Abstract
German philology reached its peak in the second half of the 19th century, but this booming period was also underlined by crises. Jacob Grimm analysed the differences between “exacte Wissenschaften (exact Humanities)” and “inexacte Wissenschaften (inexact Humanities),” and predicted that the latter would continue to move towards exactness. Although Theodor Mommsen’s notion of “Großwissenschaft (Big Science)” was established without intelligent technological support, it was characterized by such features found in the fundamental works of digital humanities as empiricism, openness, cooperation and future-oriented approach, thanks to its guiding principle of “historistisch-positivistisch” (historic-positive) spirit and the construction of a document “database” through manual group work. However, Friedrich Nietzsche disagreed with this “historistisch-positivistisch” philology, arguing that it severed the bond between classical philology, education and mortal life. Nietzsche’s philology was inevitably subject to disputes as well. The pursuit of an “exact Humanities” in German philology in the 19th century gave rise to a preliminary development of the basic work in digital humanities. The relevant debates on empiricism and hermeneutics have also informed the contemporary discussions in digital humanities. Contemporary works in the humanities could benefit from the clashes, mutual tolerance and integration of these traditional hermeneutics and digital-technical research methods.
Keywords
philology; exact Humanities, Jacob Grimm, Theodor Mommsen, Friedrich Nietzsche, digital humanities
First Page
94
Last Page
103
Recommended Citation
Cheng, Lin. 2022. "From Grimm, Mommsen to Nietzsche: The Conceptualization and Controversy in German Philology of the 19th Century and Its Implications to Digital Humanities." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (4): pp.94-103. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss4/10
