Neo-Kantianism
Encyclopedia
Neo-Kantianism refers broadly to a revived type of philosophy
along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant
in the 18th century, or more specifically by Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy
in his work The World as Will and Representation
(1818), as well as by other post-Kantian philosophers such as Jakob Friedrich Fries
and Johann Friedrich Herbart
. It has some more specific reference in later German philosophy
.
controversy in German thought in the 1850s.
In addition to the work of Hermann von Helmholtz
and Eduard Zeller
, early fruits of the movement were Kuno Fischer
's works on Kant and Friedrich Albert Lange
's History of Materialism (Geschichte des Materialismus
), the latter of which argued that transcendental idealism
superseded the historic struggle between material idealism
and mechanistic materialism
. Fischer was earlier involved in a dispute with the Aristotelian
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
concerning the interpretation of the results of the Transcendental Aesthetic, a dispute that prompted Hermann Cohen
's 1871 seminal work Kants Theorie der Erfahrung, a book often regarded as the foundation of 20th century neo-Kantianism. It is in reference to the Fischer-Trendelenburg quarrel and Cohen's work that Hans Vaihinger
started his massive commentary on the Critique of Pure Reason
.
Cohen became the leader of the Marburg
School, the other prominent representatives of which were Paul Natorp
, and Ernst Cassirer
. Another important group, the Southwest School (or Baden
School, in Southwest Germany) included Wilhelm Windelband
, Heinrich Rickert
and Ernst Troeltsch
. The Marburg School emphasized epistemology and logic, whereas the Southwest school emphasized issues of culture and value. A third group, mainly represented by Leonard Nelson
, developed a Frisean trend.
The Neo-Kantian schools tended to emphasize scientific readings of Kant, often downplaying the role of intuition in favour of concepts. However, the ethical aspects of Neo-Kantian thought often drew them within the orbit of socialism
, and they had an important influence on Austromarxism
and the revisionism of Edward Bernstein. Lange and Cohen in particular were keen on this connection between Kantian thought and socialism. Another important aspect of the Neo-Kantian movement was its attempt to promote a revised notion of Judaism
, particularly in Cohen's seminal work, one of the few works of the movement available in English translation.
The Neo-Kantian school was of importance in devising a division of philosophy that has had durable influence well beyond Germany. It made early use of terms such as epistemology and upheld its prominence over ontology
. Natorp had a decisive influence on the history of phenomenology and is often credited with leading Edmund Husserl
to adopt the vocabulary of transcendental idealism. Emil Lask
exerted a remarkable influence on the young Martin Heidegger
. The debate between Cassirer and Heidegger over the interpretation of Kant led the latter to formulate reasons for viewing Kant as a forerunner of phenomenology; this view was disputed in important respects by Eugen Fink
. An abiding achievement of the Neo-Kantians was the founding of the journal Kant-Studien, which still survives today. In the Anglo-American world recent interest in Neo-Kantianism has revived in the wake of the work of Gillian Rose
, who is a critic of this movement's influence on modern philosophy, and because of its influence on the work of Max Weber
. The Kantian concern for the limits of perception strongly influenced the antipositivist
sociological movement in late 19th century Germany, particularly in the work of Georg Simmel
(Simmel's question 'What is society?' a direct allusion to Kant's own: 'What is nature'?). The sociologist-philosopher, Michel Foucault
, established a radical critique of modernity based in a polemical rediscovery of Kant, drawing influence also from the work of Nietzsche. The current work of Michael Friedman
is explicitly neo-Kantian.
The term "Neo-Kantian" can also be used as a general term to designate anyone who adopts Kantian views in a partial or limited way.` The revival of interest in the work of Kant that has been underway since Peter Strawson's work The Bounds of Sense
can also be viewed as effectively Neo-Kantian, not least due to its continuing emphasis on epistemology at the expense of ontology. The converse European tradition drawing on the understandings of the transcendental derived from phenomenology continues to emphasize the converse reading as is shown by the recent works of Jean-Luc Nancy
.
