königsber (he attended the lectures of Immanuel Kant, was friends with Johann Georg Hamann). In his intellectual development he was influenced by Giordano Bruno, Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In 1764-1769 he taught at the church school in Riga, where his first works were published: Fragments on the Newest German Literature and Critical Forests. In 1769, Herder took a trip to Paris, where he met Denis Diderot and Jean Leron d'Alembert.

Returning to Germany, Herder spent two weeks in Hamburg in the company of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who had a great influence on him. In 1770 he lived for several months in Strasbourg, where he met Goethe and wrote a treatise On the Origin of Language (1772 edition).

The two greatest tyrants on earth: chance and time.

Herder Johann Gottfried

In the years 1771-1776 Johann Herder was the councilor of the consistory in Bückeburg. During this period, he became an active participant in the Sturm und Drang movement. In 1776 he moved to Weimar, where he became general superintendent of the Protestant community. Together with Goethe, he headed the Weimar community of scientists and writers. During this period, Herder was intensively engaged in natural and historical sciences, created his masterpiece - Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (published in 1784-1791).

Herder's early period

In the early 1770s, Johann Herder developed the problems of aesthetics and linguistics. His doctrine of the "spirit of the people", which is expressed in art and folk poetry, stands at the origins of folklore. The work on the origin of language provided one of the first models of the natural formation of language in the course of history. Herder denied the genetic subordination of language and thinking, believing that they develop in an interdependent unity. He not only rejected the God-givenness of language, but also, arguing with Etienne Bonnot de Condillac and Jean Jacques Rousseau, asserted its proper human specificity, found in thought, practice and society. In the second half of the 1780s, the philosopher became involved in the "controversy about pantheism" and published the treatise "God" (1787), in which he showed himself to be a radical supporter of Spinozism.

I well understand that one cannot touch a blazing flame, one cannot embrace the foaming sea in every wave as something reliable; but it does not follow from this that our soul does not embrace them.

Herder Johann Gottfried

"Ideas to the philosophy of the history of mankind"

In Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind, Johann Herder realized his project of a universal philosophical history of mankind. In this grandiose work, which includes 20 books (and a plan for the final 5 books), Herder, summing up the achievements of contemporary cosmology, biology, anthropology, geography, ethnography, history, gave an image of the gradual development of mankind.

The author focuses on the process of world development. Herder understood the general order of nature as a stepwise progressive development of improving organisms from inorganic matter through the world of plants and animals to man and, in the future, to the supersensible “world soul”. As a free and rational entity, man is the pinnacle of nature created by the divine spirit. Criticizing teleology, Herder emphasized the importance of the impact external factors(the totality of which he called “climate”) and considered it sufficient to understand history to answer the question “why?” without asking the question “for what?”. At the same time, he recognized internal, "organic" forces as the leading force in history, the main of which is the desire to create society.

From history we draw experience; on the basis of experience, the most vital part of our practical mind is formed.

Herder Johann Gottfried

Herder considered culture to be the main rallying force of society, the inner essence of which is language. Herder paid special attention to the problem of the origin and development of language. In contrast to his early criticism of a civilization close in spirit to Rousseau, Herder returned in Ideas ... to the historical optimism of the Enlightenment and saw in the progressive development of mankind the growth of humanism, which he understands as the flowering of the principle of personality and the acquisition of spiritual harmony and happiness by the individual.

The fate of Herder's teachings

The late Herder developed a kind of cultural anthropology and political philosophy in Letters for the Encouragement of Humanity (1793-1797), where, in particular, he put forward his version of the doctrine of "eternal peace", which should lead not to the treaties of the authorities, but to the humanistic education of the people, trade and healthy pragmatism. In The Metacritic of Pure Reason (1799) and Calligon (1800), Herder entered into a fierce but rather superficial polemic with Immanuel Kant. Calligone contains one of the first formulations of positivist aesthetics.

Shameful is not a punishment, but a crime

Herder Johann Gottfried

Within the framework of the mature German Enlightenment, Herder's teaching found itself in isolation. Being close in mood to Goethe's pantheistic natural philosophy, it contradicted him with rationalistic doctrinairism and religious spirit. Herder's ideas came into conflict with Kant's version of human nature and the meaning of history. Herder's idea of ​​the happiness of the individual turned out to be incompatible with Kant's idea of ​​the welfare of society in the state. The early Romantics were repelled by Herder's naive optimism.

At the same time, Herder's worldview became an arsenal of themes, ideas and creative impulses for various areas of German thought: for romantic aesthetics and natural philosophy, Humboldtian linguistics, the dialectical historiosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the anthropology of Ludwig Feuerbach, the hermeneutics of Wilhelm Dilthey, the philosophy of life , liberal Protestant theology.

Johann Gottfried Herder - quotes

The fault of any woman is the fault of a man.

The two greatest tyrants on earth: chance and time.

I well understand that one cannot touch a blazing flame, one cannot embrace the foaming sea in every wave as something reliable; but it does not follow from this that our soul does not embrace them.

