Dialogues of Francois Hemsterhuis, 1778-1787

A complete edition of François Hemsterhuis’ widely influential late dialogues, with full scholarly apparatus and commentaries

• Translates the 'Sophylus', 'Aristeaus', 'Simon' and 'Alexis' dialogues into English for the first time
• Traces Hemsterhuis’ remarkable influence on the French Enlightenment, German Idealism and German Romanticism
• Includes introductory essays by Daniel Whistler (on Hemsterhuis’ relationship with Amelia Gallitzin) and Laure Cahen-Maurel (on the transmission and influence of these texts)

This collection translates four of Hemsterhuis’ late dialogues into English for the first time. These writings offer diverse treatments of non-materialist philosophy.

• 'Sophylus' is concerned with providing the basic epistemological structures that Hemsterhuis believes are compatible with common sense, Socratic inquiry and Newtonian science
• 'Aristeaus' is a sustained series of reflections on arguments for the existence of God, concepts of order and chaos in the universe
• 'Simon' is closely modelled on Plato’s Symposium in style, structure and content and provides the clearest statement of Hemsterhuis’ late ethics and aesthetics
• 'Alexis' – the favourite work of many of the German Romantics – uses contemporary discussions of astronomy and optics to formulate a mythic ode to the role of enthusiasm and feeling in the constitution of wisdom

Two editorial introductions supplement these translations. The first, by Daniel Whistler, considers Hemsterhuis’ relationship with Amelia Gallitzin and how that influenced what he came to call ‘our philosophy’. In the second, Laure Cahen-Maurel examines the role played by Jacobi and others in the transmission of these texts and their influence on Hölderlin’s Hyperion and Novalis’ Hemsterhuis-Studies in particular.

François Hemsterhuis (1721–90) was a Dutch thinker of aesthetics and moral philosophy. He was hugely influential on the French Enlightenment, German Idealism and German Romanticism, but his works have been largely overlooked in English-language scholarship until now.