ABSTRACT
Sensations come from objects outside people, from a common world; they are in origin different from what it is that distinguishes the author's existence from that of others. Rousseau's immediate counter to this looming paradox is quickly to distinguish between objects and sensations in a radical way. Romantic theory's handling of "life" has traditionally been thought to be very individualistic. The post-Kantians made metaphysics out of these differences which Kant had tried to hold in dialectical balance. The nature of consciousness is a mystery in the sense that it is beyond human powers of theory construction, yet there is no sense in which it is inherently miraculous. This position depends upon a sharp separation between epistemological and ontological questions. Novalis's series of transvaluations takes its cue from our characteristic self-realization through the discovery of the world or a sense of life.
