Our guest for this week’s meeting will be Professor Leif Weatherby, who will be giving a talk titled “Poetic Metaphysics: Early German Romanticism After Kant,” which will be followed by a Q&A session. Leif Weatherby is Associate Professor of German here at NYU, and his research focuses on Romanticism and Idealism, digital theory, and political economy. The subject of his upcoming talk, early German Romanticism, was an intellectual movement which was preeminent in the German-speaking world from the late 18th century to the early 19th. The movement had a huge influence on intellectual and cultural history, with such figures as Hegel, Fichte, Schubert, and Wagner being directly inspired by it. We'll be focusing specifically on its metaphysics, which was derived from the early romantics' understanding of Kant and the natural sciences. At our meeting, we’ll have a great opportunity to learn more about this significant movement in philosophy and culture at large from an expert in the field. Hope to see you there!