The Legitimacy of Poetic Reason

Many philosophical accounts of reason are geared toward providing rational justifications  ex post facto  rather than accounting for the role reason plays  in actu  in the process of creative work.  Moreover, when  in actu  accounts of reason are given, they are usually too narrow to describe the sort of high-level creative work that is involved in the composition of poetry or the creation of a scientific theory.  This book suggests that the rudiments of a broader account are found in various German Idealist figures, most notably the philosopher-novelist-critic Friedrich Schlegel and the philosophical poet and novelist Friedrich Hölderlin.