The Dialogues of Francois Hemsterhuis, 1778-1787

A complete edition with full scholarly apparatus and commentaries tracing Hemsterhuis' remarkable influence on the French Enlightenment, German Idealism and German Romanticism. The first English translation of François Hemsterhuis' widely influential late dialogues, which came to be entwined in contemporary philosophical debates in Germany The four published dialogues offer diverse treatments of non-materialist philosophy. Sophylus is concerned with providing the basic epistemological structures that Hemsterhuis believes are compatible with common sense, Socratic inquiry and Newtonian science. Aristeaus is a sustained series of reflections on arguments for the existence of God, concepts of order and chaos in the universe. Simon is closely modelled on Plato's Symposium in style, structure and content and provides the clearest statement of Hemsterhuis' late ethics and aesthetics. Finally, Alexis - the favourite work of many of the German Romantics - uses contemporary discussions of astronomy and optics to formulate a mythic ode to the role of enthusiasm and feeling in the constitution of wisdom. Two editorial introductions supplement these translations - the first by Daniel Whistler considers Hemsterhuis' relationship with Amelia Gallitzin and how that influenced what he came to call 'our philosophy' and the second by Laure Cahen-Maurel examines the role played by Jacobi and others in the transmission of these texts and their influence on Hölderlin's Hyperion and Novalis' Hemsterhuis-Studies in particular. Jacob van Sluis is a former subject librarian at the University Library of Groningen. Daniel Whistler is Reader in Modern European Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London.