Johann Gottfried Herder 1744 – 1803
Johann Gottfried Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, and literary critic and a central figure of the Sturm und Drang movement and the broader counter-Enlightenment. A student of Kant and a friend of Goethe, he argued against the universalism of the French Enlightenment that human reason is always embedded in a particular language, history, and Volk. His Treatise on the Origin of Language, Yet Another Philosophy of History, and Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind shaped Romanticism, modern linguistics, and the development of cultural and historical thinking in Germany and beyond.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Enlightenment
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Without language we have no reason, no reason without language.”
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Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Each nation has its own inner center of happiness, just as every sphere has its own center of gravity.”
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Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“A poet is the creator of the nation around him.”
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Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to listen to them can learn the truth.”
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Attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder:
“We live in a world we ourselves create.”