Customer Reviews

Johann Georg Hamann's Relational Metacriticism (Theologische Bibliothek Topelmann)

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This is currently the most valuable collection of Hamann's writings with accompanying commentary in English. Dickson's introductory essays are generally excellent, particularly for those who have not read the many outstanding German studies of Hamann (by Unger, Blanke, Metzke, et al). Although this book is prohibitively expensive for most individuals (everything published by De Gruyter is expensive), it should be reasonably easy to acquire through one's university library system. Along with O'Flaherty's excellent studies, this work should definitely be consulted by any student of Hamann, and is, in this reviewers opinion, a more valuable book for understanding Hamann than the disappointing "Hamann: Writings on Philosophy and Language," published by Cambridge UP. Although it is valuable to have both books, since they comprise the majority of Hamann's texts that have been translated into English, the unremarkable introductory essay combined with the omission of the Socratic Memorabilia and the fact that Kenneth Haynes, the book's editor, is not a Hamann scholar per se (certainly not like Dickson or O'Flaherty) are some of the Cambridge text's drawbacks. So, despite the fact that the Cambridge text has more texts by Hamann, if one is beginning one's study of Hamann, it's best to start with Dickson and O'Flaherty, due to the quality of their commentary.

He told Kant where to stick it, for one thing. I read this back in college days. Now I don't have the chance to.Why in god's name is this book so outrageously expensive?????????????????????????????????????????