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
along the lines of that laid down by Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
in the 18th century, or more specifically by Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy
Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy
Schopenhauer appended a criticism to the first volume of his The World as Will and Representation. He wanted to show Kant's errors so that Kant's merits would be appreciated and his achievements furthered....
in his work The World as Will and Representation
The World as Will and Representation
The World as Will and Representation is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first edition was published in December 1818, and the second expanded edition in 1844. In 1948, an abridged version was edited by Thomas Mann....
(1818), as well as by other post-Kantian philosophers such as Jakob Friedrich Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries
Jakob Friedrich Fries was a German philosopher from Barby .-Life and career:...
and Johann Friedrich Herbart
Johann Friedrich Herbart
Johann Friedrich Herbart was a German philosopher, psychologist, and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline....
. It has some more specific reference in later German philosophy
German philosophy
German philosophy, here taken to mean either philosophy in the German language or philosophy by Germans, has been extremely diverse, and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from Leibniz through Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger...
.
Origins and forms of Neo-Kantian philosophy
The "back to Kant" movement began in the 1860s, as a reaction to the materialistMaterialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
controversy in German thought in the 1850s.
In addition to the work of Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science...
and Eduard Zeller
Eduard Zeller
Eduard Gottlob Zeller , was a German philosopher and theologian of the Tübingen School of theology.- Life :Eduard Zeller was born at Kleinbottwar in Württemberg, and educated at the University of Tübingen and under the influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel...
, early fruits of the movement were Kuno Fischer
Kuno Fischer
Kuno Fischer, born Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer, was a German philosopher, a historian of philosophy and a critic.-Biography:After studying philosophy at Leipzig and Halle,...
's works on Kant and Friedrich Albert Lange
Friedrich Albert Lange
Friedrich Albert Lange , was a German philosopher and sociologist.-Biography:Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich and Bonn, where he distinguished himself in gymnastics as much as academically...
's History of Materialism (Geschichte des Materialismus
Geschichte des Materialismus
Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart is a philosophical work by Friedrich Albert Lange, originally written in German and published in October 1865 . Lange vastly extended the second edition published in two volumes in 1873–75...
), the latter of which argued that transcendental idealism
Transcendental idealism
Transcendental idealism is a doctrine founded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the eighteenth century. Kant's doctrine maintains that human experience of things is similar to the way they appear to us — implying a fundamentally subject-based component, rather than being an activity that...
superseded the historic struggle between material idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
and mechanistic materialism
Mechanism (philosophy)
Mechanism is the belief that natural wholes are like machines or artifacts, composed of parts lacking any intrinsic relationship to each other, and with their order imposed from without. Thus, the source of an apparent thing's activities is not the whole itself, but its parts or an external...
. Fischer was earlier involved in a dispute with the Aristotelian
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. The works of Aristotle were initially defended by the members of the Peripatetic school, and, later on, by the Neoplatonists, who produced many commentaries on Aristotle's writings...
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg was a German philosopher and philologist.-Early life:He was born at Eutin, near Lübeck. He was educated at the universities of Kiel, Leipzig, and Berlin...
concerning the interpretation of the results of the Transcendental Aesthetic, a dispute that prompted Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".-Life:...
's 1871 seminal work Kants Theorie der Erfahrung, a book often regarded as the foundation of 20th century neo-Kantianism. It is in reference to the Fischer-Trendelenburg quarrel and Cohen's work that Hans Vaihinger
Hans Vaihinger
Hans Vaihinger was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his Philosophie des Als Ob , published in 1911, but written more than thirty years earlier....
started his massive commentary on the Critique of Pure Reason
Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, first published in 1781, second edition 1787, is considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kant's "first critique," it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgement...
.
Cohen became the leader of the Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
School, the other prominent representatives of which were Paul Natorp
Paul Natorp
Paul Gerhard Natorp was a German philosopher and educationalist, considered one of the co-founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He was known as an authority on Plato....
, and Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer was a German philosopher. He was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the 20th century...
. Another important group, the Southwest School (or Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
School, in Southwest Germany) included Wilhelm Windelband
Wilhelm Windelband
Wilhelm Windelband was a German philosopher of the Baden School.Windelband is now mainly remembered for the terms nomothetic and idiographic, which he introduced. These have currency in psychology and other areas, though not necessarily in line with his original meanings...
