19th-century German philosophy Research Papers (original) (raw)

This essay discusses Swami Vivekananda’s unduly neglected critical remarks on Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, which are contained primarily in lectures delivered in America and England between 1895 and 1896. I argue that Vivekananda,... more

This essay discusses Swami Vivekananda’s unduly neglected critical remarks on Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy, which are contained primarily in lectures delivered in America and England between 1895 and 1896. I argue that Vivekananda, one of the first commentators to critique Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will from a Vedāntic standpoint, occupies a unique place in the late nineteenth-century reception of Schopenhauer’s philosophy. To set the stage, I outline briefly in Part I the interpretations of two of Vivekananda’s contemporaries, Paul Deussen and Max Hecker, the pioneers in the field of Schopenhauer’s relation to Indian thought. In Part II, I discuss Vivekananda’s critical remarks on Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will and place them in dialogue with the views of Deussen and Hecker. In contrast to Deussen and Hecker, Vivekananda claims that Schopenhauer equates the will with the noumenal thing in itself. According to Vivekananda, Schopenhauer’s conception of the will as the noumenal reality is mistaken for two main reasons: first, the will is at least subject to time and hence cannot be identified with the Kantian thing in itself beyond time, space, and causality; second, Schopenhauer’s conception of the will as the noumenal thing in itself conflicts with the soteriological thesis that the will can be transcended through self-denial and asceticism. Vivekananda also reproaches Schopenhauer for misinterpreting Vedānta, which conceives the noumenal reality not as the evil will but as the transcendental Ātman/Brahman beyond all willing and suffering. In Part III, I argue that many of Vivekananda’s views on Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the will and its relationship to Vedānta and Buddhism find echoes in recent scholarly interpretations of Schopenhauer’s philosophy.

First published in 1818, The World as Will and Representation contains Schopenhauer's entire philosophy, ranging through epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and action, aesthetics and philosophy of art, to ethics, the meaning of... more

Friedrich Nietzsche is presented in this essayistic documentary film as a fascinating, questionable and sometimes repulsive philosopher whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of the academic world. As a representative of... more

Friedrich Nietzsche is presented in this essayistic documentary film as a fascinating, questionable and sometimes repulsive philosopher whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of the academic world. As a representative of perspective thinking he is regarded as a pioneer of modernism and postmodernism. Of utmost importance for his life and work was the tiny Swiss village Sils Maria, the only place that he visited again and again during his nomadic years and where much of his work was created. The film conveys a tangible impression of the area and how this charismatic place must have influenced Nietzsche's thinking and feeling. For the first time in a film are shown some of the scribbled sheets from the time of Nietzsche's mental derangement at the clinic in Jena. The majority of the interviewees in the film are academics related the Nietzsche-Haus in Sils Maria.

This comparative examination of Nietzsche and the Islamic philosopher al-Kindi emphasizes their mutual commitment to the recovery of classical Greek and Hellenistic thought and the idea of philosophy as a way of life. Affiliating both... more

This comparative examination of Nietzsche and the Islamic philosopher al-Kindi emphasizes their mutual commitment to the recovery of classical Greek and Hellenistic thought and the idea of philosophy as a way of life. Affiliating both thinkers with the Stoic lineage in particular, I examine the ways in which they appropriate common themes such as fatalism, self-cultivation via spiritual exercises, and the banishing of sorrow. Focusing primarily on their respective conceptions of self and nature, I argue that the antipodal worldviews of al-Kindi and Nietzsche can be understood as a bifurcation of Stoic philosophy.