Johann Gottfried Herder

(Johann Gottfried Herder, 1744-1803)

Herder, the greatest thinker of the 18th century, had a great influence on the formation of the aesthetic views of the sturmers. His significance in the history of philosophical and aesthetic thought is determined primarily by the fact that he began to consider social and literary phenomena from a historical point of view. Herder studied literature and art in close connection with the whole life of mankind, emphasizing their dependence on the language, customs, psychology, way of thinking of this or that people at a certain stage of its historical development. From this, Herder drew a conclusion about the national uniqueness of the work of each writer, introduced a new, historical method of studying literary phenomena into science. Herder was an ardent defender of humanism and the friendship of peoples. In his positive program, he came close to the ideas of utopian socialism.

Herder was born in the small provincial town of Morungen (East Prussia) in the family of a poor school teacher, who simultaneously acts as a bell ringer and chorister in the local church. Due to financial difficulties, Herder did not even have to receive a systematic primary education. For ten years he is given into the service of the despotic deacon Tresho, where he performs all kinds of domestic work, and also rewrites the theological writings of his master.

In 1762, Herder went to Königsberg to study surgery, but became a student of the theological faculty of Königsberg University. I. Kant's lectures on natural spiders made a great impression on him. From them he extracted the idea of ​​the mutability of the world, which would take such a large place in his future writings. But Herder gets a lot from self-study. He studies the works of Leibniz, Voltaire, Baumgarten, Hume, Newton, Keppler and other philosophers and naturalists, gets acquainted with the work of Rousseau, which had a great influence on him. In his student years, as later, Herder strikes with the breadth of his interests.

Herder's active literary activity began in Riga, where he lived in 1764-1769, being the pastor of the Dome Cathedral. At this time, he published a number of articles - “On the latest German literature. Fragments” (Über die neuere deutsche Literatur. Fragmente), “Critical forests” (Die Kritische Wälder), in which his innovative approach to the study of literary phenomena was already quite clearly revealed. In 1770-1771, while in Strasbourg, Herder met and became close to Goethe, playing an important role in establishing the latter in the aesthetic positions of Sturm und Drang. The fruit of this acquaintance was the jointly compiled collection On the German Character in Art (Von Deutscher Art und Kunst, 1773), where Goethe placed an essay on architecture, and Herder made articles on Shakespeare and folk song. The thoughts developed by Herder and Goethe in their joint speech were perceived by German writers as a manifesto of a new Sturmer trend in literature.

In 1771-1775. Herder serves as a preacher in Bückerburg, and then, with the assistance of Goethe, moves to Weimar, where he remains until the end of his days, acting as court adviser to the consistory. IN Weimar period Herder wrote the most significant works in which his concept of world literature is deployed with the greatest completeness and distinctness: Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (Ideen zur Philosophic der Gescliichtc derMcnschheil, 1784-1791), a collection of Voices of the Peoples in Songs (Stimmen der Völker in Lieder, 1778-1791), "Letters to Encourage Humanity" (Briefe zur Beförderung der Humanität, 1794-1797), "Kalligone" (Kalligone, 1800) and others. Herder also wrote poems, dramas ("Brutus", "Philoctetes ”, “Uninhibited Prometheus”, etc.), but his artistic work, distinguished by its progressive ideological orientation, artistically low. The images in his dramaturgy and poetry are marked by illustrativeness and schematism. Much more interesting is Herder as a translator. His greatest success in this area is the arrangement of pa German Spanish romances about Side.

Herder's world fame is based on his philosophical, historical and literary works, in which he declared himself as a true innovator. Enlighteners of the 18th century (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Lessing, etc.) viewed history as a struggle between enlightenment and ignorance, civilization against barbarism. Their own views were regarded by them as the highest step in the development of world theoretical thought. From the standpoint of enlightenment reason, they rejected the Middle Ages. For them, the Middle Ages is an era of solid prejudices. For the same reasons, they did not pay due attention to folk art.

Herder considered the history of world culture as a process, all links of which are interconnected, necessary and, therefore, have a unique originality. Each historical era, each nation will create artistic values, marked with the seal of originality, increasing the spiritual and aesthetic wealth of mankind.

Herder speaks of the folk origins of artistic creativity. In one of his early articles, “Do we have a French theater?” he enters into a decisive polemic with those who linked the future of German theatrical art with the goodwill of titled patrons. Herder, on the contrary, notes the pernicious influence of the court-aristocratic environment on theatrical life.

In the essay “On the latest German literature. Fragments" Herder drew attention to the enormous role of language as a "tool" of artistic creation, without which there can be neither great poets nor great prose writers. Of great scientific importance was his position that language is a product of the millennium development of society, that it was given to people not by God, but arose in the process of human communication, improving from one generation to another. Very valuable, materialistic in its essence, was Herder's position that language is the practical existence of thought ("We think with the help of language .., thinking is almost the same as speech"). Herder showed great interest in the development of German national language, considering it as a means of promoting the rallying of the nation and the creation of national literature.

In the "Critical Forests" Herder, arguing with the aesthetics of the XVIII century. Riedel, as well as indirectly with Winckelmann, disputes their thesis about the absolute ideal of beauty, proving the variability of the concept of beauty. “Are the Greek, Gothic and Moorish tastes the same,” he asks, in sculpture and architecture, in mythology and poetry? And does not each of them derive his explanation from the epoch, customs and character of his people? Herder is a strong opponent of normative aesthetics. Genuine art, in his opinion, is incompatible with normativity, it is the fruit of free inspiration, unique to every artist.

