Schl - speech 1 Flashcards
1
Q
summary
A
- conflict between establishing individuality (sensuality - empiricism) and submission to the divine (abstract - rationalism)
- need to unite both in experience – allows for via media between finite man and infinity of divine
- religion is not a system/institution – it is emotional and based on feeling
- need to transform into a pious soul in order to recognise this
- piety = key to this transformation
- more emphasis on his views of society
- stated goal of wanting to bring people to religion – personal significance
2
Q
1 - view of society
A
- religion does not play that significant a role in society anymore
o ‘the life of cultivated persons is removed from everything that would in the least way resemble religion’
o Link to contemporary context – writing to his fellow Romantics who have chosen to abandon religion - Direct address to audience
o ‘I know that you worship the deity in holy silence’
o ‘the songs of the poets, and…art and science (for you imagine yourself capable of all of this) have taken possession of your minds so completely that no room is left over for the eternal and holy being’ (3)
o attack on Romantic abandonment of religion - do not view theology as an academic field possible/worth pursuing further
o People are consumed with other aspects of life – do not have time or energy for religion. Romantic period – turn to poetry and art etc. has replaced need for God
3
Q
2 - view of authority in modern society
A
- people demand authority in other spheres of life e.g. books on literature, but they do not desire this with religion – contradictory?
o ‘in matters of religion you consider everything more suspicious that comes from those who claim to be experts on the subject’ (4)
o my response: because of the inherently subjective and emotional aspect of religion? However, could reply that this is the case with any sphere of thought – we are all shaped by our own beliefs and perceptions.
4
Q
3 - view of humanity’s composition
A
- ‘each human soul…is merely a product of two opposing drives’ (5)
o two opposing drives = attraction (more animalistic) vs. development of the living self (more rational)
o battle between opposing drives
♣ attraction desire enjoyment, individualistic
♣ development of self – goes beyond individual, seeks the infinite
o Is this Platonic? Link to analogy of chariot. S was familiar with classical antiquity – translated Plato.
o Also reflects idea of polarity common to 18th century scholarship
5
Q
4 - the ideal human
A
- Need to reach ‘perfect equilibrium’ in order for the two drives to be united (6)
o God has the capacity to send out people who have this sense of balance – they are his agents
o Note how S refers to God as the ‘deity’ – abstract language
o Sense of therapy – we can help eachother gain clarity of feeling. But, it remains a fundamentally personal insight
o Must look to these people as inspiration – ‘look to those whose nature demonstrated a high level of that force of attraction that actively seizes surrounding things, but who also possess so much of the spiritual penetration drive, which strives for the infinite and impregnates all spirit and life’ (6)
♣ Look = imperative. Commanding people to seek these individuals
♣ Coming to know God is an active process that involves striving to know the infinite
o They ‘show the inactive, merely speculative idealist…the misunderstood voice of God, and reconcile him with the earth and with his place in it’ (7)
♣ Dig at the idealists – engages with Kantian emphasis on autonomy but rejects Kantian idealism
♣ An explicit allusion to Fichte’s philosophy in ‘The Science of Knowledge, 1794’. Learnt about Fichte through Schlegel
6
Q
5 - personal significance of religion
A
- ‘permit me to speak of myself: You know what bids religion to speak can never be proud, for it is always fully of humility. Religion was the maternal womb in whose holy darkness my young life was nourished’ (8)
o language has become more descriptive
o metaphor of religion as womb
o lyrical?
o Asserting that religion is not something to gloat about – it fundamentally affects a person
7
Q
6 - elitist view
A
only the educated/disposed are capable of attaining an understanding of religion (link to nationalism)
- Direct address, reasserts presence of audience
o ‘if I am so permeated by religion that I must finally speak and bear witness to it, to whom shall I turn with this matter other than you? …it is not blind partiality for my native soil or for my companions in disposition and language that makes me speak thus, but the deep conviction that you are the only ones capable, and thus also worthy, of having the sense for holy and divine things aroused in you’ (9)
o reflection of ‘resurgence of Prussian patriotism in the Napoleonic era and hopes for the new monarchy of Friedrich Wilhelm III
o link to his nationalist ideas
o but also link to his negative attitude towards French revolution (secularising of revolution) and English industrialism, empirical philosophy etc.
o criticises the FR and ENG for their wisdom being ‘directed toward a lamentable empiricism, and thus religion can be nothing else for them than a dead letter’ (9)
8
Q
7 - stated goal = to bring people to religion. how?
A
- ‘would it not really suffice if your wise men were only understood by the best among you? But even that is my final goal with religion. I do not wish to arouse particular feelings that perhaps belong in its realm, nor to justify or dispute particular ideas. I wish to lead you to the innermost depths from which religion first addresses the mind. I wish to show you what capacity of humanity religion proceeds, and how it belongs to what is for you the highest and dearest’ (10-11)
o goal = to bring people to religion
o spiritual process involving acknowledgment of presence of one’s religion in their soul
o religion forms part of the highest aspect of humanity
o it is a necessary part of humanity - this can only be achieved by those ‘who are capable of raising yourselves above the common standpoint of humanity’ (11)
o it takes courage to achieve this unity
o need to rise against common rejection of religion and realise its reality
9
Q
8 - view of people who reject religion
A
- to reject religion is not courageous but contemptuous
o however, S does not say that he wants to force people into religion but rather make sure people are informed
o ‘I wish only to call upon you to be properly informed and thoroughgoing in that contempt’ (11) - need to examine where contempt comes from
10
Q
9 - relationship between religion and ethics
A
- ethics and religion are not the same – should not distinguish this world and world beyond and rather, simply believe in one world
- ‘if ethical life loses its glory and firmness through every addition to it, how much more through something whose lofty and alien colors can never be denied. You have heard this enough from those who defend the independence and the omnipotence of the moral laws, but I add that it also shows the greatest contempt for religion to wish to transplant it into another realm and expect it to serve and work there’ (16)
o criticising Kantian idea of the autonomy and unconditional nature of the moral law
o religion is separate to the moral sphere – it is too alien to be successfully harmonised with morality
11
Q
10 - conclusion re. religion
A
- ‘what I assert and what I should like to establish for religion include the following: It springs necessarily and by itself from the interior of every better soul, it has its own province in the mind in which it reigns sovereign, and it is worthy of moving the noblest and the most excellent by means of its innermost power and by having its innermost essence known by them. Now it is up to you to decide whether it is worth your while to listen to me before you become still more entrenched in your contempt’ (17)
o conclusion to argument
o tone of aggressiveness?
