German philosophy
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German philosophy, meaning
17th century
Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was both a philosopher and a mathematician who wrote primarily in Latin and French. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th century advocates of rationalism. The work of Leibniz also anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy, but his philosophy also looks back to the scholastic tradition, in which conclusions are produced by applying reason to first principles or a priori definitions rather than to empirical evidence.
Leibniz is noted for his optimism – his Théodicée[6] tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by an all powerful and all knowing God, who would not choose to create an imperfect world if a better world could be known to him or possible to exist. In effect, apparent flaws that can be identified in this world must exist in every possible world, because otherwise God would have chosen to create the world that excluded those flaws.
Leibniz is also known for his theory of
18th century
Wolff
Wolff was one of the first to use German as a language of scholarly instruction and research, although he also wrote in Latin, so that an international audience could, and did, read him. A founding father of, among other fields, economics and public administration as academic disciplines, he concentrated especially in these fields, giving advice on practical matters to people in government, and stressing the professional nature of university education.
Kant
In 1781, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) published his Critique of Pure Reason, in which he attempted to determine what we can and cannot know through the use of reason independent of all experience. Briefly, he came to the conclusion that we could come to know an external world through experience, but that what we could know about it was limited by the limited terms in which the mind can think: if we can only comprehend things in terms of cause and effect, then we can only know causes and effects. It follows from this that we can know the form of all possible experience independent of all experience, but nothing else, but we can never know the world from the "standpoint of nowhere" and therefore we can never know the world in its entirety, neither via reason nor experience.
Since the publication of his Critique, Immanuel Kant has been considered one of the greatest influences in all of western philosophy. In the late 18th and early 19th century, one direct line of influence from Kant is
19th century
German idealism
German idealism was a
-
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
(1762–1814) -
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
(1775–1854) -
G. W. F. Hegel
(1770–1831)
Fichte
As a representative of subjective idealism, Fichte rejected the Kantian "thing-in-itself." Fichte declares as the starting point of his philosophy the absolute "I," which itself creates the world with all its laws. Fichte understands the activity of this "I" as the activity of thought, as a process of self-awareness. Fichte recognizes absolute free will, God and the immortality of the soul. He sees in law one of the manifestations of the “I".
Speaking with progressive slogans of defending the national sovereignty of the Germans from
Schelling
In
For Schelling, the main instrument of creativity is
Hegel
Hegel presents the dialectical process of self-development in three main stages, which are ordered conceptually, not temporally. The first stage is logical, was describes the "pre-natural" structure being in the "element of pure thinking." At this stage, the "absolute idea" appears as a system of logical concepts and categories, as a system of logic. This part of Hegel's philosophical system is set forth in his
The main works of Hegel are
German Romanticism
Immanuel Kant's criticism of rationalism was a source of influence for early Romantic thought. Hamann's and Herder's philosophical thoughts were also influential on both the proto-Romantic Sturm und Drang movement and on Romanticism itself.[11]
The philosophy of
According to Lukács, Kierkegaard's views on philosophy and aesthetics were also an offshoot of Romanticism.[16]
In the opinion of
Lukács also emphasized that the emergence of organicism in philosophy received its impetus from Romanticism:
This view, that only 'organic growth', that is to say change through small and gradual reforms with the consent of the ruling class, was regarded as 'a natural principle', whereas every revolutionary upheaval received the dismissive tag of 'contrary to nature' gained a particularly extensive form in the course of the development of reactionary German romanticism (
historical law school, etc.). The antithesis of 'organic growth' and 'mechanical fabrication' was now elaborated: it constituted a defence of 'naturally grown' feudal privileges against the praxis of the French Revolution and the bourgeois ideologies underlying it, which were repudiated as mechanical, highbrow and abstract.[22]
Passivity was a key element of the Romantic mood in Germany, and it was brought by the Romantics into their own religious and philosophical views. The theologian
The only activity that the Romantics allowed is that in which there is almost no volitional element, that is, artistic creativity. They considered the representatives of art to be the happiest people, and in their works, along with knights chained in armor, poets, painters and musicians usually appear.
