Lecture 2: German Idealism

This lecture was all about Kant and Hegel; the basics of Philosophical/German Idealism.

We started off with a summary of what was going on in the world at the time. The French Revolution is the main influence and began with an almost religion-like attack on the monarchy, similar to Freemasonry, which tried to change things like the calendar to have 10 months in a year and 10 weeks in a month. This soon collapsed into the Terror which was then ended by Napoleon who set up a military dictatorship, with a "levee en masse" meaning that the entire nation was an army, people were referred to as "citizen" rather than "sir" or "madam" in order to prevent social hierachy. Napoleon was a Jacobean and fought for democracy and human rights. Wordsworth was a supporter of the revolution, referring to it as "bliss", until The Terror emerged and showed the dark side of true equality. At this point, Wordsworth became religious, mystic and conservative. Because of the Terror, many people changed their views and liberals had to re-evaluate what exactly it was that they wanted. This was also the era of people such as Addison, Newton and Smith, and the ideas of science and economic freedom were very popular.

It is also important to remember that Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment.

Kant

Kant is often seen as the founder of German Idealism. He was a liberal and a supporter of the French Revolution. In one of his most influential books, "A Critique of Pure Reason", he outlines his main ideas. To start with, he says that everything percieved has two natures; Nuomenal and Phenomenal. These are separate worlds in which objects exist both in our perception and out of it. This idea addresses the problem of causality in empiricism which is present both in Hume's philosophy, in which there is no causality in nature and everything is purely in our minds (this is a humanist perspective, saying that we work on the habit of mind), and Berkley's philosophy which argues the provisionality of existence of percieved phenomena (this means that things flash in and out of existance as they go in and out of our perception and is put down to the action of God). Kant argues that the nuomenal world is perceived by "intuition", especially shown in the aesthetic reaction to art and beauty. For example, Keats wrote that "Beauty is Truth. Truth is Beauty.", saying that this is all we can and need to know. The idea is that objects are "things in themselves", even when they are not perceived, they are still there, but they are not the same. When you perceive an object it passes into the phenomenal world. As evidence, Kant puts forward the idea that intuition is an objective force and that subjective feelings are our connection to the nuomenal world, therefore our aesthetic response is proof that objects do not go out of existence when they are not perceived. This philosophy of Plato. Therefore Kanteans believe that abstract art is the result of trying to paint the object in it's nuominal, or natural, form.

Kant had 12 categories of perception and believed in a Copernican Revolution, that the mind actively shapes the universe. This is the opposite to empiricism. Kant argued that the mind impresses itself on nuominal objects and brings them into the phenomenal world. Therefore, the universe looks the way it does because of the perceptive apparatus of the mind; it is NOT like that in nature. This means that reality is conditioned by the mind, and this is the key to German Idealism.

Kant's Morality

Kant argued for the Categorical Imperative, which he said comes in several forms. It is based on the idea of universalisation, that you should act on the premise that any decision you make will become a universal rule that everyone will abide by. Therefore your decisions must be moraly "right" rather than "good" for you. It is based on the idea of innate ideas of right and wrong, that everyone knows the difference even if their actions are not always right. (This goes directly agains empiricists which argue that there are NO innate ideas). Kant saw morality as "the moral law within"; the intuition that tells us what is right and what is wrong. This is based on the idea that it is the intentions that are either good or bad, regardless of the outcomes or consequences. The empiricist view is utilitarianist, seeing acheivement of aims as good, regardless of how it is done. This is the opposite of the Kantean system. Kant believed that it is better to destroy the whole world than to tell a lie or do a wrong. Therefore Kant completely rejects utilitarianism. He says that all people are equal and we all know the difference between right and wrong.

Hegel

Hegel was an idealist, like Kant, and was writing after the revolution, mostly during the Napoleonic wars. He is known as a philosopher on European supremacy, and was a devout Christian. He argued that any possible idea contains its own negation. This is based on a Grecian system of triads, and is very much influenced by Aristotle. Basically, each idea contains it's opposite; for example, the antithesis for the thesis of "existence" would be "non-existence" and the synthesis would be "history" or "becoming" because he believed that everything is constantly changing. This is therefore a theory of dialectical change, from Aristotle's syllogistic logic. The proof of existence is therefore in the concept of non-existence and this clash produces the synthesis, which then becomes a new thesis.

Hegel was a teleological thinker, which means that he believed that these processes have a purpose, and that purpose is a steady progress towards paradise where we will be re-united with God and live happily ever after. Therefore he saw history as having a purpose, and said that no change is ever random. This is the basis of the Christian religion.

For more in depth information and analysis, Chris has posted several youtube videos on Hegel, Kant, Byron and Romanticism.