German Idealism Research Articles

Symposium on Justin Remhof’s Nietzsche’s Constructivism: a Metaphysics of Material Objects (Routledge, 2018)

Like Kant, the German Idealists, and many neo-Kantian philosophers before him, Nietzsche was persistently concerned with metaphysical questions about the nature of objects. His texts often address questions concerning the existence and non-existence of objects, the relation of objects to human minds, and how different views of objects impact commitments in many areas of philosophy―not just metaphysics, but also language, epistemology, science, logic and mathematics, and even ethics. In this book, Remhof presents a systematic and comprehensive analysis of Nietzsche’s material object metaphysics. He argues that Nietzsche embraces the controversial constructivist view that all concrete objects are socially constructed. Reading Nietzsche as a constructivist, Remhof contends, provides fresh insight into Nietzsche’s views on truth, science, naturalism, and nihilism. The book also investigates how Nietzsche’s view of objects compares with views offered by influential American pragmatists and explores the implications of Nietzsche’s constructivism for debates in contemporary material object metaphysics. Nietzsche’s Constructivism is a highly original and timely contribution to the steadily growing literature on Nietzsche’s thought.

German Idealism and Tragic Maturity

ABSTRACT Isaiah Berlin viewed value conflict as tragic, as it requires the sacrifice of some values for others. It is a mark of maturity, he thought, to accept this tragic truth. This view raises certain conceptual problems that can be attributed to Berlin’s subtle departures from the German authors (Kant, Schelling, and Hegel) who originated the doctrine of tragic maturity—figures who had, in turn, transformed the earlier idea that enlightenment is a natural and morally neutral process of maturation. Kant moralized the notion of enlightened maturation by portraying it as contingent on our courage to bring it about, such that we are responsible if we remain immature. This theory of maturity rested on the idea, which would have been uncongenial to Berlin, that we are intelligible creatures inhabiting the noumenal realm, duty bound to exercise moral freedom, even though this duty surpasses our ability to carry it out, as we also inhabit the phenomenal realm, where our natural inclinations tend to make us resist laboring to fulfill our duties. However, according to Kant, the metaphysical limitations we face as individuals can be transcended to an extent, allowing us to make moral progress as a species—so long as we do not lazily persist in our immaturity. Schelling built upon Kant’s notion of freedom to bring out the tragic and heroic dimension of individual moral life, where the tragedy is our doomed but noble struggle to exert moral freedom in a world of natural necessity. Hegel turned these metaphysical notions in a more recognizably Berlinian direction by extending Schelling’s account of tragic conflict to conflicts of values. But he identified the ultimate tragic hero as an ethical totality that enacts eternal justice by reconciling such conflicts, while Berlin attempted to repudiate both the notion of a historical totality and the possibility of reconciliation on empirical grounds, even though these are metaphysical claims. Thus, Berlin asserted the absolute, trans-historical necessity of tragic value conflict, while the evidence for this assertion was merely his personal conviction that in his particular time and place, specific values were, as a matter of empirical fact, tragically irreconcilable. In this manner he illicitly portrayed Cold War value pluralists (such as himself) as courageously accepting the tragic inevitability of value conflict, while Marxists, the legatees of Hegel and thus German Idealism, immaturely shrank from this reality by embracing the fantasy of total reconciliation.

Comparative Genealogies of “Contract and Society”

AbstractSince contracts form a basic institution of every legal order, the interdisciplinary orientation of concepts of contracts reveals socio-legal inclinations of a legal order more broadly. Contrasting the UK and US Common Law of contracts with developments under German law, this Article examines the relation between normative and social science approaches, notably rooted in economics, economic sociology, and social theory in the genealogy of contract law. A shared leitmotif over the 20th century has been the drive to account for the societal embeddedness of contract. However, conceptualizations of “Contract and Society” differ considerably between legal orders in their disciplinary ingredients and design. In the US, and to a lesser extent also in the UK, the rather continuous reception of legal realism has paved the way for broad interdisciplinary perspectives on contract law, ranging from classical socio-legal, empirical work (e.g., Macaulay), economics (e.g., Williamson), sociology (e.g., Powell), and critical theory (e.g., Kennedy) to today’s landscape, where essentially instrumental and ideal-normative theories compete. Alternatively, in Germany, where the realist heritage was more ephemeral, the transformations of contract law were processed from within legal discourse and foremost in their effects on private autonomy as conceptualized, for example, in German idealism, discourse theory and critical theory. Similarly, the “constitutionalization” of contract law—even if championed for fostering private law’s reflexivity—has, for the most part, defied a socio-legal orientation. Finally, the Article highlights the path dependencies with which these different starting points translate in current debates around the role of contract in transnational governance.

