17th/18th Century German Philosophy

According to Kant, the prerequisite for autonomy is a principle according to which a human being may justifiably regard themselves as sovereign in their decision-making and the actions that result from it, since they are not determined by external influences. For Kant, this justified and sovereign process of decision-making must arise, on the one hand, from the free will and, on the other, from moral and ethical values, as well as from the fulfillment of duty. In this respect, the Categorical (...) Imperative should be understood as the individual's instrument of practical reason, enabling human beings to legislate moral law for themselves. Duty occupies a central role in Kant's philosophy, since it constitutes a further prerequisite for autonomy; without fulfilling one's duty, a person would fail to remain true to themselves. Viewed from a meta-level, adherence to principles together with methodical, deductive reasoning constitutes the true precondition for autonomy, since decision-making is bound to something immutable—a kind of "eternal law"—which nevertheless produces concrete and variable outcomes that the individual is obliged to follow. Personal inclinations and preferences therefore play no role. Consequently, discipline is equally essential for Kant, as it enables individuals to resist repeatedly surrendering to pleasure through the maximization of utility or devoting themselves to increasing their own advantages at the expense of others. Accordingly, Kant's conception of autonomy may be understood as consisting of a four-step process. First, the individual must possess a free will and formulate an objective—for example, the desire to be free. Second, this objective is subjected to the test of the Categorical Imperative: "Act so that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle of universal legislation" (Critique of Practical Reason, §7). Kohlberg's Heinz Dilemma may serve as an example of this procedure. By applying the Categorical Imperative, Heinz could formulate the maxim of his will—namely, that the life of his wife possesses greater value than the financial loss suffered by the manufacturer of the medicine—as a universal law stating that, in general, human life is more valuable than money. (shrink)

In the last third of the eighteenth century, several thinkers who have come to be known as ‘popular philosophers’ (Popularphilosophen) were deeply influenced by Locke’s philosophy. My aim in this chapter is to describe how two extremely important and influential popular philosophers, namely Johann Georg Heinrich Feder and Gottlob August Tittel, were inspired by a particular position of Locke’s, namely his rejection of innate ideas. After discussing Feder’s engagement with Locke in his early works (1), I outline Feder’s primary account (...) of the origin of ideas, which he presents by means of rejecting Kant’s idea that space is a form of intuition that exists in the mind prior to all sense experience (2). I then turn to Johann Schultz’s attempt to defend Kant against what he takes to be Feder’s misunderstanding (3), which was important because Feder later responded to Schultz and further refines his position on the origin of ideas. I summarize Feder’s position by arguing that it is less radical than at first seems to be the case: in his later works Feder admits that both certain cognitive faculties and their essential laws (such as the principle of contradiction) exist in the mind prior to all experience (4). Finally, I briefly outline Tittel's empiricism as well as his attempt to re-popularize Locke by publishing a partial German translation of the Essay (5). (shrink)

This paper proposes a Schellingian interpretation of Jean Baudrillard’s concept of the simulacrum. It advances five interconnected claims: (1) that Baudrillard’s engagement with Schelling has left recognizable textual and conceptual traces in his work; (2) that Baudrillard’s figures of transvestism, illness, obesity, and speed operate according to a Schellingian logic in which things manifest themselves in their contrary, or non-identity; (3) that Baudrillard employs Schellingian concepts from a logical rather than an ontological point of view; (4) that Baudrillard and Schelling (...) share a common philosophical engagement with the problems posed by Plato in the Sophist, from which Schelling derives his notion of the simulacrum; and (5) that this intertextual relation clarifies Baudrillard’s philosophy of simulacra by explaining how what is not can nonetheless produce real effects. (shrink)

AI Schelling Textual Investigations Essay on Human Freedom. By Daniel Fidel Ferrer. Copyright©2026 Daniel Fidel Ferrer. All rights reserved. Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND. Imprint 1.0. 2026. WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) digital. All Rights are Reserved. Intended copies of this work can be used for research and teaching. No change in the content, and must include my full name, Daniel Fidel Ferrer. Enjoy reading and disagreeing. Publisher: Kuhn von Verden Verlag. Language: English and German. Includes bibliographical references and an index. Yugārambha (...) (युगारम्भ). Warning. Warning: this is an AI Working Zone. Warning. Perhaps an impending danger of unexpected, unknown texts. These are AI investigations into Schelling’s texts. Pages 1-298. Who am I, the author of these investigations? That is an important question. I, Daniel Fidel Ferrer, am the human copyright owner (©Daniel Fidel Ferrer, 2026) of this work. Technically, I am the one guiding the process as the “prompt engineer.” Daniel Fidel Ferrer as the “Prompt Artist.” AI conducted by ©Daniel Fidel Ferrer, 2026. Maestro. I can consider myself the Maestro suggeritore. Table of contents. God in Schelling: A Metaphysical and Theological Analysis. Ten Thinkers Who Would Disagree with Schelling’s Concept of God. Schelling and Jakob Böhme: A Comparative Theological Analysis. Schelling Against and Beyond Hegel: Freedom, Evil, and the Limits of System in Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom. Schelling and Greek Philosophy. Fifteen Kantian Influences on Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom. Fifteen Kantian Influences on Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom. The Influence of Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom on Nietzsche. Schelling’s Freedom Essay and Its Influence on Walter Schulz and Manfred Frank. Schelling’s Influence on Karl Barth: Freedom, Revelation, Evil, and the Crisis of Modern Theology. Schelling’s Personal God: The Personal God in Hegel, Schelling, Barth, and Heidegger. Twenty Future Philosophical Questions Raised by Schelling’s Freedom Essay. Does Schelling Allow for Political Revolution? Schelling and Nietzsche on Becoming. Doctoral Seminar: Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom. Course Title Freedom, Evil, and Ground: Advanced Graduate Seminar on Schelling’s Freedom Essay. What is wrong with Heidegger’s interpretation of Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom? I focus on 20 specific problems. German, English, Chinese, and Portuguese. 300 key terms. Schelling to Heidegger: 15 Philosophical Questions on Ground, Being, and the Divine. Dialogue Schelling and Heidegger. Dramatic trilogy Schelling and Heidegger. Dialogue I: The Question of Ground (Metaphysics begins). Dialogue II: The Struggle of Light and Darkness (Freedom, Evil, and God). Dialogue III: The Clearing and the Abyss (Being vs. the Absolute). To wit: Auch muss auf Schelling zurückgegangen werden! (shrink)

