German classical philosophy is an influential movement in modern philosophical thought. It sums up its development in this period of Western European history. The philosophical teachings of I. Kant, I. Fichte, G. Hegel, F. Schelling, L. Feuerbach belong to this movement. They posed in a new way many philosophical and worldview problems that neither rationalism, nor empiricism, nor enlightenment were able to solve. These thinkers are brought together by common ideological and theoretical roots, continuity in the formulation and resolution of problems. By “classical” we mean the highest level of its representatives and the significance of the problems solved by this philosophy.

The formation of the classical form of philosophy is discussed in one of the textbooks, starting with Descartes, and this has its own logic. The authors of the textbook highlight the following directions in the classical philosophical tradition

Kant's work is divided into two periods: pre-critical (from 1746 to the 1770s) and critical (from the 1770s to his death). In the pre-critical period, Kant was mainly concerned with cosmological problems, i.e. questions of the origin and development of the Universe. In his work “General natural history and the theory of heaven" Kant substantiates the idea of ​​the self-formation of the Universe from the "primordial nebula." Kant gave an explanation of the emergence of the solar system, based on Newton's laws. According to Kant, Cosmos (nature) is not an immutable, ahistorical formation, but is in constant motion and development. Kant's cosmological concept was further developed Laplace and went down in history under the name “Kant-Laplace hypothesis”.

The second, most important period Kant's activity is associated with the transition from ontological, cosmological issues to issues of epistemological and ethical order. This period is called “critical”, because it is associated with the publication of two of Kant’s most important works - “Critique of Pure Reason”, in which he criticized the cognitive capabilities of man and “Critique of Practical Reason”, in which the nature of human morality is analyzed. In these works, Kant formulated his main questions: “What can I know?”, “What should I do?” and “What can I hope for?” The answers to these questions reveal the essence of his philosophical system.

In "Critique of Pure Reason" Kant defines metaphysics as the science of the absolute, but within the boundaries of human reason. Knowledge according to Kant is based on experience and sensory perception. Kant questioned the truth of all human knowledge about the world, believing that man tries to penetrate into the essence of things, cognizes it with distortions that come from his senses. He believed that the boundaries of human cognitive abilities should first be explored. Kant argued that all our knowledge about objects is not knowledge about their essence (to denote which the philosopher introduced the concept of “thing in itself”), but only knowledge of the phenomena of things, i.e. about how things reveal themselves to us. The “thing in itself,” according to the philosopher, turns out to be elusive and unknowable. In historical and philosophical literature, Kant’s epistemological position is often called agnosticism.

Kant's theory of knowledge is based on the recognition of the existence of pre-experimental knowledge or a priori knowledge, which is congenital. The first pre-experimental forms of consciousness are space and time. Everything that a person knows, he knows in the forms of space and time, but they are not inherent in the “things in themselves”. From the senses the process of cognition passes to reason, and from it to reason. Reason that goes beyond its boundaries, i.e. the boundaries of experience are already the mind. The role of reason, according to Kant, is higher than other human cognitive abilities. The ability for supersensible knowledge, he called transcendental apperception. This meant that a person was already given the ability to navigate in space and time at birth. And even animals have innate instincts (for example, little ducklings go to the water and begin to swim without any training). Thanks to transcendental apperception in human consciousness, a gradual accumulation of knowledge is possible, a transition from innate ideas to ideas of rational knowledge.

For Kant, human behavior should be based on three maxima:

1. Act according to rules that can become universal law.

2. In your actions, proceed from the fact that a person is of the highest value.

3. All actions must be done for the benefit of society.

Kant's ethical teaching has enormous theoretical and practical significance; it orients man and society towards values moral standards and the inadmissibility of neglecting them for the sake of selfish interests.

Thus, all morality in society should be based on observance of a sense of duty: a person must, in relation to other people, show himself as a reasonable, responsible being who strictly observes moral rules.

I. Kant also suggested, based on the categorical imperative, change the lives of people in society, create a new “ethical social system.”

He believed that people live in two dimensions:

1) among regulation and establishment in the state;

2) in the process of one’s life in society, in the world of morality.

I. Kant did not consider the world officially regulated by the state and the church to be a truly human world, since such a world, in his opinion, is based on superstitions, deceptions and remnants of animal drives in humans.

Only a society in which people's behavior will be regulated by voluntary compliance with moral laws, and above all the categorical imperative, can give true freedom to man. Kant, having formulated moral law- the moral imperative “act so that your behavior can become a universal rule” also put forward the idea of ​​“ eternal peace", based on economic disadvantage and the legal prohibition of war.

Kant's ideas were continued and developed by the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte(1762-1814). His concept was called “Scientific Teaching”. He believed that philosophy is a fundamental science that helps to develop a unified method of cognition. The main thing in philosophical knowledge is intellectual intuition. In the process of cognition, the subject interacts with the object, his consciousness acts as an active and creative principle.