Great are the merits of Herder as a folklorist. He was the first in Germany to pay attention to oral folk poetry, energetically engaged in collecting and popularizing his works. He, in particular, was struck by the spiritual, cultural riches of Russia (he to some extent joined them while living in Riga). Herder urged the scientists of the Slavic countries to collect folk songs, which reflected the peculiarities of the life of the Slavs, their customs and ideals. Herder predicted a great future for the Slavic peoples, who, in his opinion, would play a leading role in the spiritual life of Europe.

Language, religious beliefs, ethical ideas and other achievements of civilization are considered by Herder as a product of the collective life of the people. They arose as a result of a certain vital spiritual need. Herder, Goethe admits in Book X of his autobiography, "taught us to understand poetry as the common gift of all mankind, and not as the private property of a few refined and educated natures." An individual artist, according to Herder, achieves great poetic expressiveness only when he is connected with the elements of the people's national life.

Herder's most striking work as a folklorist is the anthology Voices of the Nations in Songs. It consists of six books. It presents the works of folk poetry not only of the civilized peoples of the world, but also of those who did not yet have their own written language (Eskimos, Laplanders, residents of Madagascar, etc.). On the other hand, the collection included samples of the poetry of Shakespeare, Goethe, which, according to Herder, were closely connected with folk life.

The greatest place in "Voices ..." is occupied by songs of love, everyday life, but some are distinguished by a socio-political orientation. Such, for example, is the “Song of Freedom” (Lied der Freiheit, from Greek), which glorifies the heroes of ancient history, Hormodius and Aristogeiton, who threw the despot ruler Hipparchus off the cliff. The poem Klage liber die Tyrannen des Leibeigenen (from Estonian) is permeated with a sharp protest against feudal serf oppression. It expresses the despair and anger of a peasant who is forced to flee his native home, fleeing the bullying of a baron-lihodey, who beats his serfs with whips.

Our life is worse than hell.

We're on fire in hell

Bread burns our lips,

We drink poisoned water.

Our bread is kneaded on fire,

Sparks lurk in the crumb,

Batogi under the bread crust.

(Translated by L. Ginzburg)

Herder's most famous and most significant work is his "Ideas on the Philosophy of Human History". Created in thunderous times, on the eve and during the years of the French bourgeois revolution of the 18th century, with which the thinker sympathized, this work is imbued with the thought of the continuous improvement of society, of the doom of inhumane social institutions, about the invincibility of progress and the victory of humanism. In "Ideas" most fully manifested research method Herder - his desire to consider the phenomena of nature and public life in development, from a historical point of view.

The book consists of four parts. It explores the natural and social conditions for the existence of the human race. Herder pursues quite earthly goals: he seeks to find natural, objective laws that govern the world. The philosopher of a materialistic cast gains the upper hand over the theologian in it, although concessions to traditional theological views still strongly make themselves felt on many pages of his work.

Herder proceeds from the premise that man has a dual origin. On the one hand, he is a product of nature, and on the other, social circumstances. This is reflected in the structure of the Ideas. They first consider the natural, and then the socio-historical conditions of people's lives. Herder begins his review with a characterization of the earth, with a definition of its place in space. He wants to prove that the uniqueness of our planet, its rotation around the sun and its axis, the peculiarities of its atmospheric cover, etc., have significantly influenced the structure of the human body. Man, according to Herder, is organically woven into the life of nature, he is a part of it, but at the same time he has a number hallmarks. Its main difference from the animal is the ability to "walk with its head up". This allowed a person to free his hands, which played a huge role in his struggle for existence and in spiritual improvement. People, Herder argues, in the process of communication created a language, developed the mind, which, in his opinion, unlike instinct, is not given from birth, but is a product of historical development. Ultimately, Herder sees the distinguishing quality of a person in the fact that he is a rational, thinking being. Humanity is the essence of human nature and the ultimate goal of mankind. However, along with the provisions based on the study of vast factual material, "Ideas" contain judgments of a mystical nature. Herder, for example, argues at length that humanism can be fully revealed only in conditions of unearthly existence. Hence his dreams of eternal life beyond the limit, etc.

Herder in his work gives a detailed description historical life all the peoples of the world known at that time. His historical digressions testify to the author's enormous erudition, although he naturally admits inaccuracies caused by the state of historical science in the 18th century. Herder sets himself the task of tracing the reasons for the natural (geographical) and social order that this or that people advanced on the historical arena with their spiritual achievements, the degree of development of literature and art. The most brilliant pages of "Ideas" in this regard are devoted to Ancient Greece, which is characterized by Herder as the cradle of human culture. The historical view in Herder's aesthetics is constantly being corrected by enlightenment ideology. Explaining the uniqueness of the cultural life of a certain people, the thinker never forgets to evaluate it from the point of view of modern human interests, which gives his work a relevant significance.

The continuation of the "Ideas" are "Letters for the Encouragement of Humanity", where Herder developed his concept on the material of living modernity. In his new work, he wanted to show the irresistibility of the spirit of historical change, the doom of obsolete feudal-monarchist institutions. "Letters" were created in the midst of revolutionary events in France, which the writer met with enthusiasm. True, embarrassed by the resolute actions of the Jacobins (the execution of the king, queen and other inspirers of the reaction), Herder later, like many German writers, switched to more moderate social and political positions, but still his sympathy for the French revolution never faded, and she had the most direct influence on his assessment of the situation in Germany. In his sermons, Herder spoke sympathetically of the revolutionary French people, which aroused the furious wrath of Duke Karl-August; he directly and sharply condemned the intervention against revolutionary France, which was an act of great civic courage. In the first version of the Letters, Herder openly criticizes the despotism of the German princes, expresses his indignation at their shameful custom of trading their subjects, advocates the abolition of noble privileges, admires the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", expresses a wish for the introduction of constitutional orders in his own country, etc. Rejecting the speculations of the reactionaries, Herder is firmly convinced that the revolution will lead not to the decline, but to the flourishing of artistic creativity.

The musty atmosphere of the Weimar court, Herder's official position (he was the highest clergyman in the duchy) did not allow the writer to publish the "Letters" in their original form. He was forced to significantly soften the radicalness of his judgments. As a result, the work, while remaining a significant phenomenon in German literature, nevertheless lost its intended political sharpness.

In his last works (Kalligon and others), Herder devotes much attention to the criticism of Kantianism. He does not share Kant's thoughts on the a priori nature of the concepts of time and space, points to formalism in his aesthetic views. In the fight against the weaknesses of the Kantian aesthetics, Herder proceeds not from abstract theoretical motives: he sees what a negative influence it had on Schiller and some others. German writers. Herder is concerned about the fate of German literature. Hence his ardent desire to prove that the beauty of a work of art is determined not only by its form, as Kant believed, but depends on its content. Herder, as a true educator, does not think of the beautiful in isolation from the good and the just. Until the end of his days, he remained a fighter for the art of great humanistic ideas and feelings.

Herder left a deep mark on the history of aesthetic thought. Romantics largely relied on him in their struggle for national-original creativity, he contributed to the awakening of their interest in folklore. At the same time, by studying man concretely historically, Herder gave impetus to the development of realism. Goethe and other writers of the realistic trend in German literature of the last third of the 18th century trace their “pedigree” from him.

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Biography

Born into a craftsman's family, he graduated from the theological faculty of the Königsberg University. In his native Prussia, he was threatened by recruitment, so in 1764 Herder left for Riga, where he took a position as a teacher at the cathedral school, and later as a pastoral adjunct. In Riga he began his literary activity. In 1776, thanks to the efforts of Goethe, he moved to Weimar, where he received the post of court preacher. In 1788 he traveled to Italy.

Philosophy and criticism

Herder's writings "Fragments on German Literature" (Fragmente zur deutschen Literatur, Riga, 1766-1768), "Critical Groves" (Kritische Walder, 1769) played a large role in the development of German literature of the period of "storm and stress" (see. " Sturm und Drang"). Here we meet with a new, enthusiastic assessment of Shakespeare, with the idea (which became the central position of Herder's entire bourgeois theory of culture) that every people, every progressive period of world history has and should have a literature imbued with a national spirit. Herder substantiates the thesis about the dependence of literature on natural and social environment: climate, language, mores, way of thinking of the people, whose moods and views are expressed by the writer, absolutely certain specific conditions of a given historical period. “Could Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles write their works in our language and according to our customs? - Herder asks a question and answers: - Never!

The following works are devoted to the development of these thoughts: “On the Origin of Language” (Berlin, 1772), the articles: “On Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples” (Briefwechsel uber Ossian und die Lieder alter Volker, 1773) and “On Shakespeare”, published in Von deutscher Art und Kunst" (Hamb., 1770). The essay "Also the Philosophy of History" (Riga, 1774) is devoted to criticism of the rationalist philosophy of the history of the Enlightenment. The era of Weimar includes his "Plastic", "On the influence of poetry on the customs of peoples in old and new times", "On the spirit of Hebrew poetry" (Dessau, 1782-1783). From 1785, the monumental work Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind (Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, Riga, 1784-1791) began to appear. This is the first experience of the general history of culture, where Herder's thoughts about the cultural development of mankind, about religion, poetry, art, and science receive their most complete expression. The East, antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, modern times - are depicted by Herder with erudition that amazed his contemporaries. At the same time he published a collection of articles and translations "Scattered sheets" (1785-1797) and a philosophical study "God" (1787).

His last great works (not counting the theological works) are Letters for the Promotion of Humanity (Briefe zur Beforderung der Humanitat, Riga, 1793-1797) and Adrasteia (1801-1803), pointed mainly against the classicism of Goethe and Schiller.

Fiction and translations

From the number original works the best can be considered "Legends" and "Paramythia". Less successful are his dramas House of Admetus, Prometheus Liberated, Ariadne-Libera, Aeon and Aeonia, Philoctetes, Brutus.