Nachdem eine kleine Konjunktur der Schopenhauer-Editionen 1 wenigstens vorübergehend für das eklatante Fehlen einer großen historisch-kritischen Schopenhauer-Gesamtausgabe entschädigt, darf man hoffen, es werde sich in deren Gefolge auch... more

Nachdem eine kleine Konjunktur der Schopenhauer-Editionen 1 wenigstens vorübergehend für das eklatante Fehlen einer großen historisch-kritischen Schopenhauer-Gesamtausgabe entschädigt, darf man hoffen, es werde sich in deren Gefolge auch ein verstärktes sachliches Interesse an einem der bedeutendsten deutschen Philosophen entwickeln. Daß dies auch au-ßerhalb des engeren akademischen Rahmens geschehen kann, dürfte sich von selbst verstehen, doch wäre es aus verschiedenen Gründen auch von Nutzen, wenn sich universitär angebundene Forscherpersönlichkeiten ver-stärkt und nachhaltig mit Schopenhauer auseinandersetzten. Es ist bekannt, daß Arthur Hübscher in seiner Werkausgabe nur einen Teil der nachgelassenen Notizen publizierte (S. 9), teils aus ökonomischen Gründen. Auch der Bibliothekar Jochen Stollberg hat sich mit der Zettel-1 Siehe zuletzt: Vorlesung über Die Gesamte Philosophie oder die Lehre vom Wesen der Welt und dem menschlichen Geiste / Arthur Schopenhauer. Hrsg. von Daniel Schubbe unter Mitarb.

Some further remarks on Nietzsche and Aristotle with a focus on friendships forged in sports (tennis) rivalries.

This article contains details on the origins and history of the publication of Arthur Schopenhauer’s Manuscript remains. In addition to that, an analysis of his youth notes up to 1812 is provided as well as a brief description... more

This article contains details on the origins and history of the publication of Arthur
Schopenhauer’s Manuscript remains. In addition to that, an analysis of his youth notes up to
1812 is provided as well as a brief description of the context they appeared in, which facilitates
further studies on the development of his philosophy.

The Genealogy takes a historical form. But does the history play an essential role in Nietzsche's critique of modern morality? In this essay, I argue that the answer is yes. The Genealogy employs history in order to show that acceptance... more

The Genealogy takes a historical form. But does the history play an essential role in Nietzsche's critique of modern morality? In this essay, I argue that the answer is yes. The Genealogy employs history in order to show that acceptance of modern morality was causally responsible for producing a dramatic change in our affects, drives, and perceptions. This change led agents to perceive actual increases in power as reductions in power, and actual decreases in power as increases in power. Moreover, it led agents to experience negative emotions when engaging in activities that constitute greater manifestations of power, and positive emotions when engaging in activities that reduce power. For these reasons, modern morality strongly disposes agents to reduce their own power. Given Nietzsche’s argument that power has a privileged normative status, these facts entail that we have a reason to reject modern morality.

In their works, Arthur Schopenhauer and the Japanese philosopher Kitarō Nishida combine Western attitudes with the Eastern traditions of Buddhism. While Schopenhauer, a Western thinker, loads his philosophy with sources from Indian... more

In their works, Arthur Schopenhauer and the Japanese philosopher Kitarō Nishida combine Western attitudes with the Eastern traditions of Buddhism. While Schopenhauer, a Western thinker, loads his philosophy with sources from Indian writings (the Vedas and the Upanishads), Nishida is considered the first modern thinker in Japan to achieve a synthesis between East Asian and European philosophy. Both Schopenhauer and Nishida found themselves at the tail-end of German Idealism and share an attitude that is both anti-metaphysical and critical of reason, which expresses itself in a skepticism of conceptual thinking and knowledge. Schopenhauer seeks refuge in art by identifying aesthetic contemplation as a place of unity of subject and object and, at first, shifting the knowledge of truth to the intuitive consideration of artworks. Schopenhauer's subject of pure knowledge and its correlative, the idea, merge into one another in the act of aesthetic contemplation and enter a unity in which there is no longer a distinction between subject and object, knowing and known. In his earlier work, Nishida also ascribes to pure experience, as the foundation of all reality, similar attributes as those ascribed to the dissolution of subject-object-duality; the freedom from conceptual thought or judgment and the opening of the individual awareness for a different kind of unitary experience. While one can clearly establish a connection, with regards to content, between the characterization of pure experience of Nishida's early work and Schopenhauer's state of pure knowledge, the initial movement of the two types of experience, is, however, different. A comparison of the two philosophers is all the more interesting for the fact that Nishida had himself explored Schopenhauer's writings and made references to them; Nishida also considers a general “system of consciousness that transcends the individual” possible, which “can even be seen as the manifestation of a great, trans-individual will.” Both philosophers think of the transcendence of the individual as a globally immanent path to the ‘sublime’.

