The Science of Knowing
The Science of Knowing

Author: J. G. Fichte

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0791483223

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Considered by some to be his most important text, this series of lectures given by Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) at his home in Berlin in 1804 is widely regarded as the most perspicuous presentation of his fundamental philosophy. Now available in English, this translation provides in striking and original language Fichte's exploration of the transcendental foundations of experience and knowing in ways that go beyond Kant and Reinhold and charts a promising, novel pathway for German Idealism. Through a close examination of this work one can see that Fichte's thought is much more than a way station between Kant and Hegel, thus making the case for Fichte's independent philosophical importance. The text is divided into two parts: a doctrine of truth or reason, and a doctrine of appearance. A central feature of the text is its performative dimension. Philosophy, for Fichte, is something we enact rather than any discursively expressible object of awareness; a philosophical truth is not expressible as a set of propositions but is a spontaneous inwardly occurring realization. Therefore, he always regards the expression of philosophy in words as strategic, aiming to ignite philosophy's essentially inward process and to arouse the event of philosophical insight. The new translation contains a German-English glossary and an extensive introduction and notes by the translator.

Kant's Idealism
Kant's Idealism

Author: Dennis Schulting

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-11-17

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9048197198

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This key collection of essays sheds new light on long-debated controversies surrounding Kant’s doctrine of idealism and is the first book in the English language that is exclusively dedicated to the subject. Well-known Kantians Karl Ameriks and Manfred Baum present their considered views on this most topical aspect of Kant's thought. Several essays by acclaimed Kant scholars broach a vastly neglected problem in discussions of Kant's idealism, namely the relation between his conception of logic and idealism: The standard view that Kant's logic and idealism are wholly separable comes under scrutiny in these essays. A further set of articles addresses multiple facets of the notorious notion of the thing in itself, which continues to hold the attention of Kant scholars. The volume also contains an extensive discussion of the often overlooked chapter in the Critique of Pure Reason on the Transcendental Ideal. Together, the essays provide a whole new outlook on Kantian idealism. No one with a serious interest in Kant's idealism can afford to ignore this important book.

Independence of Nature in Fichte's Ethics
Independence of Nature in Fichte's Ethics

Author: Michelle Kosch

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 0198809662

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Michelle Kosch offers a systematic, historically informed reconstruction of the ethical theory of the great German Idealist J. G. Fichte (1762-1814). Central to Fichte's theory are his accounts of rational agency and autonomy. Kosch highlights the theory's very substantial potential for contribution to ethics today.

Apperception and Self-Consciousness in Kant and German Idealism
Apperception and Self-Consciousness in Kant and German Idealism

Author: Dennis Schulting

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-10-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1350151416

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In Apperception and Self-Consciousness in Kant and German Idealism, Dennis Schulting examines the themes of reflexivity, self-consciousness, representation and apperception in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and German Idealism more widely. Central to Schulting's argument is the claim that all human experience is inherently self-referential and that this is part of a self-reflexivity of thought, or what is called transcendental apperception, a Kantian insight that was first apparent in the work of Christian Wolff and came to inform all of German Idealism. In this rigorous text, Schulting establishes the historical roots of Kant's thought and traces it through to his immediate successors, Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. He specifically examines the cognitive role of selfconsciousness and its relation to idealism and situates it in a clear and coherent history of rationalist philosophy.

Fichte: Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation
Fichte: Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation

Author: Allen Wood

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-12-24

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9780521112796

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The Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792) was the first published work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), the founder of the German idealist movement in philosophy. It predated the system of philosophy which Fichte developed during his years in Jena, and for that reason - and possibly also because of its religious orientation - later commentators have tended to overlook the work in their treatments of Fichte's philosophy. It is, however, already representative of the most interesting aspects of Fichte's thought. It displays an affinity with his later moral psychology, introduces (in theological form) Fichte's distinctively 'second-person' conception of moral requirements, and employs the 'synthetic method' which is crucial to the transcendental systems Fichte developed during his Jena period. This volume offers a clear and accessible translation of the work by Garrett Green, while an introduction by Allen Wood sets the work in its historical and philosophical contexts.

The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy
The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy

Author: Eckart Förster

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 425

ISBN-13: 0674064984

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Kant declared that philosophy began in 1781 with his Critique of Pure Reason. In 1806 Hegel announced that philosophy had now been completed. Eckart Förster examines the reasons behind these claims and assesses the steps that led in such a short time from Kant's "(Bbeginning" to Hegel's "(Bend." He concludes that, in an unexpected yet significant sense, both Kant and Hegel were indeed right. The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy follows the unfolding of a key idea during this exceptionally productive period: the Kantian idea that philosophy can be scientific and, consequently, can be completed. Förster's study combines historical research with philosophical insight and leads him to propose a new thesis. The development of Kant's transcendental philosophy in his three Critiques, Förster claims, resulted in a fundamental distinction between "(Bintellectual intuition" and "(Bintuitive understanding." Overlooked until now, this distinction yields two takes on how to pursue philosophy as science after Kant. One line of thought culminates in Fichte's theory of freedom (Wissenschaftslehre), while the other--and here Förster brings Goethe's significance to the fore--results in Goethe's transformation of the Kantian idea of an intuitive understanding in light of Spinoza's third kind of knowledge. Both strands are brought together in Hegel and propel his split from Schelling. Förster's work makes an original contribution to our understanding of the classical era of German philosophy--an expanding interest within the Anglophone philosophical community.

"Mathesis of the Mind"

Author: David W. Wood

Publisher: Brill Rodopi

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9789042034914

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This is the first major study in any language on J.G. Fichte's philosophy of mathematics and theory of geometry. It investigates both the external formal and internal cognitive parallels between the axioms, intuitions and constructions of geometry and the scientific methodology of the Fichtean system of philosophy. In contrast to "ordinary" Euclidean geometry, in his "Erlanger Logik "of 1805 Fichte posits a model of an "ursprungliche" or original geometry - that is to say, a synthetic and constructivistic conception grounded in ideal archetypal elements that are grasped through geometrical or intelligible intuition. Accordingly, this study classifies Fichte's philosophy of mathematics as a whole as a species of mathematical Platonism or neo-Platonism, and concludes that the "Wissenschaftslehre "itself may be read as an attempt at a new philosophical mathesis, or "mathesis of the mind." "This work testifies to the author's exact and extensive knowledge of the Fichtean texts, as well as of the philosophical, scientific and historical contexts. Wood has opened up completely new paths for Fichte research, and examines with clarity and precision a domain that up to now has hardly been researched." Professor Dr. Marco Ivaldo (University of Naples) "This study, written in a language distinguished by its limpidity and precision, and constantly supported by a close reading of the Fichtean texts and secondary literature, furnishes highly detailed and convincing demonstrations. In directly confronting the difficult historical relationship between the "Wissenschaftslehre "and mathematics, the author has broken new ground that is at once stimulating, decidedly innovative, and elegantly audacious." Professor Dr. Emmanuel Cattin (Universite Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand)

Interpreting Schelling
Interpreting Schelling

Author: Lara Ostaric

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-09-29

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1107018927

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The first volume on Schelling in English exploring the study of the history of philosophy and core systematic philosophical issues.