THE GERMAN CLASSIC PHILOSOPHY . THE NEOCLASSIC PHILOSOPHY

1. THE GERMAN CLASSIC PHILOSOPHY. THE NEOCLASSIC PHILOSOPHY

2. Plan • 1. German classical philosophy. •  2. Origin and development of the non-classical philosophical doctrines in the XIX -XIX c.

3. Classical German Philosophy Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Kant “taught philosophy to speak German,” reacting to the scepticism of David Hume, which had brought the period of British Empiricism to an impasse, on one side, and the Dogmatism of the French Materialists, on the other side, Kant developed a Critical Philosophy whose rigour and clarity stands to this day. Figures such as Jürgen Habmeras, Noam Chomsky and Jean Piaget are unabashed Kantians today. Kant was the purest expression of EnlightenmentReason and Universalism.

4. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kant's “critical philosophy” — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system.

5. Classical German Philosophy Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) Herder was a Pantheist, Romantic philosopher who opposed Kant’s universalism and rationalism. Herder argued against Universalism, claiming that every people and every person had their own character. He also rehabilitated Spinoza, but criticized Spinoza's mechanical conception of Nature, arguing that God/Nature was active and included opposing forces striving against one another. Herder first explained the origin of language, which he saw as the substance of thought, and is the founder of cultural anthropology and hermeneutics.

6. Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) is a philosopher of the first importance. This claim depends largely on the intrinsic quality of his ideas (of which this article will try to give an impression). But another aspect of it is his intellectual influence. This has been immense both within philosophy and beyond it (much greater than is usually realized). For example, Hegel's philosophy turns out to be essentially an elaborate systematic development of Herderian ideas (especially concerning the mind, history, and God); so too does Schleiermacher's (concerning language, interpretation, translation, the mind, art, and God); Nietzsche is deeply influenced by Herder as well (concerning the mind, history, and values); so too is Dilthey (concerning history); even J.S. Mill has important debts to Herder (in political philosophy); and beyond philosophy, Goethe was transformed from being merely a clever but rather conventional poet into a great artist largely through the early impact on him of Herder's ideas. Indeed, Herder can claim to have virtually established whole disciplines which we now take for granted. For example, it was mainly Herder (not, as is often claimed, Hamann) who established fundamental ideas concerning an intimate dependence of thought on language which underpin modern philosophy of language. It was Herder who, through the same ideas, through his recognition of deep variations in language and thought across historical periods and cultures, through his broad empirical approach to languages, and in other ways, inspired W. von Humboldt to found modern linguistics. It was Herder who developed modern interpretation-theory, or hermeneutics, in ways that would subsequently be taken over by Schleiermacher and then more systematically formulated by Schleiermacher's pupil Böckh. It was Herder who, by doing so, also contributed to establishing the methodological foundations of nineteenth-century German classical scholarship (which rested on the Schleiermacher-Böckh methodology), and hence of modern classical scholarship generally. It was Herder who did more than anyone else to establish the general conception and the interpretive methodology of our modern discipline of anthropology. Finally, Herder also made vital contributions to the progress of modern biblical scholarship.

7. Classical German Philosophy Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) Goethe was a famed poet before Kant had made his name with “Critique of Pure Reason,” and dominated the education of German-speaking people well into the 20th century. Not just a poet, he was a natural scientist and Pantheist and friend of Herder, and popularised ideas of development and the holist understanding of all processes. He was a life-long opponent of abstract empiricism (or positivism) and promoted the idea of Gestalt.

8. A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days. • Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. • All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. • Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation. • Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay. • Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one. • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) German dramatist, novelist, poet, scientist

9. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) German dramatist, novelist, poet, & scientist • How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. • If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul. • If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. • Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable. • Nothing is worse than active ignorance. • Nothing is worth more than this day. • One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. • Science arose from poetry--when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends. • So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else. • That is the true season of love, when we believe that we alone can love, that no one could ever have loved so before us, and that no one will love in the same way after us. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

10. Classical German Philosophy Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) Remembered as a “subjective idealist,” Fichte built up and understanding of society through his conception of the “I”. His concept of Activity as a union of Subject and Object was a vital step in overcoming Kant's dualism. He also originated the idea of Recognition as the key to attainment of mediated self-determination and Freedom. Fichte was a revolutionary-minded supporter of the Jacobins in France.  

