Judgment and Being

Introduction

A single sheet in Hölderlin’s hand without a title of its own, probably written in Jena in 1795 while he attended Fichte’s lectures; it is known by its two key words. Hölderlin plays on the German word for judgement, Urteil, reading it as an original division (Ur-Teilung) of subject and object. Being, by contrast, expresses their unity, which must not be confused with identity: even the self-consciousness of “I am I” already separates the I from itself. The text was only published in the twentieth century. Dieter Henrich’s studies from the 1960s onwards made it a key document of the beginnings of German idealism.

Connections

Criticizes

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