Kant's a priori history of metaphysics: Systematicity, progress, and the ends of reason

AbstractThis paper explores Kant's conception of the relation between philosophy and its history. The idea that philosophy must account for its historical development is often associated with German Idealism. On the traditional view, the German Idealists departed from the ahistorical Kantian framework by conceiving of reason in a developmental manner, thus initiating a “historical turn” within philosophy. However, I argue that Kant's sketch of the history of metaphysics in the final chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason and in the so‐called Progress Essay anticipates this turn. Specifically, I argue that in this essay Kant articulates a developmental conception of reason as a basis for understanding the history of metaphysics. My aim is to change the prevailing view of Kant as an ahistorical thinker and to challenge the canonical account of the genesis of the historical turn in philosophy.

UMBRAL DA DIALÉTICA

Neste trabalho, buscamos recuperar alguns momentos centrais da filosofia bergsoniana (o método da intuição, o conceito de duração e o confronto entre positividade e negatividade) a partir da crítica dialética empreendida por Horkheimer em seu conhecido artigo de 1934 Sobre a metafísica do tempo de Bergson. Nosso objetivo é retomar a reflexão horkheimeriana em nova chave, sem ignorar os inúmeros desdobramentos da filosofia de Bergson ao longo do século XX. Assim, mergulhamos na filosofia bergsoniana a partir de algumas antinomias centrais, mostrando como o autor desenvolve uma crítica de largo escopo à metafísica tradicional, mas cai ele mesmo em suas armadilhas. Isso nos leva a questionar a possibilidade de uma Ontologia positiva nos moldes propostos pelo filósofo francês, que expurga o negativo de sua filosofia, mas paga um preço alto por tal escolha, qual seja, o esvanecimento da concretude que tanto buscara apreender como alternativa à dita abstração do idealismo alemão.

The Imagination in German Idealism and Romanticism

The Imagination in German Idealism and Romanticism

AKTUELNOST FIHTEOVOG POIMANJA TRANSCENDENTALNOG JA I PSIHOLOŠKOG JA ZA SAVREMENU FILOZOFIJU DUHA

Autor u radu istražuje mesto, ulogu i značaj transcendentalnog Ja u Fihteovom sistemu učenja o nauci, s teorijskog stanovišta. Ono će biti sagledano kroz ideje apsolutnog, neuslovljenog načela, reziduuma apstrakcije i proizvoda zbiljske radnje, kao i ideja ideelnog zraka i transcendentalnog momenta u psihičkoj svesti; dok će se apsolutno Ja prikazati kao aktivnost spontaniteta uma, zaključno sa Ja u refleksiji. Ono će se ispostaviti kao istovreme- no, s jedne strane, čisto, transcendentalno i logičko, a s druge kao konkretno i individualno. Zahvaljujući ovakvoj svojoj dualnoj prirodi, ono omogućuje samosvest kao sui generis, ra- zličitu od predmetne svesti i slobodno delanje, kao agens. Ova interpretacija Fihteovih ideja ima za cilj da ih učini pristupačnijim, plodnim i relevantnim za analizu u svetlu savremene filozofije duha, analitičke i kontinentalne, kao i povezivanje nekih od glavnih pojmova. Dalje isticanje značaja ideja učenja o nauci i problema egološke i neegološke svesti, biće razrađeno na drugom mestu.