11. Inspired by his reading of Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) developed during the final decade of the eighteenth century a radically revised and rigorously systematic version of transcendental idealism, which he called Wissenschaftslehre of “Doctrine of Scientific Knowledge.” Perhaps the most characteristic, as well as most controversial, feature of the Wissenschaftslehre (at least in its earlier and most influential version) is Fichte's effort to ground his entire system upon the bare concept of subjectivity, or, as Fichte expressed it, the “pure I.” During his career at the University of Jena (1794–1799) Fichte erected upon this foundation an elaborate transcendental system that embraced the philosophy of science, ethics, philosophy of law or “right.” and philosophy of religion.

13. Classical German Philosophy Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) A close friend of Hegel in his youth, Schelling developed an “objective idealist” “nature-philosophy” in his youth, and assisted Hegel in developing the dialectical structure of his philosophy. In his later years, however, Schelling went over to a Philosophy of Revelation, which Marx and Engels took to be a stimulus for the development of reactionary currents in philosophy after the suppression of Hegelianism.

14. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775–1854) is, along with J.G. Fichte and G.W.F. Hegel, one of the three most influential thinkers in the tradition of ‘German Idealism’. Although he is often regarded as a philosophical Proteus who changed his conception so radically and so often that it is hard to attribute one clear philosophical conception to him, Schelling was in fact often an impressively rigorous logical thinker. In the era during which Schelling was writing, so much was changing in philosophy that a stable, fixed point of view was as likely to lead to a failure to grasp important new developments as it was to lead to a defensible philosophical system. Schelling's continuing importance today relates mainly to three aspects of his work. The first is his Naturphilosophie, which, although its empirical claims are largely indefensible, opens up the possibility of a modern hermeneutic view of nature that does not restrict nature's significance to what can be established about it in scientific terms. The second is his anti-Cartesian account of subjectivity, which prefigures some of the best ideas of thinkers like Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Jacques Lacan, in showing how the thinking subject cannot be fully transparent to itself. The third is his later critique of Hegelian Idealism, which influenced Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and others, and aspects of which are still echoed in contemporary thought by thinkers like Jacques Derrida.

15. Classical German Philosophy Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) Founder of modern linguistics and the view of the human condition as resting chielfly on language-use.  

16. “How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.” • “I am more and more convinced that our happiness or unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life, than on the nature of those events themselves.” • “All growth toward perfection is but a returning to original existence.” • “Faith can be interested in results only, for a truth once recognized as such puts an end to the believer's thinking.” • “If we reason that we want happiness for others, not for ourselves, then we ought justly to be suspected of failing to recognize human nature for what it is and of wishing to turn men into machines.” • “Results are nothing; the energies which produce them and which again spring from them are everything.” • “For even if we know very little that is certain about spirit or soul, the true nature of the body, of materiality, is totally unknown and incomprehensible to us.” Wilhelm von Humboldt, Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt

17. Classical German Philosophy G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) Hegel was the pinnacle of Classical German Philosophy. He drew from Herder and Goethe to develop an encyclopaedic system which saw the world as the product of thought, but thought as an objective Spirit, manifested in human Activity. Hegel is the main source of Marx’s philosophical ideas, as Hegel had sublated the entire history of philosophy up to his time.  

18. Along with J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. von Schelling, Hegel (1770–1831) belongs to the period of “German idealism” in the decades following Kant. The most systematic of the post-Kantian idealists, Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a “logical” starting point. He is perhaps most well-known for his teleological account of history, an account which was later taken over by Marx and “inverted” into a materialist theory of an historical development culminating in communism. For most of the twentieth century, the “logical” side of Hegel's thought had been largely forgotten, but his political and social philosophy continued to find interest and support. However, since the 1970s, a degree of more general philosophical interest in Hegel's systematic thought has also been revived.