In this article, I analyze Johann Christoph Sturm’s characterization of Cartesianism and his response to Descartes’s philosophy and that of his followers. In his days, Sturm (1635–1703) was an important philosopher and professor of physics and mathematics at the University of Altdorf. Sturm has a balanced reading of Descartes, neither echoing the polemics of Descartes’s adversaries nor blindly following the Frenchman’s philosophy. However, Sturm explicitly rejects being a Cartesian. In his On the Cartesians and Cartesianism (1677), Sturm differentiates three main (...) meanings of Cartesianism: (1) sectarianism, (2) the method of radical doubt, and (3) radical theology. (1) Sturm rejects Cartesianism on the grounds of his eclecticism. (2) He questions Descartes’s method of doubt. (3) He argues that this constitutes a misrepresentation of Descartes’s own theological position. Sturm’s differentiated position on Cartesianism adds in significant ways to our knowledge of the reception of Cartesianism in early modern Germany. What’s more, it offers further insights into how early modern philosophers themselves thought about Cartesianism as a meta-philosophical label. (shrink)

General systems theory played a major role in the history of the sciences and the humanities since the 1950s. But the origins of general systems theory are blurred. While the major initiator of 20th-­ century general systems theory, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, acknowledged philosophical inspirations but ignored concrete precursors, subsequent scholars chose to ignore both. This study identifies an early formulation of general systems theory in Johann Heinrich Lambert's Systematologie (1767). An analysis of Lambert's systematology, contextualized by his philosophy, which includes (...) historical and structural touch points with Kant's subsequent critical conception of systematicity, demonstrates that the essential ground for general systems theory had already been established as early as the 1760s. Bertalanffy's own theoretical development cannot be treated exhaustively here. Rather, this paper uses his approach and historical position, which is rooted in a cognate and partly continuous traditional European philosophical background inspired by Kant and others, as a 20th-­ century comparative frame of reference to spot the true conceptual beginnings of general systems theory. This investigation corrects the historical record and shows that Bertalanffy and others did not invent the discipline but have in fact reinvented it in a new context and in a seemingly novel form. (shrink)

This paper examines the nature of True World theories, which uphold transcendental and utopian conceptions of reality while devaluing earthly existence. It explores their structure and background, prevalent in both philosophical and religious discourse, analyzes the existential anxieties they seek to address, and critically interrogates their fundamental tenets through the life-affirming philosophies of Lokāyata and Friedrich Nietzsche. By the end of this composition, our aim is to refresh several important existential questions: Do we truly require belief in an eternal, unknown (...) world to lead a fulfilling life? Can we not withstand the suffering we encounter in this apparent or present world without aspiring towards transcendental reality? We intend to present these questions in an open-ended manner, encouraging individuals to contemplate the meaning of life more holistically. Similarly, this examination provides an opportunity to research into the distinctive pursuits of Lokāyata and Nietzschean philosophy, offering distinct yet comprehensive theoretical and practical elucidations of human life and its existential quest for meaning. -/- . (shrink)

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in the comparative analysis of Immanuel Kant and K.C. Bhattacharya’s contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and methodology. Numerous significant works have emerged, examining the confluence of these two thinkers’ ideas within these domains. However, an area where their joint study has been notably lacking is in their perspectives on culture, humanism, and civilization. Likewise, while there is an abundance of literature addressing their individual views on enlightenment and Swaraj, there (...) is a dearth of works that explore these topics together. In light of this gap in the existing scholarships, the present paper endeavors to examine Immanuel Kant’s renowned essay “What is Enlightenment?” and K.C. Bhattacharya’s “Swaraj in Ideas” through the lens of comparative philosophy. Similarly, we shall also integrate some of their pertinent ideas in this regard available in their other works. Through this comparative exploration, we aspire to embark on a journey where these two philosophical luminaries can enrich a distinctive philosophy of freedom and redemption. And last but not the least, this intellectual undertaking explicitly reveals that their respective views on Enlightenment and Swaraj can be interchangeably applied for redemptive goals, shedding light on the consistent nature of their ideas. (shrink)

The analytic-synthetic distinction is a topic relevant to both the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind. In dealing with subject-predicate distinctions, the analytic-synthetic distinction attempts to demonstrate what we can say. At the same time, through a priori- a posteriori distinctions, the analytic-synthetic distinction attempts to demonstrate what we can know. For these reasons, the analytic-synthetic distinction became one of the biggest controversies from early modern philosophy well into the twentieth century. While Kant is generally credited with the (...) precise formulation, I argue that David Hume presented one of the earliest coherent forms of the analytic-synthetic distinction. The one major difference in Kant’s analytic-synthetic distinction is the allowance of synthetic a priori judgments. While the analytic-synthetic distinction was accepted by philosophers for hundreds of years, it would undergo significant criticism from the twentieth-century philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine saw himself as a follower of Humean epistemology; however, he believed Hume was incorrect in asserting analytic a priori judgments. Quine attempted to dismantle the analytic-synthetic distinction, which some philosophers accept today. I conclude by demonstrating connections between Kant’s and Quine’s epistemology. (shrink)

