Scottish common sense in Germany, 1768-1800: a contribution to the history of critical philosophy

315 Pages·1987·15.253 MB·English

by  Kühn, Manfred

SCOTTISH COMMON SENSE IN GERMANY, 1768-1800
A Contribution to the History of Critical Philosophy
Proponents of Scottish common-sense philosophy, especially Thomas
Reid, James Oswald, and James Beattie, had a substantial influence on
late enlightenment German philosophy. In this illuminating study
Manfred Kuehn explores the nature and extent of that influence. He
finds that the work of these philosophers was widely discussed in
German philosophical journals and translated into German soon after
its publication in Britain. Important German philosophers such as
Mendelssohn, Lossius, Feder, Hamann, and Jacobi, representing the
full range of philosophical positions, read the Scots and found valuable
philosophical insights in their thought.
Most important, suggests Kuehn, was the perception of Scottish
common-sense philosophers as opposing Hume's scepticism while
complementing his positive teaching. Their views gave considerable
impetus to those developments in German thought that ultimately led
to Kant's critical philosophy. In fact Kant, whose devastating criticism
of the Scottish common-sense philosophers is often cited, learned
much from the Scots as his "exposition of Hume's problem in its widest
extent"—the Critique of Pure Reason—reveals.
Kuehn's analysis of the Scottish influence provides a new perspective
on the German enlightenment and Kant's role within it, revealing the
importance of problems of idealism versus realism and of philosophi-
cal justification versus mere descriptive metaphysics.
Manfred Kuehn is a member of the Department of Philosophy,
Purdue University.
McGILL-QUEEN'S STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
i Problems of Cartesianism
Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis
2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity
Gerald A. Press
3 Claude Huffier and Thomas Reid:
Two Common-Sense Philosophers
Louise Marcil-Lacoste
4 Schiller, Hegel, and Marx:
State, Society, and the Aesthetic Ideal of Ancient Greece
Philip J. Kain
5 John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England
Charles B. Schmitt
6 Beyond Liberty and Property:
The Process of Self-Recognition in Eighteenth-Century Political Thought
J. A. W. Gunn
7 John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind
Stephen H. Daniel
8 Coleridge and the Inspired Word
Anthony John Harding
9 The Jena System, 1804—5: Logic and Metaphysics
G. W. F. Hegel
Translation edited by John W. Burbidge and George di Giovanni
Introduction and notes by H. S. Harris
10 Consent, Coercion, and Limit:
The Medieval Origins of Parliamentary Democracy
Arthur P. Monahan
11 Scottish Common Sense in Germany, 1768-1800:
A Contribution to the History of Critical Philosophy
Manfred Kuehn
SCOTTISH COMMON SENSE IN
GERMANY, 1768-1800
A Contribution to the History of
Critical Philosophy
Manfred Kuehn
Foreword by
Lewis White Beck
McGill-Queen's University Press
Kingston and Montreal
©McGill-Queen's University Press 1987
ISBN 0-7735-1009-5
Legal deposit first quarter 1987
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada
Printed on acid free paper
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kuehn, Manfred
Scottish common sense in Germany, 1768-1800
(McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas,
ISSN 0711-0995 ; 11)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7735-1009-5
i. Philosophy, German - 18th century - Scottish
influences. 2. Philosophy, Scottish - i8th
century. 3. Criticism (Philosophy). I. Title.
II. Series.
82615^84 1987 193 086-094475-1
To the Memory of
Margarete Kiihn
1920-1985
"The science of common sense is critique."
(Immanuel Kant)
"We have long been engaged in a
critique of reason; I would wish for a critique
of common sense. It would be a true blessing
for humanity, if we could demonstrate to the
complete satisfaction of common sense how far
it can reach. For this is precisely what it
needs for perfection on this earth."
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Contents
FOREWORD BY LEWIS WHITE BECK IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
Introduction 3
i The Nature of Scottish Common-Sense Philosophy 13
n The Philosophical Situation in Germany after 1755 3^
in The First Reception of "Reid, Oswald, and Beattie"
in Germany 52
iv The Scots in Gottingen 70
v Scottish Common Sense and German Sensationism 86
vi Scottish Common Sense and German Metaphysics 103
vn Scottish Common Sense and Tetens's Analysis of Thought in
Perception 119
vin Scottish Common Sense and the German
Counter-Enlightenment 141
ix "Reid, Oswald, and Beattie" and Kant 167
viii Contents
x Scottish Common Sense and the Reception of Kant's Critical
Philosophy 208
Conclusion 238
APPENDIX: COMMON SENSE IN THE GERMAN BACKGROUND 251
BIBLIOGRAPHY 275
INDEX 295
Foreword
When I accepted McGill University's invitation to participate in the
examen rigorosum of Manfred Kuehn, I did not expect that as a conse-
quence I was going to have to change my mind about important issues
in the history of German philosophy.
Dr. Kuehn opened what he calls in this book "a new perspective on
the German enlightenment." He found a pervasive knowledge of and
interest in Scottish common-sense philosophy among German philoso-
phers of the last third of the eighteenth century, and saw ramifications
of this system as its teachings were assimilated into the doctrines of
several native schools of philosophy.
Once he opens the eyes of his readers to the Scottish connection,
they see it as unmistakably as he does, but before he opened their eyes
they were generally blind to it. Hegel knew about it, and there were
occasionally German monographs on some specific instances of it. But
even Cassirer in his classical history of the enlightenment does not
mention Reid a single time, and only once in Das Erkenntnisproblem does
he connect Reid with any German thinker. Most historians of the
German enlightenment emphasize French, English, or domestic
German influences; and though Hume, Hutcheson, Kames, Ferguson,
and Adam Smith had recognized roles in German intellectual life little
or nothing has been said about widespread importance of the common-
sense philosophers Reid, Beattie, and Oswald. Since reading Kuehn's
dissertation, I have thanked heaven that I did at least mention Reid
and Beattie several times in my Early German Philosophy, but I must
confess that I saw them mostly through Kant's jaundiced eye, and had
no conception of the magnitude of their influence on his fellow philoso-
phers.