Kaaterskill Books

Jacobi, F.H. [Friedrich Heinrich].

[ALS] Friedrich Jacobi Arranges for a Visit with Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg.

Windsbach, Germany: 1797. [1 pp.] bifolium. with integral address. 7.5 x 9 inches. Very good, folded, faint soiling, seal intact with opening repaired. Item #45965

Rare signed letter by German philosopher & influential literary figure Friedrich Jacobi (1743-1819) who was known for his critical views of the more liberal philosophies of the day, including Enlightenment and Transcendental Idealism, as well as of the Sturm and Drang literary movement He "was an outspoken critic, first of the rationalism of German late Enlightenment philosophy, then of Kant’s Transcendental Idealism, especially in the form that the early Fichte gave to it, and finally of the Romantic Idealism of the late Schelling. In all cases, his opposition to the philosophers was based on his belief that their passion for explanation unwittingly led them to confuse conditions of conceptualization with conditions of existence, thereby denying all room for individual freedom or for a personal God....But perhaps the most influential of Jacobi’s formulas was the claim that there is no ‘I’ without a ‘Thou’, and that the two can recognize and respect one another only in the presence of a transcendent and personal God. (di Giovanni, George and Paolo Livieri, "Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition).

In this letter dated July 12th, 1797, Jacobi was attempting to set up a visit to German poet and critic, Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg in Altona, and wrote in part "I will orally tell you, dear excellency, how I have lived here in the castle for three weeks in a kind of captivity; also how I wanted last Friday to announce to you and your wife that my sister and I would call the following afternoon and was prevented from doing so. Now, we would like to call tomorrow afternoon. Should this not be convenient for you, please write me a line addressed at Kerthos the bookseller's.... "

Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg (1737-1823) was a German poet and critic who did much to support the Sturm und Drang movement but who at the time of this letter was much more involved in Kantian philosophy.

Price: $900.00