The
Karl Marx and the Young Hegelians
Hegel was hugely influential throughout the nineteenth century; by its end, according to Bertrand Russell, "the leading academic philosophers, both in America and Britain, were largely Hegelian".[24] His influence has continued in contemporary philosophy, especially in Continental philosophy.
Right Hegelians
Among those influenced by Hegel immediately after his death in 1831, two distinct groups can be roughly divided into the politically and religiously radical 'left', or 'young', Hegelians and the more conservative 'right', or 'old', Hegelians. The
Speculative theism was an 1830s movement closely related to, but distinguished from, Right Hegelianism.
Young Hegelians
The Young Hegelians drew on Hegel's idea that the purpose and promise of history was the total negation of everything conducive to restricting freedom and reason; and they proceeded to mount radical critiques, first of religion and then of the Prussian political system. They felt Hegel's apparent belief in the end of history conflicted with other aspects of his thought and that, contrary to his later thought, the dialectic was certainly not complete; this they felt was obvious given the irrationality of religious beliefs and the empirical lack of freedoms—especially political and religious freedoms—in existing Prussian society. They rejected anti-utopian aspects of his thought that "Old Hegelians" have interpreted to mean that the world has already essentially reached perfection. They included Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–72), David Strauss (1808–74), Bruno Bauer (1809–82) and Max Stirner (1806–56) among their ranks.
Karl Marx (1818–83) often attended their meetings. He developed an interest in Hegelianism, French socialism, and British economic theory. He transformed the three into an essential work of economics called Das Kapital, which consisted of a critical economic examination of capitalism. Marxism became one of the major forces on twentieth century world history.
It is important to note that the groups were not as unified or as self-conscious as the labels 'right' and 'left' make them appear. The term 'Right Hegelian', for example, was never actually used by those to whom it was later ascribed, namely, Hegel's direct successors at the Fredrick William University (now the Humboldt University of Berlin). (The term was first used by David Strauss to describe Bruno Bauer—who actually was a typically 'Left', or Young, Hegelian.)
-
Ludwig Feuerbach
(1804–72) -
David Strauss
(1808–74) -
Bruno Bauer
(1809–82) -
Max Stirner
(1806–56) -
Karl Marx
(1818–83)
Friedrich Engels
Dietzgen
Marx highly appreciated Dietzgen as a thinker. Noting a number of mistakes and confusion in his views, Marx wrote that Dietzgen expressed “many excellent thoughts, and as a product of the independent thinking of a worker, worthy of amazement.” Engels gave Dietzgen the same high assessment. “And it is remarkable,” wrote Engels, “that we were not alone in discovering this materialistic dialectic, which for many years now has been our best tool of labor and our sharpest weapon; the German worker Joseph Dietzgen rediscovered it independently of us and even independently of Hegel.”[34]
The "academic socialists"
The
“Academic socialism” supported a variation of
Dühring
Schopenhauer
An idiosyncratic opponent of German idealism, particularly Hegel's thought, was Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 –1860). He was influenced by Eastern philosophy, particularly Buddhism, and was known for his pessimism. Schopenhauer's most influential work, The World as Will and Representation (1818), claimed that the world is fundamentally what we recognize in ourselves as our will. His analysis of will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. Consequently, he eloquently described a lifestyle of negating desires, similar to the ascetic teachings of Vedanta and the Desert Fathers of early Christianity.[37]
Towards the end of Schopenhauer's life and in the years after his death, post-Schopenhauerian pessimism became a rather popular "trend" in 19th century Germany.
Mainländer
Working in the metaphysical framework of Schopenhauer,
Additionally, Mainländer accentuates on the idea of salvation for all of creation. This is yet another respect in which he differentiates his philosophy from that of Schopenhauer. With Schopenhauer, the silencing of the will is a rare event. The artistic genius can achieve this state temporarily, while only a few saints have achieved total cessation throughout history. For Mainländer, the entirety of the cosmos is slowly but surely moving towards the silencing of the will-to-live and to (as he calls it) "redemption".