The process of knowledge, according to Fichte, goes through three stages:

1) “I” asserts itself, creates itself;

2) “I” opposes itself to “Not-I”, or object;

1) “I” and “Not-I,” limiting each other, form a synthesis.

To the natural question: “Does an object exist without a subject or not?” - Fichte's philosophy answers that without a subject there is no object. That is, only the active “I”, or the will of the subject, through interaction with an object, is capable of changing the world and establishing itself in it.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

1) the law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones;

2) the law of unity and struggle of opposites;

3) the law of negation of negation.

In the sphere of social and philosophical concepts, Hegel expressed a number of valuable ideas: about the meaning of history, about the understanding of historical patterns, about the role of the individual in history. Hegel had the greatest influence on the fields of philosophy of state and philosophy of history. He views the general history of the world as a process of self-consciousness of the world spirit and at the same time as “progress in the consciousness of freedom.” Freedom consists in the fact that a person recognizes his identity with the absolute and identifies himself with the formation of the objective spirit (the state and law).

Hegel's followers, who adopted his dialectical method, began to be called Young Hegelians. They wanted changes in the political system, they wanted government reforms. Supporters of the preservation of old forms of life - Old Hegelians - they justified the reality of the feudal-class state by reason. In the 30s and 40s of the 19th century in Germany, as in other European countries, there was a theoretical struggle between these two branches of post-Hegelian philosophy. It reflected both the power of Hegel’s ideas on society and the social need for the implementation of progressive ideals.

In the initial period of his philosophical activity he belonged to the school of Young Hegelians Ludwig Feuerbach(1803-1872).

L. Feuerbach among German philosophers he is a representative of the materialist movement. Having criticized idealism, he put forward a holistic and consistent materialist picture of the world. He considers matter as a natural objective principle of the world, deeply analyzes such properties of matter as movement, space and time. He developed a theory of knowledge, in which he acts as a sensualist, highly appreciating the role of feelings in knowledge. He believed that a person understands the world through his sensations, which he considered as a manifestation of nature. Feyrbach substantiated with a high assessment the role of feelings in cognition. Feuerbach substantiated the objective value of man in the world system, criticizing religious ideas about man as a creation of God; developed the basic principles of humanism, based on the idea that man is a perfect part of nature.

Feuerbach is the ancestor anthropological materialism, but at the same time, he remained an idealist in his understanding of society. He argued that historical eras differ in changes in religious consciousness. Christianity proclaims love as the main creative spiritual force that changes morality and the attitude of man to man. According to Feuerbach, love for God also expresses love for man, since God is the alienated essence of man. Through religion, a person expresses his feeling of love, striving for immortality. This spiritual aspiration expresses both the ancestral essence of man and his ideal essence coming from the ancestral essence. Moral regeneration of people for Feuerbach becomes the mover social development. His philosophy completed the classical stage of German philosophy and laid the foundations of German materialism.

Self-test questions

(first level of material reproduction)

1. Name the historical framework and main features of the German classical philosophy.

2. What are the features of Kant’s philosophy of the pre-critical and critical periods?

3. What is the essence of the basic laws of dialectics formulated by Hegel?

German classical philosophy is a significant stage in the development philosophical thought and human culture. She is presented philosophical creativity Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling (1775-1854), Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872).

Each of these philosophers created his own philosophical system, distinguished by a wealth of ideas and concepts. At the same time, German classical philosophy represents a single spiritual formation, which is characterized by the following general features:

1. A unique understanding of the role of philosophy in the history of mankind, in the development of world culture. Classical German philosophers believed that philosophy was called upon to be the critical conscience of culture, the “confronting consciousness” that “sneers at reality,” the “soul” of culture.

2. Not only were they studied human history, but also human essence. Kant views man as a moral being. Fichte emphasizes the activity, effectiveness of human consciousness and self-awareness, and examines the structure of human life according to the requirements of reason. Schelling sets the task of showing the relationship between the objective and the subjective. Hegel expands the boundaries of the activity of self-consciousness and individual consciousness: for him, the individual’s self-consciousness correlates not only with external objects, but also with other self-consciousnesses, from which various social forms. He explores various forms in depth public consciousness. Feuerbach creates new uniform materialism - anthropological materialism, at the center of which is a really existing person, who is a subject for himself and an object for another person. For Feuerbach, the only real things are nature and man as part of nature.

3. All representatives of classical German philosophy treated philosophy as a special system of philosophical disciplines, categories, and ideas. I. Kant, for example, singles out epistemology and ethics as philosophical disciplines. Schelling – natural philosophy, ontology. Fichte, considering philosophy a “scientific teaching,” saw in it such sections as ontological, epistemological, and socio-political. Hegel created a broad system philosophical knowledge, which included the philosophy of nature, logic, philosophy of history, history of philosophy, philosophy of law, philosophy of morality, philosophy of religion, philosophy of the state, philosophy of the development of individual consciousness, etc. Feuerbach considered ontological, epistemological and ethical problems, as well as philosophical problems history and religion.