This chapter surveys the German philosophical landscape in the seventeenth century. It first presents the intellectual-historical context of post-Reformation Germany, with an especial focus on the university. It discusses some of the leading movements for reform in Protestant philosophy inside and outside the academic context. The chapter then concentrates on developments in logic and metaphysics. In logic, it canvasses three tendencies in seventeenth-century Germany: a linguistic model rooted in humanism, an epistemic approach aimed at a synthesis of Aristotelian syllogistic and (...) Cartesian method, and a mathematical-metaphysical direction. In metaphysics, the chapter selects the new distinction between general and special metaphysics for detailed examination. It describes the key features of ontology and pneumatics, the slow emergence of cosmology, as well as the reception of the mind–body problem in German scholasticism. (shrink)

While the skeptical undercurrents of early modern thought have received sustained scholarly attention, such work has tended to be inattentive to hermeneutical or exegetical skepticism. This is a form of skepticism that threatened to stop hermeneutical theorizing in its tracks and absorbed several central hermeneutical concepts in its orbit. Hermeneutical probability was one of them. In this paper, I aim to examine whether the doctrine of hermeneutical probability as it was originally formulated by Christian Thomasius is a surrogate of exegetical (...) skepticism. I argue that not only is the examined view incompatible with skepticism, but that it can indeed articulate a promising response to it. Since general reflection on probability shaped the philosophical landscape of the Early German Enlightenment, the viability of the Thomasian view has much broader ramifications that extend beyond hermeneutics to historics, ethics, and physics. (shrink)

Is it possible to explain the existence of evil under the supposition of a supremely good creator? Are we ourselves the cause of most of the suffering that befalls us? Is life generally more painful than it is pleasant, and if so is non-existence preferable to existence? Is happiness ever even attainable? These questions occupied some of the best-known philosophers of the 17th to 19th centuries—figures such as G. W. Leibniz, Pierre Bayle, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Arthur (...) Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche. These questions were also richly discussed by writers often since excluded from the philosophical canon, such as Ottobah Cugoano, Mary Astell, and Olga Plumacher. For these thinkers, philosophy was not only a fair-weather friend; it was also a companion in storms and in darkness—it was a way of thinking about, thinking through, and contending with the profoundly unsettling. In this unique and provocative anthology, one will find philosophers bending their intellectual efforts to the darker side of life. (shrink)

É de comum acordo, dentro da literatura, que Kant representa o momento crucial em que o cosmopolitismo é estabelecido no contexto moderno. De uma forma geral, os comentadores têm observado que o pensamento de Kant não é nada infrutífero sobre o tema, de modo que é possível identificar várias formas de cosmopolitismo nos diferentes níveis sua filosofia. Kant não estaria, portanto, apenas comprometido com um de cosmopolitismo político, segundo o qual se vislumbra o ideal da paz perpétua mediante o estabelecimento (...) racional das três dimensões do direito público, mas também estaria envolvido em um processo mais amplo, que permitiria a identificação de várias formas de cosmopolitismo inter- relacionadas entre si. Como resultado, encontraríamos, em seu pensament formas variadas de cosmopolitismo, para além do cosmopolitismo político, tais como os cosmopolitismos epistemológico, comercial, cultural, moral, educacional e religioso (cf. Cavallar, 2017, p. 21-22; Kleingeld, 2011). -/- Não é meu objetivo aqui, no entanto, apresentar uma explicação sobre esses diferentes tipos de cosmopolitismo, nem uma investigação acerca de sua inter-relação, mas, antes, em um primeiro momento, indicar apenas a articulação entre o cosmopolitismo moral e o político de Kant na construção de uma nova visão cosmopolita de mundo. Ao apresentar essa articulação, proponho, em um segundo momento, discutir a relação entre o cosmopolitismo de Kant e o cosmopolitismo dos antigos. No entanto, não discutirei essa relação no sentido de mostrar como o cosmopolitismo dos antigos pode ter influenciado o cosmopolitismo de Kant . De outro modo, o que proponho é uma reflexão sobre se o cosmopolitismo antigo sobretudo o estoico – pode ter antecipado o cosmopolitismo de Kant no sentido de apresentar elementos políticos. A respeito disso, especificament minha pergunta se coloca nos seguintes termos: o cosmopolitismo antigo é apenas um cosmopolitismo moral ou ele pode ser concebido, antecipando, em alguma medida, a perspectiva kantiana, como advogando uma perspectiva política, como complemento da perspectiva moral? Dividirei este capítulo em três seções. Na primeira, apresentarei os aspectos gerais do cosmopolitismo moral e político de Kant. Na segunda, discutirei alguns aspectos do cosmopolitismo estoico, buscando evidências de um possível cosmopolitismo político. Na última, apresentarei algumas considerações finais. Devido à natureza complexa do tema e à amplitude do desafio, m exposição se limitará a apenas algumas considerações mais gerais. (shrink)

