‘Speaking in a human way’. The political philosophy of Friedrich Hölderlin

Abstract

With Hölderlin’s conversion to philosophy, he began to take an interest in the problem of how to address philosophers and non-philosophers in one and the same literary work. He developed a doctrine that would enable him to transform the desire for eternal things in accordance with his political and educational ambitions. His understanding of exoteric teaching guided his reading of Plato, Kant, Hemsterhuis, and Fichte. It shaped both his correspondence and the composition of his novel, “Hyperion”.