More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History provides a first look at the discipline in this earliest period, and at the... more

More than a century after Guido Adler's appointment to the first chair in musicology at the University of Vienna, Music, Criticism, and the Challenge of History provides a first look at the discipline in this earliest period, and at the ideological dilemmas and methodological anxieties that characterized it upon its institutionalization. Author Kevin Karnes contends that some of the most vital questions surrounding musicology's disciplinary identities today-the relationship between musicology and criticism, the role of the subject in analysis and the narration of history, and the responsibilities of the scholar to the listening public-originate in these conflicted and largely forgotten beginnings.

In this paper I examine intellectual Intuition, Aufforderung and Pure Will in J. G. Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre Nova Methodo. After considering the various senses in which Fichte used the term "intellectual intuition," I discuss the... more

In this paper I examine intellectual Intuition, Aufforderung and Pure Will in J. G. Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre Nova Methodo. After considering the various senses in which Fichte used the term "intellectual intuition," I discuss the relations between intellectual intuition, Aufforderung, and pure will.

Nineteenth century Christian thought about self and relationality was stamped by the reception of Kant’s groundbreaking revision to the Cartesian cogito. For René Descartes (1596-1650), the self is a thinking thing (res cogitans), a... more

Nineteenth century Christian thought about self and relationality was stamped by the reception of Kant’s groundbreaking revision to the Cartesian cogito. For René Descartes (1596-1650), the self is a thinking thing (res cogitans), a simple substance retaining its unity and identity over time. For Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), on the other hand, consciousness is not a substance but an ongoing activity having a double constitution, or two moments: first, the original activity of consciousness, what Kant would call original apperception, and second, the reflected self, the “I think” as object of reflection. Both are essential to the possibility of an awareness of a unified experience. Such an awareness is achieved only insofar as the self is capable of reflecting on its activity of thinking. As such, the possibility of self-consciousness, or the capacity to reflect on one’s own acts of thought is essential to the constitution of the self. This new model of the mind became the starting point to the thought of central 19th century figures such as Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), J. G. Fichte (1762-1814), Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). This chapter will explore their reception of Kant’s model of self-consciousness, the controversies surrounding its development and exposition, and the advantages of this model for theological reflection. The idea of mind as essentially capable of reflection provided an account of how the self can stand in an ontologically immediate relation to God constitutive of the self, while at the same time allowing that the self’s consciousness of itself is distinct from this original moment, so that a limited or false consciousness of self is possible. As such the task of the self is to recognize (that is, to realize in and through self-consciousness) who it most truly is, both in relation to God, and in relation to self and other.

Das Interesse der deutschen Germanistik für Ungarn war wahrscheinlich noch nie zuvor so groß, wie in den 1810er Jahren, nachdem ein gewisser Martin Georg Ko-vachich (1743–1821) altdeutsche Handschriften in der Erzbischöflichen Bibliothek... more