Herder's poetic and especially translational activity is very significant. He acquaints reading Germany with a number of the most interesting, hitherto unknown or little-known monuments of world literature. His famous anthology "Folk Songs" (Volkslieder, 1778-1779), known under the title "Voices of the Peoples in Songs" (Stimmen der Volker in Liedern), was made with great artistic taste, which opened the way for the latest collectors and researchers of folk poetry, since only with the time of Herder, the concept of a folk song received a clear definition and became a genuine historical concept; he introduces into the world of Oriental and Greek poetry with his anthology From the Oriental Poems (Blumenlese aus morgenlandischer Dichtung), the translation of Sakuntala and the Greek Anthology (Griechische Anthologie). Herder completed his translation activity with the processing of romances about Side (1801), making German culture the brightest monument of ancient Spanish poetry.

Meaning

Fight against the ideas of the Enlightenment

Herder is one of the most significant figures of the Sturm und Drang era. He struggles with the theory of literature and the philosophy of the Enlightenment. Enlighteners believed in a man of culture. They argued that only such a person should be the subject and object of poetry, considered only periods of high culture worthy of attention and sympathy in world history, were convinced of the existence of absolute examples of art created by artists who developed their abilities to the maximum extent (such perfect creators were for enlighteners, ancient artists). Enlighteners considered the task of the contemporary artist to approach these perfect models through imitation. In contrast to all these assertions, Herder believed that the bearer of true art is precisely not a cultivated, but a “natural”, close to nature person, a person of great passions unrestrained by reason, a fiery and innate, and not a cultivated genius, and it is precisely such a person who should be the subject of art. Together with other irrationalists of the 70s. Herder was unusually enthusiastic about folk poetry, Homer, the Bible, Ossian and, finally, Shakespeare. According to them, he recommended studying genuine poetry, because here, as nowhere else, a “natural” person is depicted and interpreted.

The idea of ​​human development

According to Herder, humanity in its development is like a separate individual: it goes through periods of youth and decrepitude - with the death of the ancient world, it recognized its first old age, with the age of Enlightenment, the arrow of history again made its circle. What the educators take to be genuine works of art are nothing but counterfeits devoid of poetic life. art forms, which arose at one time on the basis of national consciousness and became unique with the death of the environment that gave birth to them. By imitating models, poets lose the opportunity to show the only important thing: their individual identity, and since Herder always considers a person as a particle of the social whole (nation), then his national identity.

Therefore, Herder calls on contemporary German writers to start a new rejuvenated circle of European cultural development, to create, obeying free inspiration, under the sign of national identity. For this purpose, Herder recommends that they turn to earlier (younger) periods of national history, because there they can join the spirit of their nation in its most powerful and pure expression and draw the strength necessary to renew art and life.

However, Herder combines the theory of progressive development with the theory of the cyclical development of world culture, converging in this with the enlighteners who believed that the "golden age" should be sought not in the past, but in the future. And this is not an isolated case of Herder's contact with the views of representatives of the Enlightenment. Relying on Hamann, Herder at the same time shares his solidarity with Lessing on a number of issues.

Idea nation state

Herder was one of those who first put forward the idea of ​​a modern nation-state, but it arose in his teaching from a vitalized natural law and was of a completely pacifist character. Each state that arose as a result of the seizures terrified him. After all, such a state, as Herder believed, and this manifested his popular idea, destroyed the existing national cultures. In fact, only the family and the form of the state corresponding to it seemed to him as a purely natural creation. It can be called Herder's form of the nation-state.

“Nature brings up families and, consequently, the most natural state is one where one people lives with a single national character.” “The state of one people is a family, a comfortable home. It rests on its own foundation; founded by nature, it stands and perishes only in the course of time.”

Herder called such a state structure the first degree of natural governments, which will remain the highest and last. This means that the ideal picture he drew of the political state of the early and pure nationality remained his ideal of the state in general.

Doctrine of the Folk Spirit

“In general, what is called the genetic spirit and character of the people is amazing. He is inexplicable and inextinguishable; he is as old as a people, as old as the country that this people inhabited.

These words contain the quintessence of Herder's doctrine of the spirit of the people. This teaching was first of all directed, as already at the preliminary stages of its development among the Enlighteners, to the preserved essence of peoples, stable in change. It rested on a more universal sympathy for the diversity of the individualities of peoples than the somewhat later teaching of the historical school of law, which arose from a passionate immersion in the originality and creative power of the German folk spirit. But it anticipated, albeit with less mysticism, the romantic feeling of the irrational and mysterious in the popular spirit. It, like romance, saw in the national spirit an invisible seal, expressed in the specific features of the people and their creations, unless this vision was freer, not so doctrinaire. Less harshly than later romanticism, it also considered the question of the indelibility of the national spirit.

Love for the nationality, preserved in purity and untouched, did not prevent him from recognizing the beneficialness of "graftings, timely given to the peoples" (as the Normans did with the English people). The idea of ​​a national spirit received a special meaning from Herder due to the addition of his favorite word "genetic" to its formulation. This means not only a living formation instead of a frozen being, and at the same time one feels not only the original, unique in historical growth, but also the creative soil from which all living things flow.

Herder was much more critical of the then-appearing concept of race, considered shortly before by Kant (1775). His ideal of humanity counteracted this notion, which, according to Herder, threatened to reduce humanity back to the animal level, even to speak of human races seemed to Herder ignoble. Their colors, he believed, are lost in each other, and all this in the end is only shades of the same great picture. The true bearer of the great collective genetic processes was and remained, according to Herder, the people, and even higher - humanity.

