Wissenschaft und Geselligkeit

With his appointment as Preacher at the Charité (1796) Friedrich Schleiermacher enters the cultural life of Berlin. For him, an important role is played by sociability, which he theorises with the anonymously published text Versuch einer Theorie des geselligen Betragens (1799) [‘Toward a theory of sociable conduct’]. The other pole of Schleiermacher’s life in Berlin is provided by science and scholarship – from the “Symphilosophy” of his circle of early Romantic friends via participation, for example, in lectures on experimental chemistry, through to theological reflection on his work at the Charité. The volume is the product of a symposium held by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and it presents a picture of this life between scholarship and sociability based on sources newly made available through the Critical Edition of Schleiermacher’s Complete Works.

Andreas Arndt, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften und Freie Universität Berlin.