Brouillon Zur Ethik/Notes on Ethics (1805/1806): (v. 22 Schleiermacher Studies & Translations S.)

During 1804-05 and 1805-06, while teaching at the University of Halle, Friedrich Schleiermacher lectured twice on philosophical ethics. From the first lectures only his notes on the theory of virtue are extant. In 1805-06 however, we have his own dense notes covering 98 hours of lectures. He planned to revise this ("Brouillon zur ethik") for publication, a project which was never completed. But these Halle lectures reveal the details of his distinctive approach to ethics as a philosophy of culture. In these lectures he presents ethics as the critical examination of reason embodied in selves in community. He unfolds the web of relations of selves within the diverse communities of formative action, communication and language, art, the state, friendship, knowing, and transcendence. This translation makes available in English a systematic presentation of his ethics as an inclusive vision of cultural goods, virtues and duties. His emphasis on the idea of the highest good leads to a recovery of the teleological principle in which morality consists in the formation of structures - in other words, the goods of the moral life which he calls cultural organs. These organs, in turn, are used in the exchange of ideas and goods. His critical philosophy - against the stream of the prevailing transcendental philosophy - is diagonally open, and thus resists a speculative absorption of differences and opposes the subordination of the individual to a totalizing whole. His ethics confronts issues that still reach into today's questions of pluralism, language communities and communication, and the individual in relation to community.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi; I. General Introduction - John Wallhausser 1; The Setting 1; Preparations for the Brouillon 5; The Fundamental Intuition 9; Outlines of the Rough Draft [Brouillon] 13; A Phenomenology of Moral Consciousness 28; Resources Used in this Translation 30; II. Brouillon: Notes On Ethics (1805/1806) - Friedrich Schleiermacher 33; Introduction 33; Ethics as Philosophy and Science 33; Ethics as Narration of the Laws of Human Action 34; The Condition of Ethics 35; Some Fundamental Principles of Ethics 37; Methods of Treatment in Ethics 38; Postscripts 38; Recapitulation 40; Theory Of The Highest Good 41; General Outline 41; The Functions of Life 41; Humans as Natural and Rational Beings 44; Initial Survey of the Organizing (Formative) Function 46; Uniqueness of Individual Talent 47; Communality: the State and Free Sociality 49; Initial Survey of the Cognitive Function 49; Thinking and Speaking 50; Feeling and Presenting 51; Presentation of Feeling in Art 51; Art, Ethics, and Religion 52; Philosophy, Language, and the Academies 53; Churches 54; Concluding Introductory Remarks 54; Universality in the Organizing (Formative) Activity of Reason 56; Talent as the Ensouling of Organs by Reason 56; Organ as Controlled by Reason 56; The Moral Nature of Culture, Against its Opponents 59; Individuality and Community 62; Acknowledging Other Individuals 63; Language, Money, and Contracts 65; The Family and the Academy 66; Uniqueness in the Formative Activity of Reason 67; Development of Talent and Appropriation of Nature 67; Proprium and Community 69; Individuality and the Components of Human Beauty 71; The Primacy of Individuality for the Substance of Moral Action 72; Love and Sociality Serve to Form a Community of Individuality 74; Free Sociality and Friendship 75; Sexuality, Love, Marriage, and Family 79; Extensions from the Family 83; The Forming of Culture and the State 87; The Idea of Culture and Civic Freedom 89; The State as Individual 93; Free Community among States 94; The Disappearance and Rebirth of States 95; The Cognitive Function of Reason 97; Ideas and the Unity of Consciousness 97; Life and Science in the Moral Domain 98; Moral Dignity: Freedom and Error 100; Relativity versus Fantasy as the Capacity to Combine 102; Productive Self-Activity versus Passivity 103; Cognition in its Particular Characteristics: Feeling, Intuition, and the Attainment of Objective Knowledge 105; Knowing and Signification - Language as Given 107; Cognition in its Organic Character, Individual and National 111; Individual Styles, Schools of Thought, Critique, the Academy, and the Idea of the Public 113; Speculation and Empirical Investigation 115; Organization of the Academy and its Relation to the State 116; The Nature and Roles of Language 117; Religion and the Subjective Aspect of Cognition 120; Moral Feeling, Individuality, and Communion with the Whole 121; Art as Presentation through Language - An Ethical View of Art 124; Formation in the Domain of Art 126; Poetry, Wit, Eloquence, and Dialogue 129; Presentation in the Church in Relation to Presentation in School, Family, and Friendship 130; Propagation in Church and State 133; The Removal of Servitude, Priests and Laity, Community among Co-existing Churches 136; Community among Successive Churches 137; Conclusion of the Presentation on the Highest Good 139; Transition to the Theories of Virtues and of Duties 140; Theory Of Virtue 141; Introduction to the Idea of Virtue 141; The Individual's Producing of Virtue, Communal Products, and the Life of Blessedness 141; Critique of Previous Formulas 143; Virtue as One and Many 144; Virtue as a Unity of Disposition and Proficiency, Knowledge and Art, Intuition and Presentation 145; Virtue as Disposition 146; Wisdom 147; Love 151; Virtue as Proficiency 156; Discretion 157; Perseverance 162; Greek and Christian Precedents 165; Theory Of Duty 166; General Considerations 166; Justice and Relations to the State 170; III. Editor's Introduction To The Theory Of Virtue (1804/1805) - Terrence N. Tice 173; The Use of Mathematical Form 173; Other General Background and Considerations 175; IV. Notes On The Theory Of Virtue (1804/1805) - Friedrich Schleiermacher 185; Introduction 185; I. Relationship of Virtue to the Highest Good 185; II. Consequences Flowing from this Relationship 186; Section One: The General Construction Of Virtue 189; I. The Variable Features of Construction 189; II. The Unity of What is Constructed 191; Section Two: Consideration Of The Individual Person 192; Preliminary Definitions 192; I. Virtue as Disposition 195; A. On Wisdom 196; 1. On the Innate Idea of Wisdom as the Principle for Self-Knowledge, or on Contemplation 198; 2. The Innate Idea of Wisdom as the Principle for Viewing the World, or Intuiting 198; 3. The Innate Idea of Wisdom as the Principle for Viewing Art, or Imagination 199; 4. The Innate Idea of Wisdom as the Principle of Philosophy or Speculation 200; B. On Love 201; 1. The Indwelling Idea of Love as the Principle for the Cultivation of Nature 203; 2. The Indwelling Idea of Love as the Principle for Moral Composition 204; 3. The Indwelling Idea of Love as the Principle for Taking Hold of Property 205; 4. The Indwelling Idea of Love as the Principle for Revelation 205