Forms of Temporality and Historical Time in the Work of Johann Gottfried Herder

This edited collection is the first volume solely dedicated to research on Johann Gottfried Herders understanding of history, time, and temporalities. Although his ideas on time mark an important transition period that advanced the emergence of the modern world, scholars have rarely addressed Herders temporalities. In eight chapters, the volume examines and illuminates Herders conception of human freedom in connection with time; the importance of the concept of forces (Krfte) for a dynamic ontology; human beings sensuous experience of inner and external temporality; Herders conception of Bildung, speculations on extra-terrestrial beings and on different perceptions of time; the mythological figure Nemesis and Herders view of the past and the future; the temporal dimension in Herders aesthetics; and Herders biblical studies in relationship to divine infinitude and human temporality. The volume concludes by outlining the influence of Herders understanding of time on following generations of thinkers. Forms of Temporality and Historical Time in the Work of Johann Gottfried Herder is ideal for scholars, graduates, and postgraduates interested in Herders metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of history, as well as any scholar concerned with 18th-century concepts of time and the emergence of the modern world at the beginning of the 19th century.