The Prophet Between Philosopher and Poet

Abstract

Schlegel describes the prophet as both a philosopher and a poet. This chapter adopts Spinoza’s own method reading of Scripture to help us understand what Spinoza meant by prophecy and then how it was read, or might have been read, by later thinkers like Schlegel. The chapter presents three models of prophecy. The first is what Spinoza himself explicitly says about prophecy in his Theological-Political Treatise, namely that it is the product of the imagination and only coincides at points with what reason teaches us. The second is how prophecy was read creatively in light of the Romantic reading of Spinoza’s Ethics. Finally, the third is how the Spinozistic idea of the prophet might have been interpreted by Romantics like Schlegel beyond the rationalistic framework, with the prophet understood as the paragon of an anti-foundationalist philosopher.