Spinoza and German Idealism

by Eckart Förster (Editor), Yitzhak Y. Melamed (Editor)

There can be little doubt that without Spinoza, German Idealism would have been just as impossible as it would have been without Kant. Yet the precise nature of Spinoza's influence on the German Idealists has hardly been studied in detail. This volume of essays by leading scholars sheds light on how the appropriation of Spinoza by Fichte, Schelling and Hegel grew out of the reception of his philosophy by, among others, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Jacobi, Herder, Goethe, Schleiermacher, Maimon and, of course, Kant. The volume thus not only illuminates the history of Spinoza's thought, but also initiates a genuine philosophical dialogue between the ideas of Spinoza and those of the German Idealists. The issues at stake - the value of humanity; the possibility and importance of self-negation; the nature and value of reason and imagination; human freedom; teleology; intuitive knowledge; the nature of God - remain of the highest philosophical importance today.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2012

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the section on Spinoza and Herder. It was good. A solid analysis of a highly underrated thinker and precursor to German Idealism.

[Antonia Faccini · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Spinoza's philosophy influenced German Idealism in many ways, both as a groundbreaking model to be followed and as a cautionary example to be avoided. As is often the case with great philosophers, he was influential both through the ways in which he was correctly understood and through the ways in which he was misunderstood. (…) According to the famous concluding line of the Ethics, «all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare». Few philosophers are more difficult than Spinoza and the German Idealists, and understanding the dialectic between them is at least doubly difficult.”

Siento que le pongo 5 a todo lo que sea de filosofía jaja, pero es que en este libro los capítulos están tan bien planteados y autocontenidos a pesar de tratar los temas más densos del mundo.