Nature and Naturalism in Classical German Philosophy

Luca Corti, Johannes-Georg Schülein

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000643985
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of the relevance of naturalism and theories of nature in Classical German Philosophy. It presents new readings from internationally renowned scholars on Kant, Jacobi, Goethe, the Romantic tradition, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and Marx that highlight the significance of conceptions of nature and naturalism in Classical German Philosophy for contemporary concerns.

The collection presents an inclusive view: it goes beyond the usual restricted focus on single thinkers to encompass the tradition as a whole, prompting dialogue among scholars interested in different authors and areas. It thus illuminates the post-Kantian tradition in a new, wider sense. The chapters also mobilize a productive perspective at the intersection of philosophy and history by combining careful textual and historical analysis with argument-based philosophizing. Overall, the book challenges the stereotypical view that Classical German Philosophy offers at best only an idealistic, one-sided, anachronistic, and theological view of nature. It invites readers to put traditional views in dialogue with current discussions of nature and naturalism.

Nature and Naturalism in Classical German Philosophy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Classical German Philosophy, 19th-Century Philosophy, and contemporary perspectives on naturalism.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Nature and Naturalism: The Relevance of Classical German Philosophy
• 1 Kant's Regulative Naturalism
• 2 The Concept of Life in Classical German Philosophy: A Question of Nature or the Lifeworld?
• 3 Nature and Freedom in Schlegel and Alexander von Humboldt
• 4 The Challenge of Plants: Goethe, Humboldt, and the Question of Life
• 5 Beyond Nature? The Place of the Natural World in J.G. Fichte's Early Wissenschaftslehre
• 6 The Fichte-Schelling Debate, or: Six Models for Relating Subjectivity and Nature
• 7 Schelling and Von der Weltseele
• 8 The Freedom of Matter: Self-Constitution in Schelling's ‘Physical Explanation of Idealism’
• 9 Beyond a Naturalistic Conception of Nature: Nature and Life in Hegel's Early Writings
• 10 The Phenomenology and the Logic of Life: Heidegger and Hegel
• 11 The Logical Form of a Living Organism: Hegel, Naturalism, and Biological Autonomy
• 12 Genus-Being: On Marx's Dialectical Naturalism
• Index