Kant, Goethe, Schiller and other eighteenth-century German intellectuals
loom large in the history of the humanities--both in terms of their
individual achievements and their collective embodiment of the values
that inform modern humanistic inquiry. Taking full account of the
manifold challenges that the humanities face today, this volume recasts
the question of their viability by tracing their long-disputed premises
in German literature and philosophy. Through insightful analyses of key
texts, Alexander Mathäs mounts a broad defense of the humanistic
tradition, emphasizing its pursuit of a universal ethics and ability to
render human experiences comprehensible through literary imagination.