Spinoza and German Idealism

An extensive examination of the profound impact of Spinoza's philosophy on the German Idealists.

Eckart Förster (Edited by), Yitzhak Y. Melamed (Edited by)

9781107021983, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 September 2012

298 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.57 kg

'The breadth of ideas covered in this volume alone make it worthy of attention, and given that they have been so seldom studied in connection with German Idealism, this is an important reference text for scholars in the field … this is a valuable addition to the literature, especially given its focus on an understudied topic.' Henry Southgate, Journal of the History of Philosophy

There can be little doubt that without Spinoza, German Idealism would have been just as impossible as it would have been without Kant. Yet the precise nature of Spinoza's influence on the German Idealists has hardly been studied in detail. This volume of essays by leading scholars sheds light on how the appropriation of Spinoza by Fichte, Schelling and Hegel grew out of the reception of his philosophy by, among others, Lessing, Mendelssohn, Jacobi, Herder, Goethe, Schleiermacher, Maimon and, of course, Kant. The volume thus not only illuminates the history of Spinoza's thought, but also initiates a genuine philosophical dialogue between the ideas of Spinoza and those of the German Idealists. The issues at stake - the value of humanity; the possibility and importance of self-negation; the nature and value of reason and imagination; human freedom; teleology; intuitive knowledge; the nature of God - remain of the highest philosophical importance today.

1. Rationality, idealism, monism, and beyond Michael Della Rocca
2. Kant's idea of the unconditioned and Spinoza's the fourth antinomy and the ideal of pure reason Omri Boehm
3. The question is whether a purely apparent person is possible Karl Ameriks
4. Herder and Spinoza Michael Forster
5. Goethe's Spinozism Eckart Förster
6. Fichte on freedom: the Spinozistic background Allen Wood
7. Fichte on the consciousness of Spinoza's God Johannes Haag
8. Spinoza in Schelling's early conception of intellectual intuition Dalia Nassar
9. Schelling's philosophy of identity and Spinoza's ethica more geometrico Michael Vater
10. 'Omnis determinatio est negatio' - determination, negation, and self-negation in Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel Yitzhak Y. Melamed
11. Thought and metaphysics: Hegel's critical reception of Spinoza Dean Moyar
12. Two models of metaphysical inferentialism: Spinoza and Hegel Gunnar Hinricks
13. Trendelenburg and Spinoza Fred Beiser
14. Replies on behalf of Spinoza Don Garrett.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP]