The Philosophy of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi: On the Contradiction between System and Freedom (Bloomsbury Studies in Modern German Philosophy)

The contemporaries of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819) openly acknowledged his towering importance. Both Fichte and Hegel praised him in the same breath with Kant as having launched the philosophical revolution they sought to complete. Yet for more than a century, misrepresentations of Jacobi's thought have stood in the way of a proper appreciation of his insights. In her study of this long-neglected German philosopher, internationally-renowned Jacobi expert Birgit Sandkaulen interprets his philosophical writings in their intellectual context. Originally published in German and translated into English for the first time, this is a major contribution to reading the life, work, and legacy of Jacobi. The biographical chapter on Jacobi's life as a public intellectual was written specifically for this English edition. Offering new perspectives on Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, Sandkaulen focuses on Jacobi's specific conception of practical realism. This conception, the source of Jacobi's famous defense of faith and human freedom, matches his critique of the German Idealists: the post­-Kantian systems of German Idealism were bound to fail. Sandkaulen shows us that long before 20th-century philosophers took up this line of thought, indeed at the very origin of the epoch-making developments of classical German philosophy, Jacobi articulated a practical, ethical, personal realism that is as philosophically appealing and relevant today as it was in its time. Cover The Philosophy of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Dedication Preface Note on Translation Abbreviations Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Other Abbreviations 1 Life and Work Departures (1743–79) The Spinoza Controversy and its Consequences (1780–9) The Privileged Heretic (1790–1819) 2 Jacobi’s “Spinoza and Antispinoza” The Spinoza Letters as an Historical Event System and Freedom Grounding versus Causing: A Founding Confusion 3 Groundless Belief: A Philosophical Provocation Step One: Belief in Divine Revelation Second Step: The Philosophy of Reflection Third Step: The Metaphysics of Action 4 Does Spirit Have Esprit? On the Figures of Soul, Spirit, and Reason in Jacobi’s Philosophy Of Spirit and Esprit Toward a New View of Reason Of Existential Things: The Representation of the Conditioned and the Unconditioned The Pragmatism of the Soul and the Personal Freedom of Spirit 5 Between Spinoza and Kant: Jacobi on Freedom and Persons I. II. III. IV. V. VI. 6 That, What, or Who? Jacobi and the Discourse on Persons I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. 7 Brother Henriette? Deconstructions of Friendship in Derrida and Jacobi I. II. III. IV. V. VI. 8 “I am and there are things outside me”: Overcoming the Consciousness Paradigm with Jacobi’s Realism Introduction: Jacobi’s Original Insight Two Paths to the Problem The Representation Model of Consciousness Idealism and Realism The Epistemic Realism of Intuition The Practical Realism of Causality The Irreducible Individuality of the Self 9 The “Tiresome Thing in Itself”: Kant – Jacobi – Fichte I. II. III. IV. V. 10 I-hood and Person: The Fichtean Aporia and the Debate with Jacobi Introductory Considerations I-hood and Person: An Overview of the Problem In Alliance with Jacobi? On the State of the Discussion around 1800 Neither Cajus nor Sempronius: “Actual Consciousness” in the Crystal Clear Report 11 Fichte’s Vocation of Man—A Convincing Response to Jacobi? Fichte Reacts to Jacobi Doubt—Spinoza’s System and the Problem of Freedom Knowledge—Theoretical Idealism and Nihilism Belief—Practical Realism and Reason’s Blueprint for the World A Brief Synopsis 12 This Individual and No Other? On the Individuality of the Person in Schelling’s Freedom Essay Schelling’s Personalist Turn Unity and Individual Identity of the Person The Distinction between Ground and That Which Exists in Reference to Spinoza The Ontology of the Person: Natural Selfhood without Self Individuality as Primordial Position: The Moral Self-Creation of Personal Identity The Impersonal Abolition of the Person 13 System and Temporality: Jacobi Contra Hegel and Schelling Hegel, Jacobi, and Spinoza Hegel, Jacobi, and Schelling Questions for Schelling and Hegel 14 Third Position of Thought toward Objectivity: Immediate Knowing The Fundamental Conflict The Programmatic Insights of the Jacobi-Review The Ambiguous Semantics of Immediacy A Structural Sketch of the “Third Position” Four Functions of the “Third Position” A Cross Check: Jacobi’s Position 15 Metaphysics or Logic?The Importance of Spinoza in Hegel’s Science of Logic Introduction On the Relevance of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Spinoza in Hegel’s Logic of Being and Essence The Logical Alienation of Metaphysics and Its Consequences Bibliography Primary Texts: Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Other Primary Sources Secondary Literature Proof of First Publication Leitmotifs Critical Relations Index