Wilhelm von Humboldt

Sleepy notes...

Reading a bit on the Stanford philosophy site about Wilhelm, I notice that his ideas on aesthetics seem to be of interest, so must get around to reading his Aesthetische Versuche. 


Must really take a closer look at plato.stanford.edu when I'm not so sleepy: 
"Humboldt's approach differs radically from that of his predecessors. “The Nature of thinking consists in reflecting”, he states in thesis 1, “that is, in the act by which the thinking subject differentiates itself from its thought” (im Unterscheiden des Denkenden vom Gedachten). This basic fact that every person can easily verify by performing such an act is the starting point of Humboldt's deliberations. Now, in order to reflect we must in our mind arrest the continuous flow of impressions in order to concentrate on something, comprehend this something as a separate “unit” (Einheit), and set it as an object over against our thinking activity (thesis 2) 


Now.. how does this compare with Pierre Hadot's Plotinus? There was something about a 'simple view', not reflecting, but looking at an object, then closing your eyes, beholding the form without the object, thereby getting access to the Ideal within the particular object.