, Heinrich Rickert
Heinrich Rickert
Heinrich John Rickert was a German philosopher, one of the leading Neo-Kantians.-Life:He was born in Danzig, Prussia and died in Heidelberg, Germany.-Thought:...
and Ernst Troeltsch
Ernst Troeltsch
Ernst Troeltsch was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914...
. The Marburg School emphasized epistemology and logic, whereas the Southwest school emphasized issues of culture and value. A third group, mainly represented by Leonard Nelson
Leonard Nelson
Leonard Nelson was a German mathematician and philosopher. He was part of the Neo-Friesian School and a friend of the mathematician David Hilbert, and devised the Grelling–Nelson paradox with Kurt Grelling...
, developed a Frisean trend.
The Neo-Kantian schools tended to emphasize scientific readings of Kant, often downplaying the role of intuition in favour of concepts. However, the ethical aspects of Neo-Kantian thought often drew them within the orbit of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and they had an important influence on Austromarxism
Austromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
and the revisionism of Edward Bernstein. Lange and Cohen in particular were keen on this connection between Kantian thought and socialism. Another important aspect of the Neo-Kantian movement was its attempt to promote a revised notion of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, particularly in Cohen's seminal work, one of the few works of the movement available in English translation.
The Neo-Kantian school was of importance in devising a division of philosophy that has had durable influence well beyond Germany. It made early use of terms such as epistemology and upheld its prominence over ontology
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
. Natorp had a decisive influence on the history of phenomenology and is often credited with leading Edmund Husserl
Edmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
to adopt the vocabulary of transcendental idealism. Emil Lask
Emil Lask
Emil Lask was a German philosopher. A student of Rickert at Freiburg, he was a member of the Southwestern School of Neo-Kantianism.-Biography:...
exerted a remarkable influence on the young Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
. The debate between Cassirer and Heidegger over the interpretation of Kant led the latter to formulate reasons for viewing Kant as a forerunner of phenomenology; this view was disputed in important respects by Eugen Fink
Eugen Fink
Eugen Fink was a German philosopher.-Biography:Fink was born in 1905 as the son of a government official in Germany. He spent his first school years with an uncle who was a catholic priest. Fink attended a gymnasium in Konstanz where he succeeded with his extraordinary memory...
. An abiding achievement of the Neo-Kantians was the founding of the journal Kant-Studien, which still survives today. In the Anglo-American world recent interest in Neo-Kantianism has revived in the wake of the work of Gillian Rose
Gillian Rose
Gillian Rose was a British scholar who worked in the fields of philosophy and sociology. Notable facets of this social philosopher's work include criticism of neo-Kantianism and post-modernism, along with what has been described as "a forceful defense of Hegel's speculative thought."-Life and...
, who is a critic of this movement's influence on modern philosophy, and because of its influence on the work of Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
. The Kantian concern for the limits of perception strongly influenced the antipositivist
Antipositivism
Antipositivism is the view in social science that the social realm may not be subject to the same methods of investigation as the natural world; that academics must reject empiricism and the scientific method in the conduct of research...
sociological movement in late 19th century Germany, particularly in the work of Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel was a major German sociologist, philosopher, and critic.Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, asking 'What is society?' in a direct allusion to Kant's question 'What is nature?',...
(Simmel's question 'What is society?' a direct allusion to Kant's own: 'What is nature'?). The sociologist-philosopher, Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, established a radical critique of modernity based in a polemical rediscovery of Kant, drawing influence also from the work of Nietzsche. The current work of Michael Friedman
Michael Friedman (philosopher)
Michael Friedman is a philosopher of science interested in Immanuel Kant and the post-analytic movement in philosophy. Friedman earned his A.B from Queen's College in New York and his PhD from Princeton University. He is Frederick P. Rehmus Family Professor of Humanities at Stanford University...
is explicitly neo-Kantian.
