Pollen

Introduction

A sequence of more than a hundred fragments that Friedrich von Hardenberg published in the first issue of the Athenaeum in 1798, the first text to appear under his pen name Novalis; Friedrich Schlegel added a few of his own to the series. The collection opens: “We seek the unconditioned everywhere, and always find only things.” The fragments move between Fichte’s philosophy of the I, reflections on poetry and religion, and political remarks. The title refers to a fertilising dust that the wind carries further. The form of the fragment as an open, provocative thought became the hallmark of early Romanticism.

Connections

Builds on

• Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge1794 · Johann Gottlieb Fichte