4. Classical German philosophy develops a holistic concept of dialectics.

Kantian dialectics is a dialectic of the boundaries and possibilities of human knowledge: feelings, reason and human reason.

Fichte's dialectics comes down to the study of the creative activity of the Self, to the interaction of the Self and the non-Self as opposites, on the basis of the struggle of which human self-awareness develops. Schelling transfers the principles of dialectical development developed by Fichte to nature. His nature is a becoming, developing spirit.

The great dialectician is Hegel, who presented a detailed, comprehensive theory of idealistic dialectics. For the first time he presented all natural, historical and spiritual world in the form of a process, that is, he studied it in continuous movement, change, transformation and development, contradictions, quantitative-qualitative and qualitative-quantitative changes, interruptions of gradualness, the struggle of the new with the old, directed movement. In logic, philosophy of nature, in the history of philosophy, in aesthetics, etc. - in each of these areas, Hegel sought to find a thread of development.

All classical German philosophy breathes dialectics. Special mention must be made of Feuerbach. Until recently, in Soviet philosophy, Feuerbach's assessment of Feuerbach's attitude to Hegel's dialectics was interpreted as Feuerbach's denial of any dialectics in general. However, this question should be divided into two parts: first, Feuerbach’s attitude not only to dialectics, but to Hegel’s philosophy in general; second - Feuerbach really, criticizing the Hegelian system objective idealism, “threw the baby out with the bathwater,” i.e., did not understand Hegel’s dialectic, its cognitive value and historical role.

However, Feuerbach himself does not avoid dialectics in his philosophical studies. He examines the connections of phenomena, their interactions and changes, the unity of opposites in the development of phenomena (spirit and body, human consciousness and material nature). He attempted to find the relationship between the individual and the social. Another thing is that anthropological materialism did not let him out of its “embraces,” although the dialectical approach when considering phenomena was not completely alien to it.

5. Classical German philosophy emphasized the role of philosophy in developing the problems of humanism and made attempts to comprehend human activity. This understanding took place in different forms and in different ways, but the problem was posed by all representatives this direction philosophical thought. Socially significant include: Kant’s study of the entire life activity of a person as a subject moral consciousness, its civil freedom, the ideal state of society and the real society with incessant antagonism between people, etc.; Fichte’s ideas about the primacy of the people over the state, consideration of the role of moral consciousness in human life, social world like the world private property, which is protected by the state; Hegel's doctrine of civil society, rule of law, private property; Schelling's reliance on reason as a means of realizing a moral goal; Feuerbach's desire to create a religion of love and humanistic ethics. This is the unique unity of the humanistic aspirations of representatives of classical German philosophy.

We can definitely say that representatives of classical German philosophy followed the Enlightenment of the 18th century. and above all by the French enlighteners, who proclaimed man the master of nature and spirit, asserting the power of reason, turning to the idea of ​​law historical process. At the same time, they were also exponents of the socio-economic, political and spiritual atmosphere that surrounded them directly and acted as their own being: feudal fragmentation Germany, the lack of national unity, the orientation of the developing bourgeoisie towards various compromises, since after the Great French Revolution it feared any revolutionary movement; desire to have strong monarchical power and military power.

It is this compromise that finds its philosophical justification in the works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Feuerbach. And although the latter is a representative of a different ideological orientation - materialistic, he also considers the solution social problems on the path of reform, promising in society civil peace and peace.

Classical German philosophy is one of the most important expressions of the spiritual culture of the 19th century.

Introduction

German classical philosophy spans more than a century. It is associated with the names of the great philosophers I. Kant (1724-1804), I.G. Fichte (1762-1814), F.W. Schelling (1775-1854), G.V. Hegel (1770-1831), L. Feuerbach (1804-1872).

Despite the fact that each of these thinkers is surprisingly unique, we can speak of German classical philosophy as a single, holistic entity, since it is distinguished by its commitment to a number of general principles.

Firstly, philosophers classified as German classical philosophy are united by a similar understanding of the role of philosophy in the history of mankind and culture. They believed that philosophy is called upon to critically comprehend the history of mankind.

Secondly, in the philosophical systems of German thinkers, a holistic, dialectical concept of development was developed, which makes it possible to study all spheres of human life.

Thirdly, German classical philosophy is characterized by a scientific-theoretical approach to the study of history, a rejection of its intuitive comprehension. Philosophers tried to highlight the patterns of historical development, which they understood as the principles of historical “reasonableness.”

All these principles developed on an idealistic basis.

