Lecture 6 The Classical German philosophy 1780 1840

Lecture 6 The Classical German philosophy (1780 - 1840) 1. General characteristic 2. German classical idealism a) Kant’s philosophy ; b) Fichte’s and Schelling’s philosophy c) Hegel’s philosophy 3. German materialism a) L. Feuerbach

- Far behind European states (England, France) - Were involved into 30 -year war – huge losses - Not rebels, no idea of liberty and brotherhood REVOLUTION IN MINDS

Main achievements 1. Emergence of a new type of thinking – new language of philosophy. 10+30+156 Categories Being – nonbeing; Matter – motion Singular – general Cause – consequence Quality – quantity Time - space

2. Laws of dialectics – basis for modern science and cognition. Dialectics – method of comprehension of the contradictions of the development of being, spirit & history. It is represented by the most general laws and peculiarities of the development of thinking, human, society or nature.

3. Philosophy of History –reflection over some common laws of historical development St. Augustine “City of God” Voltaire - term Hegel – most developed system

4. New attitude to the religion L. Feuerbach 2 stages of development idolization of nature idolization of human being To overcome the dependence of human being from nature Essence of religion = essence of the human being Religion is BAD

Good things come in small packages

Immanuel Kant (1724 ─ 1804)

“Two things awe me the most – starry sky above me and moral law within”

Author of a set of books “Critique of Practical Reason” “Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science with Selections from the Critique of Pure Reason. ” “Critique of Pure Reason”

Two periods of Kant’s philosophy 1. Subcritical period – vivid but not very important - developed theory of the appearance of the Universe. - developed the hypothesis about the occupancy of other planets. 2. Critical period – the attempt to unite different approaches of the New Time philosophy? ? ? “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play”

Divided own philosophy into four parts 1. What could I know? – “Critique of Pure Reason” – epistemological theory 2. What should I do? – “Critique of Practical Reason” – ethical system 3. What could I hope for? – Axiology, religion 4. What is human? – Philosophical Anthropology

- Moral philosophy (Ethics); - Epistemology

Moral philosophy Enlightenment period secularization Good – critical reappraisal of religious dogmas Bad – knows true nature of human Kant’s life project: Blind religious obedience Reasonable behavior Religion ethical behavior Secularism no religion

Kant’s idea rational version of religious ethics to help people to be good. Most of the time we are making not moral choice but the choice that contingent on our desires!

These if/then statement Hypothetical imperative - lots of your decisions is optional; - Do not deal with morality; Categorical imperative - commands you must follow regardless of your desires!

Categorical imperative Rule or principle of action Smth that must always be done in similar situation If you do it everyone can do it – do you want to universalize this action?

Formal restatement of the idea of most of religions Use for your benefit with no thought to the interest of the thing/person you are using

Kant’s Idealistic philosophy or Metaphysics - the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles (первоначала) of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space

Epistemology “Critique” – re-thinkingattempt to unite 2 New Time approaches; “Pure reason” – free of any experience and material conditions – (what is the field of reason and what of religion)

“Knowledge is power” All knowledge is from experience “Cogito ergo sum” Thinking – is true reality, filled with inborn ideas

• “…All/any cognition starts with/within experience…” • “…Is pure knowledge beyond the experience possible? ”…

Kant came to the conclusion Adjust oneself to understand what is given by nature/world Knowledge that is around is adjusting itself to our cognitive abilities

They are input in human nature space and time World as it is World as we perceive it

«…God created the world simple but gave us instruments to make it more interesting and complicated…» Space – reversible- the place which the object occupies, its size, distance between other object. Time – irreversible – period during which the objects exist Objective A-priori

- a priori (lat. "from the earlier") – knowledge or justification is independent of experience or sense data. figure out by thinking hard - a posteriori (lat. "from the later") – knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence

Statements can be • Analytical – predicate presents in the subject itself. • Synthetic – characteristics are not in the subject itself.

Statements can be • Analytical – predicate concept is contained in the subject itself. All bachelors are unmarried men • Synthetic – characteristics are not in the subject itself. 1 +1 = 2

The lecturer is an idiot Synthetic or Analytical? ?

Transcendent ideas – beyond our cognitive possibilities idea of God idea of world (Universe) idea of soul Transcendental ideas – construction of the condition for the experiment “Copernican Revolution”

Everything we know about the objects of the reality are their images or the reflections of these objects in our consciousness so the Pure Reason must distinguish the objects from their reflections in our consciousness. For this purpose he suggested - things-in-themselves (вещи-в-себе) - things as they exist by themselves independently on our perception and cognition, they are transcendent essences (сущность); - phenomena (явления)- appearances of things to us. We can perceive only the latter, things-in-themselves are inaccessible for us.

So it is the manifestation of Kant’s dualism the world that we know through our senses phenomena the world that actually exists things-inthemselves

2. Fichte’s and Schelling’s philosophy Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762– 1814) - Negation of the things-in-themselves - Subjective idealism; - “I create not-I” - Reflection

F. W. Schelling (1775─1854) at first started as a follower of Fichte but later came to his own system as well. He was also the author of the wellknown formulation of the philosophy’s basic question ? ? ? “What is primal ─ material or ideal (material or consciousness)? ”

Depending upon that how a philosopher answers this question ─ he can be referred either to materialists or idealists. Himself however Schelling considered neither materialist nor idealist but a representative of the so-called philosophy of identity. no difference Matter Consciousness Absolute mind

3. Hegel’s philosophy The culmination of the Classical German philosophy was the philosophy of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770─1831). “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. ”

He declared implicitly initial subjectobject identity – objective idealism. I. e. the primal is the Universe on the whole or the World Spirit (Absolute Spirit) which for providing further development is disintegrated into many components which interact and communicate with each other – these components are nature, human being and history.

Three main laws of the dialectic logic 1. The law of transformation of quantity into quality Categories a) Quantity b) Quality c) Measure d) Leap, sudden change

Will a man become bald if one single hair is pulled out from his head? No, he won’t. Will he if two are? No, he won’t. If three, four, ten? He won’t. But the proceeding of pulling out sooner or later will make him bald. In other words little quantity changes gradually result in a new quality the baldness. This is an evident illustration on this law

2. The law of double negation (the negation of negation) Three stages 1. Overcoming of smth old. 2. Succession (continuity). 3. Confirmation of smth new.

3. The law of the unity and struggle of opposites Categories a) Identity ; b) Difference; c) Opposite; d) Contradiction

Marx’s philosophy “Religion is the opiate of the masses. ” “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. ” “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!”

Marx’s “Scientific Socialism” had 3 major points: • Historical Materialism • Class Struggle • Surplus Value

1. Historical Materialism One should view reality (and history) dialectically. Marx rewrote dialectics in materialist terms, arguing for the primacy of matter over idea. Dialectics – teaching about the inner contradictions as the major forces of development of the nature, society and thinking.

2. Class Struggle According to Marx, society has always been divided into the “haves” and the “have nots” – and these two classes have always fought each other.

3. Surplus Value Marx believed that the bourgeoisie basically bought the products of the laborers at a cheap price, and then sold those same products back to them at a high price, in effect stealing the surplus value as their profit. Alienation refers to the economic and social alienation aspect in which workers are disconnected from what they produce and why they produce. Marx believed that alienation is a systematic result of capitalism