Contents

Acknowledgments

Editions

Introduction

Intellectual Life

Philosophical Style

General Program in Philosophy

1. Philosophy of Language

The Origin of Language

Three Fundamental Principles

Defending the First Two Principles

Defending the Third Principle

Some Further Doctrines

2. Hermeneutics

Introductory Remarks

An Overview

Influence

Some Advantages of Herder’s Theory

Genre

Einfühlung

The Inferiority of Gadamer’s Hermeneutics

Conclusion

3. Theory of Translation

Overview

Influence

Herder and Schleiermacher

4. Philosophical Contributions to the Birth of Linguistics and Anthropology

Contributions to the Birth of Linguistics

Contributions to the Birth of Anthropology

5. Philosophy of Mind

Mind and Body

Naturalizing Immortality

The Unity of the Mind

Sociality and Individuality

The Unconscious

Influence

6. Aesthetic

Founding Romanticism

Two Major Contributions

Reinventing Aesthetics

Historicizing Aesthetics

Interpreting Literature and Art

Evaluating Literature and Art

Beauty

Moral Education

Further Contributions

7. Moral Philosophy

Meta-ethics

First-order Morality

The Concept of Humanity

8. Philosophy of History

Teleology

Historicization

Historicism and Historiography

The Genetic Method

Historical Bildung

Some Further Historicist Ideas

The Problem of Skepticism

Concluding Remark

9. Political Philosophy

Domestic Politics

International Politics

Humanity vs. Human Rights

A Political Philosophy?

10. Philosophy of Religion

A Liberal and Enlightened Christianity

Neo-Spinozism

Interpreting the Bible

The Comparative Study of Religion and Myth

A Critical History of Christianity

11. Intellectual Influence

Some Noteworthy Examples of Influence

The Birth of German Romanticism and German Idealism

A Residual Puzzle

Select Bibliography

Index