Cambridge Companion to German Idealism

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Edited by Karl Ameriks

Cambridge University Press

Due/Published January 2001, 336 pages, paper

ISBN 0521656958

The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism offers a comprehensive guide to this classic period of German philosophy. The essays in the volume trace and explore the unifying themes of German Idealism, and discuss their relationship to Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and the culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe.

Contributors: Karl Ameriks, Frederick Beiser, Paul Guyer, Allen Wood, Daniel Dahlstrom, Paul Franks, Rolf Peter Horstmann, Charles Larmore, Terry Pinkard, Robert Pippin, Günter Zöller, Dieter Sturma, Andrew Bowie

 Contents

Introduction: Interpreting German Idealism--Karl Ameriks

1. The Enlightenment and Idealism--Frederick Beiser

 2. Absolute Idealism and the rejection of Kantian dualism--Paul Guyer

3. Kant's practical philosophy--Allen Wood

4. The aesthetic holism of Hamann, Herder, and Schiller--Daniel Dahlstrom

5. All or nothing: systematicity and nihilism in Jacobi, Reinhold, and Maimon--Paul Franks

6. The early philosophy of Fichte and Schelling--Rolf Peter Horstmann

 7. Holderlin and Novalis--Charles Larmore

8. Hegel's Phenomenology and Logic: an overview --Terry Pinkard

9. Hegel's practical philosophy: the realization of freedom--Robert Pippin

10. German realism: the self-limitation of Idealism in Fichte, Schelling, and Schopenhauer--Gunter Zoller

11. Politics and the new mythology in late Romanticism--Dieter Sturma

12. German Idealism and the arts--Andrew Bowie

13. The legacy of Idealism in the philosophy of Feuerbach, Marx, and Kierkegaard--Karl Ameriks

Review

At the turn of the eighteenth century, a remarkable coming together of philosophers and writers gave birth to German Idealism and German Romanticism. The works of Kant, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Novalis, Schlegel, and others responded to and articulated the cultural, intellectual, and political upheavals brought about by Romanticism and the French Revolution. Despite the vibrancy and production of the period (it has, on more than one occasion, been compared with the Golden Age of Athens), the critical reception of German Idealists has been uneven with no shortage of misrepresentations of certain ideas and thinkers. This excellent collection of critical writings goes a long way in clearing up some of the confusion surrounding German Idealism and argues for its continuing importance in contemporary philosophy whether it be on the continent or shaping the more analytical anglo-american. The excellent essays examine in detail the philosophy of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel; the philosophical ideas in the writing of Holderlin, Novalis, Schiller, and others; and the work of some of the lesser-known thinkers. The essays serve as an invaluable and original examination of several unifying themes of German Idealism, including what is exactly meant by idealism, and the movement's relationship to romanticism, the Enlightenment, and the culture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. This collection highlights the richness and complexity of German Idealism, a movement that despite Heidegger's urging that it must be "overcome," continues to inform the direction of philosophy and our understanding of the world around us.

Contributors include: Karl Ameriks, Frederick Beiser, Andrew Bowie, Daniel Dahlstrom, Paul Franks, Paul Guyer, Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Charles Larmore, Terry Pinkard, Dieter Sturma, and Gunter Zoller.

For a list of book suggested by Karl Ameriks