Sturm und Drang

Thus Herder can be seen as a thinker standing on the periphery of "storm and stress". Nevertheless, among the sturmers, Herder was very popular; the latter supplemented Herder's theory with their artistic practice. It was not without his assistance that works with national subjects arose in German bourgeois literature (“Götz von Berlichingen” - Goethe, “Otto” - Klinger and others), works imbued with the spirit of individualism, and a cult of inborn genius developed.

A square in the Old Town and a school are named after Herder in Riga.

Bibliography and sources

Gerbel N. German poets in biographies and samples. - St. Petersburg., 1877.
Thoughts related to the philosophical history of mankind, according to the understanding and outline of Herder (books 1-5). - St. Petersburg., 1829.
Sid. Previous and note. W. Sorgenfrey, ed. N. Gumilyova. - P .: "World literature", 1922.
Heim R. Herder, his life and writings. In 2 vols. - M., 1888.
Pypin A. Herder // Vestnik Evropy. - 1890. - III-IV.
Mering F. Herder. to philosophical and literary themes. - Mn., 1923.
Herder I. G. Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Humanity. (Series "Monuments of historical thought") - M .: Publishing house "Nauka", 1977. - 705 s - (Translation and notes by A. V. Mikhailov.)

Johann Gottfried Herder

Herder, Johann Gottfried (1744 - 1803) - famous German historian and philosopher. His largest and most important works are " Ideas on the philosophy of human history ".

Herder Johann Gottfried (1744-1803), German philosopher, theologian, poet, critic and esthetician, Sturm und Drang theorist, great friend and teacher I. Goethe. Born in Morungen (now Morong) in the family of a poor Lutheran priest. A student of early Kant. In 1764 he graduated from the University of Königsberg. In 1764-1769 he served as a pastor in the Dome Cathedral in Riga, from 1776 in Weimar, he traveled extensively in Europe. In Riga, he became close to the circle of K. Behrens, whose members vigorously discussed reform projects in the spirit of the Enlightenment. Then he became a member and secretary of one of Masonic lodges. Wrote a treatise on the origin of language. The founder of the concept of nationality. Collected and translated folk songs, taught. Being away from Koenigsberg did not break contact with Gaman And Kant, published in Koenigsberg editions. Significantly influenced the views A. N. Radishcheva .

Materials are reprinted from the project "East Prussian Dictionary", compiled by Alexei Petrushin using the book: "Essays on the History of East Prussia", edited by G.V. Kretinina.

Other biographical material:

Frolov I.T. Philosopher, writer, literary critic Philosophical Dictionary. Ed. I.T. Frolova. M., 1991 ).

Rumyantseva T.G. Herder's activity marks a new stage of enlightenment in Germany ( The latest philosophical dictionary. Comp. Gritsanov A.A. Minsk, 1998 ).

Kirilenko G.G., Shevtsov E.V. He was known as a "hot Russian patriot" ( Kirilenko G.G., Shevtsov E.V. Brief philosophical dictionary. M. 2010 ).

Schastlivtsev R.A. Experienced the influence of G. Lessing and especially I. Gaman ( New Philosophical Encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Huseynov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Thought, 2010 , v. I, A - D).

Gulyga A.V. He predicted a great historical future for the Slavic peoples ( Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 4. THE HAGUE - DVIN. 1963 ).

Baker D. R. "Neither the chimpanzee nor the gibbon are your brothers...". ( Baker John R. Race. Sight white man for evolution. / John R. Baker, translated from English by M.Yu. Diunov. - M., 2015)

He pursued the idea of ​​the formation and development of the world as an organic whole ( Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editors: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 ).

Rehabilitated folk medieval poetry ( The World History. Volume V. M., 1958 ).

Read further:

Herder Johann Gottfried. Ideas in the Philosophy of Human History. ( Herder I.G. Ideas for the philosophy of human history. M., 1977).

Herder. Ideas for the Philosophy of Human History ( Article by A. A. Kostikov on the unfinished work of I. G. Herder).

Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).

Historical Persons of Germany (biographical guide).

Germany in the 19th century (chronological table)

Compositions:

Werke, Bd 1-32. V., 1877-1899; Bd 1-5. V.-Weimar, 1978; in Russian transl.: Fav. op. M.-L., 1959.

Literature:

Gulyga A.V. Herder. M., 1975;

Adler H. Die Pragnanz des Dunklen. Gnoseologie, Asthetik, Geschichtsphilosophie bei J. G. Herder. Hamb., 1990;

Schmitz M. J. G. Herder: Ahndung kiinftiger Bestimmung. Stuttg.-Weimar, 1994.

[German] Herder] Johann Gottfried (08/25/1744, Morungen, East Prussia (modern Morong, Poland) - 12/18/1803, Weimar), German. writer, philosopher and theologian.

