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Department of Philosophy

PART TWO MODULES

Kant and German Idealism


Course leader: James Luchte

Module code: 2PHIL2220 (level 5) / 3PHIL2220 (level 6)

This module is designed to be a guide for an in-depth investigation of the critical works of Immanuel Kant, and of the development and transformation of his "system" through the writings of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, who formed the core of the seminal 19th century philosophical movement known as German Idealism. The module closes with a consideration of the legacy of German Idealism in such thinkers as Feuerbach, Marx, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

This module is designed to be a guide for an in-depth investigation of the critical works of Immanuel Kant, along with the development and transformation of his "system" through the writings of Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, who formed the core of the seminal 19th century philosophical movement known as German Idealism.

The module will begin with a detailed elaboration of the Kantian Critical Philosophy or as it is otherwise known, Transcendental Idealism. Among the works which will be considered will be the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason, and the Critique of Judgement.

On the basis of a reading of Kant, we will turn next to his successors in the movement who not only sought to respond to his call for a system of transcendental reason, but also sought to correct what each saw as errors.

We will first consider Fichte’s The Science of Knowledge, in which this system is developed as a "subjective idealism" seated in a creative, striving "I".

After a brief excusion into the Romantic poets, we will next turn to Schelling, in his System of Transcendental Idealism in which he expounds his own system of Transcendental Idealism (a system of objective idealism, according to Hegel) based upon the primordial unity of the dual perspectives of self and nature. We pay special notice to his emphasis upon the unconscious significance of the Kantian a priori and the challenges that this provokes for the doctrine of rational freedom which was the ground of Kant’s transcendental philosophy.

We will finally turn to Hegel, in his Logic, and consider his criticisms of Critical Philosophy and his attempt to enact a grand synthesis of Fichte and Schelling into a system of Absolute Idealism.

We will close with a consideration of the legacy of German Idealism in such thinkers as Feuerbach, Marx, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

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