Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG (1730—1788)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 869 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG (1730—1788) , See also:German writer on philosophical and theological subjects, was See also:born at See also:Konigsberg in See also:Prussia on the 27th of See also:August 1730. His parents were of humble See also:rank and small means. The See also:education he received was comprehensive but unsystematic, and the want of definiteness in this See also:early training doubtless tended to aggravate the See also:peculiar instability of See also:character which troubled Hamann's after See also:life. In 1746 he began theological studies, but speedily deserted them and turned his See also:attention to See also:law. That too was taken up in a desultory See also:fashion and quickly relinquished. Hamann seems at this See also:time to have thought that any strenuous devotion to " See also:bread-and-See also:butter " studies was lowering, and accordingly gave himself entirely to See also:reading, See also:criticism and philological inquiries. Such studies, however, were pursued without any definite aim or systematic arrangement, and consequently were productive of nothing. In 1752, constrained to secure some position in the See also:world, he accepted a tutorship in a See also:family See also:resident in See also:Livonia, but only retained it a few months. A similar situation in See also:Courland he also resigned after about a See also:year. In both cases apparently the rupture might be traced to the curious and unsatisfactory character of Hamann himself. After leaving his second See also:post he was received into the See also:house of a See also:merchant at See also:Riga named Johann Christoph Behrens, who contracted a See also:great friendship for him and selected him as his See also:companion for a tour through See also:Danzig, See also:Berlin, See also:Hamburg, See also:Amsterdam and See also:London. Hamann, however, was quite unfitted for business, and when See also:left in London, gave himself up entirely to his fancies, and was quickly reduced to a See also:state of extreme poverty and want.

It was at this See also:

period of his life, when his inner troubles of spirit harmonized with the unhappy See also:external conditions of his See also:lot, that he began an See also:earnest and prolonged study of the See also:Bible; and from this time See also:dates the See also:tone of extreme See also:pietism which is characteristicof his writings, and which undoubtedly alienated many of his See also:friends. He returned to Riga, and was well received by the Behrens family, in whose house he resided for some time. A See also:quarrel, the precise nature of which is not very clear though the occasion is evident, led to an entire separation from these friends. In 1759 Hamann returned to Konigsberg, and lived for several years with his See also:father, filling occasional posts in Konigsberg and See also:Mitau. In 1767 he obtained a situation as translator in the See also:excise See also:office, and ten years later a post as storekeeper in a See also:mercantile house. During this period of See also:comparative See also:rest Hamann was able to indulge in the See also:long See also:correspondence with learned friends which seems to have been his greatest See also:pleasure. In 1784 the failure of some commercial speculations greatly reduced his means, and about the same time he was dismissed with a small See also:pension from his situation. The kindness of friends, however, supplied See also:provision for his See also:children, and enabled him to carry out the long-cherished wish of visiting some of his philosophical See also:allies. He spent some time with See also:Jacobi at Pempelfort and with See also:Buchholz at Walbergen. At the latter See also:place he was seized with illness, and died on the 21st of See also:June 1788. Hamann's See also:works resemble his life and character. They are entirely unsystematic so far as See also:matter is concerned, chaotic and disjointed in See also:style.

To a reader not acquainted with the peculiar nature of the See also:

man, which led him to regard what commended itself to him as therefore objectively true, they must be, moreover, entirely unintelligible and, from their peculiar, pietistic tone and scriptural See also:jargon, probably offensive. A place in the See also:history of See also:philosophy can be yielded to Hamann only because he expresses in uncouth, barbarous fashion an See also:idea to which other writers have given more effective shape. The fundamental thought is with him the unsatisfactoriness of See also:abstraction or one-sidedness. The Aufkldrung, with its rational See also:theology, was to him the type of abstraction. Even Epicureanism, which might appear See also:concrete, was by him rightly designated abstract. Quite naturally, then, Hamann is led to See also:object strongly to much of the Kantian philosophy. The separation of sense and understanding is for him unjustifiable, and only paralleled by the extraordinary blunder of severing matter and See also:form. Concreteness, therefore, is the one demand which Hamann expresses, and as representing his own thought he used to refer to See also:Giordano See also:Bruno's conception (previously held by Nicolaus Curanus) of the identity of contraries. The demand, however, remains but a demand. Nothing that Hamann has given can be regarded as in the slightest degree a response to it. His hatred of See also:system, incapacity for abstract thinking, and intense See also:personality rendered it impossible for him to do more than utter the disjointed, oracular, obscure dicta which gained for him among his friends the name of " Magus of the See also:North." Two results only appear throughout his writings first, the accentuation of belief ; and secondly, the transference of many philosophical difficulties to See also:language. Belief is, according to Hamann, the groundwork of knowledge, and he accepts in all sincerity See also:Hume's See also:analysis of experience as being most helpful in constructing a theological view.

In language, which he appears to regard as somehow acquired, he finds a See also:

solution for the problems of See also:reason which See also:Kant had discussed in the Kritik der reinen Vernunft. On the application of these thoughts to the See also:Christian theology one need not enter. None of Hamann's writings is of great bulk; most are See also:mere See also:pamphlets of some See also:thirty or See also:forty pages. A See also:complete collection has been published by F. See also:Roth (Schriften, 8vo, 1821–1842), and by C. H. Gildemeister (Leben and Schriften, 6 vols., 1851–1873). See also M. Petri, Hamanns Schriften u. Briefe, 4 vols., 1872–1873) ; J. See also:Poe], Hamann, der Magus See also:im See also:Norden, sein Leben u. Mitteilungen aus seinen Schriften (2 vols., 1874–1876) ; J.

Claassen, Hamanns Leben and Werke (1885). Also H. See also:

Weber, Neue Hamanniana (1905). A very comprehensive See also:essay on Hamann is to be found in See also:Hegel's Vermischte Schriften, ii. (Werke, Bd. xvii.). On Hamann's See also:influence on German literature, see J. See also:Minor, J. G. Hamann in seiner Bedeutung See also:fur See also:die See also:Sturm- and Drang-Periode (1881).

End of Article: HAMANN, JOHANN GEORG (1730—1788)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
HAMAH
[next]
HAMAR, or STOREHAMMER (GREAT HAMAR)