Fichte Johann Gottlieb - Kant, Fichte, and the Legacy of Transcendental Idealism

Kant, Fichte, and the Legacy of Transcendental Idealism

Kant, Fichte, and the Legacy of Transcendental Idealism

Edited by

Halla Kim and Steven Hoeltzel

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Lexington Books

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 2634 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Copyright 2015 by Lexington Books

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kant, Fichte, and the legacy of transcendental idealism/edited by Halla Kim and Steven Hoeltzel.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-7391-8235-2 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-7391-8236-9 (electronic) 1. Kant, Immanuel, 17241804. 2. Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 17621814. 3. Idealism, German. 4. Transcendentalism. I. Kim, Halla, 1964II. Hoeltzel, Steven, 1969

B2799.I42K36 2015

141.3dc23 2014038814

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Halla Kim and Steven Hoeltzel

Jeffrey Edwards

Gnter Zller

Halla Kim

Tom Rockmore

Daniel Breazeale

Steven Hoeltzel

Benjamin D. Crowe

Yukio Irie

Michael Vater

Christian Tewes

Key to Abbreviations

Primary texts referenced repeatedly throughout the volume are cited in the notes using the following abbrevations.

KANT

FICHTE

JACOBI

SCHELLING

HEGEL

Introduction

Kantian Themes and Post-Kantian Problems

Some Context for the Collection

Halla Kim and Steven Hoeltzel

In 1783, Kant writes: I have myself given to this theory of mine the name of transcendental idealism.

What, then, is the soul of Kants system? And what is its relation to his transcendental, or better, critical idealism?

But can such a position plausibly claim to constitute the completion, or effect the essential correction, of Kants work? Superficial differences aside, is the spirit of Fichtes system one with the soul of Kants? And what exactly is the spirit of Fichtes system?and so on and so forth: complicated and contested questions, all, and for scholars interested in German idealism more generally, they are only the beginning. For we have not yet even mentioned Schelling or Hegel, both of whom claim to carry forward and correct the work of their predecessors, in this case via a philosophy of nature or theory of the absolute by which Kants and Fichtes entire systems are to be supported or subsumed. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that more than two centuries on, this brief but eventful period in intellectual history remains an object of intense interest and lively debate. The present anthology compiles ten new contributions to ongoing discussions of the historical development and conceptual contours of Kantian and post-Kantian thought. Below we offer an overview of the volume, aiming mainly to provide some helpful context for, and to point up some interesting connections between, the ten essays that follow.