THE SUCCESSORS OF KANT

The
three "Critiques" of Kant pointed to the organizing activity of the
"thinking-ego." After Kant, thinkers logically developed the function
of the thinking-ego, and came to the conclusion that its activity is not
limited to the organization of phenomena, but implies the production of
phenomena. Thus the ego is conceived of as a creative power. This concept of
the creativity of the spirit gave origin in Germany to two movements -- the first,
a cultural movement called Romanticism; the second, a philosophical one called
Idealism.

I. THE GERMAN IDEALISTS

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

An
expanded version of the philosophy of Fichte is
presented HERE.

Johann
G. Fichte (
picture) was born at Rammenau in Upper Lusatia in 1762. He studied theology at
the University of Jena, where, some years later, he
occupied the chair of philosophy. Dismissed from Jena as a result of a violent
controversy, he lectured at Berlin, where he became identified
with the Romantic Movement. In 1807 and 1808 he delivered in Berlin his famous "Addresses to
the German Nation," which were aimed at stirring up the patriotic spirit
of his countrymen and enlightening them on the foundations for national
prosperity. Fichte died of typhus in 1814. His
masterpiece is Foundation of General Science.

Doctrine

Fichte abolished the distinction
between the thinking-ego and the "thing in itself." Primordial reality
is one, Pure Ego, which is the root of all realities. The moments of the Pure
Ego are two: (1) production; (2) reflection. First, by an unconscious
obligation, the Universal Spirit (Pure Ego) is impelled to produce, that is, to
put forth limited objects. This is the world of nature. By reflecting upon
these limited objects, the Spirit becomes conscious of itself as a limited
object. The consciousness of the spirit in the limited object gives origin to
the empirical-ego (the individual ego), in which sensitive and intellective
knowledge are possible. But the task of the Spirit cannot be fulfilled in
limited objects; hence it is forever impelled to produce new objects. According
to Fichte's theory, Germany, conscious of its superiority,
was to become the leaders of all nations by fulfilling the destiny of the
Universal Spirit.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling (1775-1854)

F.W.
von Schelling (
picture) was born at Leonberg, a small town of Wurttemberg. At the age of sixteen he
entered the theological seminary at Tubingen, where he studied theology,
philosophy and philology. A schoolmate, disciple and friend of Hegel, he later
broke with him and became one of his most severe opponents. Called to lecture at
Jena in 1798, Schelling
had Fichte and Hegel as colleagues there, and came
into close contact with the Romanticists. From 1803 to 1806 Schelling
lectured at Wurzburg. Between 1806 and 1820 he was a
member of the Academy of Sciences, with residence in Munich. Next he went to Erlangen and lectured there for about
six years before returning to Munich to teach philosophy. Finally he
accepted an invitation to lecture in Berlin, where he succeeded to the
chair Hegel had held. Schelling's most systematic
philosophical works are: System of Transcendental Idealism and Exposition
of My System.

Doctrine

The
primordial reality is the Absolute, which is conceived of by Schelling as "perfect identity of Spirit and
nature"; this is a Romantic concept. This perfect identity consists in the
fact that neither one can be separated from the other, but one can prevail over
the other. Thus the prevalence of nature over the Spirit makes possible the
manifestation of the world of nature.

The
Spirit, wandering unconsciously in the world of nature, becomes conscious and
appears as an empirical ago. Then it is able to reflect on what was
unconsciously produced by itself. Art in its two moments of inspiration and
production gives us the "model of activity" of the Absolute.

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

Friedrich
Schleiermacher (
picture), a German
Protestant theologian and philosopher, was born at Breslau. He was a lecturer and
professor at Halle and Berlin. His most representative works
are Sermons on Religion and The Christian Faith.

Doctrine

The
Absolute is actual reality, the source of the life of our spirit. In the act of
sentiment we feel ourselves submerged in the Infinite Being and rooted in Him.
Thus we understand the dependence of the finite upon the infinite; this
dependence is the source of religion. Only religion leads us to the notion of
the infinite as the origin of the life of the finite.

Schleiermacher fuses Spinozism
and idealism in an attempt to combine pantheism with dualism. God and the world
are one; things and the world have a relative independence. Yet God and the
world are inseparable. God has never been without a world nor
the world without a God. God is a spaceless and
timeless unity; the world is a spatial-temporal plurality. The religious
feeling illuminates one's entire life and brings unity into it.

Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

An
expanded presentation of the philosophy of Hegel is available HERE.

Georg W.F. Hegel (
picture) was born in Stuttgart. He studied theology and
philosophy, and at first gave his sympathies to the philosophy of the
Enlightenment and to Kantian Criticism, only to turn to Romantic historicism
and become attached to Fichte and Schelling.
He lectured in various German universities, and ultimately at the University of Berlin, where he exercised great
influence.