This article examines the origins and development of the so-called Schlussmaß (or Logometrum), a diagrammatic method for representing logical inferences developed by the mathematician and philosopher Erhard Weigel in the 17th century. The starting point is Weigel's critique of scholastic and Aristotelian logic, which he sought to reform by combining logic and geometry. The article shows how Weigel first formulated the idea of illustrating logical relationships by means of geometric diagrams and proportions in his 'Analysis Aristotelica ex Euclide restituta', and (...) how his students, in particular Johann Christoph Sturm, further developed these approaches in the 'Universalia Euclidea'. Using examples, it reconstructs how the Schlussmaß was conceived as a geometric test procedure for the validity of inferences and subsequently influenced Leibniz, Euler and Kant. The historical arc ranges from the early modern period to the diagram tradition of the Enlightenment to the rediscovery of diagrammatic methods in modern logic and artificial intelligence. It is argued that Weigel's Schlussmaß can be regarded not only as a precursor to Euler's diagram, but also as a paradigmatic example of the long-term interaction between logical and geometric modes of thought – a connection that is gaining new relevance in the digital age. (shrink)

Dem Jenaer Universitätsprofessor Erhard Weigel (1625–1699) und dessen Einbettung in die Gelehrtenrepublik der Frühen Neuzeit wird seit einem Vierteljahrhundert verstärkt Aufmerksamkeit entgegengebracht. Seit 1999 wurden mehrere wissenschaftliche Kolloquien durchgeführt, in denen sich dem Leben und Werk aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven genähert wurde. Der vorliegende Band enthält Aufsätze, die auf der Basis jener Vorträge entstanden sind, die im Rahmen des 9. Erhard-Weigel-Kolloquiums am 18. November 2023 in Jena gehalten wurden. Mit dem gewählten Rahmenthema „Erhard Weigel und seine Lehrer“ wurde der Bogen zum (...) 7. Kolloquium (2014) geschlagen, bei dem es um Weigels Schüler gegangen war. Am 16. Dezember 2025 jährt sich der Geburtstag von Erhard Weigel zum 400. mal. Das wird Anlaß sein, diesen Gelehrten mit dem Botho-Graef-Kunstpreis der Stadt Jena, einer Ausstellung im Jenaer Stadtmuseum und dem 10. Weigel-Kolloquium zu ehren. Alle vorangegangenen Kolloquien haben den Weg dahin geebnet. Mit dem letzten Beitrag in diesem Band wird ein Resümee aus diesen neun Kolloquien gezogen. (shrink)

This is a précis of the monograph "The Failure of Competence-Based Education and the Demand for Bildung" by Luca Moretti and Alessia Marabini, Bloomsbury, 2025.

The nature of desire, the way in which it is distinct from other mental states, and the role it plays in action (to name just a few central topics) are common subjects of discussion in Modern European philosophy. In fact, topics such as these are so prevalent in this cultural and temporal period that one could easily fill the pages of a handbook devoted solely to the topic of this chapter. My aim here is therefore the limited one of briefly (...) outlining how a select few seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British and Continental European philosophers understood desire and its role in action and choice. I not only discuss figures who are established members of the Western philosophical canon (such as Locke and Kant in Sections 1 and 4 respectively), but also somewhat lesser-known figures (such as Wolff and Hutcheson in Sections 2 and 3 respectively) who were profoundly influential even though they are read less-often in the present day. Included in each section is a brief discussion of how these four figures influenced the theories of desire developed by subsequent, more minor figures, and I focus there on Modern European female philosophers. (shrink)

From the early 1790s until after the turn of the century, a very productive but also controversial exchange took place between Reinhold and Fichte. Though many key aspects of post-Kantian philosophy were discussed, the philosophical confrontation between Reinhold and Fichte is most instructive for the understanding of post-Kantian philosophy. The exchange started when Fichte published his verdict on Reinhold's Elementarphilosophie and disapproved of its fundamental principle. In 1794 Fichte challenged Reinhold by presenting his Wissenschaftslehre. Reinhold was not convinced of Fichte's (...) foundation of philosophy at first, but announced that he accepted the Wissenschaftslehre in 1797. While Reinhold and Fichte officially collaborated in the following three years, tensions concerning fundamental questions were still present. When Reinhold adopted Rational Realism, his relation to Fichte deteriorated and the exchange between the two finally ended. The contributions in the present collection focus on the central systematic issues at the different stages of the confrontation between Fichte and Reinhold, thereby illuminating questions that are essential to the understanding of the evolution of post-Kantian German philosophy. (shrink)

In this paper, I explore the role of the history of intelligence in relation to the realization of the ideal in F.W.J. Schelling’s System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). To this end, I examine Schelling’s concept of history as an unfolding process and analyze his division of history into three “periods”. A central theme here is how Schelling’s depiction of consciousness evolves throughout these periods and how it relates to the concepts of death and God, with dead nature functioning both as (...) a remnant and a necessary condition for historical progress. Additionally, I engage with the problem Schelling poses concerning how the self can become conscious of the original harmony between subjective and objective, offering a novel interpretative approach. I conclude by arguing that Schelling’s concept of history should be understood as the development of an overarching self reflecting on itself, ultimately striving toward the attainment of full self-knowledge. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that Johann Christoph Sturm’s eclectic scientific method reveals an unexpected indebtedness to Francis Bacon’s thought. Sturm’s reception of Bacon is particularly surprising given that the German academic context in the second half of the seventeenth century was still largely Aristotelian. Sturm is indebted to Bacon in the following respects: (1) the critique of the current state of knowledge, (2) eclecticism, (3) a fluid transition from natural history to natural philoso-phy, (4) the conception of science as (...) hypothetical and dynamic and (5) experimental philosophy and the use of instruments. Given that Sturm mentions Francis Bacon in important places in his work, these respects should not easily be dismissed as commonplace. Bacon is one of Sturm’s salient sources and they are both deeply concerned with a thoroughgoing reform of existing scientific practices. (shrink)

