Philosophical Legacies : Essays on the Thought of Kant, Hegel, and Their Contemporaries (Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Volume 50)

Immanuel Kant, the Prussian thinker at the forefront of the German Enlightenment, decisively shaped what is arguably the central philosophical legacy of his era, a legacy of critical rationality and ethico-political self-determination. In Philosophical Legacies, Daniel O. Dahlstrom brings exceptional scholarship to an examination of the diversity and lasting influence not only of Kant but also of some of his most prominent contemporary critics. Dahlstrom makes a thorough study of various authors such as Johan Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Friedrich Schiller, and later Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. He shows that the legacy of German Idealism remains undeniably relevant today. He examines diverse aspects of these philosophers' legacieslegacies which continue to find their way into contemporary philosophical debates. Among the many topics Dahlstrom discusses are the relation of science to ethics and the different modes and conditions of knowledge. He also considers the nature and legitimate reach of aesthetics; the ends of history and art; the place of conscience in ethical life; the religious significance of philosophy and art, and the political potential of art; the roots of ethics in sexual life; the morality of equal opportunity; and the speculative idea of a philosophical responsibility that cannot be deferred. The essays trace carefully the histories of the influences of earlier thinkers and their legacies upon later thinkers. But the essays engage these histories with a view to indicating, and in some cases critically weighing, the significance of these legaciesspawned by one of the most fertile periods of German thoughtfor philosophical thinking in the present. Daniel O. Dahlstrom is professor of philosophy at Boston University. He has authored, edited, or translated numerous publications including Husserl's Logical Investigations, Philosophy and Art, Nature and Scientific Method, Das logische Vorurteil, Heidegger's Concept of Truth, Mendelssohn's Philosophical Writings, and Schiller's Essays. "In Philosophical Legacies, Daniel O. Dahlstrom brings exceptional scholarship to an examination of the diversity and lasting influence not only of Immanuel Kant but also of some of his most prominent contemporary critics." "Dahlstrom makes a thorough study of various authors such as Johan Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, Friedrich Schiller, and later Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. He shows that the legacy of German Idealism remains undeniably relevant today. He examines diverse aspects of these philosophers' legacies - legacies which continue to find their way into contemporary philosophical debates." "Among the many topics Dahlstrom discusses are the relation of science to ethics and the different modes and conditions of knowledge. He also considers the nature and legitimate reach of aesthetics; the ends of history and art; the place of conscience in ethical life; the religious significance of philosophy and art, and the political potential of art; the roots of ethics in sexual life; the morality of equal opportunity; and the speculative idea of a philosophical responsibility that cannot be deferred." "The essays trace carefully the histories of the influences of earlier thinkers and their legacies upon later thinkers. But the essays engage these histories with a view to indicating, and in some cases critically weighing, the significance of these legacies - spawned by one of the most fertile periods of German thought - for philosophical thinking in the present."--Jacket Contents Preface Abbreviations for Editions Cited Acknowledgments 1. The Unity of Kant’s Critical Philosophy 2. Knowing How and Kant’s Theory of Schematism 3. The Natural Right of Equal Opportunity in Kant’s Civil Union 4. Jacobi and Kant 5. The Legacy of Aesthetic Holism: Hamann, Herder, and Schiller 6. The Ethical and Political Legacy of Aesthetics: Friedrich Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Mankind 7. Hegel’s Science of Logic and Idea of Truth: Countering the Skeptical Legacy of Formalism in Philosophy 8. Mutual Need and Frustration: Hegel on the Religious Legacy of Modern Philosophy 9. The Sexual Basis of Ethical Life: Hegel’s Reading of Antigone in the Phenomenology of Spirit 10. The Dialectic of Conscience and the Necessity of Morality in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right 11. Hegel’s Appropriation of Kant’s Account of Purposiveness in Nature: Evolution and the Teleological Legacy in Biology 12. Marxist Ideology and Feuerbach’s Critique of Hegel 13. Human Nature and the Post-Historical Crisis of Recognition 14. The Religion of Art 15. Hegel’s Questionable Legacy Bibliography Index Immanuel Kant, the Prussian thinker at the forefront of the German Enlightenment. This work offers an examination of the diversity and influence not only of Kant but also of some of his prominent contemporary critics. It includes a discussion the relation of science to ethics and the different modes and conditions of knowledge.