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Article: Fear of Infinity: Friedrich Schlegel's Indictment of Indian Philosophy in Über die Sprache und die Weisheit der Indier
- Article from:
- German Quarterly
- Article date:
- July 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Association of Teachers of German, Inc. Summer 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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(ProQuest: ... denotes Greek characters omitted (or Cyrillic characters omitted.))
Introduction: The Fear of Infinity
Friedrich Schlegel was one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of the affiliation of German thought with Indian religious and philosophical ideas. His fervent enthusiasm for Hindu philosophy that began in 1797, however, atrophied into accusations of nihilism by 1808. While he continued the tradition of locating the origins of the Germans in India that found its most influential proponent in Johann Gottfried Herder, in Ãber die Sprache und die Weisheit derlndier (1808), Schlegel also found Hinduism and Buddhism to be a perversion of primordial truth, thus establishing ...