Johann Gottfried Herder: biography of this German philosopher.

This was the life of Johann Gottfried Herder, influential German thinker critical of the Enlightenment.

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a very important figure for German Romanticism, although he did not live it fully. His particular philosophy was a precursor of the Sturm un Drang movement, which in turn was a precursor of the Romantic movement.

Unlike the Enlightenment, he considered that there were differences between men and that each nation had its own particular spirit, its Volkgeist. In addition, he longed for the Middle Ages, seeing it as the origin of the peoples of Europe.

This intellectual had contact with great figures of his time, such as Kant and Diderot, and also had a notable influence on Goethe. In this biography of Johann Gottfried Harder we will see more about his life.He was a thinker who, in addition to his way of thinking, his exaltation of individualism and the nation made him a reference for the Romantics.

Brief biography of Johann Gottfried Harder

Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German critic, theologian and philosopher whose work is considered a forerunner of literary romanticism in Germany.. His works promoted the nationalist spirit in defense of the cultural traits and personality of the Germanic people, ideas that deeply influenced writers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a disciple of Harder and a key figure in German nationalism and romanticism.

Herder believed that it was essential to understand the context when it came to understanding the artistic works and culture of each country, in addition to the need to make an in-depth study of the history of that nation, understanding the socio-cultural changes and processes that have led people to behave the way they do..... To understand the present and predict what the future will be like, one must first understand past events.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that Johann Gottfried von Herder addressed such topics as the history of man from ancient civilizations, the origin of language, the influence of religious rites and their doctrines. In addition, contrary to the majority opinion of many thinkers of his time, she focused on the Middle Ages, seeing it as a period not as dark as the Enlightenment wanted to portray it.being the origin of the European peoples as they are today.

Early years

Johann Gottfried Herder was born on August 25, 1744 in Mohrungen (now Morąg, Poland), at that time East Prussia. His parents were Gottfried Herder and Anna Elizabeth Peltz who provided their six children with a strongly religious, but poor home education. Young Johann learned by consulting his father's Bible and, in his early years, he learned what his parents could teach him within their means..

Fortunately, he was able to attend the local school, although he often received financial aid in order to continue his studies. At the age of 16 he obtained free lodging in the home of Vicar Sebastian Trescho in exchange for helping him by working as a copyist. While staying at the home of the religious he had the opportunity to consult his extensive library, a place where he was able to learn in a self-taught way many theological questions and various cultural aspects.

University education

Herder was originally going to become a doctor, although he did not have the money to afford the studies.. The surgeon J.C. Schwarz-Erla, who had visited the village of Herder in the company of a military regiment, offered to pay for his medical studies at the University of Köningsberg and, in fact, he enrolled for the degree. However, as time went on he discovered that this was not his vocation and preferred to study theology.

In 1762, at the age of 17, he began his studies at the University of Köningsberg. There he was a student of the already well-known Immanuel Kant, considered the founder of critical philosophy.. Kant was a great reference for Herder, and in fact he dedicated works to his figure, although later he would show certain disagreements with his philosophy.

It would also be around this time that Johann Gottfried Herder would become a protégé of Johann Georg Hamanna philosopher from Köningsberg. With him the young Herder would share the rejection towards the prevailing enlightened rationalism of the time.

Early works

In 1764 Johann Gottfried Herder moved to the Latvian city of Riga, then part of the Russian Empire.. There he was ordained as a Protestant pastor and worked both as a teacher and preacher. It was at this time that his first works were published, among them "Fragmente über die neuere deutsche Literatur" (Fragments on German Literature, 1765).

Shortly afterwards, the young man embarked on a trip through Europe, at the age of 20. It would be on this journey that his outlook on life would change, something that is reflected in his "Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769" (Diary of my journey in 1769). In fact, in this text he makes it clear that he has left the security of his social bubble, so to speak, to immerse himself in a journey into the unknown, into the new, into the non-academic.

He would end up in Strasbourg, an important cultural center of the time. In the Franco-German city he met a young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a very important person for the great movement of German Romanticism. (1749-1832), a very important person for the great movement that German Romanticism meant, and also a great reference in the consolidation of the idea of Germany as a nation. Herder and Goethe would talk about many subjects, and the latter would recognize having received influences from him thanks to his observations on Homer, Shakespeare, Pindar and diverse literature.

In France he would also have contact with Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond D'Alembert and the encyclopedists. He would study the works of Rousseau and develop one of his most important works, "Kritische Wälder. Oder Betrachtungen, die Wissenschaft und Kunst des Schönen betreffend" (Critical sylvesis or reflections on the science and art of beauty, 1769), a text considered a direct antecedent of the "Sturm und Drang" (Storm and Spirit) movement, a literary current that anticipated romanticism by calling for a national conception of art and claiming individualism and feelings. and claiming individualism and feelings.