Харківські лекції. Фіхте і Шад – освіта як завдання

The lecture is devoted to the explication of the functional possibility of education conceptualized as a task, which is addressed both to human and society. The problems concentrated on this field are regarded in the contemporary social and cultural contexts in which the philosophy of education of Fichte and Schad would be proofed on its actuality. The connection between politics and education are unveiled with their contextual and historical distinctions. The new tendencies of the developments of education are analyzed with positive and negative consequences both of the digitalization and of the empirical turn in the theory and practice of education. It is showed that the one-sided interpretation of the possibilities of digital technologies is caused by the biological and pragmatically approaches to a human being provoked by the radical changes in culture and in the world of labour. The positions of humans both in the post-industrial reality and in the first decades of the XIX century have some common features because in those periods many new possibilities were opened for human’s self-realization and perfection. Taking into account these circumstances the representatives of German idealism have paid especially much attention to education. For German idealism it is typically that the educational problems are regarded in connection with the idea of the freedom and the principal new conceptualization of human as a self-responsible person with no needs of the support from the higher metaphysical instances. The senses and functional potential of Kant’s categorical imperative are analyzed on its anthropological foundation. The human is showed there in his affiliation to mankind, what means the self-obligation for him and for mankind. This would be obligate foundation of the all moral acts despite any kind of the heteronomy. All these ideas became the further development in Fichte and Schad. They state, that the human being must be defined with the taking into consideration the material substation of humanity. This assumption is necessary to clarify the importance of the human disposition for forming, what presumes available the human competence for using sensuality, reason and mind in problems solving in order not to turn into the instrument for purposes of the Others. This is the main and actual task of the education.

PURPOSE OF PUNISMENT IN KANT’S AND HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY

Ceza kavramı modern hukuk felsefesine ilişkin temel sorunsallardandır. Cezanın amacı aynı zamanda hukuk düzeninin varlığının meşruiyetine ilişkin bir sorundur. Cezalandırmanın amacına ilişkin mutlak teori, bozulan adalet düzeninin yeniden tesis edilmesi ve misilleme amaçlarını bir arada gütmektedir. Mutlak teori taraftarlarına göre cezalandırma ile faile ya bir başkasına katkı sunulamaz. Mutlak teori, bireyin tanımlanmaya ve birey olmanın kurucu işlev edinmeye başladığı dönemde, modern devletin şiddet tekeli ve meşruiyeti bağlamında oluşturulmuştur. Türkçe hukuk felsefesi alanyazınında cezalandırmanın amacına çokça değinilmemiştir. Bu konu ceza hukuku genel hükümler kitaplarında derlenmiştir. Oysa cezalandırmanın amacı düpedüz bir hukuk politikası ve felsefesi sorunudur. Kant ile Hegel’in cezalandırmanın amacına ilişkin karşılaştırmalı bir okumalarının Türkçede de hukuk felsefesi perspektifinden yapılması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada Alman idealizminin iki önemli ismi, Kant ile Hegel’de cezalandırmanın amacı karşılaştırmalı olarak ele alınacaktır. Her iki düşünür de cezanın amacı, cezanın türü, cezanın adaletle ilişkisi ve cezalandırmaya yetkili makamlar hakkındaki değerlendirmeleri bakımından karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirilecektir. Son tahlilde her iki düşünür de cezanın pragmatik bir yararının olmaması gerektiğini savunmaları bakımından benzerdirler.

The Long Way of Political Theology to Religious ‘Germanism’ or How National Socialism Could be Perceived as Fulfillment of Christianity

ABSTRACT The success of Hitler’s National Socialism was the success of a religious faith, the ‘false’ belief that National Socialism was the fulfillment of Christianity. This article wants to show how the long development of political theology of the Middle Ages to the ‘Germanism’ of the 19th and twentieth century has made this intended misunderstanding possible. The religious aspect of National Socialism will become clear. In the past this aspect was discussed very controversial (no religion, substitute of religion, pseudoreligion, political or ‘real’ religion) because no distinction was made between the following questions: What did Hitler want that people believe? How did the historico-cultural background influence the development of National Socialism? How did the people perceive Hitler and his movement? What did Hitler personally believe? Hitler’s voelkish apocalypse derived from a centuries-old tradition of apocalyptic interpretation of current events. The ideology of the German Reich as kingdom of God and the secularization and Germanization of salvation history by German Idealism had long prepared the German people to regard themselves as the new Chosen People and Hitler as the German messiah. But Hitler himself wanted to create a national doctrine of Germanism modeled on Judaism as he understood it. Hitler’s Nationalsocialism could become a ‘real’ religious faith because of its connection to deeply rooted traditions.

Tempo e filosofia na 'Fenomenologia do espírito' de Hegel

Nesse texto, pretendemos indicar uma via alternativa para a leitura e compreensão da Fenomenologia do espírito de Hegel. Em relação à leitura antropológico-existencial de Alexandre Kojève e Jean Hyppolite, concordamos com Adorno que a Fenomenologia não é uma história arquetípica do humano em direção ao filósofo, nem trata da passagem de uma consciência comum não filosófica à consciência-de-si filosófica. O objeto dela seria a própria filosofia. Mas não a filosofia em geral e sim a filosofia tal como o idealismo alemão a concebe.

