Abstract

This paper explores two areas in the work of Romantic writer and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode in which she was influenced by Kant: her epistemology and her views on the human vocation. Günderrode developed her claims about knowledge partly as a challenge to Kant’s limitation of human experience to the realm of phenomena, while her views on the human vocation respond to Kant’s claims regarding moral development and the ideal society. In these areas, Günderrode engaged directly with Kant’s work and with work by other thinkers working in the Kantian context. The paper provides a brief introduction to Günderrode as a reader of Kant before investigating Günderrode’s ideas about “inner sense” in her dialogue “Die Manen,” her exploration of several possible ways of acquiring knowledge in her 1804 collection "Gedichte und Phantasien," and her account of the human vocation in her short story “Geschichte eines Braminen.”