Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788)
Born 1730 CE, died 1788 CE.
Johann Georg Hamann (; German: [ˈhaːman]; 27 August 1730 – 21 June 1788) was a German Lutheran philosopher from Königsberg. Known by the pen name "the Magus (Wizard) of the North", he was one of the leading figures of post-Kantian philosophy. His work was used by his student Johann Gottfried Herder as the main support of the Sturm und Drang movement, and is associated with the Counter-Enlightenment and Romanticism. He introduced Kant, also from Königsberg, to the works of both David Hume – which Kant credited with waking him from his "dogmatic slumber" – and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Hamann was influenced by Hume, but he used his views to argue for rather than against Christianity. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Søren Kierkegaard were among those who considered him to be the finest mind of his time. He was also a key influence on G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Jacobi. Long before the linguistic turn, Hamann believed epistemology should be replaced by the philosophy of language.
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