A PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATION OF HOLDERLIN’S ROMANTICIST UNDERSTANDING OF LOVE IN THE HYPERION IN THE LIGHT OF PLATO’S SYMPOSION

Abstract

In this article, composed of two parts, conception of romantic love in Hölderlin’s novel Hyperion is
investigated in a philosophical perspective. At first, the meaning of romanticism is explained by
examples given from the history of art and philosophy. In the second part a detailed description of
the love affair in the novel Hyperion is made. Throughout the article, features of the concept of love
in the Hyperion are tried to be understood in its relation to Plato’s Symposium that is the first
philosophical work ever written about love. In the conclusion, the contributions of Hyperion to the
idea of love are elucidated.