abstract:

This essay examines Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s The Education of the Human Race (EHR) in order to elucidate his philosophy of history. It pays special attention to the fact that Lessing presents EHR both as a work of philosophy that aims to reveal the truth and as a work of poetry that aims to provoke an experience of beauty. Because Lessing goes out of his way to characterize EHR as a poetic work, I argue that it can and should be understood in light of his account of poetry in Laocoön: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. I show that interpreting EHR in light of Laocoön explains why EHR’s philosophical and poetic projects are coherent and interdependent. I conclude that Lessing’s way of synthesizing philosophy and poetry in EHR clarifies his understanding of history and of reason’s historical character.

摘要：

本文研究了Gotthold Ephraim Lessing的“人类教育”（EHR），以阐明他的历史哲学。它特别关注这样一个事实，即莱辛将EHR既表现为旨在揭示真相的哲学作品，又表现为旨在唤起美感的诗歌作品。因为莱辛竭力将电子病历表征为诗歌作品，所以我认为可以并且应该根据他在《Laocoön：关于绘画和诗歌极限的散文》中对诗歌的论述来理解它。我表明，解释EHR光的拉奥孔解释了为什么EHR他的哲学和诗歌项目是连贯和相互依存的。我的结论是，莱辛在《电子病历》中综合哲学和诗歌的方式阐明了他对历史和理性历史特征的理解。