GERMAN CLASSICAL

PHILOSOPHY
 German Classical Philosophy:
 Immanuel Kant

 Johann Gottlieb Fichte

 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

 Ludwig Feuerbach
 Immanuel Kant
 In order for something to exist, it must be determinable in
time - that is, we must be able to say when it exists and for
how long.

 Saying that I exist requires a determinate point in time, and

this, in turn, requires an actually existing outside world in
which time takes place.

 Only from the human standpoint can we speak of space.

 Human reason is troubled by questions that it cannot

dismiss, but also cannot answer.
 Questions:
 What can I know?– This is the question of the theory of
knowledge (epistemology);

 What should I do? - It is a question of ethics, i.e. of the

moral theory;

 What can I hope for? - This is a theological question

(faith in God);

 What is man by himself without regard to anything? -It is

a question of philosophical anthropology.
 Johann Gottlieb Fichte
 How can people be considered to have free will if
everything is determined by something else that exists
outside of ourselves?

 Our own minds create all that we think of as reality.

 The self is an active entity or essence that exists outside of

causal influences, and is able to think and choose freely,
independently, and spontaneously.

 “Think the I, and observe what is involved in doing this”.

 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
 The beginning of the world in the Absolute, which is the
identity of being and thinking, subject and object.

 Man appears as a crown of Nature. In this regard, "Man

and Nature" represent the unity of a subject and an object.

 “If you made, you learned", "cognize by acting“.

 It is possible to cognize the world by another way -

esoteric (secret, hidden) way, only intellectual intuition
leads to it.
Self-consciousness passes through three stages:
 1. From vague feelings to creative contemplation. At this
point inner feelings and an object of feeling are identical.

 2. From creative contemplation to categorical cognition of

being (such concepts as space, time, causality, need and so
on appear).

 3. From wording of categories to the act of self-

consciousness (a subject opposes itself to Nature and at
the same time achieves self-knowledge through
consideration of itself as an object).
 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
 Dialectic. THESIS - ANTITHESIS = SYNTHESIS

 Each stage of world-history is a necessary moment in the Idea

of the World Spirit.

 Each of the parts of philosophy is a philosophical whole, a

circle rounded and complete in itself.

 The spirit of humanity in its historical dimension:

1. Subjective spirit, i.e. consciousness and self-consciousness.
2. Objective spirit, i.e. state, law, morality, family.
3. Absolute spirit, i.e. art, religion and philosophy.
 Ludwig Feuerbach
 Humans are not an externalized form of an Absolute Spirit, but the
opposite: we have created the idea of a great spirit, a god, from our
own longings and desires.

 In our yearning for all that is best in humankind—love, compassion,

kindness, and so on—we have imagined a being that incorporates all
of these qualities in the highest possible degree, and then called it
“God”.

 We have also forgotten or forsaken what we are ourselves.

 We should focus less on heavenly righteousness and more on human

justice—it is people in this life, on this Earth, that deserve our
attention.