Johann August Eberhard (1739-1809) was one of the most renowned and controversial proponents of German popular philosophy during the late 18th century. By 1800 at the latest, the triumphal march of Kantian criticism had swept aside this last main proponent of the once popular Philosophy for the World . The present volume aims to facilitate interdisciplinary access to the Eberhard s work by critically scrutinizing existing research studies, with the ultimate intent of reevaluating the work of this philosopher."

The epochs of Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism as constructs of literary studies have become problematic. The literary discourse itself reveals phenomena of simultaneity which questions the typical ideal configuration of heterogeneous epochal structures. Using texts by Lessing, Wieland, Herder, Schiller, Goethe, and Moritz, the authors analyze how Enlightenment patterns of thought are developed both in literature and theoretical discourse (aesthetics).

The study is a contribution to the history of the theory of aesthetic thinking in the 18th century using the concept of emotion as its guide. Using an extended notion of aesthetics, texts are drawn upon from philosophical affect theory, from experiential psychology, anthropology and art theory from Descartes via German popular philosophy, and exemplary readings are used to show the basis for turning to the aesthetic subject, to feeling in the discourse of aesthetics in the late 18th century.