Brief description of German classical philosophy

philosophy dialectics kant hegel

Classical German philosophy occupies a period of time from the middle of the 18th century. until the 70s of the nineteenth century. It is represented by five outstanding minds of mankind: I. Kant (1724-1804), I. Fichte (1762-1814), F. Schelling (1775-1854), G. Hegel (1770-1831), L. Feuerbach (1804-1872 ). The first two are most often classified as subjective idealists, the next two as objective idealists, and the last as materialists. Thus, German classical philosophy embraces all the main philosophical directions.

Classical German philosophy arose and developed in the general mainstream of Western European philosophy of the New Age. She discussed the same problems that were raised in the philosophical theories of F. Bacon, R. Descartes, D. Locke, J. Berkeley, D. Hume and others, and tried to overcome the shortcomings and one-sidedness of empiricism and rationalism, materialism and idealism, skepticism and logical optimism, etc. German philosophers strengthened the claims of reason for the possibility of knowing not only nature (I. Kant) and the human “I” (I. Fichte), but also the development of human history (G. Hegel). Hegel’s formula “What is rational is real; and what is real is rational” was precisely intended to show that the reality of reason can be comprehended by philosophy. Consequently, according to Hegel, philosophy is time comprehended in thought. Bacon also has a similar statement: “... it is correct to call truth the daughter of time, and not of authority” (16. Vol. 2. P. 46).

Classical German philosophy is a national philosophy. It reflects the features of the existence and development of Germany in the second half of the 18th century. and the first half of the 19th century: its economic backwardness in comparison with the developed countries of that time (Holland, England) and political fragmentation. The unsightly German reality gave rise to German dreaming, which was expressed in the rise of the German spirit, in the creation of philosophical theories and great literary works(I. Schiller, I. Goethe, etc.). Something similar happened in the middle of the 19th century. Russia, whose literature (L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov, etc.) rose above the Russian reality bound by the chains of feudalism. One can probably say that the rotten swamp of life gives rise to a spiritual thirst to crawl out of it and create, at least in dreams, a new social reality in a dry and beautiful place.

German philosophers are patriots of their fatherland, even if it does not correspond to their ideals. At the height of the war with France, when Napoleon's troops were stationed in Berlin (1808), Fichte, aware of the danger threatening him, delivered his “Speeches to the German Nation,” in which he sought to awaken the self-awareness of the German people against the occupiers. During the war of liberation against Napoleon, Fichte, along with his wife, devoted himself to caring for the wounded. Hegel, seeing all the ugliness of German reality, nevertheless declares that the Prussian state is built on reasonable principles. Justifying the Prussian monarchy, Hegel writes that the state in itself and for itself is a moral whole, the realization of freedom.

Classical German philosophy is contradictory, just as German reality itself is contradictory. Kant maneuvers between materialism and idealism; Fichte moves from the position of subjective to the position of objective idealism; Hegel, justifying German reality, writes with admiration about the French Revolution as the rising of the sun.

Thus, German classical philosophy covers a relatively short period. Nevertheless, for a number of reasons it represents the pinnacle of philosophical development that could be achieved at that time, and thereby the pinnacle of pre-Marxist philosophy in general. Let's list at least some of them positive points. Kant's philosophy completes poetic (noema, noesis. - Trans.) philosophy. In Kant's philosophy, a theoretical reflection of the reflection of human freedom and equality in the period before the French Revolution found its expression. In German classical philosophy we find the beginnings of the “philosophy of the active side” in Fichte, the foundations of natural speculation in Schelling, his concept of the “dynamic process” in nature, close to materialist dialectics, Hegel’s dialectical concept, close to reality and at the same time thanks to its idealism is far from it. Beginning with Herder, German philosophy introduced historicism into the study of society and thereby rejected the ahistorical and mechanistic concepts of the previous era.

Post-Kantian philosophy introduces a serious critique of agnosticism and the entire previous poetic position. In Hegel's philosophy, the laws of not only objective but also subjective dialectics are developed.

The flip side of these positive results is the ideological statement of most philosophers in idealism. This tendency is associated with a number of circumstances that lie in the concept of idealism, where a strictly scientific explanation is not required when formulating new discoveries, ideas, and theories. The materialist position places great demands on the accuracy of presentation and the rigor of formulation, which presupposes a certain time period. The idealism of German classical philosophy is associated with pushing a concept to absurd results in defiance of experience or empirical evidence. The economic and political weakness of the German bourgeoisie played a role in this, which led to Germany experiencing its existence more in theory than in practice.

The next point that explains the predominance of the idealistic position in German classical philosophy is associated with the development of philosophy after Descartes. In contrast to the ontological position of ancient and medieval philosophy as insufficiently substantiated, Descartes emphasized the idea that the most essential point from which philosophy must begin is the certainty of the knowing Self itself. Within this tradition, a number of modern philosophers place greater emphasis on the subject, than on an object, and the question of the nature of knowledge is given preference over the question of the nature of being. Kant's philosophy also reveals a similar privileged position of the subject. Although in the subsequent speculative phase of the development of philosophy (Schelling, Hegel) there is a transition to an ontological position, the former poetic priority of the subject is projected onto the concept of the foundations of all reality.