Das Interesse der deutschen Germanistik für Ungarn war wahrscheinlich noch nie zuvor so groß, wie in den 1810er Jahren, nachdem ein gewisser Martin Georg Ko-vachich (1743–1821) altdeutsche Handschriften in der Erzbischöflichen Bibliothek von Kalocsa entdeckt hatte. Der Kodex mit mehr als 180 altdeutschen Gedichten weckte die Aufmerksamkeit zahlreicher Gelehrten des deutschsprachigen Raumes und führte zu einem intensiven Austausch mit Autoren und Wissenschaftlern des Königreichs Ungarn. Obwohl selbst die Brüder Grimm sich für den Kodex interessierten, blieben die Handschriften schließlich in Pest und wurden von Johann Paul Köffinger (1786–1845) und Graf Johann Mailáth (1786–1855) 1817 bei Hart-leben und Strauß veröffentlicht.
Der sog. Koloczaer Codex altdeutscher Gedichte beleuchtet eine spannende Epoche des deutsch-ungarischen Kultur- und Wissenschaftstransfers, der nach der Ausbrei-tung der Romantik besonders intensiv ausfiel. Der vorliegende Beitrag strebt dem-nach an, auf die Geschichte der Anfänge des germanistischen Interesses an Ungarn und an dem ‚ungarischen Material’ kursorisch einzugehen, die Netzwerke deutscher Intellektuellen mit „ungarischen“1 Gelehrten sichtbar zu machen und schließlich die Umstände der Entdeckung der altdeutschen Handschriften in Kalocsa und die anschließende Korrespondenz zwischen deutschen und ungarländischen Gelehrten zu thematisieren. Dabei wird der Kodex selbst ins Visier genommen, genauso wie die Frage, wie es schließlich zur Herausgabe kommen konnte.

Entrées encyclopédiques sur : Charles Andler, Alfred Bäumler, Georg Brandes, Karl Hillebrand, Karl Jaspers, Ernst Jünger, Henri Lichtenberger, Karl Löwith, la réception initiale de Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georg Simmel, Oswald... more

Entrées encyclopédiques sur : Charles Andler, Alfred Bäumler, Georg Brandes, Karl Hillebrand, Karl Jaspers, Ernst Jünger, Henri Lichtenberger, Karl Löwith, la réception initiale de Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georg Simmel, Oswald Spengler, Carl Spitteler, Wilhelm Vischer-Bilfinger, Max Weber

Nietzsche frequently describes the individuals he takes to be paradigms of human greatness as being rare; as exceptions to the great majority. This association appears as early as Schopenhauer as Educator in 1874, and continues well into... more

Nietzsche frequently describes the individuals he takes to be paradigms of human greatness as being rare; as exceptions to the great majority. This association appears as early as Schopenhauer as Educator in 1874, and continues well into the mature works of the 1880's, where we see an amplified opposition between what is 'noble' and 'exceptional' on the one hand, and what is pejoratively 'common' and 'mediocre' on the other. However, there is an ambiguity to this claim concerning the rarity of great individuals which has not yet been explicitly addressed. It is unclear whether Nietzsche values these exceptional individuals (at least partly) in virtue of their rarity, or whether rarity is merely a consequence or indicator of the presence of other valuable features. In other words, is rarity or distinctiveness constitutive of greatness, or is it merely the properties which make one rare which count? By drawing upon contemporary debates in the theory of value, in this paper I explore the evidence for interpreting Nietzsche to defend the view that rarity—at least under certain qualified conditions—matters for its own sake. I argue that this evidence is compelling, and that many intuitive objections to the view can be deflected by challenging the axiological assumptions which motivate them. The question concerning the value of rarity has significant evaluative implications concerning Nietzsche's famed critique of morality, and in particular the component of equality. While Nietzsche is traditionally interpreted to reject equality in virtue of its 'levelling down' effects upon certain perfectionist values, I claim that if rarity is itself valuable then we are left with a second critique of equality: that it undercuts the value of peculiarity. I explore the extent and significance of this objection in the final section of the paper.

Resenha da introdução da obra por Clademir Araldi.

In his entire oeuvre Brentano defended a scientific conception of philosophy and advocated the adoption of a rigorous, scientific method. Given this background it might come as a surprise that in his reflections on aesthetics he firmly... more

In his entire oeuvre Brentano defended a scientific conception of philosophy and advocated the adoption of a rigorous, scientific method. Given this background it might come as a surprise that in his reflections on aesthetics he firmly rejected the classic definition of aesthetics as the science of beauty. This must not be read as an expression of disinterest in – or a dismissal of – aesthetics, though. It is rather an expression of Brentano's view concerning the position of aesthetics in his overall system. He conceived it – on a par with logic and ethics – not as a theoretical science, but as a practical discipline that was rooted in psychology: aesthetics, Brentano suggests, is not constituted by a set of intrinsically related propositions; it rather serves the practical purpose of instructing those who want to experience the beautiful with correct taste or to create works of art. The task of aesthetics is, in other words, to formulate a set of rules or instructions that teach us how to correctly experience beauty, how to come to prefer the more over the less beautiful, but also how to create beauty and how to produce works of art that have the power to bring about aesthetic pleasure in the beholder.

