Abstract
Problems of periodization
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In the ‘Preface’ to his Prolegomena (Ak. A., IV, p. 255), Kant severely condemns those historians of philosophy who are either unable or unwilling to be philosophers; in fact, his attack is aimed at his critics (Feder, Garve, Eberhard…).
- 2.
Cf. J.G.H. Feder’s Leben, Natur und Grundsätze (Leipzig, 1825), p. 118: “As I judge the question today, I made an unforgivable mistake. If I had imagined the great success of this work, I would not have made the mistake of declaring it not in accordance with the spirit of the time; I would have judged it with the greatest diligence, and perhaps the course of things would have been different”. According to the well-known review written by Garve but reworked by Feder (Zugabe zu den Göttingischen Anzeigen, 1782, i, pp. 40–48), Kant was wrong both with respect to the “natural way of thinking” and to the “natural way of expressing in words”; see the conclusion of the review itself, p. 48: “And even if, accepting the radical thesis of idealism, all that about which we can know and say anything is resolved into representations and laws of thought, if the representations thus modified in us and combined according to certain laws are precisely that which we call objects and world; then why should one wage war on this universal form of expression? Why and by what right [should one assert] the idealistic distinction?”.
- 3.
Diderot’s expression – contained in thought xl of the treatise De l’interprétation de la nature – is reiterated in the following terms: “Si nous voulons que les philosophes marchent en avant, approchons le peuple du point où en sont les philosophes” (Diderot, Oeuvres complètes, IX, Paris, 1981, p. 69). Ernesti’s prolusion is quoted (Latin text accompanied by a French translation) by R. Mortier, ‘Diderot, Ernesti et la “philosophie populaire”’, in Essays on Diderot and the Enlightenment in Honor of Otis Fellows (Geneva, 1974), pp. 207–230.
- 4.
M. Hissmann, Anleitung zur Kenntniss der auserlesenen Litteratur in allen Theilen der Philosophie (Göttingen and Lemgo, 1778), p. 14. The importance of this work is confirmed by the publication, thirty years later, of J.H.M. Ernesti’s Encyclopädisches Handbuch einer allgemeinen Geschichte der Philosophie und ihrer Litteratur (Lemgo, 1807), which bears the subtitle Nebst Beyträgen zum weiteren Gebrauch der Hissmannischen Anleitung zur Kenntniss der auserlesenen Litteratur in allen Theilen der Philosophie. In 1782 Michael Hissmann (1752–1784) was appointed professor at the University of Göttingen, but died two years later. His philosophical production is copious and significant; in addition to the aforementioned work, it includes: Geschichte der Lehre von der Association der Ideen (Göttingen, 1777), Psychologische Versuche (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1777); Untersuchungen über den Stand der Natur (Göttingen, 1780), Versuch über das Leben des Freyherrn von Leibniz (Münster, 1783). Remarkable too was his activity as a translator – of Condillac, de Brosses, Demeunier; in particular, he edited the German edition of Condillac’s Essai sur l’origine des connaissances humaines, published in Leipzig in 1780. Cf. ADB, XII, p. 503; Merker, pp. 327–331.
- 5.
Cf. Hissmann, Geschichte der Lehre von der Association der Ideen, ‘Vorbericht’, pp. [1–2]): considering the centrality of this psychological doctrine, “to which we should refer the most important psychic operations both in a state of wakefulness and of sleep”, Hissmann acknowledges that, in reading the best philosophical writings, he carefully evaluated how and whether “the psychologist applied and used these laws in explaining the different phenomena of the human soul”.
- 6.
Mathematics and physics are not considered to be true philosophical disciplines; cf. Hissmann, Anleitung zur Kenntniss der auserlesenen Litteratur, pp. 20–22: “According to all their content and their essence, the philosophical sciences are different from the mathematical sciences […] Mathematical concepts are true in so far as they do not contain any contradiction in themselves, in so far as they are possible. The philosopher, by contrast, must realise his concepts so that a philosophical truth can be found in them. […] Mathematics is the vital fluid which, when it circulates through the canals of physics, it imparts solidity and duration to this body. Physics and mathematics are therefore two scientific realities which cannot be separated from philosophy without causing considerable damage, but they cannot be separated from each other either”.