It is less known that a characteristic feature of this idealism was pantheism (it is characteristic of Fichte, Schelling classical period and Hegel). Kant gave impetus to development with his criticism of metaphysical ideas (God, soul, the idea of ​​world integrity). Another reason for this orientation is the so-called Spinoza debate, caused by the book of F.-G. Jacobi (1743--1819) “On the Teachings of Spinoza,” published in 1785. The discussion aimed at rehabilitating Spinoza’s philosophy is one of the milestones of the progressive spiritual development in Germany at that time. Herder participated in the Spinoza debate with his treatise “God” (1787), in which he tried to modernize Spinozism (replacing “prevalence” with “organic forces”, for which he rather serves as a model Living being than a physical object). In contrast to Jacobi's atheistic interpretation of Spinoza, Herder defends a pantheistic concept of God with some personal traits (wisdom, providence). Spinoza's discussion shows that post-Kantian philosophy also included those philosophical trends in Germany that developed independently of Kant.

Socially, German philosophy is evidence of the ideological awakening of the “third estate” of Germany. The economic immaturity and political weakness of the German bourgeoisie, the territorial fragmentation of Germany left their mark on it. At the same time, German philosophy used the results of the development of philosophical thought in Italy, France, England and Holland. This point is very positive.

The significance of German classical philosophy was partly devalued by the idealistic form, which later became fatal for it. At the same time, it contributed - despite its non-specific, mystifying nature, which excluded a strict causal analysis of the phenomena under study - to the fact that the reflection of new scientific knowledge and the impact of social development occurred so timely that, as they say, it instantly responded to new incentives.

, Karl Marx, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein to modern philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas.

Story

Middle Ages

The origin of German philosophy dates back to the High Middle Ages, when universities appeared in Germany (Cologne and Heidelberg). One of the first forms of philosophical thought in Germany was scholasticism, represented by Albertus Magnus and gravitating towards the realistic direction. In addition to scholasticism, medieval philosophy in Germany was represented by mysticism (Meister Eckhart), which determined the pantheistic and intuitionistic features of German philosophy for many centuries.

Reformation

The teachings of Martin Luther had a huge influence on the development of German thought (including the views of his opponents). Its key philosophical work is the treatise “On the Slavery of the Will”. Being theological in form, the treatise, however, tries to give answers about the role and place of man in contemporary society, which was a break with the previous purely theological tradition.

Education

19th century

German idealism

The three most prominent German idealists were Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. However, it is necessary to distinguish between subjective idealism (from the listed philosophers - Kant, Fichte, Schelling) and objective (Hegel). Hegel's views are radically different from those of other German idealists due to differences in logic. At the beginning of his career, Hegel was very seriously engaged in ancient Greek philosophy, especially the logic of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates and Plato. Hegel revived their logic and presented it as a complete system in his Science of Logic. He believed that at the basis of everything that exists is the Absolute Spirit, which only due to its infinity can achieve true knowledge of itself. For self-knowledge he needs manifestation. The self-revelation of the Absolute Spirit in space is nature; self-disclosure in time - history. The philosophy of history occupies an important part of Hegel's philosophy. History is driven by contradictions between national spirits, which are the thoughts and projections of the Absolute Spirit. When the Absolute Spirit's doubts disappear, it will come to the Absolute Idea of ​​Itself, and history will end and the Kingdom of Freedom will begin. Hegel is considered the most difficult philosopher to read (due to the complexity of his logic), so ideas may have been attributed to him that were misunderstood or mistranslated.

Karl Marx and the Young Hegelians

Among those influenced by Hegel's teachings were a group of young radicals who called themselves Young Hegelians. They were unpopular because of their radical views on religion and society. Among them were philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer and Max Stirner.

XIX-XX centuries

Windelband, Wilhelm

Dilthey, Wilhelm

Rickert, Heinrich

Simmel, Georg

Spengler, Oswald

XX century

Vienna Circle

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of German philosophers called the “Vienna Circle” was formed. This association served as the ideological and organizational core for the creation of logical positivism. Its participants also adopted a number of Wittgenstein’s ideas - the concept of logical analysis of knowledge, the doctrine of the analytical nature of logic and mathematics, criticism of traditional philosophy as “metaphysics” devoid of scientific meaning. Wittgenstein himself disagreed with the members of the Vienna Circle about the interpretation of Aristotle's philosophy.

Phenomenology

Phenomenology defined its task as an unpremised description of the experience of cognitive consciousness and the identification of essential, ideal features in it. The founder of the movement was Edmund Husserl; immediate predecessors include Franz Brentano and Karl Stumpf [ ] . The identification of pure consciousness presupposes preliminary criticism

German classical philosophy of the 18th–19th centuries

German classical philosophy is a stage in the development of philosophy, represented by the following trends.