Neo-Kantianism
Neo-Kantianism refers broadly to a revived type of philosophy along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century, or more specifically by Schopenhauer's
The neo-Kantian schools tended to emphasize scientific readings of Kant, often downplaying the role of intuition in favour of concepts. However, the ethical aspects of neo-Kantian thought often drew them within the orbit of socialism, and they had an important influence on Austromarxism and the revisionism of Eduard Bernstein. The neo-Kantian school was of importance in devising a division of philosophy that has had durable influence well beyond Germany. It made early use of terms such as epistemology and upheld its prominence over ontology. By 1933 (after the rise of Nazism), the various neo-Kantian circles in Germany had dispersed.[41]
Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was initially a proponent of Schopenhauer. However, he soon came to disavow Schopenhauer's pessimistic outlook on life and sought to provide a positive philosophy. He believed this task to be urgent, as he believed a form of nihilism caused by modernity was spreading across Europe, which he summed up in the phrase "God is dead". His problem, then, was how to live a positive life considering that if you believe in God, you give in to dishonesty and cruel beliefs (e.g., divine predestination of some individuals to Hell), and if you don't believe in God, you give in to nihilism. He believed he found his solution in the concepts of the Übermensch and Eternal Recurrence. His work continues to have a major influence on both philosophers and artists.
Mach and Avenarius
Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher. Mach’s philosophy is set forth in his works Analysis of Sensations (1885), Cognition and Delusion (1905), and others. Mach viewed things as “complexes of sensations,” denying the existence of an external world independent of human consciousness. The philosophy of Machism found support among Western European Marxists such as Friedrich Adler and Otto Bauer, and in Russia among a part of the Bolshevik intelligentsia (Alexander Bogdanov, Vladimir Bazarov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Pavel Yushkevich, Nikolai Valentinov etc.). Machian views were also widespread among early 20th century Western physicists, including most notably Albert Einstein.[42]
20th century
Neo-Hegelianism
Spengler
Oswald Spengler was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art and their relation to his organic theory of history. The main work of Spengler, setting out his philosophy of history, The Decline of the West, was published shortly after the defeat of Imperial Germany in World War I. In this work, Spengler predicts the inevitable collapse of the capitalist civilization, which he identifies with European culture. Spengler’s philosophy is imbued with elitism and a dislike for democracy. He declared the workers (the “fourth estate”) to be “outside of culture,” “outside of history”; the mass, Spengler wrote, is the end of everything, “radical nothing.” Spengler praised the “Old Prussian spirit,” the monarchy, the nobility and militarism. For him, war is “an eternal form of higher human existence.”
Spengler’s philosophy of history” is based on the denial of scientific knowledge. The historical researcher, in his opinion, is the more significant, the less he belongs to science. Spengler opposes intuition to logical, rational knowledge, denying the principle of causality and regularity in social life. Spengler rejects the possibility of knowing objective truth, defending absolute relativism. Along with historical regularity, Spengler rejects the concept of historical progress, tries to prove the meaninglessness of history and the absence of development in it. Spengler contrasts the scientific understanding of natural historical development with historical fatalism – predestination, “destiny.” Spengler also denies the unity of world history. His history breaks down into a number of completely independent, unique “cultures,” special organisms above and beyond, having an individual destiny and experiencing periods of emergence, flourishing and dying.
Spengler reduces the task of the philosophy of history to comprehending the “morphological structure” of each “culture,” which supposedly is based on the “soul of culture.” According to Spengler, Western European culture entered a stage of decline already starting from the 19th century, that is, with the victory of
Analytic philosophy
Frege, Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle
In the late 19th century, the predicate logic of
Continental philosophy
While some of the seminal philosophers of twentieth-century analytical philosophy were German-speakers, most German-language philosophy of the twentieth century tends to be defined not as analytical but 'continental' philosophy – as befits Germany's position as part of the European 'continent' as opposed to the British Isles or other culturally European nations outside of Europe.