The term "Neo-Kantian" can also be used as a general term to designate anyone who adopts Kantian views in a partial or limited way.` The revival of interest in the work of Kant that has been underway since Peter Strawson's work The Bounds of Sense
The Bounds of Sense
The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is a 1966 book by P.F. Strawson, a 20th-century Oxford philosopher...
can also be viewed as effectively Neo-Kantian, not least due to its continuing emphasis on epistemology at the expense of ontology. The converse European tradition drawing on the understandings of the transcendental derived from phenomenology continues to emphasize the converse reading as is shown by the recent works of Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy is a French philosopher.Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was Le titre de la lettre , a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, written in collaboration with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe...
.
Neo-Kantian philosophers
- Friedrich Albert LangeFriedrich Albert LangeFriedrich Albert Lange , was a German philosopher and sociologist.-Biography:Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich and Bonn, where he distinguished himself in gymnastics as much as academically...
(1828–1875) - African SpirAfrican SpirAfrikan Aleksandrovich Špir was a Russian Neo-Kantian philosopher of German descent who wrote primarily in German...
(1837–1890) - Hermann CohenHermann CohenHermann Cohen was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".-Life:...
(1842–1918) - Alois RiehlAlois RiehlThe philosopher Alois Adolf Riehl was born in Bozen in Austria .The brother of Josef Riehl, he was a Neo-Kantian and worked as a professor at Graz, then Freiburg and finally in Berlin, where he commissioned Mies van der Rohe to design his house in Neubabelsberg.For Riehl, philosophy was not the...
(1844–1924) - Wilhelm WindelbandWilhelm WindelbandWilhelm Windelband was a German philosopher of the Baden School.Windelband is now mainly remembered for the terms nomothetic and idiographic, which he introduced. These have currency in psychology and other areas, though not necessarily in line with his original meanings...
(1848–1915) - Hans VaihingerHans VaihingerHans Vaihinger was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his Philosophie des Als Ob , published in 1911, but written more than thirty years earlier....
(1852–1933) - Paul NatorpPaul NatorpPaul Gerhard Natorp was a German philosopher and educationalist, considered one of the co-founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He was known as an authority on Plato....
(1854–1924) - Karl VorländerKarl VorländerKarl Vorländer was a German neo-Kantian philosopher who taught in Solingen. He published various studies and editions of the works of Kant, including studies of the relation between Kantian thought and socialist thought, and of the influence of Kant on the work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe...
(1860–1928) - Heinrich RickertHeinrich RickertHeinrich John Rickert was a German philosopher, one of the leading Neo-Kantians.-Life:He was born in Danzig, Prussia and died in Heidelberg, Germany.-Thought:...
(1863–1936) - Ernst TroeltschErnst TroeltschErnst Troeltsch was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914...
(1865–1923) - Jonas Cohn (1869–1947)
- Ernst CassirerErnst CassirerErnst Cassirer was a German philosopher. He was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the 20th century...
(1874–1945) - Emil LaskEmil LaskEmil Lask was a German philosopher. A student of Rickert at Freiburg, he was a member of the Southwestern School of Neo-Kantianism.-Biography:...
(1875–1915) - Richard HonigswaldRichard HönigswaldRichard Hönigswald was a well-known philosopher belonging to the wider circle of Neo-Kantianism....
(1875–1947) - Bruno BauchBruno BauchBruno Bauch was a German Neo-Kantian philosopher.-Biography:Bauch was born in Groß-Nossen, Münsterberg district, Silesia and studied philosophy in Strasbourg, Heidelberg and Freiburg...
(1877–1942) - Leonard NelsonLeonard NelsonLeonard Nelson was a German mathematician and philosopher. He was part of the Neo-Friesian School and a friend of the mathematician David Hilbert, and devised the Grelling–Nelson paradox with Kurt Grelling...
(1882–1927) - Nicolai HartmannNicolai Hartmann-Biography:Hartmann was born of German descent in Riga, which was then the capital of the Russian province of Livonia, and which is now in Latvia. He studied Medicine at the University of Tartu , then Philosophy in St. Petersburg and at the University of Marburg in Germany, where he took his Ph.D....
(1882–1950)