Heine’s philosophical thinking

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

10 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

04/26/2009

Category :

Philosophy & literature

Sub category :

Humanities/philosophy

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Summary :

Introduction
His failure to achieve the goal in Germany
Bold, prophetic statement made by Heine
The erudite nature of Heine's scholarship
The philosophical set of ideas
Jews and the philosophical literature of Germany
Gans' interpretation of Hegel's notions
A sinister and ironic tone when talking of the failure of thought and philosophy
An overview on Heine scholarship of recent years
Romanticism: A replacement for the Christian belief systems, science and progress
Cocnlusion
Works cited

Abstract

This essay will explore ideas from "On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany" written by Heinrich heine, one of the most famous German poets and cultural figures in general, of the early to mid 19th century. The paper will argue that in his often enigmatic and aphoristic ruminations on the relationship between politics in France and philosophy and religion in Germany, heine's positions reveal his hope for a place for a Jewish intellectual in modern European society. The circularity and contradictory nature of his arguments show how he employs the Hegelian dialectic to his own purposes, in an effort to critique motifs of the power of religion in European history versus the promise of the secular Enlightenment. At the same time, there exists in the writing a valuation, however skeptical, of the possibility of a world where the spiritual and the secular could embrace to form some kind of ideal harmonious system not in an afterlife but in the world of contemporary reality. Between his ironies, cynicism and clarity he is a truly modern philosopher with regard to his skepticism about the relationship between metaphysical or political ideals and political and religious realities.