“Fundus animae” – Herder’s Concept of the Unconscious Ground of Human Subjectivity

Rafał Andrzej Michalski

Instytut Filozofii, Uniwesytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a, 87-100 Toruń


Abstract

The article discusses the concept of the ground of the soul (fundus animae), which is a very important element of Herder’s project of philosophical anthropology, and at the same time a necessary starting point for a proper understanding of most of his considerations in the field of the theory of knowledge, aesthetics and philosophy of language. The unconscious ground of the soul is the source of human psychophysical unity. Hidden in the „abyss of the soul”, synesthetic images, saturated with effects, constitute the foundation of cognitive processes and the semantic core of later concepts. The first section of the article discusses the category of vital force, which is the main metaphysical assumption of Herder’s theory. The second part contains a reconstruction of the early concept of fundus animae, while the third part analyzes its revised version, in which the philosopher refers to the notion of sensory attention (Besonnenheit) and to the findings of the 18th century physiology.


Keywords:

Fundus animae, Johann Gottfried Herder, nieświadomość, antropologia filozoficzna, poznanie zmysłowe, wyobraźnia


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Published
2021-12-13 — Updated on 2021-12-20

Cited by

Michalski, R. A. (2021). “Fundus animae” – Herder’s Concept of the Unconscious Ground of Human Subjectivity. Studia Warmińskie, 58, 43–60. https://doi.org/10.31648/sw.6181 (Original work published December 13, 2021)

Rafał Andrzej Michalski 
Instytut Filozofii, Uniwesytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a, 87-100 Toruń