Andrew Shanks, German Idealism, and the Speculative Redemption of Theodicy

AbstractIn this review essay I discuss and critically evaluate the neo‐Hegelian theologian Andrew Shanks’ Theodicy Beyond the Death of ‘God’ with regard to its central argument of the theological adequacy of the composite theodicy funded by Hegel, Jacob Boehme (1575‐1624) and F. W. J. Schelling and also its highly individual theological style. While I commend Shanks’ impulses to enlarge the Hegelian discourse by speculative discourses that are more mythopoetic, especially given Shanks’ long‐standing interest in the critical and constructive power of poetry, I consider it to be an open question not only as to whether Shanks has sustained his case for the theological adequacy of the composite theodicy, but whether this composite speculative matrix has the capacity to enlist the prophetic discourses of both the Bible and modern poetry that Shanks thinks it has. In addition, while Shanks’ theological style is a unique blend of disciplined analysis with a more hortatory rhetoric, as rendered in this his latest book, the generally polemical tone and the tendency to dismissive judgments not only regarding particular philosophers and theologians, but also particular forms of historical Christianity such as Roman Catholicism, compromise – if not entirely invalidate – its repeated message of inclusion.

'I think' (the thoughts of others). The German tradition of apperceptionism and the intellectual history of schizophrenia.

Although contemporary approaches to schizophrenia pinpoint 'disturbances of the self' as a central aetiological factor, historical insight into the link between accounts of schizophrenia and theories of subjectivity and self-consciousness is poor. This paper aims to overcome this gap by providing the outlines of a largely forgotten but crucial part of the intellectual history of schizophrenia. In particular, the impact of the German tradition of apperceptionism on nineteenth-century accounts of schizophrenia is unearthed. This tradition emerged from German Idealism, and culminated in Emil Kraepelin's account of dementia praecox. In addition to filling an important gap in the historiography of psychiatry, this analysis contributes to ongoing efforts to correct some common misunderstandings regarding Kraepelin's theoretical position.

Alison Stone, Nature, Ethics and Gender in German Romanticism and Idealism

Alison Stone, <i>Nature, Ethics and Gender in German Romanticism and Idealism</i>

Science of the encyclopedia of law in the writings of German jurist Daniel Nettelbladt

&amp;nbsp;The subject of this research is the identification of legal views of the German jurist Daniel Nettelbladt &amp;ndash; a bright representative of science of the encyclopedia of law at the stage of its conception as a science. The source base is comprised of the works of D. Nettelbladt and scientific writings of other legal scholars. The historical legal science does not pay due attention to the ideas and persona of Daniel Nettelbladt. Although, the Russian legal science lacks the monographic research of the political-legal concept of D. Nettelbladt, his scientific writings became the foundation for the Russian and German jurisprudence of the mid XVIII &amp;ndash; first quarter of the XIX centuries, until the beginning of the triumph of German idealism (Kant, Hegel) and historical school of law (Hugo, Puchta, Savigny). The scientific novelty is substantiated by the subject and methods of research. The works of Daniel Nettelbladt have not been previously subjected to systemic and comprehensive examination, but his ideas and concepts retain their relevance. The core idea of Daniel Nettelbladt&amp;rsquo;s encyclopedia of law consists in interpretation of science as a natural law from the rationalistic perspective. He introduced the original theoretical concepts. The author examines the concept of law, jurisprudence, legal system in the context of scholar&amp;rsquo;s perception. The significance of D. Nettelbladt&amp;rsquo;s persona and contribution to the development of science of the encyclopedia of law is underlined.

ALIENATED LIFE

German Idealism still dominates most approaches in theoretical biology. This has led to a conception of organisms as tightly regulated self-forming systems where the demands of the whole organism dominate how the parts are coordinated. This article troubles this approach by presenting aspects of biology that refuse to be synthesized into a specific whole. I call this approach “goth biology” as it recognizes the murkiness of systems of knowledge, the loosely composite nature of most living things, and the continual haunting of life by death. Methodologically, I use insights gleaned from the history of post-punk goth music to explore the role of aesthetics, timbres, and forms as elements of lives that bound disparate times and spaces without providing a unified synthesis. A form of biological experience, and a theory of how the body works, goth biology demands that one lose a conception of “self” in order to embrace the complexity of biological interactions. As the goth performance artist Anna-Varney Cantodea recently confessed in an interview: “I have long given up on any goals I might have had,” but this doesn’t keep me from being inspired by everything around me.

