Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Political Science

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This dissertation examines the political thought of Johann Georg Hamann, his relationship to liberalism, and the importance to modern concerns for consensus formation and intercultural dialogue. This contributes to the line of literature sparked by Isaiah Berlin debating the political legacy of Hamann and its relation to the development of modern politics. Berlin labels Hamann an anti-rationalist whose current developed into the ideology of the Nazi party. My work supports the countervailing arguments that Hamann’s work is importantly different from the Romantics he inspired and even more so from the Nazis. By examining two complete works and a number of personal letters and journal entries, the dissertation will present Hamann as a committed critic of the Aufklärung (German Enlightenment) and the recent political developments in Prussia inspired by the Aufklärung, but not opposed to the core principles of liberalism as understood more broadly. This is not to argue that Hamann promoted liberalism but that his criticisms of the Aufklärung political project never rise to illiberality. This dissertation will argue that Hamann’s politics are neither illiberal nor post-modern, but rather a unique Christian conservativism in an alternate current within the liberal tradition. To do so, the relationship of the Enlightenment and Liberalism, the role of reason in the state, as well as the relation of church and state in liberal political thought need be analyzed. The final chapter is dedicated to how recent debates in liberal political theory mirror Hamann’s critiques, and how his critiques can provide a model for intercultural dialogue and political consensus amongst religious or ‘mytho-poetic’ traditions within liberal frameworks.

Date

1-7-2025

Committee Chair

James Stoner

Available for download on Wednesday, January 07, 2026

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