- 7.
Cf. Hissmann, Anleitung zur Kenntniss der auserlesenen Litteratur, pp. 18–19: “Metaphysics possesses treasures which she unjustly plundered and which therefore must be given back. For example, as concerns the elevated concepts of religion, the thesis on the origin of evil in the world, the doctrine of the destination of man, and other doctrines, are they not concepts, theses and doctrines which more properly belong to morals? The other general concepts of ontology, cosmology, and theology, the search for the paths leading to them and the most immediate consequences which can be deduced from them must for the most part be given back to psychology and to logic, because these [sciences] teach the source of general ideas and investigate the ways in which they originated”.
- 8.
A description of Socrates as the model of the true philosopher, in the sense meant by the Popularphilosophie, is contained in a brief outline of the history of philosophy entitled Gedanken über die Herrnhuter (Thoughts on the Moravian Brethren), written by Lessing in 1750; cf. G. E. Lessing, Gesammelte Werke in zehn Bänden, ed. P. Rilla (Berlin and Weimar, 1968), pp. 185–196. The essay was intended to rehabilitate a religious sect unjustly accused and persecuted by orthodox Lutherans, but the analysis does not go beyond the historical section; what is left is a fragment of the history of philosophy which is discussed in parallel with the history of the Church. Socrates stands out as a central figure in ancient philosophy, on account of the fact that he brought philosophy back “from heaven to earth”, whereas Plato and Aristotle betrayed the teaching of their master, since they started “to build dreams” (the former) and “formulate sophisms” (the latter). Newton, Leibniz, Luther, and Calvin were the reformers of philosophy and theology in the modern age but remained too closely linked to the speculative and dialectic perspective, while neglecting the practical fulfilment of doctrine. In order to attain this end, Lessing invokes the appearance of a new Socrates; and yet, he would receive the same treatment as that reserved to him by the Athenians of his time. Cf. Banfi, pp. 116–117; M. Longo, ‘La storia della filosofia nel giovane Lessing’, in Vetera novis augere. Studi in onore di Carlo Giacon (Rome, 1981), pp. 297–308.
- 9.
Hissmann, Anleitung zur Kenntniss der auserlesenen Litteratur, pp. 91–92. Philosophical literature is here subdivided into thirteen sections, the first three of which rest clearly on a historical basis: i. ‘Litteraturgeschichte der Philosophie’; ii. ‘Geschichte der Philosophie’; iii. ‘Philosophie der Geschichte’; iv. ‘Philosophie überhaupt’; v. ‘Litteratur der Psychologie oder der Logik’; vi. ‘Litteratur der Aesthetik’; vii. ‘Litteratur der Metaphysik’; viii. ‘Litteratur der natürlichen Theologie’; ix. ‘Litteratur der allgemeinen praktischen Philosophie’; x. ‘Litteratur des Rechts der Natur’; xi. ‘Litteratur der Politik’; xii. ‘Litteratur der philosophischen Sittenlehre’; xiii. ‘Litteratur der Pädagogik’.
- 10.
In Hissmann’s work quoted above, the issue of the history of philosophy is examined in depth not so much in the section entitled ‘Geschichte der Philosophie’, where the historiography of philosophy (Stanley, Deslandes, Brucker…) is presented with no particular emphasis, as in the section devoted to the ‘Philosophie der Geschichte’, notably in the following paragraphs: ‘Geschichte der Menschheit’ (§ 46), ‘Geschichte des menschlichen Verstandes’ (§ 54), ‘Ueber die Geschichte der Künste und Wissenschaften’ (§ 55). The latter history is defined as “the most instructive history of the human mind” and, since it describes the history of man’s gradual progress as not due to chance but to a conscious effort of the intellectual faculty, it can also be termed “history of the human reason” (pp. 118–119).
