The Last Philosopher King

The emergence and significance of Frederick the Great’s writings on the limits of state power, the utility of poetry in a philosophical age, and other topics

The life of a working author would seem to be beneath the dignity of a hereditary monarch. Yet Frederick the Great, King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, was a prolific and public author whose writings in different genres on many topics were an integral part of his image. In The Last Philosopher King, Avi Lifschitz examines Frederick’s extensive writings and authorial persona. Often seeking to influence public opinion with his literary work, Frederick also experienced the disagreeable aspects of authorship: unflattering reviews, refutations, personal attacks and pirated editions. Lifschitz describes how this public scrutiny of Frederick’s writings transformed the king’s authorial agency into a form of royal accountability: his subjects (and foreign authors) occasionally criticized his policies by reference to the principles avowed in his writings. Frederick’s activity in the public sphere of print allowed him to create an image of responsive and engaged government even as he ruled as an absolute monarch.

Lifschitz traces Frederick’s intellectual formation and shows how intensively he engaged with ancient and early modern philosophy. He explores Frederick’s innovative endorsement of self-love as a principle of ethics and service to the state, his philosophical poetry, the influence of Epicurean and Stoic philosophy on his thought and his views on human nature and the limits of the mind. Lifschitz argues that the king’s writings were more than intellectual window dressing; with his literary work, Frederick became an Enlightenment author in his own right.