Herder

Philosophical Writings

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by Johann Gottfried Herder,

Edited by Michael N Forster

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published August 2002, 290 pages, paper

ISBN 0521794099

Herder is a figure of considerable importance in the history of philosophy and the history of ideas. His far-reaching influence encompasses philosophy--Hegel, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, literature--Goethe, Schiller and linguistics--von Humboldt. This volume presents a comprehensive selection of his writings in a new translation, with an introduction that sets them in their philosophical and historical context.

Review

“If philosophy is to become useful for human beings, then let it make human beings it center.” –Herder

Many recent thinkers, including Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor, have called attention to the importance of Herder’s efforts to refocus philosophical attention on “the human being.” It’s also well known that Herder’s work has not only greatly influenced philosophers such Hegel, Nietzsche, and Dilthey, but that it also played an important role in forming the conceptual groundwork of anthropology, linguistics, and biblical hermeneutics. It comes of something as a surprise, then, that his philosophical works have hitherto been largely unavailable in English translation. As a result, this substantial and judicious selection, edited and translated by University of Chicago Professor, Michael Forster, is indispensable for any English-speaker seeking to understand the development of modern philosophical thought. The translation also manages to capture Herder’s distinctive style – surprisingly lively for a 18th-century German philosopher.