This monograph contrasts two prominent models of education, Competence-Based Education (CBE), more recent and currently dominant in most school systems around the world, and Bildung-Oriented Education (BOE), once the basis of the school systems of Northern Europe. CBE is assessment-oriented and interprets learning as the acquisition of clearly definable and allegedly measurable competences, and is supported by supranational organisations, such as the OECD, which approach education from the perspective of human capital theory. BOE is instead teaching-oriented and characterises learning holistically (...) as aimed at the progressive articulation of a meaningful ‘big picture’ in the student’s mind. Emerged in Northern Europe under the influence of the ideals of the Enlightenment and Neo-Humanism of individual and collective autonomy and responsibility, BOE was subsequently enriched with a hermeneutical approach to teaching and socio-political objectives of emancipation and solidarity originating within Critical Theory. The book first analyses CBE and argues that, in spite of its celebrated ‘scientificity’, it is internally incoherent and unreliable, contributes to structural forms of oppression and injustice, can foster social pathologies, and fails to provide students with the kind of intellectual autonomy they need as both human beings and citizens of our complex post-industrial societies. Then, it introduces BOE and articulates and defends an updated version of it from objections raised by critical theorists, poststructuralists and postcolonial thinkers. It argues that BOE is a coherent and flexible model of education that endows students with autonomy and responsibility, can reduce structural forms of oppression and injustice, and can heal social pathologies. (shrink)

This special volume 6 of "Symphilosophie: International Journal of Philosophical Romanticism" celebrates and engages with Immanuel Kant’s legacy and indelible influence on the romantics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In recognition of Kant’s enduring importance, we have invited authors to mark his 300th birth year with articles, translations, and reviews that take up Kantian themes present in romantic thinkers. Despite the contrast in styles between Kant and the romantics, the importance of Kant’s critical system for the core ideas of (...) romanticism is undeniable and inex- tricable. This year’s issue 6 of Symphilosophie therefore examines the crucial residual influence of Kant on romantic philosophy. (shrink)

Exegetical scepticism is a strand of scepticism about meaning running through the German Enlightenment. This paper provides the first modern account of its tenets, critics, and proponents, and argues that it shares essential features with modern varieties of meaning-scepticism that have been a preoccupation among philosophers of language since the middle of the twentieth century. I argue that exegetical scepticism is a type of epistemological scepticism first introduced as a philosophical position in a theological debate between August Pfeiffer (1640–1698) and (...) Philipp Jacob Spener (1635–1705). Under contention, so I argue, was the idea that interpretation is never certain because it is necessarily underdetermined by the evidence. Following the effects of this controversy, I show that exegetical scepticism caused a great deal of unrest in German letters in the eighteenth century and can be seen to contribute to the great proliferation of hermeneutical theories in the Aufklärung, indeed to the very birth of hermeneutics as a standalone discipline. Bringing this type of scepticism to contemporary attention supports a reassessment of issues at the heart of meaning-scepticism and hermeneutics itself, and a reconsideration of the histories of Enlightenment scepticism and hermeneutics. (shrink)

Rehberg makes the astonishing claim that metaphysics caused the French Revolution. He makes this claim because of certain commitments he holds in moral philosophy, such as his skepticism of pure practical reason: for Rehberg, believing in abstract ideals that have no application in the real, empirical world can lead to dangerous results. While this connection between Rehberg’s politics and his moral philosophy has not gone unnoticed, no serious examination of the moral theory Rehberg develops in his 1787 On the Relation (...) of Metaphysics to Religion has yet been given. This is what I accomplish in this paper. After outlining the place of Rehberg’s moral theory in the 'Relation,' I offer an interpretation of Rehberg’s conception of the principle of morality, his moral psychology, and conception of the good will. I also discuss the relationship between Rehberg’s moral theory and philosophical optimism, namely the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and his account of the human condition as one of conflict between sensibility and rationality in contrast to the nature of the perfect will. The result is a richer appreciation of the systematic nature of Rehberg’s thought, as well as of the broader philosophical background of his political views. (shrink)

This chapter explores Cicero’s reception in the German Enlightenment, a topic that has garnered less scholarly attention compared to his influence in the Anglosphere. Focusing on Johann Joachim Spalding and Christian Garve as case studies, we highlight Cicero’s profound and often underappreciated impact on German intellectual thought, particularly in shaping ideas about the human vocation (Bestimmung des Menschen)—a legacy that extends even to the towering figure of the German Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant.

