Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii Note on the Texts ix Introduction 1 Is the Beauty of the Body a Herald of the Beauty of the Soul? 31 A Monument to Baumgarten 41 Critical Forests, or Reflections on the Art and Science of the Beautiful: First Grove, Dedicated to Mr. Lessing's Laocoon 51 Critical Forests: Fourth Grove, On Riedel's Theory of the Beaux Arts 177 Shakespeare 291 The Causes of Sunken Taste among the Different Peoples in Whom It Once Blossomed 308 On the Influence of the Belles Lettres on the Higher Sciences 335 Does Painting or Music Have a Greater Effect? A Divine Colloquy 347 On Image, Poetry, and Fable 357 Editor's Notes 383 Bibliography 445 Index 449

Promotional Information

Only a small fraction of Herder's writings has been translated into English, and such translations are often archaic and/or unreliable. I know of no previous translation of the Critical Forests, for example, although the first and fourth parts, which appear in the present volume, are of major interest to students of aesthetics. With Selected Writings on Aesthetics, these and other texts by Herder are now accessible to readers of English, through the pen of a translator who exhibits clarity and elegance of style. -- Hugh Barr Nisbet, University of Cambridge This much-needed book brings into English a philosopher severely underrepresented in this language, yet of paramount importance to any adequate understanding of the late eighteenth century in Germany and indeed of the rest of Europe. -- Robert E. Norton, University of Notre Dame This collection provides translations of the most important aesthetic writings of Herder, a crucial, original thinker in the field of aesthetics, an important influence on later German philosophy, and a writer whose significance has also been acknowledged by such recent thinkers as Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor. Even advanced scholars sometimes find a translation useful for such a difficult writer, and some of the writings translated here, such as Critical Forests, are not very easily found even in German. -- Michael Inwood, Trinity College, Oxford This is a timely translation because Herder's importance is more apparent than ever and his work is undergoing a significant revaluation. -- Cyrus Hamlin, Yale University

About the Author

Gregory Moore is Lecturer in German at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of "Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor", and is coeditor of "Nietzsche and Science".

Reviews

"Herder, a major figure in 18th-Century Germany's burgeoning studies in aesthetics, is here given ample scope on which to base critical judgment. Moore's Johann Gottfried Herder presents excerpts from some of Herder's most important writings, much of it translated into English for the first time. An important contribution to our knowledge of the history and origins of aesthetics."--Art Times "These excellent translations make some of Herder's most original and important contributions to aesthetics available to English readers for the first time."--Choice "To read [Herder] in this superb compilation is to encounter a vivid presence, one whose fingertips still seem fresh from the touch of truth."--Eric Ormsby New York Sun "I would strongly recommend scholars and librarians to acquire this important volume. It will be particularly useful in courses on eighteenth-century aesthetics for students without a command of German. Its readers will have the opportunity to discover an aesthetic thinker of the stature and originality of Lessing and Diderot."--K. F. Hilliard, Modern Language Association