- 11.
Cf. Platonis Opera, quae exstant, omnia, ad edit. Henr. Stephani [Paris, 1578], studio Societatis Bipontinae (1786), 11 vols; Aristotelis Opera omnia, Graece, ad optimum exemplarium fidem recensuit, annotationem criticam, librorum argumenta et novam versionem Latinam adjecit J.T. Buhle (Zweibrücken [then Strasbourg], 1791 f.). Worth mentioning is also a history of philosophy drawn from Cicero’s works and integrated with excerpts from other Greek and Latin thinkers: M.T. Ciceronis Historia philosophiae antiquae ex omnibus illius scriptis collegit, disposuit, aliorumque auctorum cum Latinorum, tum Graecorum locis et illustravit et amplificavit F. Gedike (Berlin, 1782). Two Opera omnia of Cicero appear at the end of the eighteenth century, edited by J.A. Ernesti (Halle, 1774–77) and C.D. Beck (Leipzig, 1795–1804); Plutarch’s Opera omnia is edited by J.J. Reiske (Leipzig, 1774–1782), Sextus Empiricus’ Opera by J.G. Mund (Halle, 1796), Stobaeus’ Eclogae, by H.L. Heeren (Göttingen, 1792). A list of the editions of the classics of philosophy in the eighteenth century is contained in Ernesti, pp. 47–73.
- 12.
Directors before Heyne had been Albrecht von Haller and Johann David Michaelis, after him Johann Gottfried Eichhorn and Arnold Heeren.
- 13.
Cf. U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, History of Classical Scholarship, transl. A. Harris (Baltimore, 1982), p. 102: “The man who scattered the seed that bore such various fruit in the persons of Zoëga, Voss and Wolf, the brothers Humboldt and Schlegel, deserves to be called a Praeceptor Germaniae in a higher sense than Gesner”.
- 14.
See J.S. Pütter, Versuch einer academischen Gelehrten-Geschichte von der Georg-Augustus Universität zu Göttingen (Göttingen, 1788), II, p. 275. Regarding the Philological Seminar, see pp. 273–279; a list of the attending students who later distinguished themselves on the cultural scene is on pp. 277–279. Pütter thus describes the method used by Heyne, who was directly in charge of philological education, while the propaedeutic disciplines (philosophy, mathematics, and history) were entrusted to other teachers: “The seminar lesson consists in exercise and sometimes in the interpretation of difficult passages and of Greek or Roman poets. The seminarian replaces the master, the professor limits himself to leading or guiding the conference; possibly he intervenes to correct the seminarian or to draw the attention to the defects present in the expression” (pp. 273–274).
- 15.
Cf. Verra, Mito, rivelazione e filosofia in J.G. Herder e nel suo tempo, pp. 21–33; see also the appendix, which contains some important dissertations by Heyne on this subject: Temporum mythicorum memoria a corruptelis nonnullis vindicata (pp. 161–171); De caussis fabularum seu mythorum veterum physicis (pp. 173–183); De opinionibus per mythos traditis (pp. 185–188); De mythorum poeticorum natura, origine et caussis (pp. 189–193); Sermonis mythici seu symbolici interpretatio (pp. 195–220).
- 16.
See J.G. Herder, Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache (Berlin, 1772). Language does not have a divine but a human nature, in the sense that man is both creature and creator of language. This theory is also central to Herder’s philosophy of history; cf. J.G. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, in Id., Sämtliche Werke, XIII, pp. 141–142.
- 17.
See J.G. Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit. Beytrag zu vielen Beytragen des Jahrhunderts, in Id., Sämtliche Werke, V, p. 484: “It was there [in the East] that the human mind developed the first forms of wisdom and virtue with a simplicity, strength, and loftiness that now – we have to speak clearly – in our philosophical and cold European world has nothing, absolutely nothing, like it. And precisely because, by now, we are so incapable of understanding, of feeling it, let alone of enjoying it, we mock, deny, and distort it: this is indeed the best proof!”.
- 18.