1. Dualism(Kant) views cognition as an activity proceeding according to its own laws. The specificity of the knowing subject is the main factor that determines the method of cognition and constructs the subject of knowledge. In the subject itself, Kant distinguishes two levels: empirical (individual psychological characteristics of a person) and transcendental (universal definitions of a person as such).

2. Subjective-idealistic movement(Fichte) presupposes the existence of a certain absolute subject, which is endowed with endless active activity and which creates the world. The original “I” is the moral activity of consciousness. From it flows a separate “I” - a limited human subject, to which nature opposes. Rational knowledge, according to Fichte, occurs through direct contemplation of truth by the mind, or “intellectual intuition.” In ethics, the central question is the question of freedom, which is seen not as an uncaused act, but as an action based on the knowledge of an immutable necessity.

3. Objective idealism(Schelling, Hegel). Schelling sought to show that all of nature as a whole can be explained using the principle of purposiveness that underlies life. In Schelling's natural philosophy, the Neoplatonic idea of ​​the World Soul was revived, permeating all cosmic elements and ensuring the unity and integrity of natural existence, universal connection natural phenomena. Hegel argued that the origin of the many from the one is the subject rational knowledge, whose instrument is logical thinking, and the main form is the concept. The basis of rational knowledge is logic, and the engine is contradiction.

4. Materialism(Feuerbach) arose as a reaction to Hegel's idealism. Feuerbach's focus is on man as a unity of soul and body. Criticizing abstract thinking, Feuerbach believes that only what is given through the senses has true reality. Feuerbach rejects the possibility of purely abstract knowledge with the help of reason.

Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the founder of German classical philosophy. Credibility scientific knowledge Kant justifies it as objective knowledge. Objectivity is identified with universality and necessity, that is, in order for knowledge to be reliable, it must have the features of universality and necessity. The objectivity of knowledge, according to Kant, is determined by the structure of the transcendental subject, its supra-individual qualities and properties. The knowing subject by nature has some innate, pre-experimental forms of approach to reality that cannot be derived from reality itself: space, time, forms of reason.

Space and time, according to Kant, are not forms of existence of things that exist independently of our consciousness, but, on the contrary, are subjective forms of human sensibility, initially inherent in man as a representative of humanity. Space is an innate, pre-experimental form of internal feeling (or external contemplation). Time is an innate form of inner feeling (or inner contemplation). Reason is a cognitive ability, thinking that operates with concepts and categories.

Reason, according to Kant, performs the function of bringing diverse sensory material, organized with the help of pre-experimental forms of contemplation, under the unity of concepts and categories. It is not the object that is the source of knowledge about it in the form of concepts and categories, but, on the contrary, the forms of reason of the concept and categories construct the object, and therefore are consistent with our knowledge about them. We can only know what we ourselves have created, says I. Kant.

So, reason organizes a person’s perceptions, brings them under universal and necessary forms, and thus determines the objectivity of knowledge. What then creates the possibility for such activity of the mind? What unites all concepts and categories into integrity, what brings them into action? Kant answers these questions unambiguously: all this is reduced to the characteristics of the subject.

Kant's theory of knowledge can be represented as follows: there are “things in themselves”, through the channels of the senses, the form of sensuality and reason, they become the property of the subject’s consciousness, and he can make certain conclusions about them. Kant called things, as they exist in the consciousness of the subject, “appearances.” A person knows about things only in the form in which they are given to his consciousness, but what their qualities and properties of their relationships are outside the consciousness of the subject, a person does not know and cannot know.

Kant limited the cognitive capabilities of the subject to the world of “appearances.” Only the world of experience is accessible to the forms of sensuality and reason. Everything that is beyond experience, the intelligible world, can only be accessible to reason. Reason is the highest ability of the subject, which guides the activity of the mind and sets goals for it. The mind operates with ideas, and ideas are ideas about the goal to which our knowledge strives, about the tasks that it sets for itself. Proof that the idea of ​​reason cannot correspond to a real object, that reason rests on imaginary ideas, is Kant’s doctrine of the antimonies of reason. Antimonies are contradictory, mutually exclusive provisions. Antimonies occur where, with the help of finite human reason, they try to draw conclusions not about the measure of experience, but about the world of “things in themselves.” The world of “things in themselves” is closed to theoretical reason and science. However, this does not mean that this world is inaccessible to man. Kant put forward a new concept of the subject. Based on this concept, he divided existence into the natural world and the human world. Man, according to Kant, is an inhabitant of two worlds: the sensually perceived and the intelligible. The sensory world is the natural world. The intelligible world is a world of freedom. In the sphere of freedom, it is not theoretical, but practical reason that operates, since its main purpose is to guide human actions. Driving force This mind is the will, which is determined not by external causes, natural necessity or divine will, but by its own law, which it sets before itself.

Philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte

J. G. Fichte (1762–1814) set himself the task of overcoming the Kantian dualism of theoretical and practical reason, “things in themselves” and “phenomena.” Kant's principle of autonomy of the will, according to which practical reason establishes its own law, turns into Fichte's universal principle of his entire system. From the principle of practical reason of freedom, he seeks to derive the theoretical reason of knowledge of nature. Cognition in Fichte's system is only a subordinate moment of a single, practically moral action, and Fichte's philosophical system is built on the recognition of the active, practically active essence of man. Fichte strives to find a common basis for the spiritual world of the “I” and the surrounding person outside world, tries to justify the existence and define all “not I”.

Fichte emphasizes the priority of the human subjective-active principle over nature. Nature, according to Fichte, does not exist on its own, but for the sake of something else, namely, in order to create the possibility of self-realization of the “I”. On the one hand, “I” is a specific individual, with his inherent will and thinking, and on the other hand, “I” is humanity as a whole, that is, the absolute “I”. The relationship between the individual “I” and the absolute “I” characterizes, according to Fichte, the process of human mastery environment. The individual and absolute “I,” according to Fichte, sometimes coincide and are identified, sometimes they fall apart and differ. The ideal of all movement and development is to achieve the coincidence of the individual and absolute “I”, but achieving this ideal is completely impossible, because it would lead to the cessation of activity, which, according to Fichte, is absolute. And therefore, all human history is only an approximation to the ideal.

Fichte justified the existence of all “not I” by the legal principle of recognition of “I”: a citizen of a state recognizes the existence of other “I”. The presence of many free individuals served, according to Fichte, as a condition for the possibility of the existence of the “I” itself as a rational, free being.

Philosophy of Friedrich Schelling

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) developed Fichte's ideas. In his teaching, the opposition between the world of nature as the world of phenomena and the world of freedom as the subjective, active “I” is overcome on the basis of the doctrine of their identity, that is, the identity of subject and object. The absolute object, associated in Fichte with the individual “I,” in Schelling’s system turns into the divine principle of the world, the absolute identity of subject and object, the point of “indifference” of both of them.

Schelling considered the emergence of such definitions as a “creative act,” which is the subject of a special kind of irrational knowledge of intellectual intuition, which is a unity of conscious and unconscious activity. Such intuition, according to Schelling, is not available to all mortals, but is given only to especially gifted people, geniuses. Intellectual intuition, according to Schelling, is the highest form of philosophical creativity and serves as the instrument on the basis of which the very development of identity is possible.

Schelling sought to show that all of nature as a whole can be explained using the principle of purposiveness that underlies life. He tried to study nature from the point of view of development from simple to complex. For him, nature develops from the inorganic world to the organic. Schelling believed that nature is not just an object, but a carrier of the unconscious life of the mind. He relies on the dialectical method of cognition and develops a dialectical picture of the world. Schelling emphasizes expediency at the heart of life.

The world soul ensures the unity of nature and its expediency in development. In nature there is a struggle between opposing forces. In Schelling's natural philosophy, the Neoplatonic idea of ​​the World Soul was revived, permeating all cosmic elements and ensuring the unity and integrity of natural existence, the universal connection of natural phenomena.

Philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

G. Hegel (1770–1831) tries to resolve the problem of the identity of subject and object, thinking and being on the basis of substantiating the identity of the individual and absolute “I”. This is possible only through the progressive development of consciousness, during which individual consciousness goes through all the stages that humanity has gone through throughout its history. In the process of upbringing and education, each person, according to Hegel, becomes able to look at the world and at himself from the point of view of the completed world history, the “world spirit.” Therefore, the opposition of subject and object is removed and absolute identity, the identity of thinking and being, is achieved.

The movement of consciousness, according to Hegel, is an ascent from the abstract to the concrete. Each subsequent stage includes all the previous ones, reproducing them at a new, higher level.

The first stage is consciousness: at this stage the object confronts the person “I” as an external reality; consciousness is contemplative (sensory perceptions, forms of reason). The second stage is self-consciousness: practically acting, desiring and striving consciousness. The highest level is “spirit”: consciousness comprehends the spiritual reality of the world and itself as an expression of this reality.

Each of these stages of development of individual consciousness correlates with certain stages and forms of development of human culture and spiritual life: morality, science, law, religion, etc.

Hegel sought to embrace the entire universe, the entire natural and spiritual world, with a single concept. For Hegel, such a concept is the “Absolute Idea” - this is reason, thinking, rational thinking.

In the process of self-development, the “Absolute Idea” goes through various stages in the form of a consistent movement from the abstract general definitions to definitions enriched with specific content.

The basis for self-disclosure of the “Absolute Idea” is logic – the scientific and theoretical awareness of the “Absolute Idea”. A necessary means The development of the “Absolute Idea” is nature, which God created for the purpose that man and the human spirit would arise from it.

