Herder's conception of "das Volk"Simpson, Georgiana Rose
Philosophy
Herder's conception of "das Volk"
Simpson, Georgiana Rose
German language -- Etymology; German language -- Semantics; Herder, Johann Gottfried, 1744-1803; Thesis (Ph. D.)
What is the relation of these indefinable and unanalyzed stimuli to the
feelings? Since the passions which surround the heart find their roots in
the finest fibers of the physical structure, the degree to which these
fibers are stimulated determines the degree to which the feelings will be
excited and will express themselves. Love, courage, anger, and bravery
are in proportion to the stimulus of the heart and the collaborating
parts: “Die Innigkeit, Tiefe und Ausbreitung mit der wir Leidenschaften
empfangen, verarbeiten und fortpflanzen macht uns zu den flachen oder
tiefen Gefässen die wir sind.”
The forcefulness of thought is likewise dependent upon the vigor of this
obscure stimulus, for no thought, says he, can reach the brain unless
feeling in its proper physical connection has preceded it.
And just here our philosopher lays the very roots of individuality.
The degree to which the fibers are stimulated is the beginning of the
operations which will end in producing an aggregate of properties
peculiar to an individual.
II. SENSES
By this inductive method, which develops fundamentally a philosophy of
evolution, Herder finds that the senses are a nerve-structure developed
to meet the waves of stimulus from without and feeling from within and to
differentiate them more finely than did the fibers which worked only in a
general way. But the law is the same. The nerves of every sense operate
according to the same law by which the fibers contract and expand. The
nerves advance to meet pleasant agreeable things, but recede from and
resist unpleasant things.
Now Herder observes that something other than the organ of sense and the
external objects must operate to produce sensation in at least two of the
senses. He sees a certain mental bond without which sight and hearing
could not go to the object nor the object to the senses; this common
substance, he says, is light, a substance which has the peculiarity of
taking just so much from creation as the two end organs can receive. But
this light as a medium is a requisite for the finer senses only. There
are coarser senses, fibers, and stimuli which cannot be brought into
action thus. They can feel only in themselves, for the object must come
to them, touch them, and, to a certain extent, be one with them.
Herder is explicit in connecting individual character with the senses.
The contribution which each sense makes to the soul cannot with any two
human beings be the same in kind, strength, depth, and breadth. There
are many proofs of this. Seeing and hearing, which furnish most of
the material for thinking, are seldom in one individual with the same
degree of training or of natural force. This will not only account for
inequalities of the senses evinced in all forms of expression in a single
individual, but for such inequalities among groups and races. For, he
continues, imaginative power in which thoughts and feelings disport
themselves is made of the flowing together of sense impressions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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