G. W. Leibniz on Making Knowledge Sensible · G. W. Leibniz’s contribution to logic and a propositional theory of truth, based on the idea that concepts are composed of definitional notes, has been considered the core of his philosophical system and metaphysics. However, Leibniz thought that there are other forms of knowledge that are perceptual and, therefore, non-propositional and non-conceptual. This essay explores forms of non-conceptual knowledge and argues that they depend on the imagination. Despite the distinction between conceptual and (...) non-conceptual forms of knowledge, there are two senses in which conceptual knowledge depends on non-conceptual knowledge : there is a constitutive sense in which non-conceptual knowledge has a constitutive function because it allows one to conceive of beings in concreto, and thus anchors human knowledge to reality ; there is a second sense in which non-conceptual knowledge has the function of making imaginable intellectual concepts that could not be other- wise represented by the human mind. The essay shows that these functions are interrelated. (shrink)

The study explores how Kant's critical philosophy enables us to develop new ideas and find original, exemplary aesthetic forms. Theoretical productivity is a subjective process of change over time that affects beliefs and the way they are held to be true. On the one hand, Kant's intellectual production is determined by universal cognitive capacities, on the other hand it is informed by empirical, historical experience. The development of innovative thought and original aesthetic forms is based on an intertwining of productive (...) imagining, productive self-thinking and orienting design. With Kant, theoretical productivity can be understood as both determinable and open-ended intellectual activity. Both cases necessarily presuppose theoretical freedom. (shrink)

The present paper has two objectives. First, it explicates the story, initially portrayed by Eckart Förster (2012), that allegedly philosophy started with publishing of Kant’s CPR and ended a quarter century later when Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind appeared. We address the questions in what sense this happened and how is this development to be interpreted? Secondly, we demonstrate that similar radical transition from new, “true” beginning of philosophy to its apparent finishing took place in two other, high profile occasions in (...) the history of Western philosophy, in two key points of its development: in the years 390–365 BC, between the early and the late Plato, and between 1898 and 1922, between Russell and Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. These three short-lived, spectacular transitions from philosophy’s alleged start to its alleged ultimate accomplishment give us good reason to speak about a specific 25-years principle in philosophy. In a peculiar way, this principle reveals philosophy’s true nature. (shrink)

Mike Olson and I have co-edited a collection of essays devoted to Georg Forster and more broadly to the significance of natural history as a shaping factor for philosophers during the German Enlightenment. Our thanks to Carl Niekirk for the invitation to curate this special section of the Lessing Yearbook (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2025), pp. 73-176. This is our introduction to the collection.

Why was mythology of vital importance for the romantics? What role did mythology play in their philosophical and literary work? And what common sources of influence inspired these writers across Britain and Germany at the turn of the nineteenth century? In this wide-ranging study, Owen Ware argues that the romantics turned to mythology for its potential to transform how we see ourselves, others, and the world. Engaging with authors such as William Blake, Friedrich Schlegel, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Friedrich von Hardenberg (...) (Novalis), and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ware shows why they believed that neither perception nor reason alone can sustain a vision of the unity of all things. A new mode of cognition is necessary, they claimed, one that revives the poetic origin of mythology and reveals our own mythmaking powers. _Return of the Gods_ investigates the rise of mythology in the British and German traditions and the romantics’ practices of reinterpreting old myths and inventing new ones. Their shared aim was nothing less than to elevate the human imagination to higher stages of self-development in which philosophy and poetry, as well as intellect and imagination, form an integrated whole. Far from calling us to return to the past, the romantics’ work on mythology points us to a future where we can live in harmony with the personal, social, and natural worlds we inhabit. Owen Ware combines intellectual history with philosophical analysis and literary criticism to offer a bold reflection on why mythology mattered for the romantics—and why it still matters today. (shrink)

In 1753, the Berlin Academy announced that the focus of the prize essay contest of 1755 would be optimism, with entrants required (among other things) ‘to put forward arguments that will be thought most fitting to confirm or destroy this system’. In line with these instructions, entrants submitted essays that were either pro- or anti-optimism. This was to the dismay of one of the judges of the contest, André-Pierre Le Guay de Prémontval (1716–1764), who had, by his own admission, surreptitiously (...) attempted to influence the entrants by sketching out a ‘middle point’ between the polarized pro- and anti-optimist positions in a series of books published between 1754 and 1755, namely Thoughts on Freedom, The Diogenes of d’Alembert, and On Chance under the Rule of Providence. The aim of this essay is to elucidate and historically contextualize Prémontval’s highly original ‘middle point’, as outlined implicitly in the aforementioned books and much more explicitly in a series of essays published after the essay contest had concluded. (shrink)

In this paper I'll explore the relationship between the substantially different characterizations of the public sphere made by Kant. In his writings on the Enlightenment, the productive component of this space is emphasized and the conditions that allow social and political progress to be fostered are identified. On the other hand, in the texts on the idea of a universal history, its antagonistic dynamics are rather emphasized. At first glance, the teleological history according to a plan of nature seems to (...) relegate the public sphere and the public use of reason to a secondary role. However, given the epistemic status of the philosophy of history, I will seek to highlight that, on the contrary, this regulative idea only has philosophical significance due to the effects of its public dissemination. Thus, what motivated the elaboration of a philosophy of history was rather the political potential of public thought, and, thus, the teleology of history is secondary to the conception of the public sphere. (shrink)

