Abstract

Since the late 18th century, philosophy has suffered from a «crisis of identity» and other disciplines have menaced philosophy on her own territory. Literature, in particular, deals increasingly with genuinely philosophical questions. There seems to be a close interconnection between the crisis of metaphysics and the epistemological revalorisation of the Arts, particularly of literature. Literature, one might think, is defying philosophy’s competency on issues of knowledge and meaning. If a closer look reveals that, indeed, new literary styles of writing such as Friedrich Schlegel’s or Søren Kierkegaard’s fi nd their roots in the crisis of philosophy, it simultaneously reveals that this does not necessarily mean that one has to speak of a «rivalry» between philosophy and literature. Rather one could ask if philosophy, confronted with the problem of the «ineffable», would not have to evolve into literature in order to remain philosophy