School · 1762 CE–1854 CE
German idealism
German idealism is post-Kantian attempts to explain freedom, knowledge, nature, history, and social life through self-conscious activity and rational development.
Shared questions
- How can finite knowers be free while also belonging to nature, history, and social institutions?
Internal disagreements
- Whether philosophy should begin from the self, nature, absolute identity, dialectical history, or practical action.
Key texts
- Wissenschaftslehre · 1794 — Fichte rewrote the work repeatedly, and no single version can stand for his system.
- Phenomenology of Spirit · 1807 — Hegel finished it as Napoleon entered Jena, and its relation to his later system is disputed.
- System of Transcendental Idealism · 1800 — Schelling's attempt to derive nature and self-consciousness from a single principle, written at twenty-five.