German Idealism

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through 19th-century philosophy.  We will trace the effects of this revolution and the responses to it, focusing on changing conceptions of human freedom and of its relevance to our lives as social and political beings.  Kant’s famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals rejects any appeal to nature or religious authority and instead grounds moral obligations in the idea of freedom conceived as something that each human person inherently possesses.  We will study how this Kantian conception of freedom is taken up and transformed in the works of philosophers including G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill, and also how this tradition is subjected to fundamental criticisms by thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B DuBois.  

We will study the foundations of Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy. Our central text will be his Critique of Practical Reason. We will also draw on key passages from his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, his Metaphysics of Morals, his Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, and his Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View.

Does logic have metaphysical import? Kant's first Critique presents a distinctive way of drawing out and qualifying the relationship between logic and metaphysics, thought and being. An adequate understanding of Kant's metaphysical innovations therefore requires a firm grasp on what Kant means by logic. Likewise, one must understand what Kant doesn't mean by logic--that is, what alternative conceptions of logic are rejected by Kant, and why. This seminar addresses the topic of logic and its (putative) metaphysical import by examining Kant's general and transcendental logic in the first Critique, selected works by the pre-Critical Kant, and 18th-century logic and metaphysics textbooks by Meier and Baumgarten. 

Topic: Heidegger’s Critique of German Idealism

Martin Heidegger claimed that the entire western philosophical tradition reached its ‘culmination’ (Vollendung) in the philosophy of German Idealism. In this course we will take this diagnosis seriously, work to understand its presuppositions and implications, and attempt to assess its cogency. This will involve an intensive study of Heidegger’s interpretations of Kantian and Hegelian metaphysics. We will read Heidegger’s most significant works on Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy from the 1920s through the 1960s, as well as his central writings on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Science of Logic. We will also take into account some secondary literature by Sebastian Gardner, Dieter Henrich, Robert Pippin and others. A coda to the course may consider the connection between freedom and system in German Idealism via Heidegger’s major interpretation of F.W.J. Schelling’s Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809).

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through nineteenth-century philosophy. We will trace its effects and the responses to it, focusing on the changing conception of agency and morality. Kant’s famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals rejects any appeal to nature or religious authority and instead grounds moral obligations in the very idea of freedom conceived as something that is for everyone. This thought ultimately leads to the defining characteristic of nineteenth-century thought-–for the first time in the history of philosophy, history comes to be a topic for philosophy. We will study how these ideas are taken up and transformed in the works of philosophers like J.G. Fichte, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and John Stuart Mill.

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through 19th-century philosophy.  We will trace the effects of this revolution and the responses to it, focusing specifically on the influence of Kant’s contribution to moral philosophy and its lasting influence on discussions of ethics and political philosophy.  We will begin with a consideration of Kant's famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, in which he announces his project of grounding all ethical obligation in the very idea of a free will.  We will then consider Hegel's radicalization of this project in his Philosophy of Right, which seeks to derive from the idea of freedom, not just formal constraints on right action, but a determinate, positive conception of what Hegel calls "ethical life".  We will conclude with an examination of some important challenges to the Kantian/Hegelian project in ethical and political theory: Karl Marx’s re-interpretation of the idea of freedom in the economic sphere; Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill’s radicalizations of the ideas of political liberty and equality; and the appropriation and critique of the Enlightenment rhetoric of freedom by writers on racial oppression including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, and Angela Davis.

In this class we explore the debate about moral evil in German Idealism. Kant teaches that the moral law is the law of freedom while also holding that immoral activity is entirely imputable to the subject and therefore free. How are the two claims compatible? We will reconstruct Kant’s own answer to this question as well as its discussion in Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. And we will trace connections between the debate among the German Idealists and certain developments in contemporary moral constitutivism. Special attention will be given to Kant’s doctrine of radical evil, according to which actual immorality is a condition of human freedom, our capacity for moral goodness. We will examine Kant’s case for this doctrine and its role in the moral philosophies of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. (A) (IV)

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through 19th-century philosophy.  We will trace the effects of this revolution and the responses to it, focusing specifically on the influence of Kant’s contribution to moral philosophy and its lasting influence on discussions of ethics and political philosophy.  We will begin with a consideration of Kant's famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, in which he announces his project of grounding all ethical obligation in the very idea of a free will.  We will then consider Hegel's radicalization of this project in his Philosophy of Right, which seeks to derive from the idea of freedom, not just formal constraints on right action, but a determinate, positive conception of what Hegel calls "ethical life".  We will conclude with an examination of some important challenges to the Kantian/Hegelian project in ethical and political theory: Karl Marx’s re-interpretation of the idea of freedom in the economic sphere; Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill’s radicalizations of the ideas of political liberty and equality; and the appropriation and critique of the Enlightenment rhetoric of freedom by writers on racial oppression including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, and Angela Davis.

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through 19th-century philosophy. We will trace its effects and the responses to it, focusing on the changing conception of philosophical ethics. Kant’s famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals rejects any appeal to nature or religious authority grounding all ethical obligations in the very notion of freedom conceived as something that is for everyone. We will study how these ideas are taken up and transformed in the works of philosophers like J.G. Fichte, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg and W.E.B. Du Bois.

The philosophical ideas and methods of Immanuel Kant's “critical” philosophy set off a revolution that reverberated through 19th-century philosophy. We will trace its effects and the responses to it, focusing on the changing conception of philosophical ethics. Kant's famous Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals rejects any appeal to nature or religious authority grounding all ethical obligations in the very idea of freedom or autonomy conceived as something that is for everyone. At the same time, Kant’s own work and much of the tradition that follows seems deeply shaped by racism, sexism, and elitism. We will investigate this tension in the tradition that led inter alia to the modern university. We will discuss works by Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Frederick Douglass, G.W.F. Hegel, Harriet Taylor Mill, Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, and W.E.B. Du Bois.