Talk:Johann Georg Hamann

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Sca in topic 'Destined'

Sources

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Does anyone have some serious sources on Hamann? There's almost nothing on him in English that doesn't have a serious POV (Isaiah Berlin's The Magus of the North etc.)

Someone came up with some sources, but it seems more like a bibliography. Given the length of the article, which is about as long as the list of references, it doesn't seem credible that such a list was used to formulate it. It would help if they were separated into two sections, those used to actually write the article (keep them in "References"), and those provided for further reading (call it "Bibliography" or "Further reading"). Bob Burkhardt (talk) 16:36, 16 August 2011 (UTC)Reply
This article needs serious revision to temper Berlin's POV (it is misleading to group Hamann primarily as a Counter-enlightenment author and especially misleading to describe his writing as wholly irrationalist) and to remedy a trampling-upon of Hamann's subtle views on the relationship between faith and reason. The Introduction to the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy edition of Hamann's work, written by Kenneth Haynes (which I noticed in the Bibliography) contains a much more balanced and complete introduction to Hamann's life and work. It is true that he is easily misunderstood, perhaps deliberately so on his own part, but this account is a bit too extreme. I would like to revise it. However, I've never edited on Wikipedia before. -J. Wilkerson — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.126.83.169 (talk) 00:02, 5 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

'Destined'

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He was destined for the pulpit....

"Destined is incorrect here, implying as it does an ultimate outcome, perhaps foreshadowed in some mystical sense. But Hamann did not become a clergyman.
The German article, from which this one apparently was translated, says:
1746 begann er an der Königlichen Albertus-Universität Königsberg Theologie zu studieren. Später wechselte er zur Rechtswissenschaft.
Accordingly, I changed our text to "Initially he studied theology at the University of Königsberg, but ...." – Sca (talk) 20:34, 14 September 2017 (UTC)Reply