Der anthropologische Diskurs in Lessings Nathan der Weise

Abstract

In contrast to existing secondary literature on Lessing's drama Nathan the Wise, which emphasizes theological and philosophical aspects, this article looks at the drama's roots in 18th-century anthropological discourse. It argues that Lessing's text makes use of De Pauw's and Buffon's theories of climatology – their insights that cultures develop differently under different climatological and geographical conditions. Lessing follows Enlightenment anthropology, particularly the causal-genetic model propagated by Buffon, in emphasizing the arbitrariness of human differences and claiming that all human beings are equally capable of rationality. Lessing also recognizes, however, the potential abuse that can be made of this idea if differences among human beings are essentialized. Lessing's drama searches for strategies to think difference without hierarchy. Beyond that, the radicalism of Lessing's drama consists in the fact that it expands and transcends the Enlightenment's conceptualization of alterity by insisting that populations are mobile and need to find ways to live together. According to Lessing, we do not only need to accept the differences and similarities among different populations and their cultures, but also the necessity of a concomitant intercultural model that mediates among those differences.