Shortly after, in 1770 he moved to Hamburg, where he met Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Later he would travel to Darmstadt, where he would meet his future wife Maria Karoline Flachsland, whom he would marry in 1773 and would have seven children.

Forerunner of the Romantics

In 1771 he moved to Bückeburg, serving as town councilor until 1776 and would publish shortly after his "Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache" (Essay on the origin of language, 1772), in which he emphasizes the natural and evolutionary character of language as well as being the protagonist in any cognitive process. This work won him a prize awarded by the Berlin Academy.

Thanks to Goethe's recommendation, Johann Gottfried Herder was appointed general superintendent of the Lutheran Church in Weimar in 1776.. At the same time he published an important essay on the philosophy of mind, called "On the knowledge and feeling of the human soul" in 1778.

Widely interested in ancient history and, especially, the Middle Ages, between 1778 and 1779 he wrote "Volkslieder nebst untermischten anderen Stücken" (The voices of the peoples in songs), work in which he grouped very important poems of the Bible, Homer, Ossian and other historical personages, besides his own poems together with those of Goethe and Matthias Claudius. They were poems that did not always conform to the artistic current of the moment, denoting certain classical influences on Herder rather than illustrated.

Weimar would become his city of residence until his death, only being out of it to make a stay in Italy. just between the years in which he wrote "The Voices of the Peoples in Songs". Weimar had become the center of German classicism, and thanks to his work as court preacher and member of the consistory, Herder had a relatively secure, everyday life for the rest of his life, except for some philosophical confrontations and the publication of several other works.

Last years and death

He spent his last years relatively comfortably in Weimar, but in the philosophical sphere he had to live through tense situations. His support for the revolutionary ideas coming from France caused him to fall out with his friends, and he also began to distance himself from Goethe. Nor did it help that he began to criticize the philosophy of Kant, his own mentor, causing his popularity at the end of his life to fall and he ended up distancing himself from his social circle.

But despite these quarrels, his thought, work and philosophy were very important for the time, so much so that in 1802 he was given the prefix "von" to his surname by the Prince of Bavaria, officially being called Johann Gottfried von Herder and acquiring a name of a nobleman, distinguishing him notoriously. He died only a year later, on December 18, 1803 at the age of 59.

The thought of this philosopher

The work of Johann Gottfried Herder is a clear reflection of his personality and intellectuality. He does not limit himself to speaking about a single subject or be constant in it, but he writes with great passion about theology, theology, ethnology, and theology. He writes with great passion about theology, philosophy, literature, philology, history and his German nation all together, mixing multiple themes.mixing multiple themes. This was used by his critics as a negative point, branding his works as grammatically and emotionally disordered, as if more than an academic work it were a casual speech turned into a text.

The spirit of the people

Of course, his writing style was not typical of an intellectual, but his works are no less important for that reason. His works focused on rescuing German history and culture, analyzing how they had progressed throughout history and how historical events influenced the character and current situation of the people. Many consider Herder to be one of the main precursors of the "Volkgeist" or spirit of the people, an idea that encompasses the unique traits of each nation, and which was already present in works prior to "official" German romanticism, right around the time of this author.

Present, past and future

Johann Gottfried Herder he wanted to foresee how his country might evolve socially, and to do so, instead of looking at the present he decided to do so by looking at the past. For this reason he was interested in knowing and publishing the origin of the popular songs of the Middle Ages, a time that many considered as dark but he really saw a lot of light in it. It was a time when European cultures emerged, their traditions and songs being transmitted completely orally.

The Enlightenment, besides being contrary to the medieval, proclaimed that all men were equal, something Herder rejected.. For this German philosopher, each nation is distinct, in that it has its own spirit, its "Volkgeist", and that only people who have been exposed to the features of their country, both culturally (language, history, traditions...) and geographically (climate, topography) and historically (political changes...) can truly understand that nation.

Another idea, and this one really controversial, was that Herder was totally against speaking of the Enlightenment as synonymous of the maximum moment of cultural development of the human being. This movement considered that men were at the peak of human history, something that Johann Gottfried Herder claimed was a lie, since in previous times there were much more brilliant characters, being the Middle Ages an important moment of philosophical splendor in many aspects.

Bibliographical references:

• Royal J. Schmidt, (1956) "Cultural Nationalism in Herder," Journal of the History of Ideas 17(3), pp. 407 - 417.
• Headstrom, Birger R. (1929). Herder and the Theory of Evolution. The Open Court 10 (2): pp. 596 - 601.
• Michael N. Forster (2010) After Herder: Philosophy of Language in the German Tradition, Oxford University Press.
• Díez Álvarez, L. G. (2017). Johann G. Herder: intellectual profile of an enlightened radical. Arbor, 193 (784): a385. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2017.784n2007.