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The Fate of Reason German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte Frederick C. Beiser Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England Copyright © 1987 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This book is printed on acid-free paper, and its binding materials have been chosen for strength and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Beiser, Frederick c., 1949- The fate of reason. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Philosophy, German-18th century. 2. Reason History-18th century. I. Title. B2748.R37B45 1987 193 86-14303 ISBN 0-674-29502-1 (alk. paper) For Frederick Robert Beiser Preface THIS BOOK grew out of the conviction that there is a serious lacuna in our knowledge of the history of philosophy in the English-speaking world. The years between 1781 and 1793-after the publication of Kant's first Kritik and before the appearance of Fichte's 1794 Wissenschaftslehre-still remain terra incognita for many. This is a grave gap since this period was one of the most revolutionary and fertile in the history of modern philosophy. The philosophers of this time broke with the twin pillars of the modern Cartesian tradition: the authority of reason and the primacy of epistemology. They also witnessed the decline of the Aufklarung, the completion of Kant's philosophy, and the beginnings of post-Kantian idealism. All these are events that no history of philosophy can afford to ignore and that deserve ex amination in the closest detail. Yet, apart from a few studies of individual philosophers, the English-speaking reader will find very little to guide him; there is no general study that concentrates on this period as a whole. This work intends to be only an introduction, a general survey of the most important thinkers and controversies of the period between Kant and Fichte. I have not attempted to provide a social history of the reception of Kant's or Spinoza's philosophy, and still less a study of the social and political context of late eighteenth-century German philosophy. Rather, I have focused on the philosophical doctrines themselves and have limited myself to the preliminary tasks of textual exegesis and criticism. The precise subject of this book is definable more by my objectives than by any arbitrary set of dates. My aim has been twofold: to examine the philosophical background of post-Kantian idealism; and to trace the influ ence of Kant's critics on the development of his philosophy. I have therefore focused on the period between 1781 and 1793, the first decade or so after the publication of the first Kritik. At times, however, fulfillment of my objectives has required going beyond this timespan and discussing texts and controversies that precede it. Some texts or disputes that had a decisive viii • Preface influence upon Kant and post-Kantian idealism were written or conducted before the appearance of the first Kritik, and it was impossible to ignore them. While I have been liberal in setting myself a starting point, I have been conservative in laying down a stopping point-at the year 1793. This has meant cutting out important works that belong of necessity in any complete history of post-Kantian philosophy. Thus I do not discuss Beck's Einzig mogliche Standpunkt, Nicolai's Sempronius Grundibert, or Schiller's Aes thetische Erziehung, because they were all published after 1793. In some cases I do not discuss works or controversies because a full discussion of their contents would require taking into account developments after 1793. Hence I have not examined Schiller's early essays, Fichte's first writings, or Kant's theory-practice essay. Even within these general limits I have had to make difficult, and partly arbitrary, decisions about which author, text, or controversy to discuss. This has been particularly the case in Chapters 6 and 7, where I have examined a few of the many polemical writings directed against Kant's first Kritik. In selecting a few texts from a huge mass of material, I decided to discuss only that text or dispute which had philosophical merit and which was in some way influential. Despite these selections, I hope to have illuminated the period as a whole, particularly for those who have read some Kant or Hegel and who want to know more about what happened in between. I would like to