Coleridge and Kantian Ideas in England, 1796-1817 : Coleridge's Responses to German Philosophy

Abstract

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the central figure in the transmission of German idealism in England during the first half of the nineteenth century. This book reconsiders Coleridge's engagement with Immanuel Kant's philosophy. The analysis of the Kantian materials in circulation in print culture in 1790s England suggests that when critical philosophy initially arrived, it had a greater impact on native debates than is commonly recognized. Drawing on a range of pamphlets, advertisements and reviews, Class brings to light the socio-political relevance of Kantianism particularly in the English radical milieu around William Godwin and John Thelwall, and highlights the significance of the less well-known disseminators of critical philosophy for Coleridge's life-long study of Kant's philosophy: F. A. Nitsch and Dr Thomas Beddoes. Tracing Coleridge's winding paths from the Quantock Hills over London taverns to Highgate, this monograph dismantles the myth of the single connoisseur of Kantian "moonshine" and contends that Coleridge's assimilation of critical philosophy was part and parcel of the poet's Unitarianism as a young radical.