Legitimacy of Poetic Reason

Many philosophical accounts of reason are geared toward providing rational justificationsex post factorather than accounting for the role reason playsin actuin the process of creative work. Moreover, whenin actuaccounts of reason are given, they are usually too narrow to describe the sort of high-level creative work that is involved in the composition of poetry or the creation of a scientific theory. This booksuggests that the rudiments of a broader account are found in various German Idealist figures, most notably the philosopher-novelist-critic Friedrich Schlegel and the philosophical poet and novelist Friedrich Hölderlin. However, German Idealism generally is subject to Hans Blumenberg's secularization critique which provides a strong prima facie argument that the accounts of poetic reason suggested by Schlegel and Hölderlin are indefensible.This book arguesthat confronting Blumenberg's secularization critique and his associated legitimation of modernity with a romantic conception of poetic reason requires revisions on both sides, and that the work of Lacan is especially well-suited to provide the conditions upon which a legitimation of poetic reason can be provided.