Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi: Band 7: Briefwechsel November 1787 bis Juni 1788

After the new edition of his Spinoza book clarifying his own standpoint no longer had priority, Jacobi changed his strategy. Contrary to the advice of Johann Georg Hamanns, he intervened in the polemic disputes, taking the side of the crypto Jesuits, Johann Kaspar Lavater and Johann August Starck. It was here that he tried to show that the claim to enlightenment made by »Berlinism« and »Illuminatism« had to come to nothing as long as it was based on a reason which claimed absolute authority without having grounds for doing so. The correspondence which began with Hamann’s flight from Jacobi’s house at the beginning of November 1787 and ended with his death in June of 1788 provides a multitude of references to the status of the debate.