Hegel's
most representative philosophical works are Phenomenology of Spirit, Logic,
and Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. German Idealism and modern
thought, generally speaking, reach the greatest heights of immanentism
in the compact dialectic system of Hegel.

Doctrine

The
primordial reality is conceived by Hegel as the "pure indetermined,"
as "non-being." However, its perennial activity consists in
developing explicitly what it contains implicitly. The characteristic principle
of this primordial reality in its development is the "coincidence of
opposites," in the sense that any passage is a result of some already
acquired determination as related to its opposite. Hence the triad which is
fundamental to Hegel's philosophy:

Another
characteristic of Hegel's idealism is rationality: primordial being is
essentially thought, idea. Hence the process of development is essentially
rational.

Logic
of the Concrete:
The principle of the coincidence of opposites carries within itself the
negation of Aristotelian logic. For Hegel, the logic of Aristotle takes into
consideration abstract ideas, which as such are immutable. Hence Aristotle
could establish his logic on the principle of contradiction. But this logic
misinterprets reality; reality is never immutable; it is always new, and what
makes the new reality is the coincidence of opposites. By means of this
principle, reality nullifies in itself both extremes of contradiction, being
and non-being. Hegel calls this new logic "The logic of the
concrete." That of Aristotle he calls formal logic.

Dialectical
Process of Being: The
Universal Spirit objectivates itself with the
intention of gaining consciousness of self. At the basis of this process is
rationality, i.e., a system of pure concepts according to which the development
will be made. The Spirit objectivates
itself first in "nature," whose pinnacle is the human organism and
individual consciousness. But the spirit is not satisfied with the
limits of individual consciousness, and is impelled to other super-individual
forms:

As the
whole process is supposed to be rational, in the state all opposites are
reconciled. Although the state is the supreme manifestation of the spirit,
there is another triad regarding the Absolute Spirit: art, religion and
philosophy.

Conclusion

For a
decade after Hegel's death, Hegelianism was the outstanding philosophy of Germany. It enjoyed patronage of the Prussian State and the universities. Its
logical method was popular.

Hegelianism
divides into two groups:

Hegel's
genius in the history of philosophy and in the history of religion produced a
school of great historians of philosophy including Trendelenburg,
Erdman, Zeller, Kuno Fischer, Windelband,
and Pfleiderer. Hegel's work influenced the study of
history, jurisprudence, politics, and all the mental sciences.

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The positive contributions of the German Idealists to the
Perennial Philosophy

None. Virtually all of German Idealism
is antithetical to Commonsense Philosophical Realism. Some of the ideas are
truly dangerous. For instance, the Hegelian concept, in which the state is the
living God and individuals are but passing shadows, and in which, moreover,
conflict and war are affirmations of the vitality of the state, has been put to
the test in the German nation. The course which Germany followed -- with disastrous
results -- in two world wars is rightly judged the consequence of such a
concept. Ideas do have consequences! Needless to say Hegel's concept of reality
is immanentist, pantheistic, and atheistic.

II. THE CRITICAL REVISION
OF IDEALISM

The
Hegelian identification of reality with rationality influenced the entire
German culture of the first half of the nineteenth century, with the result
that facts were distorted so as to fit into the system. A critical revision was
necessary, and it was undertaken in the name of Kant. The most important
representatives of this critical movement were Herbert and Schopenhauer.

Every phase
of Hegelian philosophy was subjected to attack: its idealism, its pantheism,
its rationalism, and its a priori methods attracted criticism. Some thinkers
insisted on the refinement of scientific methods; their approaches resulted in
realism and pluralism. Others insisted that the irrational elements in reality
would have to be taken into account. Devotees of mysticism, religion, and
intuition sought to expand the functions of the mind. Reason was not enough.

Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841)

Herbart was born in Oldenburg. He studied at the University of Jena and was a disciple of Fichte. He then went to Berne as a private tutor. From 1802
to 1809 he lectured at Gottingen, and then went to Konigsberg, where he occupied the chair
formerly held by Kant. In 1833 he returned to Gottingen as professor of philosophy,
dying there in 1841. The most representative works of Herbart
are: Introduction to Philosophy, Manual of Psychology, and General
Metaphysics.

Doctrine

Herbart started with experience and tried
to restore the Kantian concept of the thing in itself. For him, experience
shows an irreducible contradiction between the one and the many. Indeed,

To
overcome these contradictions, we must suppose that reality is not uniform, but
broken up into a multitude of parts. These parts have a relationship to one
another, and these relationships make a plurality of realities. The human soul
is one of many simple and immutable realities. Its relationship to the others
is called representation. These relationships or representations obey
mechanical laws. The ego as a person is a solidified group of perceptions. The
moral value of human operations is due to the existence in man of some
"model ideas," such as: interior freedom; perfection; benevolence;
right and equity.