Hegel gave a generalized dialectical analysis of all the most important categories of philosophy and formed three basic laws.

1. The law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones . Categories: quality, quantity, measure. Quality is the internal certainty of an object, a phenomenon that characterizes an object or phenomenon as a whole and is determined through its property. Quantity is a certainty external to existence, something relatively indifferent to a particular thing. For example: a house remains what it is, no matter whether it becomes larger or smaller. Measure is the unity of qualitative and quantitative certainty of an object.

Not every, but only certain quantitative values ​​belong to quality.

2. The Law of the Interpenetration of Opposites. Hegel operates with categories: identity, difference, opposites, contradictions. Identity expresses the equality of an object to itself or several objects to each other. Difference is the relation of inequality of an object to itself or objects to each other. Opposition is the relationship of such aspects of an object or objects with each other that are fundamentally different from each other. Contradiction is a process of interpenetration and mutual negation of opposites.

Opposites in any form of their concrete unity are in a state of continuous movement and such interaction among themselves that leads to their mutual transitions into each other, to the development of interpenetrating opposites, mutually presupposing each other and at the same time fighting, denying each other.

3. The law of negation reflects the overall result and direction of the development process.

Denial is the unity of three main points: overcoming the old, continuity in development, and affirmation of the new. The negation of negation in a double form includes these three moments and characterizes the cyclical nature of development, which Hegel associated with the passage of three stages in the process of development: a statement or position (thesis), negation or opposition of this statement (antithesis) and negation of negation, the removal of opposites (synthesis). ).

Philosophy of Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach

Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804–1872) was the first German philosopher to make an extensive critique of idealism. He said that the basis of philosophy is knowledge, the desire to reveal the real nature of things. The primary task of philosophy is to criticize and expose religion. To free yourself from religious delusions, it is necessary to understand that man is not a creation of God, but a part of eternal nature. It is no coincidence that Feuerbach's materialism is interpreted as anthropological. It differs significantly from the materialism of the 18th century, since it does not reduce all reality to mechanical movement and views nature not as a mechanism, but rather as an organism.

Feuerbach's focus is not on the abstract concept of soul and body, but on man as a psychophysical unity. Spirit and body are two sides of that reality called the organism. Human nature interpreted primarily biologically. In the theory of knowledge, Feuerbach acts as a sensualist, believing that sensation is the only source of our knowledge. Feuerbach's anthropological materialism arises as a reaction to idealism and, above all, to the teachings of Hegel, in which the dominance of the universal over the one was exaggerated. Feuerbach defended the natural biological principle in man.

Feuerbach's famous book “The Essence of Christianity,” written in 1841, was already a real triumph of materialist philosophy. The philosopher defined the purpose of this book as “reducing religion to anthropology.” He writes that his first thought was God, his second was reason, and his third and last was man. Feuerbach is not interested in the idea of ​​humanity, but a real man. Theism is unacceptable, because it is not God who creates man, but man who creates God. In this work, Feuerbach proclaimed materialism and atheism, recognized that nature exists independently of consciousness, that it is the basis on which man grew up, that there is nothing outside nature and man, and that the divine being created by religion is only a fantastic reflection of human essence.

Philosophy of K. Marx and F. Engels

Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) considered man to be a part of nature and its product. The specificity of human existence, the difference between man and animal in their relationship to the material world and nature are manifested in work. Man deals not only with objects of nature, he necessarily uses tools, a system of knowledge and other products of human activity.

One of the most important discoveries made by K. Marx and F. Engels is the materialist understanding of history. Ideas and theories cannot serve as the causes of historical changes in reality; they only reflect objective reality and can be applied only when favorable opportunities are created in this reality.

Based on the materialist concept of history, Marx and Engels formed the doctrine of ideology. Ideology reflects the actual contradictions of the historical process, but in those manifestations when alienation reigns, when real relations are turned upside down.

The main fundamental principle of the philosophical system of Marx and Engels is the principle of practice. Practice is the process of labor in the unity of socio-historical conditions, its functioning and is of a social nature.

The goal of cognitive efforts is to achieve truth. Truth is the correspondence of thought, our knowledge about the world, to the world itself, to objective activity. Marx and Engels

taught that any truth is objective. Absolute truth unattainable, since the world is endless and inexhaustible.

Practical verification of the truth of knowledge can take many forms in accordance with the characteristics of those areas of knowledge that require verification. This form can be the direct implementation of a plan in natural and social reality. In science, the form of practical testing is experiment. An experiment is a form of material interaction of things, in which they artificially become a person in certain relationships, and on the basis of these relationships, their certain properties are revealed.

Topic 9. German classical philosophy I. KANT...Existence is not a real object, in other words, it is not a concept of something that could be added to the concept of a thing. It is only the positing of a thing or certain determinations in itself. In logical application it