ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the romantic conception of nature as a break from the tyrannical attitude Hölderlin ascribed to Fichte. I focus upon the views of Friedrich Schlegel, one of the leading philosophers of the early German Romantic Movement, and upon the views of Alexander von Humboldt, whose scientific work developed under the influence of certain romantic commitments, which are detailed in my account. The romantic conception of nature that I highlight is one according to which to get at nature's meaning, we must consider the spontaneity of nature, that is, nature's freedom. This view of nature entails a certain humility concerning what our determinative cognitive faculties can accomplish with respect to nature's meaning. In the case of both Schlegel and Humboldt, the rejection of the tyrannical view of nature implies a new conception of nature's freedom, a view that opens not only a new poetic appreciation for the value of nature, but also a different political stance toward the natural world. In sharp contrast to the views of Fichte and Hegel, both Schlegel and Humboldt offer a less Eurocentric approach to nature. Indeed, in turning away from the tyrannical attitude imputed to Fichte, they also turned away from some of the pernicious hierarchies of the period. I argue that Schlegel and Humboldt offer both a poetic alternative to the views of the German Idealists and a politically progressive vision of nature. This political vision is born of a critique of the Eurocentric limitations of their contemporaries, limitations that prevented many thinkers of the period from coming to a balanced and fair understanding of the Americas.