See the final paragraphs of Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit: ‘Cultur der Vernunft in Europa’ (Sämtliche Werke, XIV, pp. 476–486) and ‘Anstalten und Entdeckungen in Europa’ (pp. 486–491), followed by a brief ‘Schlußanmerkung’ (pp. 492–493), which contains a definition of Europe as follows: “Welcher Art die neue Cultur Europa’s seyn konnte, ist aus dem Vorhergehenden auch sichtbar. Nur eine Cultur der Menschen, wie sie waren und seyn wollten; eine Cultur durch Betriebsamkeit, Wissenschaften und Künste”.
- 19.
Let us just mention here the relationship between Herder’s philosophy of history and the Enlightenment. Some historians (als Meinecke) view Herder in opposition with his time and the early developments of the conception of history elaborated within Romanticism. By contrast, other historians (als Cassirer) view his thought in continuity and as a form of development with respect to Enlightenment positions. Worth mentioning is the well-balanced interpretation offered by Ayrault, La genèse du Romantisme allemand, ii, pp. 452–465: Herder was an Enlightenment thinker “against his own will”; Hamann’s influence, filtered through his reading of Rousseau, brought him to change the concept of “revelation” into that of “education”, thus providing Lessing with the circumstance and subject matter for his most famous work, Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (1780); “[…] et Lessing a pu faire tourner au triomphe des ‘vérités de raison’ ce qui n’avait été pour Herder qu’une manière d’humilier la raison devant la somme d’irrationel où elle plonge” (p. 461).
- 20.
Cf. Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte, p. 488. Concerning the question of the origin of philosophy, in this period historians generally accept Brucker’s theory, which recognized the merit of the Greeks as the first to have founded philosophy as a science (see Models, II, pp. 519–522). There are exceptions though, for example Adelung, who makes Greek philosophy depend on Eastern thought. Even more determined in this re-evaluation of Eastern speculation, notably of the Egyptians, are the works of Fr. Victor Lebrecht Plessing (1749–1806): Osiris und Socrates (Berlin and Stralsund, 1783); Historische und philosophische Untersuchungen über die Denkart, Theologie und Philosophie der ältesten Völker, vorzüglich der Griechen, bis auf Aristoteles Zeiten (Elbingen, 1785); Memnonium, oder Versuche zur Enthüllung der Geheimnisse des Alterthums (Leipzig, 1787), 2 vols (the first volume is dedicated to Egyptian wisdom, the second to Plato’s philosophy and to its alleged Egyptian source); Versuche zur Aufklärung der Philosophie des ältesten Alterthums (Leipzig, 1788–1790, 2 vols). Plessing tries to demonstrate that the metaphysical system of the Greeks (from the Pythagoreans and Eleatics to Plato and Aristotle) perfects and embellishes the theological and metaphysical system of the Egyptians: “Actually, this philosophy is the outcome of the most elevated and profound speculation, a speculation which is however completely bent on itself; it contains the finest texture of an imagination which is left to itself” (Versuche zur Aufklärung, I, p. 12). The first volume of the Versuche zur Aufklärung der Philosophie is entirely devoted to Plato, whose thought – the doctrine of ideas, matter, and the soul of the world – manifests the character of this system more clearly. Then he comes to the Eleatics, the Pythagoreans, Aristotle, and a comparison between the ancient philosophical doctrines and the Hebrew-Christian theological system. Particularly significant are the last two books: ‘Ueber Aegyptens Wissenschaften und den aegyptischen Ursprung der vom Plato und in den Mysterien gelehrten metaphysischen Philosophie’ (II, pp. 877–980); ‘Ueber die Männerliebe der Griechen; und über Aegyptens Osiris, Isis, Horus, und Typhon’ (II, pp. 981–1036).
- 21.
