Philosophy as System: An Introduction to German Idealism

Hello again. Myself and Ben Woodard will be teaching another online course for the New Centre for Research and Practice titled ‘Philosophy as System: An Introduction to German Idealism’ beginning on October 27th. I’ll be taking the lead teaching Kant and Hegel, and Ben will be taking the lead teaching Fichte and Schelling, and I’m looking forward to it immensely. The blurb for the course is as follows:

German Idealism has been slandered as that school of thought which ‘ran through the door that Kant only wished to peak through’ thereby appearing as a crude return to dogmatic or pre-critical metaphysics. However, the speculativeambition of the German Idealists was far from opposed to Kant’s critical restraint, but rather, their characteristic systematic impulse was derived as much from Kant’s methodological concerns as his transcendental idealism. The aim of the present course is thus to thoroughly demolish this stubborn caricature of German Idealism. Beginning with the architectonic of Kant’s system, we will show how he and his successors created new forms of systematic philosophy which risked accusations of subjective idealism in order to grasp not only the fundamental structures of thought, but how thinking itself alters, and is embedded in, the world. In addition to providing a historical overview of four major thinkers (Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling) and contextualizing their philosophical contributions, we will aim to connect concepts drawn from their work to contemporary philosophical and extra-philosophical concerns.

If you’re interested, more information about the course and how to register can be found here.