Time in Music and Philosophy

The kind of sense music makes, is bound up with how forms of meaning, including in verbal language, are connected to time. Traditional cyclical, epic, and goal-oriented senses of time all play a role in modern musical forms, even though the mythical, religious, and metaphysical content of these forms is hollowed out by scientific advances. The chapter considers aspects of the work of Descartes, Rousseau, Kant, Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel, Dewey, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Bergson, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, focusing particularly on the relations between self-consciousness, time, and rhythm, and on how these contribute to the constitution of meaning. The chapter argues that it may make more sense for philosophy to attend to what music reveals about time which can only be grasped by active participation in music, than to seek a comprehensive explanatory account of music and time.

Z aktora kapłan. Od „Króla-Ducha” do „słowiańskiego papieża”

This article is concerned with the fragmentary nature of Juliusz Słowacki’s poem “Król‑Duch”, its mystical‑Christian dimension and the impact it had on Karol Wojtyła. Openness to infinity and perpetuality of literature is made clear by referring to Friedrich Schlegel and his idea on the endlessness of romantic poetry, as well as to Roland Barthes, who draws attention to the text as a fabric creating a “wonderful image”. “Król‑Duch”, being a work that requires a patient and soulful reader, ready to travel through the labyrinth, is noticed by Karol Wojtyla, who recognizes the poem as a perfect Christian epic. Participation in the Rhapsodic Theater and the change that occurred in the thought of the later pope indicate a deep understanding of the truths hidden in the work. It also proves that a new way of reading – a long conversation with the text, can lead to repentance. The article attempts to prove that literary mysticism, the experience of the relationship of the “I” with God, as well as spiritual activity bring the work of the romantic poet closer to the poetry of Karol Wojtyła, while making John Paul II the next “King‑Spirit”, the Spirit that orients the nation towards the highest levels of Divine Love.

Dada Dante

Riassunto Il contributo indaga le modalità con le quali il poeta russo Ossip Mandelstam, nel suo saggio Conversazione su Dante del 1933, si avvicina alla Commedia di Dante e soprattutto alla materia di essa, cioè alla sua qualità linguistica e sonora. Il suo approccio poetico ed esaltato si rivela uno strumento filologico atipico, ricordando a tratti l’eccitazione filologica del romantico Friedrich Schlegel. Il contributo cerca di mostrare in quale misura tale approccio è particolarmente efficace per analizzare la Commedia da un punto di vista poetico, avvicinandola alla poesia dell’avanguardia dell’inizio del ventesimo secolo.

El cuerpo en el romanticismo alemán. Consideraciones sobre el cuerpo femenino en Friedrich Schlegel y el cuerpo-máquina en E.T.A. Hoffmann

El presente trabajo de reflexión intenta abordar la relación que se establece entre lo natural, la máquina y lo humano en el romanticismo alemán, a través de la noción de cuerpo. Debido a la extensión de este movimiento cultural europeo, recortaremos nuestro estudio a dos episodios. El primero corresponde al temprano romanticismo alemán o Frühromantik y el segundo se sitúa en el período romántico denominado Spätromantik, particularmente, en la literatura fantástica de E.T.A. Hoffmann. En la filosofía y/o la literatura de estas corrientes, podemos encontrar algunos elementos útiles para pensar la triple relación antes indicada. La hipótesis del trabajo pretende mostrar de qué modo en el seno del romanticismo existen consideraciones que critican la posibilidad de la división ontológica entre cuerpo y alma o res cogitans y res extensa presentada por Descartes. A tales fines, reconstruimos los supuestos que los románticos piensan en relación con la naturaleza en el marco de su impugnación a las ciencias naturales racionalistas y sus consideraciones sobre el mecanicismo de la época, su idea de organicismo en la filosofía de la naturaleza (Naturphilosophie) y la política, como también, la idea de autómata y máquina presente en cuentos y ensayos. En tales supuestos, se puede hallar de qué modo el cuerpo no es pensado como una materia separada y aislada ontológicamente del pensamiento, el espíritu o el alma. Para poder entender este proceso nos parece adecuado recuperar las representaciones que hay en el romanticismo alemán de lo natural, lo humano y la máquina.

Progress

This article begins from the assumption that what was once an integral dimension of progress—the development of literature and of art more generally—now lies outside its scope. The essay falls into three parts that juxtapose French with German intellectual history. The first part examines the notion of literary progress developed by Charles Perrault and Fontenelle, as well as the opposition to it by Boileau and other antiquarians, during the querelle des Anciens et des Modernes in the later seventeenth century. The second part treats the reception of those arguments during the eighteenth century by J. C. Gottsched, J. J. Bodmer, and J. J. Breitinger. Special attention is given to the paradox that Gottsched, the leader of the German antiquarians, and Bodmer, the leader of the German progressives, were equally devoted to the Leibnizian-Wolffian philosophical system and thus that German Romanticism, heavily indebted to Bodmer's poetics, had roots in rationalist philosophy. The essay's third part discusses ideas of literary progress in the writings of the early Romantics J. G. Herder and Friedrich Schlegel. As these discussions show, the conception of general progress was formed in a field that has since dissociated itself from progress's march.

Dorothea Schlegel and the Challenges of Female Authorship and Identity

In this chapter, I explore the particular social, religious, and gender pressures faced by eighteenth-century women authors by considering these pressures within the context of three stages of the life of Dorothea Schlegel (born Brendel Mendelssohn): first, in her early life and first marriage, secondly, in her emergence as an intellectual and author during the years in Jena with Friedrich Schlegel and the early Romantics, and thirdly, in her post-Jena years when she was active as a translator and story-teller. The chapter looks at the reasons for her dissatisfaction with her first marriage and considers how women intellectuals and writers were viewed in the eighteenth century.