Schleiermacher gave lectures on aesthetics at the University of Berlin in 1819, 1825 and 1832/33, which have not yet been studied in detail as part of the aesthetic discourse of classical German philosophy after Kant. The DFG project dedicated to this research desideratum is associated with the academy project “Schleiermacher in Berlin 1808-1834” and poses the question of how these lectures can be made accessible by digital methods, how their course can be analysed and how they can be critically examined in their philosophical-historical context.

To address these research questions, a digital thesaurus will first be developed in cooperation with TELOTA, in which significant topics and concepts will be organised, thus expanding the possibilities for indexing the content of the digital edition of these lectures. At the same time, the topics and concepts form the starting point for a comparative diagnosis of the course of the three lectures in order to pursue the question of a possible further development of the conception of aesthetics. Subsequently, the thematic fields treated by Schleiermacher are questioned as particular moments of the aesthetic discourse of his time, for which the lectures on aesthetics by K.W.F. Solger and G.W.F. Hegel are used as comparative foils. Finally, the use of digital methods is reflected upon with regard to their potential for research in the history of philosophy and concepts.

The project is funded by the DFG.