International Conference "The New Century of Schopenhauer", 22. - 24. February 2020,
Nihon University, College of Humanities and Sciences (Tokyo)

In Another Philosophy of History, J.G. Herder claims that his aim is not to compare and judge different cultures, but merely to describe and explain how each came into being and thus to adopt the standpoint of an impartial observer. I... more

In Another Philosophy of History, J.G. Herder claims that his aim is not to compare and judge different cultures, but merely to describe and explain how each came into being and thus to adopt the standpoint of an impartial observer. I argue, however, that there is a tension between Herder's understanding of his own project—his stated doctrine of historicism and cultural relativism—and the way in which it is actually put into practice. That is, despite Herder's stated aims, he is nevertheless unable to avoid justifying premodern forms of life and making context-transcending evaluative judgments in the process of trying to understand cultures on their own terms and holding them up as exemplars vis à vis the Enlightenment. This tension presents the challenge of accounting for it in the most charitable and illuminating way. I argue that this goal can be achieved by appealing to the resources of the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, which enables us to disclose two enabling conditions for Herder's project of which he was not explicitly aware, viz., the internal connection between understanding and justification and the enabling character of prejudice as the condition for the possibility of understanding as such. In Another Philosophy of History, J.G. Herder develops a distinctive methodology for historical inquiry that poses a challenge to his Enlightenment contemporaries on the grounds that their methods radically distort and, as a result, fail to genuinely understand and learn from premodern cultures and civilizations. Against the assumptions of cultural superiority of Enlightenment historians, based on a historical narrative of linear progress which posits the Enlightenment as history's terminal point, Herder argues that no such comparative, context-transcending evaluative judgments can be made since every culture has to be understood on its own terms and evaluated on the basis of the criteria internal to each. By situating cultures within their own historical context, therefore, we can come to understand and appreciate the particular virtues distinctive of each. As such, according to Herder's historicism, the aim is not to compare and judge different cultures, but rather to describe and explain how each came into being; that is, to adopt the standpoint of an impartial observer in order to avoid the hubris of Enlightenment historians on the one hand, and the tendency to overly romanticize and 'pick favorites' among premodern cultures, on the other.

In der modernen Forschung zu Schopenhauer rücken methodologische und systematische Fragen immer mehr in den Vordergrund, mit besonderem Fokus auf perspektivistische und hermeneutische Momente seiner Philosophie. Michał Dobrzański geht in... more

In der modernen Forschung zu Schopenhauer rücken methodologische und systematische Fragen immer mehr in den Vordergrund, mit besonderem Fokus auf perspektivistische und hermeneutische Momente seiner Philosophie. Michał Dobrzański geht in seinen Untersuchungen einem Problem nach, welches eine wichtige Grundlage für solche Deutungen verschafft – Schopenhauers Begriffslehre. In dem Buch wird sie aus zerstreuten Aussagen des Philosophen rekonstruiert, ausgewertet und dann um die Erörterung seines Philosophiekonzepts ergänzt. Dies bildet die Grundlage zur anschließenden vielseitigen Untersuchung von jenen Aspekten seiner Philosophie, in denen die Thesen seiner Begriffslehre besonders zum Tragen kommen. Spezieller Druck wird hier auf Schopenhauers Methode gelegt, zu deren vollem Bild sein rekonstruiertes Begriffsverständnis einen gehaltvollen Beitrag leistet.

