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German Idealist Philosophy
The great quest for systematic knowledge in the decades around the year 1800 gave rise to one of the most spirited eras in the history of philosophical exploration, exemplified by the school of German Idealist philosophy. With confidence and sweeping aspirations, the Idealist philosophers Immanuel Kant, Johann Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, and Georg Hegel set out to make metaphysics a science, to explore the nature of the self and man's role in society, to examine the essence of the natural world, and to develop a vision of world history and the progressive consciousness of man. In this masterful introduction to German Idealism, Rudiger Bubner brings together key texts and lesser known extracts from the works of these four powerful intellects, together with insightful overviews of each philosopher and an account of the movement as a whole.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 30, 2018
This volume provides a key excerpts several from Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, providing a kind of miniature mosaic of the German idealism.
The anthology begins with portions of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (the Preface to the second edition), Critique of Practical Reason (Sections 1-8), and Idea for a Universal History for Cosmopolitan Purpose. Though the inclusion of Kant, in a sense, helps to ground the texts from the other figures included in the volume, these specific selections from Kant are already widely available to the English reader (in their entirety), and take up a great deal of room which would have been better devoted to selections of less available texts from the later and more properly "idealist" authors--especially Fichte and Schelling.
From Fichte, the volume includes the Introduction to the (never completed and continuously revised) "Science of Logic" (Wissenschaftslehre). This text is quite helpful in helping to understand Fichte's (initial) objectives for his system, and compliments the other selection, "On the Spirit and the Letter in Philosophy" in terms of articulating how Fichte situates his thought in relation to his predecessors (namely Kant and Reinhold). Lastly, the volume includes Fichte's "Lectures Concerning the Scholar's Vocation," which forms the basis of his practical philosophy.
The texts from Schelling are less comprehensive, and include only his seminal "Ideas for the Philosophy of Nature," and his fascinating essay, "On the Nature of Philosophy as a Science." In my opinion, this volume is worthy of purchase simply on the basis of the latter essay which is not (at least to my knowledge) elsewhere available in English and examines many of the methodological tensions underlying the idealist tradition as Schelling attempts to outline is own "metaphilosophy."
From Hegel, as with Kant, we find a range of selections which are also widely available in English, but which taken together, provide a good elementary introduction to his thought. The anthology includes the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit, the Preface to the Philosophy of Right, and second draft of his Lectures on the Philosophy of History.
As a whole, this is a worthy collection of texts in German idealism but contains a great deal of overlap with the similarly named volume published edited by Ernst Behler, which is a more comprehensive and adequate introduction to this philosophical tradition, containing a range of important texts which are less widely available.
The anthology begins with portions of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (the Preface to the second edition), Critique of Practical Reason (Sections 1-8), and Idea for a Universal History for Cosmopolitan Purpose. Though the inclusion of Kant, in a sense, helps to ground the texts from the other figures included in the volume, these specific selections from Kant are already widely available to the English reader (in their entirety), and take up a great deal of room which would have been better devoted to selections of less available texts from the later and more properly "idealist" authors--especially Fichte and Schelling.
From Fichte, the volume includes the Introduction to the (never completed and continuously revised) "Science of Logic" (Wissenschaftslehre). This text is quite helpful in helping to understand Fichte's (initial) objectives for his system, and compliments the other selection, "On the Spirit and the Letter in Philosophy" in terms of articulating how Fichte situates his thought in relation to his predecessors (namely Kant and Reinhold). Lastly, the volume includes Fichte's "Lectures Concerning the Scholar's Vocation," which forms the basis of his practical philosophy.
The texts from Schelling are less comprehensive, and include only his seminal "Ideas for the Philosophy of Nature," and his fascinating essay, "On the Nature of Philosophy as a Science." In my opinion, this volume is worthy of purchase simply on the basis of the latter essay which is not (at least to my knowledge) elsewhere available in English and examines many of the methodological tensions underlying the idealist tradition as Schelling attempts to outline is own "metaphilosophy."
From Hegel, as with Kant, we find a range of selections which are also widely available in English, but which taken together, provide a good elementary introduction to his thought. The anthology includes the Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit, the Preface to the Philosophy of Right, and second draft of his Lectures on the Philosophy of History.
As a whole, this is a worthy collection of texts in German idealism but contains a great deal of overlap with the similarly named volume published edited by Ernst Behler, which is a more comprehensive and adequate introduction to this philosophical tradition, containing a range of important texts which are less widely available.
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April 13, 2008Please don't hassle me about reading this. As a strategy, hassling has been found wanting. I'm Still on the introduction. I guess since I've started selling books in anticipation of supporting myself in early retirement. My later "golden years" will likely be spent to some barren, frogless, dustbowl, ice age, bad spelling nightmare where my bedpan is changed by some candy striper who thinks I'm "totally random and scary." At such time I'll be taking refuge in Hegel's Science of Logic as I promised myself. To do that I will want to have some context so consider this a warm-up.
February 26, 2017
The book kind of skirts around the central ideas of 18th century German philosophy. Giving fine introduction to the four figures presented here. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. The Hegel part was probably the best.
I think it would be better for a beginner to just pick up the central works of each of the philosopher here.
I think it would be better for a beginner to just pick up the central works of each of the philosopher here.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews