7 ideas
22002 | Wolff's version of Leibniz dominated mid-18th C German thought [Pinkard] |
Full Idea: The dominant philosophy of mid-eighteenth century Germany was Wolffianism, a codified and almost legalistically organised form of Leibnizian thought. | |
From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], Intro) | |
A reaction: Kant grew up in this intellectual climate. |
22021 | Romantics explored beautiful subjectivity, and the re-enchantment of nature [Pinkard] |
Full Idea: Early Romanticism can be seen as the exploration of subjective interiority and as the re-enchantment of nature (as organic). Hegel said they had the idea of a 'beautiful soul', which (he said) either paralysed action, or made them smug. | |
From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], 06) | |
A reaction: [compressed, inc Note 1] A major dilemma of life is the extent of our social engagement, because it makes life worthwhile, but pollutes the mind with continual conflicts. |
22010 | The combination of Kant and the French Revolution was an excited focus for German philosophy [Pinkard] |
Full Idea: After the French Revolution, philosophy suddenly became the key rallying point for an entire generation of German intellectuals, who had been reading Kant as the harbinger of a new order. | |
From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], Pt II Intro) | |
A reaction: Kant was a harbinger because he offered an autonomous status to each individual, rather than being subservient to a social order. |
22036 | 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. |
16886 | The truth of an axiom must be independently recognisable [Frege] |
Full Idea: It is part of the concept of an axiom that it can be recognised as true independently of other truths. | |
From: Gottlob Frege (On Euclidean Geometry [1900], 183/168), quoted by Tyler Burge - Frege on Knowing the Foundations 4 | |
A reaction: Frege thinks the axioms of arithmetic all reside in logic. |
22048 | Idealism is the link between reason and freedom [Pinkard] |
Full Idea: Idealism was conceived as a link between reason and freedom. | |
From: Terry Pinkard (German Philosophy 1760-1860 [2002], 14 Conc) | |
A reaction: I'm beginning to see the Romantic era as the Age of Freedom, which followed the Age of Reason. This idea fits that picture nicely. Pinkard says that paradoxes resulted from the attemptl |
468 | Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.] |
Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice. | |
From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where? |