Liberados el romanticismo y el idealismo del lastre secular de su vínculo imaginario con la “catástrofe alemana” deviene una vez más posible recurrir a ellos para repensar los problemas teóricos y prácticos del presente y localizar nuevos instrumentos conceptuales para su solución. En este contexto recobran interés numerosos temas que fueron objetos privilegiados de reflexión por parte de los pensadores románticos e idealistas. El romanticismo exaltó la Revolución Francesa como un acontecimiento epocal de reivindicación de los derechos de los individuos (...) contra la opresión de las formas anquilosadas de la religión y la organización estatal. Los pensadores románticos se rebelaron contra el orden burgués en todas sus formas, contra la pauta ubicua de la razón económico-instrumental. Para Kant, lo que es útil e intercambiable no posee dignidad, sino precio. El rechazo romántico de la exhaustiva reducción del mundo a mercancía conduce a la recuperación del valor infinito de la naturaleza, en esa medida, a su “reencantamiento”. En una misma línea, el romanticismo preconiza tendencialmente todos los fenómenos no cuantificables, aquéllos que no permiten ser calculados en términos mercantiles: la corporeidad, el erotismo, la pasión, la imaginación y la fantasía, el arte y la poesía, lo telúrico, la diversidad individual y cultural. El idealismo, por su parte, busca una síntesis entre la concepción ilustrada del mundo material y la visión pre-moderna del mismo. El resultado de esa mediación es la explicitación de las estructuras del propio espíritu humano presentes en su comprensión del mundo, toda vez que para el idealismo el mundo es siempre la teoría de la mente humana sobre el mundo. El pensamiento ilustrado pudo por ello confundir la filosofía de la naturaleza de los idealistas con una visión de lo material viciada de antropomorfismo, más próxima a la mística y a los bestiarios medievales que a las ciencias naturales de la Edad Moderna. El idealismo, por el contrario, encuentra en esta suerte de principio antrópico de toda teoría un factor de liberación moral y política. La toma de conciencia de que es el sujeto el que crea sistemas de sentido y que, por tanto, éstos deben reflejar en sí mismos su origen humano, implica el corolario de que con las teorías –sea cual sea el ámbito de la realidad que ellas busquen explicar– se trata en verdad de dispositivos de ordenamiento para el conocimiento y la acción construidas por la propia subjetividad humana; en esta medida, en su origen no se encuentran datos brutos de un supuesto orden natural que debe, por tanto, ser respetado sacralmente, sino la propia comunidad de sujetos vivientes. Aunque haya dejado tras de sí y olvidado el proceso de mediaciones que le dio origen, aunque se presente, pues, como replegado sobre sí mismo y, en esa medida, como la suma de re-presentaciones de un orden encontrado en el mundo, cada sistema de ideas contiene el conjunto de prácticas subjetivas inferenciales que lo constituyeron y que fueron realizadas por múltiples sujetos en plexos históricos concretos. El idealismo consiste en explicitar a la subjetividad actuando en el objeto y, con ello, en conminar el peligro de la mutación de las teorías en ideologías. El fundamento último de la libertad descansa para el idealismo menos en el orden determinado que funciona como condición de posibilidad del ejercicio de la libertad que en el modo de autoconcepción de la propia subjetividad. A partir del mundo de las autoconcepciones del sujeto –para Hegel se trata del ámbito específico del sujeto que ha devenido por ello mismo absoluto– derivan luego, como sus corolarios prácticos, las formas concretas de ordenamiento social y político. Si bien asume en sí numerosos motivos románticos, el idealismo aspira también a una mediación de esos elementos con las contribuciones teóricas de la Ilustración, con la que guarda entonces una relación menos crítica que el romanticismo. Fruto de este espíritu más ecuménico y menos orientado a la ruptura, defiende una concepción más pacífica de la racionalidad capitalista y el mundo burgués. Hegel reivindica así el rol positivo del mercado con su división social del trabajo y una concepción menos revolucionaria y más reformista de la vida política. El neoliberalismo contemporáneo se concibe a sí mismo como el sistema que resulta naturalmente del principio de la libertad negativa. Una tesis central del idealismo alemán es que para que sea posible el ejercicio de la capacidad de decidirse autónomamente por diferentes metas es necesario el marco efectivo de la libertad positiva. Sin la presencia de un orden racional con poder coercitivo sobre los miembros de la sociedad para regular su conducta, la libertad negativa de esos miembros, a primera vista disminuida y parcialmente cercenada por aquel orden, no es en la práctica posible. (shrink)

Als Schaltstelle von Kunstbeurteilung und ethisch-politischer Orientierung formt der Geschmack das Denken, Fühlen und Handeln von Menschen, so dass die Bildung des Geschmacks neben individuellem Wohlgefallen an Kunstwerken eben auch ethische und politische Entscheidungen festlegt. Das theoretische Fundament dieser – einerseits ideologisch durchaus anfälligen, andererseits für die Gründung einer Gesellschaft unumgänglichen – Geschmacksbildung erarbeitet Johann Georg Sulzer zugleich von der Warte der Ästhetik wie auch der Pädagogik. Anhand seiner Schrift "Gedanken über die beste Art die claßische Schriften der Alten mit (...) der Jugend zu lesen" (1765/31784) ist es möglich, zu verstehen, wie Sulzer nicht nur das ethisch-ästhetische Profil der Geschmacksbildung erschliesst, sondern zudem gezielt institutionell einbettet. Die Verbindung von Ästhetik und Pädagogik vollzieht sich deshalb gleichzeitig auf einer theoretischen Ebene und auf einem praktischen Feld der historisch und politisch vorgegebenen Bildungsinstitutionen. Denn eine theoretisch ausgerichtete Ästhetik lässt sich bei ihm nicht von einer praktisch verankerten Pädagogik abstrahieren. (shrink)

This paper aims to show that Lessing develops in his aesthetics a pre-Kantian philosophy of consciousness. The concept of virtuality that the german writer puts forward in his essay Laocoon implies an interweaving of temporal dimensions similar to the threefold temporal synthesis described by Kant in the transcendental deduction of the Critique of Pure Reason. But whereas Kant thematizes an a priori of consciousness, Lessing is in search of an a priori of plastic art. It will be seen that perfect (...) sculpture presupposes the choice of that moment in time which can open the imagination to the past and the future in a way that enriches the present by transforming it into a "pregnant moment". The final aim of the article is to trace the genesis of the concept of simultaneity of temporal dimensions presupposed by the idea of the pregnant moment, and its implications for the idea of the temporality of consciousness. (shrink)

