"Die Macht-der-dunklen-Ideen": A Leibnizian theme in German psychology andfiction between the late Enlightenment and Romanticism

In eighteenth-century Germany the rise of sensualism led to increasing inte rest in the non-rational or 'obscure' side of epistemology: the obscure ide as that occupy a position at the bottom of Leibniz's cognitive scale in his Meditationes de Cognitione, Veritate et Ideis (1684). In the first half of the article, I examine changing attitudes towards the obscure ideas in Ger man psychology at the turn of the nineteenth century, beginning with Sulzer 's reserved approach and ending with the conciliatory view taken by thinker s such Moses Mendelssohn and Jean Paul. I suggest that the evolution of the theory of the obscure perceptions in German psychology during this period exemplifies the Germans' caution with regard to the emancipation of the sen ses, since here a theory which rose to prominence against the background of the Enlightenment's sensualism is quickly integrated into a normative fram ework. In the second half of the article, I discuss two German novels which can be seen to illustrate alternative (sceptical and appreciative) approac hes to the theory of the obscure perceptions at the turn of the nineteenth century: Tieck's William Lovell (1795-96) and Jean Paul's Titan (1800-03).