RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Language and Metaphysics in Johann Georg Hamann’s Aesthetica in Nuce and Philologische Einfälle und Zweifel JF Monatshefte FD University of Wisconsin Press SP 351 OP 375 DO 10.1353/mon.2014.0066 VO 106 IS 3 A1 David Pan YR 2014 UL http://mon.uwpress.org/content/106/3/351.abstract AB Because Hamann's work maintains a focus on both theology and philology, recent interpretations have split into theological readings of Hamann's work by John Milbank and John Betz on the one hand and post-structuralist approaches by Manfred Geier and Carol Jacobs on the other hand. While the theological approach has tried to argue for a Christological reading of Hamann's ideas, the post-structuralist perspective has downplayed the theological implications altogether. This article argues that Hamann's work in fact merges the theological with the philological in order to imagine a theory of culture that gives priority to language as an autonomous sign system while at the same time emphasizing the metaphysical implications of this priority. (DP)