Period: ~1794–1831 | Context: post-Kantian radicalization; overcoming the thing-in-itself; thought as the totality of reality

Context

German Idealism departs from Kantian critique: the thing-in-itself (Ding an sich) is a contradiction — if it is “thought,” it cannot be “in itself” (exterior to thought). Therefore, thought is being; nothing exists outside thought. Metaphysics returns as science. The Absolute (God/Reason) develops itself and reveals itself in reality.

Difference from classical realism:

  • Realism: being is independent of thought; certainty and truth identify immediately
  • Idealism: certainty = truth in mediate fashion; being is thinking; thought is the whole

I. Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) — Subjective Idealism

Project

Transform Kantian philosophy into a rigorous system — the Doctrine of Science (Wissenschaftslehre). Find the unique principle that unifies the three Critiques of Kant.

The Ego as absolute principle

  • The pure Ego (not the individual empirical ego) is the unconditioned condition of all reality
  • “I = I” is the originary principle — more fundamental than the principle of identity (A = A)
  • The Ego is free self-positing: it is not a fact, but an act — being follows from action (esse sequitur operari)
  • The Ego self-posits itself (thesis) and, in doing so, opposes to itself a Non-Ego (antithesis = the external world)
  • From this opposition, the Ego limits and the Non-Ego limits each other mutually (synthesis) → all reality

Phases of Fichte’s thought

1st phase (Jena, 1794–1799): subjective idealism; the Ego as creative activity of reality
2nd phase (Berlin, 1800–1814): mystical deepening; the Absolute as ground of the Ego; the Ego is manifestation of God; knowledge tends toward mystical unity with the Absolute

Practical and political philosophy

  • Addresses to the German Nation (1808): the spiritual primacy of the German people; national education as the path to freedom
  • First elected rector of the University of Berlin (1811), founded by Wilhelm von Humboldt (1810)

Works

  • Foundations of the Doctrine of Science (1794)
  • The Vocation of Man (1794)
  • Foundations of Natural Right (1796)
  • The Vocation of Man (1800)
  • Addresses to the German Nation (1808)

II. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) — Objective Idealism / Philosophy of Identity

Project

Overcome the subject/object dichotomy of Fichte: nature is not mere product of the Ego — it has its own reality as objectified Spirit. The Absolute is the undifferentiated identity of subject and object.

Phases of thought

Philosophy of Nature (Naturphilosophie, ~1797–1801)

  • Nature is not an inert mechanism; it is visible Spirit — the same activity of the Ego, but in an unconscious degree
  • Hierarchy of nature: inorganic matter → organic → consciousness
  • Polarities and opposing forces as the motor of development
  • Influence on the natural sciences of German Romanticism

Philosophy of Identity (~1801–1809)

  • The Absolute is the indifference (undifferentiated identity) of subject and object, ideal and real
  • Criticizes Fichte: the Non-Ego cannot be mere product of the Ego
  • The Absolute knows itself through philosophy

Philosophy of Freedom and Evil (~1809)

  • Investigations into Human Freedom (1809): the first major text of philosophical Romanticism
  • Evil has positive reality: it is the perverse use of freedom, which isolates itself from the whole
  • Freedom is possible because man can choose evil — irresoluble tension in the Absolute

Later Positive Philosophy (~1820–1854)

  • Critique of Hegel’s idealism as “negative” philosophy (abstract, conceptual)
  • Positive philosophy departs from concrete and irreducible existence (Existenz)
  • Anticipates Existentialism

Works

  • On the Ego as Principle of Philosophy (1795)
  • System of Transcendental Idealism (1800)
  • Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809)

III. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) — Absolute Idealism

The most influential philosopher of the 19th century. His system encompasses logic, nature, spirit, history, art, religion, and philosophy.

The Absolute as process

  • The Absolute is not a static thing — it is a process that develops and knows itself
  • “The Real is Rational; the Rational is Real”
  • Contradiction is not a flaw of thought — it is the motor of development (dialectic)

Hegelian Dialectic

Not a mechanical formula (thesis-antithesis-synthesis), but the internal movement of the Idea:

  • In itself (an sich): the idea in immediate, abstract state
  • Outside itself / exteriorization (Außersichsein): the idea externalizes itself — nature
  • In itself and for itself (an und für sich): the idea returns to itself — Spirit

Each category contains its own negation; the negation is negated (negation of negation), generating a higher level that preserves and transcends (Aufhebung).

The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)

  • Itinerary of consciousness from sensuous certainty (the most immediate) to Absolute Knowledge
  • Stages: sensuous certainty → perception → understanding → self-consciousness (struggle for recognition, master/slave dialectic) → reason → spirit → religion → absolute knowledge
  • Master/Slave Dialectic: the master dominates, but depends on the slave’s recognition; the slave, by working upon the world, transforms itself and transcends the master — anticipation of the Marxist analysis applied to history

The Science of Logic (1812–1816)

  • Logic = ontology: the categories of thought are the categories of being
  • Movement: Being → Nothingness → Becoming (synthesis); then: Essence; then: Concept
  • The Absolute Idea is the result and the ground of the entire process

Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1817/1830)

Structure of the Hegelian system:

  1. Logic (Idea in itself and for itself)
  2. Philosophy of Nature (Idea outside itself; Nature as alienated Spirit)
  3. Philosophy of Spirit (Idea returning to itself):
    • Subjective Spirit (psychology, anthropology)
    • Objective Spirit (right, morality, ethical life)
    • Absolute Spirit (art, religion, philosophy)

Philosophy of Right (1820)

  • Abstract right → Morality → Ethical life (family → civil society → State)
  • The State is not the result of contract (Locke, Rousseau), but the full realization of freedom — the ethical substance of the people
  • Universal History: the Spirit of the World (Weltgeist) realizes itself successively in different peoples; each people has a historical mission
  • “The Owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of dusk” — philosophy comprehends the real only after it has been consummated

Hegel’s Influences

  • Marx: inverts Hegel (dialectical materialism — contradictions are material and economic, not ideal)
  • Kierkegaard: rejects the system for ignoring the concrete individual → Existentialism
  • Frankfurt School: retakes the dialectic as social critique
  • Croce, Bradley, McTaggart: Neo-Hegelianism
  • Kojève, Hyppolite, Sartre: 20th-century French reception

Works

  • Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)
  • Science of Logic (1812–1816)
  • Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1817)
  • Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820)
  • Lectures on the Philosophy of History (posthumous)
  • Lectures on Aesthetics (posthumous)

The Line of German Idealism

Kant (thing-in-itself unknowable)
    │
    ├──► Fichte (suppresses the thing-in-itself → absolute Ego creates all)
    │         │
    │         └──► Schelling (Nature = objectified Spirit; Absolute = identity)
    │                   │
    └──────────────────► Hegel (Absolute = total dialectical process; Logic = Ontology)

General References

  • Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit; Philosophy of Right
  • Reale & Antiseri, History of Philosophy, vol. 5
  • Charles Taylor, Hegel
  • Frederick Beiser, German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism
  • Robert Pippin, Hegel’s Idealism