21. Classical German Philosophy Heinrich Heine (1800-1853) German poet and revolutionary democrat, friend of Karl Marx, first to recognise the underlying revolutionary character of classical German Philosophy. Lived most of his life in exile in Paris.

22. Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the greatest German writers of the nineteenth century. Heine is considered the last poet of romanticism and, at the same time as the one who overcame it. More specifically, Heine is famous for having not only managed to raise everyday language to the rank of poetic language, but also for having done something similar to cultural writings and travelogues, raising them to the level of art form. Importantly, Heine is generally regarded as having played a major part in conferring on German literature a kind of elegant lightness unknown until then. Heine was a poet and critic, author of the Book of Songs (1927), whose verses, both lyrical and satirical, have proven to have a universal appeal. Heine was close to both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, without sharing their political philosophy.

25. Classical German Philosophy Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) Feuerbach was the first of Hegel's young followers to make a materialist critique of Hegel in his “Essence of Christianity,” and with this, Feuerbach marked the end of Classical German Philosophy. But Feuerbach went too far in abandoning the Hegelian dialectic, seeing human beings as simply natural beings, rather than being products of their own culture. Feuerbach was the main influence on Marx in his break from Hegel.  

26. Ludwig Feuerbach, along with Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Marx, and Nietzsche, must be counted among those philosophical outsiders who rebelled against the academic philosophy of the 19th century and thought of themselves as reformers and prophets of a new culture. Although he began his career as an enthusiastic follower of Hegel, he emerged in the 1840s as a leader of a group of radicals called the Young Hegelians who, inspired by the revolutionary political spirit sweeping over Europe, employed the critical side of Hegel's philosophy to undermine the reactionary alliance of philosophy, State, and Christianity in Prussia. But confronted by censorship, the police, and reprisals against them in the universities they turned against Hegel's philosophy altogether. Expelled from the faculties for which they were trained, many of them became pamphleteers, journalists, revolutionaries, and independent scholars. Feuerbach is best known for his criticism of Idealism and religion, especially Christianity, written in the early forties. He believed that any progress in human culture and civilization required the repudiation of both. His later writings were concerned with developing a materialistic humanism and an ethics of human solidarity. These writings have been more or less ignored until recently because most scholars have regarded him primarily as the bridge between Hegel and Marx. With the recent publication of a new critical edition of his works, however, a new generation of scholars have argued that his mature views are philosophically interesting in their own right.

28. Classical German Philosophy Moses Hess (1812-1875) Hess was a follower of Fichte and an admirer of Babeuf who developed an ultra-Left Communism and worked with Marx and Engels in their early days. It was Hess who introduced Marx to the idea of Activity as a means of appropriating Hegel's philosophy.  

29. Origin and development of the non-classical philosophical doctrines in the XIX c. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers along with Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries.

31. Belief • “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All-too-Human Brevity • “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books—what other men do not say in whole books. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Candor and Sincerity • “Talking much about oneself may be a way of hiding oneself. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Communication • “To use the same words is not a sufficient guarantee of understanding; one must use the same words for the same genus of inward experience; ultimately one must have one’s experiences in common. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Conceit, Egotism, and Vanity • “The vanity of others runs counter to our taste only when it runs counter to our vanity. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Conversation • “One person seeks a midwife for his thoughts; the other, someone he can assist. Here is the origin of a good conversation. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Danger • “Believe me, the secret of the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously! ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (also known as The Gay Science) Death • “One should part from life as Odysseus parted from Nausicaa: with a blessing rather than in love. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil God • “God is dead: but considering the state Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (also known as The Gay Science)

32. Gratitude • “Great indebtedness does not make men grateful, but vengeful; and if a little charity is not forgotten, it turns into a gnawing worm. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra Greatness • “Let us not underestimate the privileges of the mediocre. As one climbs higher, life becomes ever harder; the coldness increases, responsibility increases. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist Hatred and Dislike • “One does not hate as long as one has a low esteem of someone, but only when one esteems him as an equal or a superior. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Hope • “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All-too-Human Judgment • “We praise or blame as one or the other affords more opportunity for exhibiting our power of judgment. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All-too-Human Maturity • “Man’s maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Memory • ““I did this,” says my memory. “I cannot have done this,” says my pride, remaining inexorable. Eventually, my memory yields. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Goo

