The Experiential Turn in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
German Philosophy

The Concept of a Person in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy

Persons ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 187-231
Author(s):  
Udo Thiel
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Moral Responsibility ◽  
The Other ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
The One ◽  
Immortality Of The Soul ◽  
Moral Questions

Most seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers, including major players such as Locke and Leibniz, discuss the concept of a person in the context of theological and moral questions. Particularly prominent are questions about the immortality of the soul and a life after death and about moral responsibility. These questions in turn connect to metaphysical issues, such as individuation and diachronic identity. This chapter examines how the three most important eighteenth-century German philosophers, Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant, deal with these themes. Apart from many significant differences between these philosophers, especially with respect to Kant versus Leibniz and Wolff, there are also several important positive connections. These relate to the question of animal and human souls, the role consciousness plays in the constitution of personhood, and the link between the concept of a person in epistemology and metaphysics on the one hand and in practical philosophy on the other.

Women and Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Germany

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Philosophical Movement ◽  
History Of

This volume showcases the vibrant and diverse contributions on the part of women in eighteenth-century Germany and explores their under-appreciated influence upon philosophical debate in this period. The women profiled in this volume include Sophie of Hanover, Dorothea Christiane Erxleben, Johanna Charlotte Unzer, Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, Amalia Holst, Henriette Herz, Elise Reimarus, and Maria von Herbert. Notably, their contributions span the range of philosophical topics in metaphysics, logic, and aesthetics, to moral and political philosophy, and pertain to the main philosophical movements in the period (the Leibnizian-Wolffian philosophy, the Thomasian philosophy, the ‘popular’ philosophical movement, and the Kantian and early post-Kantian idealist tradition). Moreover, they engage controversial issues of the day, such as atheism and materialism, but also women’s struggle for access to education and for recognition of their civic entitlements, and they display a range of strategies in doing so. In the end, this volume vigorously contests the presumption that the history of German philosophy in the eighteenth century can be told without attending to the important roles that women played in conceiving, refining, and propagating its ideas, and in provoking, conducting, and engaging the signature debates of the period.

German idealism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Franks
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
German Idealism ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Absolute

From the late eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth, German philosophy was dominated by the movement known as German idealism, which began as an attempt to complete Kant’s revolutionary project: the derivation of the principles of knowledge and ethics from the spontaneity and autonomy of mind or spirit. However, German idealists produced systems whose relation to Kant is controversial, due to their emphasis on the absolute unity and historical development of reason.

Latein als Wissenschaftssprache in der deutschen katholischen Dogmatik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Dahlke ◽  
Matthias Laarmann
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Status ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

AbstractUntil the eighteenth century, Latin was the uncontested language of academic discourse, including theology. Regardless of their denominational affiliation, scholars all across Europe made use of Latin in both their publications and lectures. Then, due to the influence of various strands of post-Kantian philosophy, a change took place, at least in the German-speaking area. With recourse to classical German philosophy, many Catholic systematic theologians switched to their mother-tounge and adopted the newly coined terms in order to express the same faith. In reaction to this transformative work the neo-scholastic movement came into existence. Its adherents stressed the Church’s tradition and, especially its indebtedness to medieval thought. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, partly supported by the Magisterium, various attempts were made to re-introduce Latin into dogmatics. This project was unsuccessful, however, because of changes to the Catholic world ushered in by the Second Vatican Council and also because of developments in German educational policy, which served to lower the status of Latin in schools.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1834)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Anne Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Early Years ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
Romantic Poet ◽  
Century Thought

Although much of Coleridge’s life and his best critical and creative powers were devoted to the attempt to develop a philosophical system, he is less well known as a philosopher than as a romantic poet. This is partly because many of his writings remained unpublished until recent years; they now shed new light on the extent of his knowledge of intellectual history, and on the significance of his philosophical synthesis. As a young man, Coleridge was attracted by the materialist philosophies and theories of human nature which had become part of the Enlightenment’s ‘Science of Man’. These coincided with his support for the drive towards progress and human brotherhood which he thought inspired the French Revolution. At Cambridge (1791–4) religious doubt accompanied his radical politics and he turned from orthodox Christianity to Unitarianism. Gradually, however, he became dissatisfied with the ‘mechanistic’ reductive principles of British eighteenth-century thought. His visit to Germany (1798–9) and his subsequent study of German ideas convinced him that here was a spectrum of philosophical insights which was more adequate to the whole of human nature; one through which ‘head and heart’ might be reconciled. Coleridge’s work reflects his experience of a world subject to violent revolutionary upheavals and his sense of widespread intellectual and moral confusion. Becoming convinced in the early years of the nineteenth century of both the intellectual and spiritual value of Christianity, he sought to re-establish a unity between religious faith and experience and critical philosophy. His ‘ideal Realism’ reconciled elements of Greek and German philosophy with reinterpretations of Judaeo-Christian themes and doctrines, and with the moral lessons he believed history provided. Any sound philosophy must, he insisted, do justice to every aspect of human nature. He declared that he was not concerned to be ‘original’ but to provide a new synthesis, and boldly claimed to have been the first to have ‘attempted to reduce all knowledges into harmony’; although his copious notes intended for an Opus Maximum, the ‘Logosophia’, were never organized into publishable form.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Corey W. Dyck
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Movement ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Kantian Philosophy

In this Introduction, I characterize the broader aim of this volume as showcasing women’s contributions to eighteenth-century German philosophy. Notably, these contributions range from topics in metaphysics, logic, and aesthetics, to moral and political philosophy, and pertain to the main philosophical movements in the period (the ‘Leibnizian-Wolffian’ philosophy, the Thomasian philosophy, the ‘popular’ philosophical movement, and the Kantian philosophy). They engage controversial issues such as atheism and materialism, but also women’s struggle for access to education and for recognition of their civic entitlements. The bulk of the Introduction is devoted to an overview of the figures and themes covered in the individual chapters. I conclude with a brief note relating to figures not represented in this volume, and offer a rationale for my choice of the volume's title.

Is She Not an Unusual Woman? Say More

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-232
Author(s):  
Lydia L. Moland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lydia Maria Child ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Nineteenth Century United States ◽  
Moral Crisis

Germaine de Staël and Lydia Maria Child were both among the most well-known female intellectuals of their times and places: Staël in eighteenth-century Europe, Child in the nineteenth-century United States. Both women were influential in spreading the ideas of eighteenth-century German philosophy, and both used philosophical ideas to articulate their insights on the progress of history and the moral potential of art. Both also used their philosophical skills to address the moral crisis of slavery and to articulate the burden of being an unusual woman. As Staël’s first American biographer, Child helped extend Staël’s ideas beyond Europe and into the United States. Comparing their philosophical views provides us with an echo of women’s involvement in eighteenth-century German philosophy in the tumultuous American nineteenth century.

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