Rethinking Enlightenment: the reception of John Locke in Germany

他的“简单观念”概念是我们所有知识的基础，他的社会契约理论，以及他对教育、神学和经济学的贡献，使约翰·洛克（1632-1704）成为最重要的启蒙思想家之一。洛克被广泛认为是经验主义和自由主义的奠基人。如果不参考洛克在1710年翻译成德语的《论宽容》（Epistola de tolerantia, 1689），就很难描述宽容的概念。洛克对大陆哲学的影响一直是许多研究的主题，但在大多数这些研究中，“大陆”并不比法国大多少。尽管众所周知，18世纪德国人钦佩英国的文化和知识生活，但哲学史学家仍然低估了英国的影响，将德国哲学传统描述为从莱布尼茨到康德再到黑格尔的独立、自成一体的历史叙事。洛克的作品最初主要以法语和拉丁语阅读。他的《随笔》在1701年被翻译成拉丁语，仅仅比第一次用英语出版晚了11年，他的《政府论第二篇》在1690年就已经在1691年用法语出版了，这两件事都发生在洛克的有生之年。还有四位著名的哲学家代表了法国人对洛克的兴趣：伏尔泰、孔迪亚克、达朗贝尔和卢梭。他们的著作反过来在德国广泛传播，也提高了人们对洛克哲学重要性的认识。这个项目首先集中在德国人接受洛克的直接途径上。在德国学术评论期刊上对洛克作品的讨论，如莱比锡博学学报，以及莱比锡、柏林、Königsberg和其他地方出版的洛克作品的德语和拉丁语译本，都证明了德国读者的存在，他们渴望听到来自海峡另一边的各种新闻——不仅仅是哲学新闻。尽管这种接受可以在从克里斯蒂安·托马斯（Christian Thomasius, 1655-1728）到伊曼努尔·康德（Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804）等德国哲学家的著作中看到，但从18世纪早期开始，它在塑造德国启蒙运动发展中的作用，从未被详细研究过。关注洛克在德国的接受为理解启蒙时代英国和德国之间的思想交流的性质和影响提供了一个独特而有前途的途径。许多最杰出的德国人Aufklärer都把注意力直接吸引到洛克的作品上。著名的哲学家和博学家戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨（1646-1716）不仅阅读了《随笔》的英文原版，而且还写了一篇重要的论文《新随笔》作为回应。在Göttingen大学的所谓“大众哲学家”（popular philosophen）中，可以找到洛克随笔的热心崇拜者。他们主要是约翰·海因里希·费德（1740-1821）和克里斯托弗·迈纳斯（1745-1810）。费德的学生克里斯托弗·迈纳斯通过阅读洛克的作品而熟悉了哲学思想。费德的演讲《论内在》（1768）刺激了他在Göttingen大学的进一步研究。洛克主要著作的第一个德语译本（1757年由约翰·海因里希·波利出版，他于1734年开始从事翻译工作）导致洛克的思想在德国得到更广泛的传播，甚至比19世纪上半叶的传播还要广泛。例如，伊曼努尔·康德所引用的材料只能在波利的译本中找到。说德国启蒙运动的中心最了解洛克的思想并不过分大胆。因此，到1780年左右，洛克的哲学广泛地出现在德国哲学和更普遍的知识分子生活中。通过系统地探索洛克在德国的接受，该项目旨在改变对德国启蒙运动的普遍看法，以及它与18世纪欧洲思想和文化的关系。

His concept of 'simple ideas' being the basis of all our knowledge, his social contract theory, as well his contributions to education, theology and economics, made John Locke (1632-1704) one of the most important Enlightenment thinkers. Locke is widely regarded as a founder of empiricism as well as of liberalism. Concepts of toleration can hardly be described without referring to Locke's Epistola de tolerantia (1689), which was translated into German in 1710. Locke's influence on continental philosophy has been the subject of many studies, but in most of these studies the 'continent' is not much bigger than France. Even though it is well known that the Germans admired British cultural and intellectual life in the eighteenth century, historians of philosophy still underestimate British influences, describing the German philosophical tradition as an independent, self-contained historical narrative from Leibniz via Kant to Hegel.Locke's writings were initially mainly read in French and Latin. His Essay was translated into Latin in 1701, only eleven years after its first publication in English, and his Second Treatise of Government from 1690 was published in French already in 1691, both in Locke's lifetime. There are also four famous philosophers who exemplify the French interest in Locke: Voltaire, Condillac, D'Alembert and Rousseau. Their texts in turn enjoyed widespread distribution in Germany and generally raised awareness of Locke's philosophical importance there too.This project concentrates above all on direct paths of the German reception of Locke. Discussions of Locke's works in German academic review journals, such as the Leipzig Acta Eruditorum, as well as the publication of German and Latin translations of Locke's writings in Leipzig, Berlin, Königsberg and elsewhere are evidence of the existence of a German audience that was keen to hear news of all kinds - not only philosophical - from the other side of the Channel. Although this reception can be seen in the writings of German philosophers from Christian Thomasius (1655-1728) to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), its role in shaping the development of the German Enlightenment, from its beginning in the early eighteenth century, has never been investigated in detail. Focusing on the reception of Locke in Germany offers a uniquely promising approach to understanding the nature and impact of intellectual exchange between Great Britain and the German lands in the age of Enlightenment.Many of the most prominent German Aufklärer drew attention directly to Locke's works. The famous philosopher and polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) not only read the English original of the Essay, but also wrote a major treatise, the Nouveaux Essais, in response to it. Ardent admirers of Locke's Essay can be found among the so-called 'popular philosophers' (Popularphilosophen) at the University of Göttingen. These are mainly Johann Heinrich Feder (1740-1821), whose lecture De sensu interno (1768) stimulated further Locke studies at the University of Göttingen, and Christoph Meiners (1745-1810), a student of Feder who became familiar with philosophical thinking by reading Locke. The first German translation of Locke's main work (published 1757 by Johann Heinrich Poley who had started working on it in 1734) led to a broader dissemination of Locke's thought in Germany, even more extensive than that in the first half of the century. Immanuel Kant, for example, referred to material which can only be found in Poley's translation. It is not too bold to state that the epicentres of the German Enlightenment were optimally informed about Locke's thought. Thus, by about 1780, Locke's philosophy was widely present in German philosophy and intellectual life more generally. By systematically exploring the reception of Locke in Germany, the project aims to change general perceptions of the German Enlightenment, and its relation to European thought and culture in the eighteenth century.