Cf. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte, in Id., Sämtliche Werke, vol. XIV, p. 79: “In vain we would seek treasures of hidden wisdom in hieroglyphs, because hieroglyphs are the roughest and most infantile forms the human intellect uses to explain and denote its thoughts, and hieroglyphs can also be found among the most savage peoples of America. Hence, the fact that the Egyptian people availed itself of hieroglyphs for such a long time indicates poverty of ideas and a limited advancement of the intellect”.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 129: “It was in Greece that the foundations were laid for seeking all that which is certain within the sciences, and similarly for the beauty of form, and it is a misfortune that fate handed down to us so few texts written by the profound sages of Greece”.
- 23.
This review appeared in 16 fascicles between 1767 and 1771; it was then replaced by the Historisches Journal (1772–1781), directed by Gatterer himself (cf. Kirchner, I, p. 129). Gatterer has been numbered among the founders of Göttingen historiography not only thanks to his activity fostering historical research through the Königl. Institut der historischen Wissenschaften and for having initiated the so-called auxiliary sciences of historiography, such as diplomatics, genealogy, heraldry, and numismatics, but especially for having succeeded in reconciling erudition with the critical spirit of the Enlightenment, the tradition of the Maurists with the aspirations of the philosophes.
- 24.
The work is presented as consisting of eleven sections: “i. Allgemeine Geschichte der Cultur und Litteratur, als Einleitung in die übrigen Abtheilungen; ii. Geschichte der schönen Künste; iii. Der schönen Wissenschaften (der Dichtkunst und Beredsamkeit); iv. Der Philologie; v. Der Geschichte; vi. Der Philosophie; vii. Der Mathematik; viii. Der Physik (der Naturgeschichte, Naturlehre, der Oekonomie, Technologie, Kameral-Policey- und Finanz Wissenschaften); ix. Der Medizin; x. Der Jurisprudenz und xi. Der Theologie” (Geschichte der Künste und Wissenschaften, I, ‘Vorrede’, p. lxxxvii).
- 25.
Cf. Gueroult, II, p. 359: “Si ces plans restent pour le moment sans réalisation, et si leur influence effective, à titre de programme ne se fera sentir qu’une vingtaine d’années plus tard (avec Tiedemann), ils constituent en tout cas, pour l’histoire de la philosophie, la promesse de temps nouveaux”. On Garve’s philosophical activity in the context of Popularphilosophie and on his controversies with Kant, cf. Boehr, Philosophie für die Welt, pp. 88–104; see also DECGPh, pp. 372–381.
- 26.
Cf. C. Garve, Ueber die Geschichte der Philosophie. Eine Stelle aus dessen Lateinscher Abhandlung De ratione…, BGPh, IX (1799), pp. 148–163. Subsequently, the same review published the two dissertations by Garve in their original and complete edition; cf. BGPH, XI (1799), pp. 88–196.
- 27.
Another similarity with Herder appears in the ‘Theses’ which close the dissertation, where the author addresses, inter alia, the theme of the relationship between the history of language and the history of philosophy: “Ut populi ingenium et ad scientiam progressio, linguae naturam constituit: ita etiam ex natura linguae potest cognosci, quid cuiusque populi scriptores eximium habuerint, et quare in suo quisque dicendi scribendique genere excelluerit. Accurata cognitio cuiuscunque linguae complectitur etiam cognitionem earum rerum, quae ab populo cuius est lingua, maxime tractatae et excultae sunt” (De ratione, p. 27).
- 28.
Born in Vohenstrauss, in the Duchy of Sulzbach, Franz Volkmar Reinhard (1753–1812) completed his studies in Wittenberg, where in 1780 he was appointed professor of philosophy and where he had among his pupils Gottlob Ernst Schulze, the famous author of Aenesidemus. Later on, his theological interests prevailed, and for a decade he taught theology in Wittenberg and was then assigned the post of main preacher at the Saxon court in Dresden. The collection of his sermons, in 35 volumes, was published from 1795 to 1812 in Wittenberg and Sulzbach and represents his most famous literary production; in addition, let us mention his works in the fields of ethics and dogmatics: Versuch über den Plan, welchen der Stifter der christlichen Religion zum Besten der Menschheit entwarf (Wittenberg, 1781); System der christlichen Moral (Wittenberg, 1788–1810), 4 vols; Vorlesungen über die Dogmatik (Amberg and Sulzbach, 1801). Cf. ADB, XXVIII, pp. 32–35.
