Herders hieroglyf : Om den okända metoden i hans författarskap

Sammanfattning: The dissertation addresses the problem if Johann Gottfried Herder had a method when he composed his works. The overwhelming majority of scholars says no and describes him as a restless author who reworks manuscripts; digressing and repeating himself; leaning on others rather than writing a monographic work on his own – someone who does not write complete and structured works, and therefore is seen as a precursor in history rather than occupying a place in it.This thesis claim that Herder’s work is structured in minutest detail, and demonstrates how Herder uses typographic marks to guide the reader through his dialectical text-structure.Herder uses a four-step dialectic. It starts from a center-position with a confused issue, which is analyzed and put together again. The second position analyses one aspect of the issue at hand in one direction and the third in an opposite direction. These consecutive steps in the reading process could be regarded as simultaneous parts of an image. The fourth fuses and simultaneously changes them into a new center-position, which presents the issue in a new form.This four-step movemen can be repeated in a series of such movements. The fourth position turns then into a new starting-point. The issue is further analyzed. Positions two and three continues the perspective of foregoing two and three. The fourth position brings together.The first part gives a representive overview of the research on Herder. Special attention is givien to editions, and how they leave out typographic marks important for understanding the text’s structure. Research is characterized as a turning away from Herder’s works, either to handwriting or to a tradition which Herder only partly belongs to. Herder is instead situated in aesthetics – his “human philosophy”. The second part analyzes The Oldest Document of the human race.