Life

Genus. into a pious Protestant. family. Mother came from a shoemaker's family, father was a church cantor, bell ringer, school teacher. The constraint of material conditions was aggravated for G. by the chronic disease of an eye which was shown at 5 years of age, to-the Crimea he suffered during all life. After graduating from school, G. served in the house of a deacon. Sebastian Trecho as copyist. juvenile lit. G.'s debut was the anonymously published in 1761 ode "Gesanges an Cyrus" (Song of Cyrus) on the accession to the throne of the Russian imp. Peter III (during the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, the territory of East Prussia was occupied by Russian troops). In 1762, thanks to the advice and patronage of the Rus. military physician G. went to Königsberg University with the intention of studying medicine, but he soon preferred the theological to the medical fact. In Königsberg he listened to I. Kant's lectures on logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy and physical geography, took English lessons. and ital. languages ​​from I. G. Gaman; both teachers took part in the fate of the young man and had a decisive influence on the formation of his philosophical views.

After graduating from the university in 1764, G., through the mediation of Gaman, received the position of a school teacher at cathedral in Riga; after successfully passing the theological examination in 1765, he simultaneously served as a preacher. In Riga, G. studied the works of J. J. Rousseau, C. L. Montesquieu, A. G. Baumgarten, G. E. Lessing, I. I. Winckelmann, D. Hume, A. E. Cooper, gr. Shaftesbury. In the first literary-critical experiments "Fragmente über die neuere deutsche Literatur" (Fragments on New German Literature, 1766-1768) and "Kritischen Wäldern" (Critical Forests, 1769), he declared himself an opponent of blind imitation of ancient literature. examples and champion of national identity. Public speaking brought G. recognition of the city community, but his passion for educational ideals led to tense relations with the Riga clergy. Having resigned in 1769, he undertook cruise to France, described by him in his autobiographical Op. "Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769" (Diary of my journey 1769). In Paris, G. met with D. Diderot, J. L. D "Alembert and Ch. Duclos; through Brussels and Antwerp, he moved to Hamburg, where he visited Lessing and the poet M. Claudius. In 1770, G. traveled on it. cities as an educator of the Holstein crown prince. Pinning hopes on the surgical treatment of the eye, in August. 1770 he arrived in Strasbourg, where he had his first meeting with J. W. Goethe. G. had a huge impact on the young Goethe, introducing him to Homer's epic, the Poems of Ossian, and the dramaturgy of W. Shakespeare, and communication with Goethe contributed to G.'s introduction to the range of ideas of the Sturm und Drang literary movement.

In 1771, Mr.. G. accepted an invitation to take the position of court preacher and consistory adviser at the court of Count Schaumburg-Lippe in Bückeburg. In March 1773 he married Caroline Flachsland. The acquisition of a strong social position and a happy marriage contributed to the creative upsurge of G.: in 1772-1776. he created a number of aesthetic, philosophical and theological works. Scientific achievements brought G. official. recognition: the treatises "Research on the origin of language" and "On the influence of government on science and science on government" were awarded prizes from the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Under the influence of gr. Maria Schaumburg-Lippe, as well as Claudius and J.K. Lavater G. departed from enlightenment rationalism. This was especially clearly manifested in the change in his attitude towards the Holy. Scripture: from emphasizing primarily the artistic value of the Bible as a monument of ancient poetry to the assertion of the historical authenticity of the biblical testimony about Revelation.

In 1776, on the recommendation of K. M. Wieland and Goethe, G. was invited to the post of court preacher of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, general superintendent and pastor in Weimar, where he remained until the end of his life. The first half of the Weimar period became for G. the era of the highest creative flourishing. His scientific horizons acquired a truly encyclopedic character (geography, climatology, anthropology and psychology, linguistics, The World History, history of literature, folklore, aesthetics and history of art, philosophy, biblical studies, pedagogy, etc.), and the desire for an organic synthesis of various branches of knowledge stimulated the search for a new worldview model that allows us to combine the scientific understanding of reality with the artistic. On this basis, an intensive creative exchange arose between G. and Goethe, the fruits of which were the attempts made by G. to create a universal historiosophical concept and rethink the philosophy of B. Spinoza. In the implemented during this period it. translations from the poetry of different peoples, the poetic talent of G. was revealed to the greatest extent. At the same time, he managed the affairs of the parish entrusted to him and took an active part in the public life of Weimar: in 1785 he acted as the ideological inspirer and leader of the school reform, in 1789 he became vice president, and in 1801 - President of the Supreme Consistory of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The growth of G.'s authority was facilitated by his publicistic speeches, in particular, written as a response to events French Revolution"Letters in Support of Humanity". However, in the late Weimar period, the desire to take an independent position in the philosophical, aesthetic and political discussions led G. to estrangement from former like-minded people. The cooling in personal relations with Goethe, which began in 1779 under the influence of court intrigues, led to an aggravation of differences in aesthetic and political issues, especially after the attempted by G. in 1788-1789. trips to Italy. Disagreements developed into a consistent confrontation between G. t. Weimar classicism in the edition published by him in 1801-1803. and. "Adrastea" (Adrastea). Did not meet with understanding from contemporaries and deployed by him in 1799-1800. sharp criticism of Kant's transcendental philosophy. The personal nobility granted to G. in 1801 by the Bavarian elector became an occasion for ridicule from the Weimar townsfolk and worsened his relationship with the duke. The ideological isolation of G. in the last years of his life was only partially brightened up by his acquaintance with the artist A. Kaufman in Rome in 1789 and his friendship with the writer Jean Paul (J. P. Richter).