- 29.
E. Platner, Philosophische Aphorismen, I, p. 16: “Seinen Begriffen und seinen Worthbestimmungen nach würde Herr Kant die Moralphilosophie mit zu der ersten rechnen, weil sie bey ihm zu der Beantwortung der ersten, angelegentlichsten Fragen des Menschen in der Welt, statt der Metaphysik dienet”.
- 30.
Joseph Andreas Hofmann (1753–1849) was the head of the Mainz revolutionary movement of 1792–1793, which demanded the annexation of Rhineland to France. In 1784, after the Vienna period, he became professor of the Philosophy of History at the University of Mainz and in 1791 also professor of Law. He was appointed to various political positions in the Napoleonic period, then retired to Winkel am Rhein, where he died in 1849. Among his other works let us mention: Sätze aus der Philosophie (Mainz, 1782); Sätze aus der Staatsklugheit (Mainz, 1786); Ueber Fürstenregiment und Landstände (Mainz, 1792). Cf. ADB, XII, pp. 625–626; NDB, IX, p. 446.
- 31.
Cf. Röttgers, ‘J.G.H. Feder’, p. 431. In the eighteenth century, an attempt at overcoming the opposition between Feder and Kant over ethics had already been made by J.G.K. Werdermann, who declared both philosophers his masters: ‘Feder und Kant: Versuch zur Aufhellung einiger streitigen Punkte in den Gründen der Moralphilosophie’, BM, XXIII (1794), pp. 309–339. Werdermann himself wrote a Geschichte der Meinungen über Schicksal und menschliche Freiheit, von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die neuesten Denker (Leipzig, 1793).
- 32.
See the announcement of the course which was to be held during the winter semester 1767–1768: “M. Imm. Kant… h. iii-iv Encyclopaediam philosophiae universae cum succincta historia philosophica secundum compendium Feders Grundriss der philosophischen Wissenschaften uno semestri pertractandum proposuit”; cf. G. Micheli, Kant storico della filosofia (Padua, 1980), p. 87.
- 33.
In truth, Lessing had refered to this absence not to deny but to affirm the divine origin of the Old Testament, considered as an “instructive” document appropriate to the degree of development attained by the understanding shown by the Hebrew people “of the time”; cf. G.E. Lessing, Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts, in Id., Gesammelte Werke, ed. P. Rilla (Berlin and Weimar, 1968), VIII, p. 594.
- 34.
Cf. G.E. Lessing, Leibniz von den ewigen Strafen, in Id., Gesammelte Werke, VII, pp. 454–488 (the polemic with Eberhard is developed on pp. 465–488). The essay closes with Lessing’s well-known appeal: “O my friends, why should we wish to appear more sharp-witted than Leibniz and more philanthropic than Socrates?”. Regarding the polemic between Eberhard and Lessing, but also regarding the points of agreement between the two thinkers, see G. Pons, G.E. Lessing et le christianisme (Paris, 1964), pp. 255–257, 261–263, and 367–380.
- 35.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, the most widespread image of Socrates was that of a supporter of the aristocratic party and an enemy of the people, hence rightfully condemned; cf. M. Montuori, De Socrate iuste damnato. La nascita del problema socratico nel xviii secolo (Rome, 1981).
- 36.
See Tiedemann’s response to the question, which was the object of a competition by the Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1797, concerning the advantages of historical knowledge for the sciences: “A historical knowledge of the ancients and a study of their opinions and doctrines can still provide advantages in almost all parts of philosophy, mathematics, and natural history; as concerns philosophy, these advantages consist in more important and original concepts, in new principles, in more profound demonstrations of the separate theses, and in a more correct appraisal of systems as well as in new systems; as concerns mathematics, the advantages consist in the discovery of new and better theories; finally, as concerns natural history, they consist in new and more precise observations, in the discovery and erasure of some errors, and in more exact and more immediately clear descriptions” (Preisschrift über die beträchtlichen Vortheile, p. 104). Tiedemann’s answer was awarded a prize together with that by Daniel Jenisch (cf. Geldsetzer, pp. 31–33).