In this paper we argue that to adequately capture the complicated relationship between Descartes' work and late medieval thought, philosophers need to think not only about his ideas but also about his presentation and choice of genre. Reading the Meditations as a mere discursive treatise containing a progressive and consistent set of arguments intended to establish a particular philosophical position fails to appreciate the eponymous genre that Descartes explicitly chose to employ in writing them. Instead, we argue that reading the (...) text in light of the long tradition of contemplative meditative literature opens up a radically new way of interpreting the Meditations as a “mystagogical” project of spiritual edification and epistemic and volitional transformation. During such a transformation, the meditator undergoes a series of revelatory experiences structurally similar to those we find in various so-called “mystical” or “mystagogical”literature, in the Christian West. We show how paying attention to these mystagogical aspects of the Meditations can open up new avenues for understanding the connection between the theoretical, practical, and theological aspects of Descartes' thought. Such a reading resolves a number of seemingly glaring problems and peculiarities in the Meditations including the Cartesian circle, and the tension in the Cartesian notion of the freedom of the will. We also argue that the odd detours the meditator takes in the Sixth Meditation through physiology are not mere digressions but rather mark an often overlooked aspect of the mystagogical story – the return to embodiment as a transformed self. Indeed, the overly intellectualist emphasis of contemporary scholars on both the contemplative aspects of mystagogical literature and the epistemological focus of Descartes' project in the Meditations have caused them to largely overlook the ways in which the aim of both medieval and Cartesian meditation involves a transformative re-orientation of the whole person and their understanding of the world – one which has practical, moral, and social consequences that have gone underexplored in discussions of these texts. (shrink)

Friedrich Karl Forberg is known mainly among scholars of German Idealism for his role as protagonist in the Atheismusstreit. This chapter examines the texts of that controversy, but presents Forberg as a positive contributor to the philosophy of action rather than as a mere iconoclast. I argue that Forberg's position on moral optimism is superior in some respects to the one defended by both Kant and Fichte.

This third 2021 issue of "SYMPHILOSOPHIE: International Journal of Philosophical Romanticism" contains a main dossier of new research articles guest edited by Leif Weatherby (New York University) and devoted to the topic of early German romanticism and science. In addition to the papers of this main section issue number 3 of SYMPHILOSOPHIE includes translations of primary sources and book reviews. All contents are freely available online.

Introduction to: "The Edinburgh Edition of the Complete Philosophical Works of François Hemsterhuis", vol. 2: "The Dialogues of Francois Hemsterhuis, 1778-1787", edited and translated by Jacob van Sluis, Daniel Whistler (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022), pp. 22-41.

হেগেল তাঁর “লজিক এজ মেটাফিজিক্স” নামক গ্রন্থাংশের শুরুতেই অল্প ব্যবধানে যুক্তিবিদ্যার দৃশ্যত দুটি ভিন্ন সংজ্ঞা প্রদান করেন। এ দুটি সংজ্ঞানুযায়ী, যুক্তিবিদ্যা বিশুদ্ধ ধারণার বিজ্ঞান হলেও এটিকে চিন্তার বিজ্ঞান হিসেবেও আখ্যায়িত করা যেতে পারে। কিন্তু প্রশ্ন হলো, হেগেল একই গ্রন্থাংশে অল্প ব্যবধানে যুক্তিবিদ্যার এ যে দুটি ভিন্ন সংজ্ঞা প্রদান করলেন, তার কারণ কী? বা এ দুটি সংজ্ঞার মধ্যে সম্পর্কই বা কী? তারা কি একে অপরকে সমর্থন করে? বা তারা কি আসলেই ভিন্ন দুটি সংজ্ঞা? নাকি একই বক্তব্যের দুটি ভিন্ন প্রকাশ? এ প্রশ্নগুলোর (...) উত্তর খোঁজাই বর্তমান প্রবন্ধের মূল উদ্দেশ্য। এক কথায়, প্রবন্ধের মূল উদ্দেশ্য হচ্ছে, হেগেল প্রদত্ত যুক্তিবিদ্যার দুটি ভিন্ন সংজ্ঞার মধ্যকার সম্পর্ক নির্ণয়। প্রবন্ধে লেখক দেখিয়েছেন যে, হেগেল প্রদত্ত যুক্তিবিদ্যার সংজ্ঞা দুটির মধ্যে পারস্পরিক যে সম্পর্ক তা কোনোভাবেই সাংঘর্ষিক বা বর্জনমূলক নয়। বরং এ সম্পর্ক রূপান্তরমূলক বা স্পষ্টীকরণমূলক বলে সংজ্ঞাদ্বয়কে একই মুদ্রার এপিঠ ওপিঠ বললেও অত্যুক্তি হবে না।. (shrink)

The investigation that I am going to pursue here is part of a larger effort on my part to understand the relationship between Kant’s so-called “philosophical anthropology” and the development of early German anthropology since it is my sense that Kant had a determinate, if indirect, effect on the history of that separate field. For now this larger project has three main foci: an account of Kant’s philosophical anthropology in all its parts, an inquiry into Kant’s relationship to the theories (...) engaged by German anthropologists between roughly the 1750s-1790s, and finally, an effort to track the subsequent routes taken by German anthropology in the first half of the 19th-c. In this discussion I am going look at one particular trajectory in anthropological research where we can see Kant’s effect. (shrink)