Compositions

Diverse in subject matter, the huge creative heritage of G. is marked by a constant desire to combine strict scientific analysis with poetic expression, therefore the division of his works into lit. and scientific is very conditional. Most of G.'s poetic experiments are also focused on research tasks, and lit. the form of philosophical and theological writings has an independent aesthetic value.

Theological

1. Historical-critical studies of the OT: the extensive treatise Älteste Urkunde des Menschengeschlechts (The Oldest Evidence of the Human Race, 1774-1776), which considers the OT in the context of scientific, historical and archaeological studies of cultures Dr. East, and a 2-volume Op. "Vom Geist der ebräischen Poesie" (On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, 1782-1783), which is one of the first attempts at literary analysis of biblical texts.

2. Exegetical Essays on the NT: "Erläuterungen zum Neuen Testament aus einer neueröfneten morgenländischen Quelle" (Explanations to the New Testament from a Newly Discovered Eastern Source, 1775), "Maran Atha: Das Buch von der Zukunft des Herrn, des Neuen Testaments Siegel" (Maranatha: The Book of the Coming Lord, Printing of the New Testament, 1779), a cycle of works on the Synoptic Gospels under the general title "Christliche Schriften" (Christian Scriptures. 5 vols., 1794-1798), among which stand out "Vom Erlöser der Menschen. Nach unsern drei ersten Evangelien” (On the Savior of the people. According to our first three Gospels, 1796) and “Von Gottes Sohn, der Welt Heiland” (On the Son of God, Savior of the world, 1797), etc.

3. Works on moral theology, in which G. reflects on the foundations of Christ. life, about the meaning and tasks of the pastoral ministry: “An Prediger: Fünfzehn Provinzialblätter” (To the Preachers: Fifteen Provincial Letters, 1774), “Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend” (Letters concerning the study of theology, 1780), etc.

Cit.: Sämmtliche Werke / Hrsg. B. Suphan. B., 1877-1913. 33 Bde. Hildesheim, 1967-1968; Fav. prod. M.; L., 1959; Stimmen der Völker in Liedern / Hrsg. H. Rolleke. Stuttg., 1975; Journal meiner Reise im Jahre 1769: Hist.-crit. Ausg. / Hrsg. K. Mommsen. Stuttg., 1976; Briefe, 1763-1803 / Hrsg. K.-H. Hahn e. a. Weimar, 1977-1984. 8 bde; Werke / Hrsg. G. Arnold, M. Bollacher. Fr./M., 1985-2000. 10 bde; Italienische Reise: Briefe und Tagebuch-Aufzeichnungen, 1788-1789 / Hrsg. A. Meier, H. Hollmer. Munch., 1988.

Lit.: Haym R . Herder nach seinem Leben und seinen Werken dargestellt. B., 1877-1885. 2 bde. B., 1954 (Russian translation: Heim R. Herder, his life and works. M., 1888. 2 vol.); Gulyga A . IN . Herder as a Critic of Kant's Aesthetic Theory // VF. 1958. No. 9. S. 48-57; he is. Herder (1744-1803). M., 1963, 19752; Dobbek W. J. G. Herders Weltbild: Versuch einer Deutung. Koln; W., 1969; Nisbet H. Herder and the Philosophy and History of Science. Camb., 1970; Faust U. Mythologien und Religionen des Ostens bei J. G. Herder. Munster, 1977; Rathmann J. Zur Geschichtsphilosophie J. G. Herders. Bdpst, 1978; Heizmann B. Ursprünglichkeit und Reflexion: Die poetische Ästhetik d. Jungen Herder in Zusammenhang d. Geschichtsphilosophie und Anthropologie d. 18 Jh. Fr./M., 1981; J. G. Herder - Innovator through the Ages / Hrsg. W. Koepke. Bonn, 1982; Verri A. Vico e Herder nella Francia d. Restauration. Ravenna, 1984; Owren H. Herders Bildungsprogramm u. seine Auswirkungen im 18. u. 19.Jh. HDlb., 1985; Wisbert R. Das Bildungsdenken d. Jungen Herder. Fr./M., 1987; J. G. Herder (1744-1803) / Hrsg. G Sauder. Hamburg, 1987; Becker B. Herder-Reception in Deutschland. St. Ingbert, 1987; Gaier U. Herders Sprachphilosophie und Erkenntniskritik. Stuttg., 1988; Kim Dae Kweon. Sprachtheorie im 18. Jh.: Herder, Condillac und Süßmilch. St. Ingbert, 2002; Zammito J. Kant, Herder, and the Birth of Anthropology. Chicago, 20022; Zaremba M . J. G. Herder: Prediger d. Humanitat. Koln, 2002; Herder et les Lumières: l "Europe de la pluralité culturelle et linguistique / Éd. P. Pénisson. P., 2003; Löchte A. J. G. Herder: Kulturtheorie und Humanismusidee der "Ideen", "Humanitätsbriefe" und "Adrastea". Würzburg, 2005; J. G. Herder: Aspekte seines Lebenswerkes / Hrsg. M. Keßler, B., 2005; Markworth, T. Unsterblichkeit und Identität beim frühen Herder, Paderborn; Münch., 2005.

P. V. Rezvykh