Document Type : Original Article
Author
Fritz-Thyssen Postdoc Fellow, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich School of Ancient Philosophy (MUSAΦ)
Abstract
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Plato scholarship underwent fundamental changes. Most of these took place in Germany, centered on the two Romantic Plato scholars, Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher. This theoretical revolution had already begun before these two, with the likes of Dietrich Tiedemann and Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann, but it culminated with Schlegel and Schleiermacher. Although Schlegel’s Plato scholarship was largely overshadowed by Schleiermacher’s work, his role in shaping romantic Plato and modern Plato is undeniable. This role was revealed by Dithery’s edition of Schleiermacher's correspondence (Aus Schleiermacher’s Leben). To understand the nature of modern Plato, as well as the Romantic view of philosophy, it is necessary to recognize the role of Schlegel and the influence of his Plato scholarship. The following article is devoted to Schlegel’s understanding of Plato, which will be shown to be in line with his view of the ideal of philosophy in general. Relying on the documents, we first examine Schlegel’s role in the Romantic movement of Plato studies and in launching the massive project of translating all Plato's writings into German. The philosophical elements of the Romantic interpretation of Plato are then addressed. These elements are the idea of the inner expansion of Plato’s philosophy, its asystematic nature, and the incomprehensibility or ineffability of the infinite, the reality. Three of Schlegel’s main contributions to Plato studies are then emphasized: the idea of irony, his theory for the order and authenticity of Plato’s dialogues, and his view on the “unwritten doctrines”.
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