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1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / d. Nineteenth century philosophy

[overview of philosophy from 1801 to 1878]

7 ideas
Hegel inserted society and history between the God-world, man-nature, man-being binary pairs [Hegel, by Safranski]
     Full Idea: Before Hegel, people thought in binary oppositions of God and the world, man and nature, man and being. After Hegel an intervening world of society and history was inserted between these pairs.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Introduction to the Philosophy of History [1840]) by Rüdiger Safranski - Nietzsche: a philosophical biography 05
     A reaction: This is what Popper later called 'World Three'. This might be seen as the start of what we islanders call 'continental' philosophy, which we have largely ignored. Analytic philosophy only discovered this through philosophy of language.
Hegel was the last philosopher of the Book [Hegel, by Derrida]
     Full Idea: Hegel was the last philosopher of the Book.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (works [1812]) by Jacques Derrida - Positions p.64
     A reaction: Reference to 'the Book' connects this to the great religions which rely on one holy text. The implication is that Hegel was proposing one big solution to all problems. It is doubtful if many philosophers before Hegel dreamt of that either.
Early 19th century German philosophers enjoyed concepts, rather than scientific explanations [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Early 19th century German philosophers retreated to the first and oldest level of speculation, for, like the thinkers of dreamy ages, they found satisfaction in concepts rather than in explanations - they resuscitated a prescientific type of philosophy.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 197)
     A reaction: I have a suspicion that this may still apply to 'continental philosophy'. Personally I love explanations, which lead to understanding. But not all explanations are scientific.
Carlyle spent his life vainly trying to make reason appear romantic [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Thomas Carlyle spent a long life trying to make reason romantic to his fellow Englishmen: to no avail!
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 298)
     A reaction: An interesting gloss on the shift from the Enlightenment to the Romantic era. Presumably the idea of the 'genius' and the 'hero' are the means whereby Carlyle hoped to achive this.
In Hegel's time naturalism was called 'Spinozism' [Pinkard]
     Full Idea: In Hegel's time the shorthand for the Naturalistic worldview was 'Spinozism'.
     From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], 10)
     A reaction: Spinozism hit Germany like a bomb in 1786, when it was reported that the poet Hölderlin was a fan of Spinoza.
Hegel, Fichte and Schelling wanted to know Kant's thing-in-itself, as ego, or nature, or spirit [Safranski]
     Full Idea: The 'thing in iself' acted on Kant's successors like a hole in the closed world of knowledge...Hegel, Fichte and Schelling wanted to penetrate into what they presumed to be the heart of things, by the invention of means of 'ego', or 'nature', or 'spirit.,
     From: Rüdiger Safranski (Nietzsche: a philosophical biography [2000], 07)
     A reaction: [a bit compressed] Although no scientist claims to know the ultimate essence of matter, the authority of science largely comes from persuasively moving us several steps closer to the thing in itself (more persuasively than these three).
Since Kant, self-criticism has been part of philosophy [Gutting]
     Full Idea: Philosophy after Kant has involved a continuing critique of its own project.
     From: Gary Gutting (Foucault: a very short introduction [2005], 6)
     A reaction: I'm struck by many modern philosophers in the analytic tradition who write as if Kant had never existed. I don't know if that is a conscious decision, but it may be a good one.