Influence
on Education: Herbart had his greatest influence on education. Pedagogy
is applied psychology and its ends are determined by ethics. Herbart's mechanical conception of the mental life places
emphasis on

Herbart's aim in education is found in
the five great elements which enter into character: proper instruction, full
knowledge, clear ideas, right action, personal
character.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Arthur
Schopenhauer (picture)
was born in Danzig, the son of a wealthy merchant. He had been educated for
the business world by his father, but as soon as his father died Schopenhauer
turned to the study of philosophy. He traveled extensively in Holland, England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. He obtained his doctor's
degree at Jena in 1813. A few years later he
began to lecture at Berlin, but his attempts to stem the
tide of Hegel's popularity there were unsuccessful. He left the University and
traveled again in Italy. In 1833 he retired to Frankfort on the Main, where he spent the remainder
of his life writing his books in learned retirement. Always hostile to Idealism
and particularly toward Hegelianism, he died in 1860, when Hegel's philosophy
was already in its decline. Schopenhauer's masterpiece of philosophical writing
is The World as Will and Idea. He also published Two Fundamental
Problems of Ethics.

Doctrine

The World as Will and Idea. The primordial reality is blind
will, whose unconscious desire is self-preservation. Hence the primordial
reality is a blind will to live. This desire accounts for the fact that the
will unconsciously manifests itself in a multiplicity of natural beings. When
the brain of man is constructed, the will becomes conscious and knowledge is
possible.

Pessimism. The "desire to live" on the part of the
primordial reality is present everywhere: love, egoism, the
progress of civilization are means for perpetuating the desire to live.
But this desire is caused by blind will; hence the whole universe is miserable.

Applications of Schopenhauer's Doctrine to Man. The only remedy against evil is
to suppress the will to live. This can be done by:

Schopenhauer
is of the later German school in his doctrine of all embracing will, but he is
alone among German philosophers in ascribing to the efforts of universal will
no goal, no good, no improvement.

The positive contributions of Herbart and Schopenhauer to the Perennial Philosophy

In
a word, none.

The New Idealism in German Philosophy

With
the decline of Hegelianism, natural science progressed. Philosophy seems to be
threatened with permanent silence. From the natural sciences some great
thinkers appeared who restored philosophic prestige. Prominent among this group
were Lotze, Fechner,
Hartmann, Wundt, and Paulsen. They generally regarded
it futile to construct a metraphysics by means of
rationalistic methods slone, independent of natural
science. They all hold, with Kant, that there can be no knowledge without
experience. The most outstanding of this group to do justice to idealism was Lotze (1817-1881).

III.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY OUTSIDE GERMANY

England

During
the first half of the nineteenth century the countries of Europe, with the exception of Germany, paid little attention to
Kantian Criticism and Romantic Idealism. Indeed, in England the current of thought was
developed almost entirely apart from the influence of German philosophy.
English philosophers invariably followed the empiricist tradition of the past.

France

In
France Kant, Fichte and Schelling
had some influence on philosophical thought. However, the main currents of
thought followed the general trends of French philosophy. Worthy of mention
are:

All
these, however, shed little light upon the problems of speculative philosophy
and made no real contribution to the Perennial Philosophy.

Italy

In Italy, Pasquale Galluppi
(1770-1846) was the first to bring Italian philosophy into contact with German
thought through his translations of the principal works of the German thinkers.
Italian philosophers were opposed not only to Kantian Criticism and Idealism,
but also to Empiricism and Sensism. They endeavored
to develop their thought in accordance with Italian Catholic tradition and to
overcome Idealism through the affirmation of the transcendence of God. The most
representative thinkers of this movement are Rosmini-Serbati
and Gioberti.

Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (1797-1855)

The
concern of Rosmini was the restoration of morality
and religion in opposition to the atheism of the sensists
and Idealists. Sensism and Idealism were connected
with the problem of knowledge. Thus Rosmini believed
that to defeat them he must find a starting point in the problem of knowledge.
For him, this starting point was the idea of being, Platonically conceived and
similar to a Kantian category. The degrees of the process of knowledge are:

The
first three are subjective types of knowledge; judgment, on the contrary, is
objective, because it applies to empirical data the idea of being, which is
universal and absolute.

Rosmini stands as one of the first to
undertake the restoration of Scholastic philosophy. Although his thought is
influenced by St. Augustine's philosophy rather than the
philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, his entire philosophy is a constant
affirmation of the transcendence of God.

Vincenzo Gioberti (1801-1852)

According
to Gioberti, the essential condition for objective
knowledge must be found in the Absolute Being (God); thus the fundamental act
of human knowledge must be connected with Him, not in the sense that we see God
intuitively -- which would be pure ontologism -- but that we see some operation
of God -- that is, His creative act.

The second half of the nineteenth century is marked by a broad
new movement of thought called Positivism. This movement arose in opposition to
the abstractionism and formalism of the transcendental Idealists, who had made
nature a "representation" of the ego. The purpose of the new school
of thought was to lay greater stress upon immediate experience, upon the
positive data obtained through the senses.