The historical pivot: Philosophy of history in Hegel, Schelling and Holderlin

This dissertation undertakes to demonstrate an emergent form of philosophy of history in German Idealism and Early German Romanticism, particularly focusing on the works of Hegel, Schelling, and Holderlin. For these thinkers, history comes into its own as a topic of philosophical investigating. Breaking with the static historicism of the Enlightenment, German Idealist and Early German Romantic thinkers posit the idea of a constantly developing and emerging history and of the historical character of reality itself. The philosophy of history that comes out of the tradition of German Idealism as expressed by Schelling, Hegel and Holderlin is deeply rooted in mythology, particularly the idea of a "Golden Age," which is both past and future.;Precursors of this sense of historical progression include the reversal myth in Plato's Statesman and the Vedic conception of successive ages or Yugas. The theme of historical movement is also central to what is arguably the founding document of both German Idealism and Early German Romanticism, the "Earliest System-Program of German Idealism." History for Schelling and Holderlin particularly is epochal, cyclical, and messianic. In both Hegel and Schelling, major texts, such as Hegel's Introduction to the Lectures on the Philosophy of World History and Schelling's Ages of the World present more or less fully developed ideas on the movement of history. In the case of Holderlin, a philosophy of history is never presented as such, but may be seen through examination of his theoretical and practical constructions of the tragic drama as well as in his novel Hyperion. This text also considers the ramifications of this reconsideration of philosophical history for later thinkers such as Nietzsche and Heidegger.