33. Men and Women • “The same passions in man and woman nonetheless differ in tempo; hence man and woman do not cease misunderstanding one another. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Mental Illness • “Insanity is the exception in individuals. In groups, parties, peoples, and times it is the rule. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Morality and Ethics • “Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (also known as The Gay Science) Morality and Ethics • “There are no moral phenomena, only a moral interpretation of phenomena. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Necessity • “Necessity is not a fact but an interpretation. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power Passion • “The will to overcome a passion is in the end merely the will of another or several other passions. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Punishment • “Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra Religion • “The two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols Self-Condemnation • “Whoever despises himself still esteems the despiser within himself. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

34. Sleep • “One must have all the virtues to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbor’s maid? All that would go ill with good sleep. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra Success and Failure • “Success has always been the worst of liars. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Suicide • “The thought of suicide is a great consolation; one can get through many a bad night with it. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Virtue • “It is a distinction to have many virtues, but a hard lot. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra Women • “God created woman. And indeed, that was the end of boredom—but of other things too! Woman was God’s second mistake. ” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist

35. The philosophical anthropology Philosophical Anthropology in this sense comprises: • Philosophy of the human; i.e. critical reflection upon questions concerning the human being as such. • Philosophy of anthropology; i.e. critical reflection upon methods and theories  within anthropology and anthropological research. • Anthropological philosophy; i.e. critical reflection upon the impact of anthropological approaches and their findings on  philosophical conceptions of human affairs.

36. Sartre (1905–1980) is arguably the best known philosopher of the twentieth century. His indefatigable pursuit of philosophical reflection, literary creativity and, in the second half of his life, active political commitment gained him worldwide renown, if not admiration. He is commonly considered the father of Existentialist philosophy, whose writings set the tone for intellectual life in the decade immediately following the Second World War. Among the many ironies that permeate his life, not the least is the immense popularity of his scandalous public lecture “Existentialism is a Humanism,” delivered to an enthusiastic Parisian crowd October 28, 1945. Though taken as a quasi manifesto for the Existentialist movement, the transcript of this lecture was the only publication that Sartre openly regretted seeing in print. And yet it continues to be the major introduction to his philosophy for the general public. One of the reasons both for its popularity and for his discomfort is the clarity with which it exhibits the major tenets of existentialist thought while revealing Sartre's attempt to broaden its social application in response to his Communist and Catholic critics. In other words, it offers us a glimpse of Sartre's thought “on the wing.” After surveying the evolution of Sartre's philosophical thinking, I shall address his thought under five categories, namely, ontology, psychology, ethics, political commitment, and the relation between philosophy and the fine arts, especially literature, in his work. I shall conclude with several observations about the continued relevance of his thought in contemporary philosophy both Anglo-American and “Continental.”

38. Karl Marx (1818–1883) is best known not as a philosopher but as a revolutionary communist, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is hard to think of many who have had as much influence in the creation of the modern world. Trained as a philosopher, Marx turned away from philosophy in his mid-twenties, towards economics and politics. However, in addition to his overtly philosophical early work, his later writings have many points of contact with contemporary philosophical debates, especially in the philosophy of history and the social sciences, and in moral and political philosophy. Historical materialism — Marx's theory of history — is centered around the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power. Marx sees the historical process as proceeding through a necessary series of modes of production, characterized by class struggle, culminating in communism. Marx's economic analysis of capitalism is based on his version of the labour theory of value, and includes the analysis of capitalist profit as the extraction of surplus value from the exploited proletariat. The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx's prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism. However Marx refused to speculate in detail about the nature of communism, arguing that it would arise through historical processes, and was not the realisation of a pre-determined moral ideal.