- 37.
Note a significant parallel between Tiedemann’s historiographical method and his interpretation of poetry. Cf. Tiedemann, Dialogorum Platonis argumenta, p. 8: “Haud parvi porro refert, quae a philosopho docentur, ipse invenerit, an aliunde hauserit, nosse. Qui Poëtas commentariis ornant, haud parum inde laudis referent, si poëticarum elegantiarum, ac fictionum fontes aperiant, et, quid quisque invenerit, quid imitando aliunde derivarit, quam possunt accuratissime, doceant: neque enim aliter statui unicuique poëtae pretium ulla ratione potest. Eodem modo in interpretando philosopho versandum etiam mihi existimavi; et quoad fieri eius potest, quid ab aliis acceperit, quid primus dixerit Plato, definiendum”.
- 38.
Cf. Ch. Villers, Essai sur l’esprit et l’influence de la réformation de Luther (Paris, 1804), p. 358: “L’esprit humain est affranchi et de la contrainte extérieure que lui imposait le despotisme hiérarchique, et de la contrainte intérieure, de l’apathie où le retenait une aveugle superstition. Il sort tout-à-fait de tutelle, et commence à faire un usage plus libre, par conséquent plus énergique et plus convenable, de ses facultés”; p. 361: “Ainsi par son action directe, et par sa réaction, la commotion religieuse opérée par Luther entraîne les nations européennes en avant dans la carrière des connaissances et de la culture intellectuelle”.
- 39.
Tiedemann’s work is not only criticized for its method and content, but also its style: the reviewer invites him to ask a friend – more experienced than him as a writer – to correct the stylistic and grammatical imperfections; see ALZ, 1792, no. 327, col. 547: “Undoubtedly, the subsequent parts of this valuable although quite imperfect work would have been considerably improved if mister Tiedemann had removed these and other similar imperfections concerning expression, among which we should also reckon words like: entfreyheitet, Allgötter and Onhgötter, Widerwärtigkeit (instead of “logischer Widerspruch”), Einkehrung der Seele in sich, Leitvorstellung, and had removed them availing himself of the skilful refining work done by a friend experienced in the grammatical and aesthetic aspects of our language”. An excessive use of archaisms is also pointed out in GA, 1791, no. 23, pp. 227–228, where, however, the reviewer observes that this is merely a “formal” defect which does not destroy the “intrinsic value” of the work.
- 40.
This impression is confirmed by a biography published in Der neue teutsche Merkur, by Karl Wilhelm Justi: “The public would certainly have obtained other excellent contributions from him, perhaps even another outstanding work, if he had not become irritated and frightened because of the cold and adverse reception encountered by his Geist der spekulativen Philosophie, a work which – despite some defects, in particular with reference to expression – draws directly on the sources, hence will remain unequalled within its category and will certainly be employed attentively and diligently. Occasional attempts were made to mitigate the criticisms concerning the last parts (of the work), but the initial unfavourable impression ws not cancelled, so Tiedemann preferred to stop the publication after the sixth and last volume” (NTM, 1803, p. 363).
- 41.
Cousin, p. 325; his words are echoed by Christian-Jean-Guillaume Bartholmess in the entry ‘Tiedemann’ in the Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques: “La principale nouveauté de son oeuvre, c’est qu’elle est dominée par l’idée du progrès: chez lui la speculation, la recherche savante des raisons premières et dernières de toutes choses, constitue un ensemble suivi et lié, une unité naturelle, successive, progressive […]” (Franck, VI, p. 900).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Longo, M. (2015). The Göttingen School and Popularphilosophie . In: Piaia, G., Santinello, G. (eds) Models of the History of Philosophy. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 216. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9966-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9966-9_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9965-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9966-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)