The present paper has as purpose to discuss what is the possible place that the works of Dostoevsky, mainly the novel The idiot, occupies in the diagnostic gave by Nietzsche to the psychological type of the Redeemer, classified by him as... more

The present paper has as purpose to discuss what is the possible place that the works of Dostoevsky, mainly the novel The idiot, occupies in the diagnostic gave by Nietzsche to the psychological type of the Redeemer, classified by him as idiot. We sustain that in spite of the discussion about if Nietzsche had direct or indirect contact with the novel The idiot, it’s possible to establish an analysis of prince Myshkin as a clinical model of extremely importance, rather than any other of Dostoevsky’s character, to throughout evaluate the diagnostic of Jesus gave by Nietzsche.

The present paper has as purpose to discuss what is the possible place that the works of Dostoevsky, mainly the novel The idiot, occupies in the diagnostic gave by Nietzsche to the psychological type of the Redeemer, classified by him as... more

The present paper has as purpose to discuss what is the possible place that the works of Dostoevsky, mainly the novel The idiot, occupies in the diagnostic gave by Nietzsche to the psychological type of the Redeemer, classified by him as idiot. We sustain that in spite of the discussion about if Nietzsche had direct or indirect contact with the novel The idiot, it’s possible to establish an analysis of prince Myshkin as a clinical model of extremely importance, rather than any other of Dostoevsky’s character, to throughout evaluate the diagnostic of Jesus gave by Nietzsche.

La noción de perspectivismo, presente en la producción tardía de Nietzsche, delimita un ámbito particularmente interesante y fértil. En efecto, esta metáfora visual, que el filósofo utiliza antes que nada en referencia a la dimensión... more

La noción de perspectivismo, presente en la producción tardía de Nietzsche, delimita un ámbito particularmente interesante y fértil. En efecto, esta metáfora visual, que el filósofo utiliza antes que nada en referencia a la dimensión epistémica, encierra profundas consecuencias hermenéuticas y prácticas.
Los ensayos de este volumen dan cuenta de esta doble implicancia. El primero, poniendo la investigación filológica al servicio de la reflexión filosófica, propone una discusión contextual de la dicotomía "hechos-interpretaciones", estrechamente ligada al perspectivismo nietzscheano. El segundo lleva la atención del plano teórico al plano práctico y se concentra en el tema de la moral gregaria, que en el quinto libro de la "Ciencia jovial" Nietzsche presenta unido indisolublemente al perspectivismo y al fenomenalismo de la conciencia. Estas incursiones en el pensamiento de Nietzsche y en sus lecturas permiten antes que nada volver a considerar algunas célebres cuestiones de su reflexión madura y tomar nota de la riqueza de su pensamiento, en contraste con las malas interpretaciones que han visto en su perspectivismo la expresión de un mero relativismo y un nihilismo epistemológicos.

This chapter is focused on understanding and assessing Hegel’s complex critique of Kant’s theory of the transcendental subject (self). After introducing the basics of the transcendental unity of apperception, I develop four specific... more

This chapter is focused on understanding and assessing Hegel’s complex critique of Kant’s theory of the transcendental subject (self). After introducing the basics of the transcendental unity of apperception, I develop four specific criticisms and one general criticism of Kant’s transcendental subject made by Hegel. The first is named ‘The Problem of Heterogeneity’; the second criticism is the charge of a specific kind of solipsism; the third criticism is focused on a rejection of Kant’s doctrine of transcendental synthesis; and the fourth criticism is named ‘The Problem of Indeterminacy’, and is concerned with how a formal ‘I’ can establish the grounds of identity in both the subject and in differing subjects. The general criticism is focused on the idea that ‘I think’ of transcendental apperception is just a formal mechanism, which, under Hegel’s account, Kant limited to the domain of psychology, rather than expanding it to the societal realm, which is something that he ought to have done. I then argue that whilst the first four criticisms do work against Kant’s position, this critique is not justified, given Kant’s views on self-consciousness in the Refutation of Idealism and the excessive demands of Hegel’s position.