-
Edmund Husserl
(1859–1938) -
Karl Jaspers
(1883–1969) -
Martin Heidegger
(1889–1976) -
Hannah Arendt
(1906–1975)
Phenomenology
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the philosophical theory and practice of interpretation and understanding.
Originally hermeneutics referred to the interpretation of texts, especially religious texts. In the 19th century, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911) and others expanded the discipline of hermeneutics beyond mere exegesis and turned it into a general humanistic discipline.[46] Schleiermacher wondered whether there could be a hermeneutics that was not a collection of pieces of ad hoc advice for the solution of specific problems with text interpretation but rather a "general hermeneutics," which dealt with the "art of understanding" as such, which pertained to the structure and function of understanding wherever it occurs. Later in the 19th century, Dilthey began to see possibilities for continuing Schleiermacher's general hermeneutics project as a "general methodology of the humanities and social sciences".[47]
In the 20th century, hermeneutics took an 'ontological turn'. Martin Heidegger's Being and Time fundamentally transformed the discipline. No longer was it conceived of as being about understanding linguistic communication, or providing a methodological basis for the human sciences – as far as Heidegger was concerned, hermeneutics is ontology, dealing with the most fundamental conditions of man's being in the world.[48] The Heideggerian conception of hermeneutics was further developed by Heidegger's pupil Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002), in his book Truth and Method.
Frankfurt School
In 1923,
Since the 1960s, the Frankfurt School has been guided by Jürgen Habermas' (born 1929) work on communicative reason[49][50] and linguistic intersubjectivity.
See also
- Critical theory
- Culture of Germany
- German literature
- Goethe-Institut
- History of philosophy
- List of Austrian intellectual traditions
- List of German-language philosophers
- Logical empiricism
- Modern philosophy
- Phenomenology
References
- ^ Lowith, Karl. From Hegel to Nietzsche, 1991, p. 370–375.
- ^ Pinkard, Terry P. German philosophy, 1760–1860: the legacy of idealism, 2002, ch. 13.
- ^ Stewart, Jon B. Kierkegaard and his German contemporaries, 2007
- ^ Kenny, Anthony. Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy, 2001, p. 220–224.
- ISBN 978-0-7914-0596-3.
- ^ Rutherford (1998) is a detailed scholarly study of Leibniz's theodicy.
- ^ Frederick C. Beiser, German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism, 1781–1801, Harvard University Press, 2002, part I.
- ^ Frederick C. Beiser, German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism, 1781–1801, Harvard University Press, 2002, p. viii: "the young romantics—Hölderlin, Schlegel, Novalis—[were] crucial figures in the development of German idealism."
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ "Schelling". Der Volks-Brockhaus : deutsches Sach- und Sprachwörterbuch fur Schule und Haus : A-Z. Leipzig: Verlag F. A. Brockhaus. 1939.
- ^ Aleksandrov, G. F.; Bykhovsky, B. E.; Mitin, B. M.; Yudin, P. F. (1943). "Гаман, in: Классическая немецкая философия" (PDF). История философии, T. III. Философия первой половины XIX века. Moscow: Politizdat.
- ^ Lavretsky, A. (1934). "The Romantic Period of German Literature". Literary Encyclopedia. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya.
- ^ Aleksandrov, G. F.; Bykhovsky, B. E.; Mitin, B. M.; Yudin, P. F. (1943). "Шеллинг, in: Классическая немецкая философия" (PDF). История философии, T. III. Философия первой половины XIX века. Moscow: Politizdat.
- ^ a b Lukács, György (1980) [1952]. "Schelling's 'Intellectual Intuition' as the First Manifestation of Irrationalism" (PDF). The Destruction of Reason. Translated by Palmer, Peter R. London: Merlin Press.
- ^ "Schelling". Der Volks-Brockhaus : deutsches Sach- und Sprachwörterbuch fur Schule und Haus : A-Z. Leipzig: Verlag F. A. Brockhaus. 1939.
- ^ Lukács, György (1980) [1952]. "Kierkegaard" (PDF). The Destruction of Reason. Translated by Palmer, Peter R. London: Merlin Press.
