Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book brings together original contributions by a range of scholars of philosophy and literature to examine a concept that gained an extraordinary prominence in the wake of Immanuel Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment: that of the 'symbol'. It presents the history of the concepts of 'symbol' and 'intuition' especially in German thought. The book first offers a concise introduction to the concepts of 'intuition' and 'symbol' in (post-)Kantian thought, including some of the key positions taken by philosophers and literary writers; and second, an overview of the Anglo-American reception of this debate, both contemporary and modern. It focuses on Kant's third Critique, discussing his definition of symbolic presentation as it occurs both in beautiful art and in the experience of the sublime. The book demonstrates the formative connection and the difference between two central ideas in Goethe's work.