Abstract
Originally published in 1988 in German this work is a compilation of Bayer’s lectures on Johann Georg Hamann at the University of Tübingen presented to its various faculties; and with this translation the English-speaking world now has an accessible entryway into Hamann’s thought and life. Bayer structures the work topically with the majority of the work demonstrating how Hamann critically interacted with his contemporaries, which serves Bayer’s central thesis that Hamann was a ‘radical enlightener.’
The introduction and chapters one through four set out Hamann’s life situation, which emphasizes his intellectual milieu of Königsberg at the height of the Enlightenment, the form and style of his writings, the influence of Lutheranism (especially the communicatio idiomatum) on Hamann’s thought and his desire to reclaim a theology of nature as a necessary part of his enterprise of reparative reasoning. Chapters five through ten see Bayer exposit Hamann’s intellectual interactions with and criticisms of Herder’s anthropology and political ideology (including the policies of Frederick the Great of Prussia), Kant’s philosophy of reason and language, Lessing’s historicizing of reason and Mendelsohn’s sociology. Chapters eleven and twelve see Bayer elucidate Hamann’s theories on marriage and sex and his theory of created time.
This work and its translation are celebrated because Bayer lucidly presents the infamously and nearly inaccessible thought of Hamann for a much wider audience. Although Bayer’s work is a splendid introduction to the life and thought of Hamann it is not for all readers as a thorough knowledge of Enlightenment philosophy is required to navigate the terminology and argumentative references. Hence, it is a good upper-level undergraduate text and a potential starting-point for further in-depth research. Its chief strength lies in Bayer’s exegesis of Hamann’s chief writings as they relate to his contemporary interlocutors, especially how Bayer interprets Hamann’s indirect allusions to the Bible and other contemporary publications. Of special interest is where Bayer shows how certain aspects of Hamann’s Lutheranism influence his thought across a variety of subjects. A few minor weaknesses are that the translator’s epilogue would be better suited as a prologue to provide even more socio-historical-intellectual information about Hamann and his context, and that a subject index would be appreciated for ease of study.