School
German Idealism
German Idealism is the movement in German philosophy after Kant that sought to explain reality, knowledge and freedom through reason or spirit.
It ran from the 1780s to the 1840s. Building on Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, F. W. J. Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel developed systems in which mind and world, freedom and nature were to be understood together. Hegel's account of history as the development of freedom, and his dialectical method, shaped Marx, existentialism and much later thought. Interpreters still debate how far these thinkers were idealists in the sense of denying a mind-independent world. On this site it answers questions on idealism and the philosophy of history (6.6).
Thinkers of this school
Guide: Schools of Philosophy: The Main -isms and the Questions They Answer
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What does “the right side of history” actually assume about history?
At least once a tournament, one of the kids I coach closes a round with “my opponent is on the wrong side of history.” Judges love it. I've started to find it slippery, but I can't say exactly why. As far as…
Started by Sam Ellery5 replies -
Was Kant an idealist in the same sense as Berkeley?
I mostly read medieval philosophy, so the eighteenth century is a foreign country to me. A friend in my book club said, rather confidently, that Kant is "just Berkeley with extra steps": both say the world is in the mind, Kant just…
Started by Siobhán Keane4 replies