RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Language and Metaphysics in Johann Georg Hamann’s <em>Aesthetica in Nuce</em> and <em>Philologische</em> 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 Pan, David
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)