Themed Section: J. F. Fries and the Friesian School On the Background of Reception of Friesian Philosophy by Rudolf Otto: Focusing on the Roles of de Wette and Apelt

The aim of this paper is to clarify the influence exerted on Rudolf Otto's reception of Jakob Friedrich Fries (1773-1843) by philosophers and theologians of the Friesian school--more specifically, by Ernst Friedrich Apelt (1812-1859) and Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette (1780-1849). It is well known that Otto's appropriation of Fries's philosophy played a major role in the formation of his thought. One example appears in one of Otto's principal works, Das Heilige, where the 'holy' is identified as an 'a priori category', and the cognitive capacity for it is, by analogy with 'pure reason in the deepest sense', equated with 'divination'. Otto also speaks approvingly of Fries's notion of 'aesthetic sense', which attests to the strong influence of Fries's philosophy on him. Indeed, Otto was a member of the Neo-Friesian school. During Otto's lifetime, however, Fries's philosophy was commonly understood under the label of 'psychologism'. Yet Otto, undeterred by that label, drew on Fries's discussions of philosophical methodology. How, then, did Otto engage with Fries's philosophical methodology? This paper argues that Apelt and de Wette, figures within the Friesian school, mediated Otto's reception of Fries. Within the Neo-Friesian school founded by Leonard Nelson, Apelt's long-neglected Metaphysics was republished in 1910; the editor responsible for this reissue--already on friendly terms with Nelson--was none other than Otto. Alongside Apelt, it was above all the theologian de Wette who actively embraced Fries's philosophical stance, particularly in the field of theology. A distinctive feature of de Wette's reception is his positive assimilation of Fries's philosophical methodology, which tended to be overlooked by contemporaries. As for de Wette's influence on Otto, his name appears in chapter 20 of Das Heilige; moreover, that work cross-references Otto's Kantian-Friesian Philosophy of Religion, where in the section 'C. Fries's Philosophy in Relation to Theology' he devotes substantial discussion to de Wette. By identifying the distinctive features of Apelt's and de Wette's receptions of Fries and their affinities with Otto's own position, this paper aims to sketch the lines of influence running from the "Friesian school" to Otto.