- ^ Aleksandrov, G. F.; Bykhovsky, B. E.; Mitin, B. M.; Yudin, P. F. (1943). "Шопенгауэр, in: Классическая немецкая философия" (PDF). История философии, T. III. Философия первой половины XIX века. Moscow: Politizdat.
- ^ "Schlegel". Der Volks-Brockhaus : deutsches Sach- und Sprachwörterbuch fur Schule und Haus : A-Z. Leipzig: Verlag F. A. Brockhaus. 1939.
- ^ Lukács, György (1980) [1952]. "Nietzsche as Founder of Irrationalism in the Imperialist Period". The Destruction of Reason. Translated by Palmer, Peter R. London: Merlin Press.
- ^ "Reactionary German Romanticism". Anasintaxi Newspaper, issue 385. 2013.
- ^ Kogan, Pyotr Semyonovich (1936). "Ніцшеанство і символізм. Ібсен. Метерлінк." (PDF). Нариси історії західноєвропейської літератури. Kiev.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Lukács, György (1980) [1952]. "Beginnings of Racial Theory in the Eighteenth Century, in: Social Darwinism, Racial Theory and Fascism" (PDF). The Destruction of Reason. Translated by Palmer, Peter R. London: Merlin Press.
- ^ Lukács, György (1980) [1952]. "Dilthey as Founder of Imperialistic Vitalism, in: Vitalism (Lebensphilosophie) in Imperialist Germany" (PDF). The Destruction of Reason. Translated by Palmer, Peter R. London: Merlin Press.
- ^ Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy.
- ^ Frederick C. Beiser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 339 n. 58.
- ^ Kelly Parker, Krzysztof Skowronski (eds.), Josiah Royce for the Twenty-first Century: Historical, Ethical, and Religious Interpretations, Lexington Books, 2012, p. 202.
- ^ Warren Breckman, Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory: Dethroning the Self, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 49.
- ^ William R. Woodward, Hermann Lotze: An Intellectual Biography, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 74–5.
- ^ "The Holy Family by Marx and Engels". Marxists.org. Retrieved 13 February 2010.
- ^ Griffin, Emma. "The 'industrial revolution': interpretations from 1830 to the present". Retrieved 9 March 2013.
- ^ The Peasant War in Germany, trans. Moissaye J. Olgin (New York: International Publishers, 1966).
- ISBN 978-0-19-280466-2. and Thomas, Paul (1991), "Critical Reception: Marx then and now", in Carver, Terrell (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Marx, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Engels. "1883-Dialectics of Nature-Index". marxists.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 2, Ch. 48 (Dover page 616), "The ascetic tendency is certainly unmistakable in genuine and original Christianity, as it was developed in the writings of the Church Fathers from the kernel of the New Testament; this tendency is the highest point to which everything strives upwards."
- ^ Monika Langer, Nietzsche's Gay Science: Dancing Coherence, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p. 231.
- ^ Beiser reviews the commonly held position that Schopenhauer was a transcendental idealist and he rejects it: "Though it is deeply heretical from the standpoint of transcendental idealism, Schopenhauer's objective standpoint involves a form of transcendental realism, i.e. the assumption of the independent reality of the world of experience." (Beiser, Frederick C., Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860–1900, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 40).
- ^ Beiser, Frederick C., Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860–1900, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 213 n. 30.
- ^ Luft 2015, p. xxvi.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ Rosenthal, Mark & Yudin, Pavel (1954). "German Philosophy". A Short Philosophical Dictionary, fifth edition. Translated by P., Anton. Moscow: Gospolitizdat.
- ^ "Expanding Hermeneutics". Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ "Richard e. Palmer: Hermeneutics and the Disciplines". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
- ^ Mantzavinos, C. (22 June 2016). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 22 March 2018 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Habermas, Jürgen. (1987). The Theory of Communicative Action. Third Edition, Vols. 1 & 2, Beacon Press.
- ^ Habermas, Jürgen. (1990). Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, MIT Press.