thank the following people for their advice and support: Isaiah Berlin, Robert Brandom, Daniel Brudney, Burton Dreben, Raymond Geuss, Paul Guyer, Peter Hylton, Charles Lewis, Susan Neiman; Thomas Ricketts, Ellen Rosendale, Simon Schaffer, Harriet Strachan, Charles Taylor, Michael Theunissen, Kenneth Westphal, and Allen Wood. I also wish to thank Berneta Burnam for typing a draft of the manuscript. My interest in the history of German idealism began in 1973-74 at Oxford, where I was motivated by Bill Weinstein, to whom I am grateful. The book was written from 1980 to 1984 in a Hinterhofin Berlin, Neuk611n. During that time I was fortunate to receive generous financial support from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Contents Introduction 1 1 . Kant, Hamann, and the Rise of the Sturm und Drang 16 Hamann's Historical and Philosophical Significance 16 The London Conversion and Its Philosophical Consequences 19 The Summer of 1759: The Stirrings of the Sturm und Drang 22 The Sokratische DenkwUrdigkeiten 24 Kant, Hamann, and the Optimism Controversy 29 The Kinderphysik Fiasco 32 Aesthetica in nuce and Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics 33 The "Metakritik": Genesis, Contents, and Consequences 37 2 . Jacobi and the Pantheism Controversy 44 The Historical Significance of the Pantheism Controversy 44 The Rise of Spinozism in Germany, 1680-1786 48 The Dispute over Lessing's Spinozism 61 The Philosophical Significance of the Controversy 75 Jacobi's First Critique of Reason 83 Jacobi's Second Critique of Reason 85 Jacobi's Defense of Faith 89 3 . Mendelssohn and the Pantheism Controversy 92 Mendelssohn's Place in the History of Philosophy 92 In Defense of Reason 94 Mendelssohn's Nightmare, or, the Method of Orientation 98 The Critique of Spinozism and Purified Pantheism 102 Mendelssohn's Covert Critique of Kant 105 4 • Kant, Jacobi, and Wizenmann in Battle 109 Thomas Wizenmann's Resultate 109 Kant's Contribution to the Pantheism Controversy 113 Wizenmann's Reply to Kant 118 Jacobi's Attack on Kant 122 x . Contents 5 . Herder's Philosophy of Mind 127 Herder and the Eighteenth-Century Philosophy of Mind 127 Herder on the Origin of Language 130 Hamann and Herder's Debate over the Origin of Language 135 Herder's Genetic Method 141 The Prin- ciples of Herder's Vitalism 145 Kant's Quarrel with Herder 149 The Kant-Herder Controversy and the Origins of the Third Kritik 153 Herder and the Pantheism Controversy 158 6 . The Attack of the Lockeans 165 Popularphilosophie: A Sketch of a Movement 165 Highlights of the Lockean Campaign against Kant 169 The Garve Affair 172 Two Early Critics: C. G. Selle and D. Tiedemann 177 The Lockean Ringleader, J. G. Feder 180 Feder's Circle: A. G. Tittel and A. Weishaupt 184 The Good Pastor Pistorius 188 7 . The Revenge of the Wolffians 193 Leitmotivs of the Wolffian Campaign 193 Revolution versus Reaction 197 The Wolffian Defense of Metaphysics 199 The Thorn in Kant's Side, J. A. Ulrich 203 The Scrooge of Tiibingen, J. F. Flatt 210 Platner's Meta-Critical Skepticism 214 The Eberhard Controversy 217 The Consequences of the Wolffian Campaign 224 8 • Reinhold's Elementarphilosophie 226 Reinhold's Historical Significance 226 Reinhold's Early Quarrel with Kant 229 Reinhold's Briefe and Conversion to the Critical Philosophy 232 The Path toward the Elementarphilosophie 236 Reinhold's Critique of Kant and the Aims of the Elementarphilosophie 240 Reinhold's Methodology 244 Reinhold's Phenomenological Project 247 Reinhold's Proposition of Consciousness and the New Theory of Representation 252 The Crisis of the Elementarphilosophie 263 9 . Schulze's Skepticism 266 Schulze's Historical Significance and Influence 266 Schulze's Meta- Critical Skepticism 268 The Critique of Reinhold 272 The Meta- Critique of Kant 280 Strengths and Weaknesses of Schulze's Skepticism 282 10 . Maimon's Critical Philosophy 285 Maimon's Historical Significance and the Question of the Unity of His Thought 285 Maimon's Skepticism 288 The Idea of an Infinite Understanding 293 The Theory of Differentials 295 The New Contents • xi Theory of Space and Time 300 The Critical Middle Path 303 The Elimination of the Thing-in-itself 306 Maimon's Transcendental Logic 309 The Principle of Determinability 311 Maimon's Controversy with Reinhold 317 Maimon versus Schulze 320 Conclusion 324 Notes 329 Bibliography 375 Index 391