The Chemical Age: Presenting history with metaphors∗

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Asko Nivalathrough smaller and smaller parts, but it was as much about synthesizingcompletely new compounds. 30 For Michel Chaouli, the German prefixVer- is an instructive example of how Schlegel understood the functionof language. Adding the prefix to different words (for instance Stehen, tostand) forms completely new words (like Verstehen, to understand), whichresembled the chemical method of making new compounds. Chaouli explainswith the aid of Schlegel’s private notebooks that he did not conceivethe language as a mathematical calculation but as a laboratory in whichone can conduct experiments by adding syllables and letters to words thatwill produce completely new meanings to language. 31 One can find otherexamples of how the German philosophy of the 1790s utilized the idea ofadding syllables and words together. This is something totally different ascompared with, for example, Baruch Spinoza’s geometrical method. 32In addition to uniting things that appear detached, the chemical metaphorinvokes opposite process: separating two apparently united thingswith the help of a solution (Auflösung or Lösung). 33 To solve problems bymaking conceptual distinctions resembles the chemical process of clearinga murky mixture by dissolving its components. For instance, wateras a polar solvent dissolves hydrophilic substances leaving hydrophobicsubstances insoluble. There is a risk to over-emphasize the metaphor ofcompound as opposed to solution. The danger is that one will reinforcethe superficial interpretation of Romanticism as an irrational enthusi-30 Kapitza 1968, pp. 12, 21–22: Chaouli 2002, pp. 90–97.31 Chaouli 2002, pp. 5, 21–25, 103, 138, 161–164. Winfried Menninghaus, for his part,has claimed that early Romantics understood language according to mathematicalanalogy. Menninghaus 1989, p. 49. On Chaouli’s critique of Menninghaus seeChaouli 2002, pp. 8, 80, 215–216.32 For instance, J. G. Fichte introduced Tathandlung (deed-action or fact-act) thatwas supposed to be parallel to Tatsache (fact). Fichte [1794] 1988, p. 11. Similarly,Friedrich Hölderlin pondered how Urteil (judgment) was divided to Ur- (original) andTeil (part). Hölderlin 2000 (post.), 52. In the twentieth century, Martin Heideggerdrew on this German tradition to make philosophy with prefixes.33 See KFSA II, p. 150. No. 32. The metaphor of solution is typical of his contemporaryphilosophy. Kant used the metaphor of Auflösung when he described the dialectical‘solution’ to the contradictions of reason. Interestingly enough, Kant is conscious ofchemical metaphors, because he sometimes used explicitly chemical terms. See Kant,KpV, A291. On the English metaphorical use of solution see Lakoff & Johnson 1980,pp. 143–149.90Asko Nivala: The Chemical Age: Presenting History with Metaphors. In: Bruce Johnson & Harri Kiiskinen (eds.): They DoThings Differently There. Essays on Cultural History. Cultural History – Kulttuurihistoria 9. k&h, Turku, 2011. Pp. 81–108.
The Chemical Ageasm for pristine unity. The early Romantics not only aimed to ascenddialectically towards a unity behind opposites, but also to unravel thosethings that appear united to common sense, although they actually containa contradiction. 34 Different substances can be united as a compound,but conversely it is possible to break down a solid substance into differentcompounds. According to Schlegel, the scientific innovation canbe compared to this process. It is heuristic experimentation where newdefinitions of a concept are sought by constantly separating and unitingthings: ‘The method of idealism is an experimenting that combines.’ 35 Thisexperimenting implies that the definitions of concepts are not fixed andfinal, but dynamic and constantly self-corrective. However, one shouldnot confuse Schlegel’s notion of the impossibility of final truths withlater deconstruction and its claim that one cannot distinguish true fromuntrue. 36 Although Schlegel criticized the traditional correspondencetheory of truth, he elaborated a coherence theory of truth, according towhich it is impossible to achieve final truth because science must alwayscorrect itself infinitely. 37Chemical historyIn the previous section, I discussed how Schlegel conceived the structureof metaphorical language. I will now explore his conceptualization of theera following the French Revolution as a chemical age. Of course he didnot think that revolution as such could be reduced to an electrochemicalphenomenon. Rather, he was searching for a metaphorical connectionbetween two things from different fields of reality. Herder had alreadyused this method before Schlegel. However, Herder preferred organic andnatural development over modern, mechanistic and artificial history. 3834 According to Schlegel dialectics consist only of contradiction between thesis andantithesis without atonement in synthesis. KFSA XVIII, p. 8. No. 45.35 Schlegel 1997 (1800-1801), p. 257; KFSA XII, p. 21.36 Cf. Derrida [1972] 2004, p. 166.37 On the Romantic coherence theory of truth see Frank 1998, p. 854; Millán-Zaibert2007, p. 40.38 Herder [1774] 1984, p. 638; Nisbet 1999, pp. 87–88.Asko Nivala: The Chemical Age: Presenting History with Metaphors. In: Bruce Johnson & Harri Kiiskinen (eds.): They DoThings Differently There. Essays on Cultural History. Cultural History – Kulttuurihistoria 9. k&h, Turku, 2011. Pp. 81–108.91
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