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msand3's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. The Athenaeum Fragments, written by the Schlegel brothers, Novalis, and Schleiermacher, are weighty philosophical morsels, despite their relatively brief length (ranging from one sentence to a little over one page each). Contained within these fragments, which were more wide-ranging in scope than the Critical Fragments, is the first attempt to define Romanticism -- the primary reason I wanted to read this volume.
Far more interesting to me were the maxims contained in the section titled Ideas, which seemed to be Schlegel’s attempt to apply Spinoza’s monism to poetry -- that is to say, arguing that philosophy and poetry strive toward a kind of synthesis, and that in this unity humanity might encounter morality in a way that religion can only strive to achieve through its most sacred ideals, although rarely successfully. Therefore, to seek religion is to miss the mark. Instead, one must seek the poetic in the philosophical (and the philosophical in poetry) to attain the transcendental experience traditionally reserved for the religious. The two high marks for Schlegel running throughout these fragments are Spinoza and Goethe, although I would also add to those names Novalis, whose handful of contributions to the Athenaeum Fragments are some of the most stirring and memorable for me.
Of course, I’m not sure that my understanding of these fragments is entirely correct. Part of the experience of reading this work is grappling with one's own lack of understanding. Indeed, my edition included an essay by Schlegel at the end that addressed claims that his work was incomprehensible. (His response was to call into question the very notion of comprehension!) As such, it took me a few months to work my way through these roughly 130 pages, taking my time to piece together the component parts of these fragments while trying to make sense of them as a whole, if possible. It was a demanding and, at times, rewarding read, even if the experience made me want to seek out the philosophical fragments of Novalis rather than return to Schlegel at a later date.
Far more interesting to me were the maxims contained in the section titled Ideas, which seemed to be Schlegel’s attempt to apply Spinoza’s monism to poetry -- that is to say, arguing that philosophy and poetry strive toward a kind of synthesis, and that in this unity humanity might encounter morality in a way that religion can only strive to achieve through its most sacred ideals, although rarely successfully. Therefore, to seek religion is to miss the mark. Instead, one must seek the poetic in the philosophical (and the philosophical in poetry) to attain the transcendental experience traditionally reserved for the religious. The two high marks for Schlegel running throughout these fragments are Spinoza and Goethe, although I would also add to those names Novalis, whose handful of contributions to the Athenaeum Fragments are some of the most stirring and memorable for me.
Of course, I’m not sure that my understanding of these fragments is entirely correct. Part of the experience of reading this work is grappling with one's own lack of understanding. Indeed, my edition included an essay by Schlegel at the end that addressed claims that his work was incomprehensible. (His response was to call into question the very notion of comprehension!) As such, it took me a few months to work my way through these roughly 130 pages, taking my time to piece together the component parts of these fragments while trying to make sense of them as a whole, if possible. It was a demanding and, at times, rewarding read, even if the experience made me want to seek out the philosophical fragments of Novalis rather than return to Schlegel at a later date.
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