Contagion : Sexuality, Disease, and Death in German Idealism and Romanticism

"...a highly original contribution to the understanding of German Idealism and Romanticism...Krell writes here with a brilliance of style that few other philosophers can match." - John Sallis Although the Romantic Age is usually thought of as idealizing nature as the source of birth, life, and creativity, David Farrell Krell focuses on the preoccupation of three key German Romantic thinkers - Novalis, Schelling, and Hegel - with nature's destructive forces: contagion, disease, and death.

Krell brings to light little-known texts by each of these writers, in which they develop theories of the intertwining of beneficent and maleficent aspects of nature; the forces of sexuality and life are revealed to be also the bringers of disease and death.

Whereas idealist philosophers are traditionally seen as emphasizing mind over matter, Krell shows their concern with the links between spirit and nature, between sexuality and birth, on the one hand, and disease and death, on the other.

The insights of Novalis, Schelling, and Hegel sketched by Krell offer surprisingly relevant perspectives for contemporary science and for our own thinking in an age of contagion.