GERMAN IDEALISM

MOVEMENT
HU-2053 BS-English 4
 Introduction:
 The terms “idealism” and “idealist” are by no means used only
within philosophy; they are used in many everyday contexts as well.
 Optimists who believe that, in the long run, good will prevail are
often called “idealists”.
 Even within philosophy, the terms “idealism” and “idealist” are
used in different ways, which often makes their meaning dependent
on the context.
 It is also remarkable that the term “idealism”, at least within
philosophy, is often used in such a way that it gets its meaning
through what is taken to be its opposite: as the meaningful use of
the term “outside” depends on a contrast with something considered
to be inside, so the meaning of the term “idealism” is often fixed by
what is taken to be its opposite. 
 German Idealism:
 German Idealism is a philosophical movement centered
in Germany during the Age of Enlightenment of the late
18th and early 19th Century.
 It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant and is
closely linked with the Romanticism movement.
 It is sometimes referred to as Kantianism .
 The most famous representatives of this movement are
Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.
  Kant’s transcendental idealism was a modest philosophical
doctrine about the difference between appearances and things in
themselves, which claimed that the objects of human cognition
are appearances and not things in themselves.
 German Idealism:
 German idealism is remarkable for its systematic treatment of all the major
parts of philosophy, including logic, metaphysics and epistemology, moral
and political philosophy, and aesthetics. 
 All of the representatives of German idealism thought these parts of
philosophy would find a place in a general system of philosophy.
 Kant thought this system could be derived from a small set of
interdependent principles. Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel were, again, more
radical.
 Inspired by Karl Leonhard Reinhold, they attempted to derive all the
different parts of philosophy from a single, first principle.
 This first principle came to be known as the absolute, because the
absolute, or unconditional, must precede all the principles which are
conditioned by the difference between one principle and another.
 German Idealism:
 As a movement, it was not one of agreement (although
there was some common ground), and each successive
contributor rejected at least some of the theories of their
predecessors.
 Many of the German Idealists who followed Kant,
effectively tried to reverse Kant's refutation of
all speculative theology and reinstate notions
of faith and belief in their explanations of what
exists beyond experience, a trend which was continued
later in the 19th Century by the
American Transcendentalists.
HEGELIAN DIALECTICS
HU-2053 BS-English 4
 Introduction:
 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (often known as G.
W. F. Hegel or Georg Hegel) (1770 - 1831) was
a German philosopher of the early Modern period.
 He was a leading figure in the German
Idealism movement in the early 19th Century,
although his ideas went far beyond earlier Kantianism,
and he founded his own school of Hegelianism.
 He has been called the "Aristotle of modern times", and
he used his system of dialectics to explain the whole of
the history of philosophy, science, art, politics and
religion.
 Hegelian dialectics:
 “Dialectics” is a term used to describe a method of
philosophical argument that involves some sort of
contradictory process between opposing sides.
 In what is perhaps the most classic version of “dialectics”,
the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato ,for instance, presented
his philosophical argument as a back-and-forth dialogue or
debate, generally between the character of Socrates, on one
side, and some person or group of people to whom Socrates
was talking (his interlocutors), on the other.
 In the course of the dialogues, Socrates’ interlocutors
propose definitions of philosophical concepts or express
views that Socrates challenges or opposes. 
 Hegelian dialectics:
 “Hegel’s dialectics” refers to the particular dialectical
method of argument employed by the 19th Century
German philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel
 It, like other “dialectical” methods, relies on a
contradictory process between opposing sides.
 However, what the “opposing sides” are in Hegel’s
work depends on the subject matter he discusses. 
 In his work on logic, for instance, the “opposing sides”
are different definitions of logical concepts that are
opposed to one another.
 Hegelian dialectics:
 Hegel's dialectic often appears broken up for
convenience into three moments
called thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
 These terms were not original to or much used by
Hegel himself. This classification was in fact developed
earlier by Fichte in his loosely analogous account of the
relation between the individual subject and the world. 
 Without the active opposition of an antithesis working
through the dialectic, Hegel asserts, existence is simply
an empty task. 
 Hegelian dialectics:
 Schools of thought influenced by Hegel tend to see
history as progressive, but also as a possibly painfully
arrived at outcome of a dialectic in which factors
working in opposite directions are over time reconciled.
 Hegel was also probably the first philosopher to think
of history itself as a dialectical process, in which
reality can be understood through a three-stage
dialectic, starting with the indeterminate concept
(or thesis) to the determinate concept (or antithesis)
and then to the resolution (or synthesis).
KARL MARX COMMUNISM
HU-2053 BS-English 4
 Introduction:
 Karl Heinrich Marx (1818 - 1883) was
a Germanphilosopher, political theorist and
revolutionary of the 19th Century.
 Both a scholar and a political activist, Marx is often
called the father of Communism, and certainly
his Marxist theory provided the intellectual base for
various subsequent forms of Communism.
 Although a relatively obscure figure in his own lifetime,
his ideas began to exert a major influence on workers'
movements shortly after his death, especially with
the Russian Revolution of 1917.
 Dialectic Materialism:
 Webster's defines Materialism as a philosophical doctrine stating
that matter is the only reality and that everything in the world,
including thought, will, and feeling, can be explained only in
terms of matter: opposing idealism.
  Dialectical Materialism is the method of logical ideals used by
Hegel and adapted somewhat by Karl Marx to observable social
and economic processes, based on the principle that an idea or
event (thesis) generates its opposite (antithesis) leading to a
reconciliation of opposites.
 Taking it further and differing from Hegel, Marx said of his own
method "the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected
by the human mind and translated into forms of thought.”
 Communism:
 Communism was an economic-political philosophy founded by
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the second half of the
19th century.
 Marx and Engels met in 1844, and discovered that they had similar
principles.
 In 1848 they wrote and published "The Communist Manifesto."
 They desired to end capitalism feeling that it was the social class
system that led to the exploitation of workers. The workers that
were exploited would develop class consciousness. Then there
would be a fundamental process of class conflict that would be
resolved through revolutionary struggle.
 Communism:
 In this conflict, the proletariat will rise up against
the bourgeoisie and establish a communist
society.
 Marx and Engels thought of the proletariat as the

individuals with labor power, and the bourgeoisie

as those who own the means of production in a
capitalist society.
 The state would pass through a phase, often

thought of as a socialism, and eventually settle

finally on a pure communist society.
 Communism:
 In a communist society, all private ownership would be
abolished, and the means of production would belong to
the entire community.
 In the communist movement, a popular slogan stated
that everyone gave according to their abilities and
received according to their needs.
 Thus, the needs of a society would be put above and
beyond the specific needs of an individual.