Variaciones idealistas: Schopenhauer, la “cosa en sí” y el problema de la negación

A 200 años de la redacción de El mundo como voluntad y representación sigue siendo un desiderátum el hablar de Schopenhauer como miembro de la tradición filosófica alemana conocida como idealismo alemán. El propio filósofo se reclamó un heredero legítimo de la filosofía kantiana, la cual es, entre otras cosas, el gran pilar filosófico del idealismo alemán. Y no sólo se reclama su heredero, sino que, como los propios idealistas, también intentó reformular o neutralizar la problemática en torno a la “cosa en sí”. En este trabajo se analizará la estrategia que Schopenhauer siguió para reformular dicha problemática. La estrategia en cuestión es una doble comprensión de la negación: la negación encarnada por aquello que Schopenhauer denomina fenómeno, y la negación de la voluntad. La caracterización de ambos tipos de negación permitirá tener una idea más clara del lugar que ocupa Schopenhauer en la discusión, propiamente postkantiana, acerca de la “cosa en sí” o lo incondicionado (das Unbedingt).

Wittgenstein and Die Meistersinger: The Aesthetic Road to a Sceptical Solution of the Sceptical Paradox

Starting with Wittgenstein’s remark about his allegedly frequent visits to the performance of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, the paper presents Wagner’s opera – being explicitly an opera about rules and rule-following – as a possible stimulus for the later Wittgenstein’s thinking about language. Besides Wittgenstein’s systematic interests in parallels between music and language, the paper draws on the choice of terminology (such as the comparison of rules to rails) and on Wittgenstein’s own examples of rule-following. More speculatively, the phrasing as well as the solution to what Kripke called Wittgenstein’s sceptical paradox is used as a point of comparison that brings Wittgenstein’s aesthetic innuendos closer not only to mainstream philosophy of language, but due to the antithetical structure of Kripke’s argument also to the broader philosophical and aesthetical tradition, with a particular focus on the great philosophical systems of German idealism.

Lukács: The antinomies of bourgeois philosophy and the absolute

I reconstruct Lukács’s immanent critique of German Idealism, found within his essay ‘Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat’ (in History and Class Consciousness), in order to foreground his philosophical reflection on the concepts of mediation, logic, genesis and praxis. I situate this reflection within his philosophy of praxis as a whole before highlighting the dialectical development of these terms within it. They are posited initially as abstract, methodological demands and are subsequently concretised and enriched, via Lukács’s critical evaluation of the antinomies he discovers in Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. My reconstruction is both exegetical and critical. I demonstrate that Lukács’s concept of praxis (as the culmination of mediation, logic and genesis) is explicitly intended to both bear the weight of Hegel’s Absolute and overcome it. On this basis, I propose a novel immanent critique of Lukács’s philosophy of praxis, suggesting that while Lukács wishes his concept of praxis to express a living, present and ontologically novel truth, his insight is won – in the fashion of Hegelian philosophy – after the historical event upon which it is built, as a philosophical reflection. Lukács’s self-contradiction is that while he regards his philosophy of praxis as having overcome speculative, Hegelian philosophy, in fact, the position he generates remains firmly but unconsciously within it. Consequently, Lukács’s philosophy of praxis possesses a theological dimension and must be regarded as an example of the kind of ‘conceptual mythology’ he sought to overcome.

Henadología y ontología, o los dioses y las formas: la metafísica binaria y erótica de Proclo

Este artículo se propone mostrar el complejo proyecto metafísico de Proclo: tanto una metafísica de la unidad como una metafísica del ser, lo que implica una distinción entre henadología y ontología, respectivamente. Dicha distinción pone seriamente en entredicho la reductiva caracterización moderna acerca de la metafísica occidental como exclusivamente una metafísica del ser. La henadología de Proclo ofrece otra manera de pensar actualmente la necesidad de la metafísica más allá de las postulaciones modernas de una superación de la misma. Se trata de una metafísica cuya orientación es un radical monismo no-dual, resultante en una apreciación asimismo radicalmente positiva respecto al mundo y el cuerpo, a la imaginación y a las emociones. Asimismo, este artículo pretende presentar la actual revaloración del pensamiento de Proclo, uno de los filósofos (neo)platónicos más notables y reconocidos de la antigüedad e influyente en la posteridad bizantina, medieval, renacentista, hasta la filosofía idealista alemana.