FU/BEST Program

Name: Dr. Detlef von Daniels

Email address: fubest@fu-berlin.de

Course title: The Promise of German Philosophy: Between Kant and Hegel

Course number: FU-BEST 9a

Language of instruction: English

Contact hours: 45

ECTS-Credits: 6 U.S. semester credits: 3

Course description

Philosophy has constituted a central element in the development of modern German

culture. In the late eighteenth century, German philosophy participated in the broader
European Enlightenment culture, which has in turn been connected to the development
of modern empirical science. Under the impression of the historical changes brought
about by the French Revolution and by the ‘Industrial Revolution’ in Great Britain, a
special constellation of German philosophy emerged at the end of the eighteenth
century, which has deeply left its mark on subsequent philosophical thinking far beyond
Germany. In the course, we follow the emergence and full deployment of German
philosophy from its beginnings in Kant’s theoretical and moral philosophy to Hegel’s
grand but fragile synthesis. We will also discuss the critique by the Young Hegelians
as well as by the late Schelling, trying to understand the richness as well as the
limitations of this tradition of German philosophy. The course is based upon
contemporary attempts at rethinking a global philosophical perspective. Therefore, the
contextual reading of key texts is related to contemporary feminist and postcolonial
discussions.

Course work/expectations

Midterm exam: 20%

Term-Paper: 25%
Final Exam: 20%
Attendance and participation: 25% (including weekly reading responses)
Independent Project: 10%

Student profile
Second-semester sophomore or above

Prerequisites
Prior knowledge of philosophy is not required, however, an eagerness to engage with
densely written texts is indispensable.

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Learning Goals
1. Be able to read philosophy; that is, to identify the thesis of a piece of philosophical
writing and the arguments or evidence adduced in support of that thesis.
2. Be able to write philosophy; that is, to present a claim in clear terms and to defend
it in a logically coherent manner.
3. Be able to reconstruct and debate some foundational issues in the German
philosophical tradition.

Readings

Digital course reader

Background Reading

A. Recommended Web Resources (referring to further web resources):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_idealism

http://www.iep.utm.edu/g/germidea.htm

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/idealism/

https://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/germanphil/resources.html

B. Selected Secondary Texts:

Andrew Bowie, Introduction to German Philosophy. From Kant to Habermas,

Cambridge: Polity, 2003.

Heinrich Heine, Religion And Philosophy In Germany. A Fragment, transl. John

Snodgrass, Boston: Publisher Beacon Press, 1959.

Dieter Henrich, Between Kant and Hegel. Lectures on German Idealism,

Cambridge/Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Terry Pinkard, German philosophy 1760-1860. The Legacy of Idealism, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Recommendations regarding further research

Concerning research on German Idealism, here are some names whose work
is reliable and solid, some texts are only available in German: H. Allison, K. Ameriks,
F. Beiser, A. Bowie, D. Brezeale, R. Bubner, W. Desmond, K. Düsing, M. Frank, H. F.
Fulda, G. Gadamer, G. di Giovanni, P. Guyer, D. Henrich, W. Hogrebe, A. Honneth,
C. Horn, R. - P. Horstmann, T. Pinkard, R. Pippin, O. Pöggeler, G. Prauss, L. Siep,
D. Snow, J. Stolzenberg, M. Theunissen, R. Wiehl, A. Wood, G. Zöller.

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Course schedule

Sessions Topics, Readings, etc.

Session 1 Topic: The Origins of German Philosophy in
Lutheran Reformation

Reading: Martin Luther, Selected Writings (1517-

1520)
Session 2 Topic: German Enlightenment and its Other

Reading: Immanuel Kant: An Answer to the

Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Session 3 Topic: Overcoming Religion?

Reading: Immanuel Kant: The End of All Things

(1794)
Session 4 Topic: Kant's Transcendental Turn: Radicalizing
the Enlightenment?

Reading: Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure

Reason. Preface to the Second Edition (1787)
Session 5 Topic: Johann Gottlieb Fichte as Pioneer of a
New Philosophy

Reading: Johann Gottlieb Fichte: The Science of

Knowing (1794) First Introduction, §1& 2
Session 6 Midterm Exam

Session 7 Topic: German Idealism as the Elaboration of the

New Philosophy

Reading: Friedrich Hölderlin: Judgment and Being

(1795); Poems; Letters to Hegel and Schelling;
Hyperion; Schelling/Hegel/Hölderlin: The Oldest
System Program of German Idealism (1797)
Session 8 Topic: Reclaiming Theory – Hegel’s Transitional
Synthesis: The Phenomenology of Spirit

Reading: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The

Phenomenology of Spirit. Introduction (1806)
Session 9 Topic: Hegel on Recognition: The Master-Slave
Dialectic

Reading: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: The

Phenomenology of Spirit. Mastery and Servitude
(1806)

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Session 10 Topic: Ludwig Feuerbach – An alternative to

Hegel?

Reading: Ludwig Feuerbach: Principles of the

Philosophy of the Future (1843)
Session 11 Topic: The Unravelling of Hegel’s Synthesis: The
Young Hegelians

Reading: Max Stirner: The False Principles of Our

Education – Or, Humanism and Realism (1842)
Session 12 Topic: The Failure of the European Democratic
Revolution of 1848 and German Philosophy

Reading: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling:

Historical-critical Introduction to the Philosophy of
Mythology: Lectures 1 & 10 (1842)
Session 13 Final Exam

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