THE ONTOLOGY OF THE FRAGMENT: RETHINKING TOTALITY IN FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL

Abstract

This study aims to reconsider the transformation of the concept of “totality” within the history of philosophy through the lens of Friedrich Schlegel’s understanding of the fragment. The idea of totality, which held a central position as an ontological and epistemological principle in Ancient and Medieval thought, underwent a distinct phase of transformation in the modern period as the relationship between knowledge and being was redefined. In this context, the study seeks to demonstrate how Schlegel’s thought, embodied in the form of the fragment, operates as a creative reconstruction of this idea of totality. Schlegel’s fragment positions itself against both the closed and completed notion of totality in classical philosophy and the claim of absoluteness inherent in the modern concept of system; yet, without entirely rejecting totality, it reconstructs it as an open and infinite process. The research is conducted through a text-centered critical method, focusing on Schlegel’s works such as Critical Fragments, Athenaeum Fragments, and Ideas. The fundamental principle of this method is to reveal the interrelation of conceptual, formal, and linguistic structures within the texts. As a result, Schlegel’s fragment transforms totality without negating it, employing the concepts of circularity, incompletion, and dialogical relationality. Thus, it comes to represent the idea of open totality as an act of thought transcending itself through an awareness of its own limits.

Keywords

• Philosophy
• Ontology
• Wholeness
• Fragment

FRAGMANIN ONTOLOJİSİ: FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL’DE BÜTÜNLÜĞÜN YENİDEN DÜŞÜNÜLÜŞÜ

Abstract

Bu çalışma, “bütünlük” kavramının felsefi tarih içindeki anlam dönüşümünü, Friedrich Schlegel’in fragman anlayışı bağlamında yeniden düşünmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Antik Çağ ve Orta Çağ düşüncesinde ontolojik ve epistemolojik bir ilke olarak merkezi konumda bulunan bütünlük fikri, modern dönemde bilgi ile varlık arasındaki ilişkinin yeniden tanımlanmasıyla farklı bir evreye dönüşmüştür. Bu bağlamda çalışma, Schlegel’in fragman biçiminde somutlaşan düşüncesinin, bu bütünlük fikri üzerinden yaratıcı bir yeniden kurma girişimi olarak nasıl işlediğini ortaya koymayı hedeflemektedir. Schlegel’in fragmanı hem klasik felsefenin kapalı ve tamamlanmış bütünlük anlayışına hem de modern düşüncenin sistem fikrinde içkin olan mutlaklık iddiasına karşı konumlanır; buna karşın bütünlüğü tümüyle reddetmeyip, onu açık ve sonsuz bir süreç olarak yeniden kurar. Araştırma Schlegel’in Eleştirel Fragmanlar, Athenaeum Fragmanları ve İdeler adlı eserleriyle metin merkezli eleştirel bir yöntemle yürütülmüştür. Yöntemin temel ilkesi, metinlerdeki kavramsal, biçimsel ve dilsel yapının karşılıklı ilişkisini açığa çıkarmaktır. Sonuç olarak Schlegel’in fragmanı, bütünlüğü yadsımadan, onu döngüsellik, tamamlanmamışlık ve diyalojik ilişkisellik kavramları aracılığıyla dönüştürür. Böylece düşüncenin kendi sınırlarını bilerek kendini aşma edimi olarak açık bütünlük fikrini temsil eder.

Keywords

• Felsefe
• Ontoloji
• Bütünlük
• Fragman

References

1. Aristotle. Physics. In The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Vol. 1, edited by Jonathan Barnes, 315–446. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
2. Avcı, Nil. “Alman Romantiklerinin Mutlakçılık Eleştirisi ve Felsefenin Sanata Dönüştürülüşü.” Asos Journal, no. 44 (2017): 420–435. doi:10.16992/ASOS.12236.
3. Babuççu, Ali Han. “‘Philosophy Always Begins in the Middle’: Friedrich Schlegel’s Anti-Foundationalist Philosophy.” Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy 15, no. 1 (2025): 29–48.
4. Babuççu, Ali Han. “Platon'un Şiirsel Felsefesi: Friedrich Schlegel'in Romantik Platon Yorumu.” Kilikya Felsefe Dergisi, no. 2 (2025): 164–181.
5. Behler, Ernst. “Early German Romanticism: Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis.” içinde A Companion to Continental Philosophy, ed. Simon Critchley and William R. Schroeder, 68–82. Malden, MA (or Oxford, UK) and Chicago, IL: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
6. Beiser, Frederick C. The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
7. Bowie, Andrew. From Romanticism to Critical Theory: The Philosophy of German Literary Theory. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
8. Descartes, René. Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by Donald A. Cress. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1998.

9. Frank, Manfred. Early German Romanticism and Its Philosophical Foundations. çeviren Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2004.
10. Hegel, G. W. F. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Edited by Allen W. Wood. Translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
11. ———. The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Translated and edited by Klaus Brinkmann and Daniel O. Dahlstrom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
12. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
13. Kirk, G.S., J.E. Raven, and M. Schofield, eds. and trans. The Presocratic Philosophers. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
14. Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe, and Jean-Luc Nancy. The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism. Çeviren Philip Barnard and Cheryl Lester. New York: State University of New York Press, 1988.
15. Lewis, Charlton T., ve Charles Short. A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879.
16. Liddell, Henry George, ve Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. 9. baskı, Henry Stuart Jones tarafından gözden geçirilmiş. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
17. Millán-Zaibert, Elizabeth. 2007. Friedrich Schlegel and the Emergence of Romantic Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
18. Nassar, Dalia. The Romantic Absolute: Being and Knowing in Early German Romantic Philosophy, 1795–1804. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
19. Plato. Republic. Translated by G. M. A. Grube. Revised by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1992.
20. Schlegel, Friedrich. “Athenäums-Fragmente.” In Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe. Edited by Ernst Behler. 1. Abteilung: Kritische Neuausgabe, vol. 2, 165–256. Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1967.
21. __________ “Kritische Fragmente.” Kritische Friedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe içinde. Editör: Ernst Behler. 1. Bölüm: Kritische Neuausgabe, c. 2, 147–164. Münih: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1967.
22. Seyhan, Azade. “What Is Romanticism, and Where Did It Come From?” In The Cambridge Companion to German Romanticism, edited by Nicholas Saul, 1–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
23. Seyhan, Azade. Representation and Its Discontents: The Critical Legacy of German Romanticism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
24. İnternet Kaynakları Aksakal, Hasan. “Friedrich Schlegel ve Fragmanter Düşünce.” EK Dergi: Eleştirel Kültür Dergisi. 27 Aralık 2019. http://www.ekdergi.com/friedrich-schlegel-ve-fragmanter-dusunce/.