Neo-Kantianism

Kantianism is initiated mainly by Otto Liebmann and Friedrich Albert Lange philosophical movement, which is aimed at appealing to the transcendental logic and epistemological writings of Immanuel Kant against materialism.

Here, the demand was made again to go back directly to Immanuel Kant and develop a philosophy that satisfied the requirements of the then modern science. It is characteristic of the neo-Kantianism also the newly awakened interest in retribution theoretical justification of the humanities and the interest in a philosophical justification of political theory. Thus provides about the Marburg neo-Kantianism, the theoretical basis for the revisionism of Eduard Bernstein and the Austro-Marxism Max Adler. Also in the field of Russian philosophy of the early 20th century neo-Kantianism had a considerable importance as he held the middle ground between orthodox mystical metaphysics and atheistic materialism.

Formation

For the emergence of neo-Kantianism in particular is the front position between science and religion in the 19th century of great importance. By the science postulated the primacy of the material before the spiritual, she spoke of religion from any legitimate intelligence and thus committed a general attack on the mind, which escalated in 1854 in materialism dispute. In this popular scientific debate of the Göttingen physiologist Rudolf Wagner defended Christianity as the spiritual foundation of science, while the Giessener zoologist Carl Vogt regarded the matter as a precondition for the existence of the spiritual. In the years that followed the armed materialism expanded with the publication of Charles Darwin's " Origin of Species " (1859 ) almost to a " world-view fight," from where the entire Christian world view should be replaced by a radically materialistic.

At the same time to materialism dispute there was the whole speculative idealist philosophy as a result of the events of the pre-March period in the crisis, which caused the success of the progressive nature of science and materialism associated with it, which in turn sought to overcome that speculative Hegelian system thinking. Neo-Kantianism went out that very opposition produced to the materialistic dominated zeitgeist and overcame not only the crisis of idealistic philosophy, but also the radical materialism: As he realized an epistemological method to put into perspective by a critical epistemology the absolute claim of materialism, has the neo-Kantian defused the ideological battle and sent to academic manner shelved. Since the scientific knowledge of matter over a realm of the Spirit guarantees that is not absorbed in matter, put the West German neo-Kantian Wilhelm diaper tape a division of the world into a " world of spirit " ( humanities ) as idiographic science and a " world of nature "( natural science ) as a nomothetic science through. As a result of this logic to be used today can not collide with each other because they differ in the method of gaining knowledge humanities and natural science.

Kant's philosophy had been pushed into the background in the first 30 years of the 19th century idealism. Only Arthur Schopenhauer, whose philosophy, however, little attention has been paid at this time (1819 ), sat down in the first edition of his main work The World as Will and Representation in critical- expanding manner with the epistemology of Immanuel Kant apart. A year after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Eduard Beneke had with the writing " Kant and the philosophical issues of our time" ( 1832) a second - did step in recollection - but quite square - critical. Christian Hermann Weisse 1847 held a speech entitled " In what sense Kant has to orient the German philosophy now and again ." Jakob Friedrich Fries also had strong relation to Kant.

Representative

The actual beginning of neo-Kantianism is connected with the name Friedrich Albert Lange, Otto Liebmann, Eduard Zeller and Hermann von Helmholtz. Lange had criticized in detail and decidedly this position in his " History of Materialism " (1866 ). Liebmann had rejected each German Idealism, the realism of Johann Friedrich Herbart, the empiricism of science, philosophical represented approximately by Jakob Friedrich Fries and the transcendental philosophy of Schopenhauer in his " Kant and the epigones " (1865 ) in four sections and end of each chapter as recorded a battle cry: " on Kant must be returned ."

Helmholtz as a leading scientist exposed against materialism. In a speech in 1877 he said:

Other factors of influence were the historians of philosophy Kuno Fischer, who joined the criticism with Fichte's idealism, and Jürgen Bona Meyer with his work " Kant's Psychology " (1870 ).

Since 1875, the term of Kantianism is also used in the literature. As a particularly outstanding representatives of the Marburg school as well as the Southwest German School (Heidelberg ) apply. There were also some independent philosopher, summarized under the heading of criticism.

Marburg School

Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) is considered the founder of the so-called Marburg school, which was heavily mathematically oriented science -oriented. He criticized psychologism from the Kantian point of view. That there is an independent knowledge of the psyche, can be explained from the fact that mathematics exists independently of the subject in textbooks. Accordingly, the knowledge can not be based only on a subject. In terms of Kant Cohen developed after a first philological representation over time an independent position, the more likely occupied the idealistic point of view, and especially not concepts, but judgments based laid as the basis of human thought. Even Paul Natorp (1854-1924) dealt primarily with the logical foundations of the exact sciences. However, he rejected the existence of a thing from itself and independent of the mind views. At the Marburg school included, inter alia, Karl forelands, with a focus on the philosophy of history in connection with Marxism, and Rudolf Stammler, which dealt primarily with social and legal philosophical issues as well as international law Schücking Walther (1875-1935), the ansetzte in Kant's idea of ​​peace and exerted a decisive influence on the development of the peace international and constitutional law in the 20th century.

Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) is not only near the tradition of the Marburg school, on the other hand already fully attributed in age and the inclusion of the philosophy of language issues such as the question of the meaning and the philosophy of symbolic forms of the 20th century. For him, not only the categories granted a relation to the world, but several distinct symbolic forms, such as language, religion, art, technology, history and law.

Southwest German school

In contrast, the West German Badische or school of neo-Kantianism is a philosophy based on the values ​​. Main representatives were William diaper band (1848-1915) and Heinrich Rickert ( 1863-1936 ). Diaper band saw in philosophy, especially the theory of universal values ​​, namely the truth in thought, goodness in the will and action and the beauty in feeling. He distinguished in principle between history and science. Kant to understand for diaper band is called to go beyond him. Rickert emphasized the difference between culture and natural science and developed his own philosophy of value.

Critical philosophy

In addition to fixed schools were among the other representatives of criticism among others Robert Reininger (1869-1955), the work on the psychophysical problem and the value of philosophy published and Alois Riehl ( 1844-1924 ).

For Riehl 's philosophy was not philosophical doctrine, but above all criticism of knowledge. It was for him Kant insofar continue writing, as recent findings of natural science and mathematics (eg, non- Euclidean geometry) are involved with what he thought was possible in principle. Later representatives of criticism are similar to Cassirer actually attributed to the 20th century, but come from the neo-Kantian movement.

Hans Vaihingen (1852-1933) is known as a commentator on the Critique of Pure Reason and the founder of the Kant-Studien. His philosophy of " as if" is attributable to the pragmatism due to the concept of truth used. Knowledge comes about due to hypothetical fictions. My truth is based on the practical life value. An objective truth, however, is not possible.

The fundamental philosophy of Richard Hönigswald (1875-1947), a disciple Alois Riehl, are the two basic problems, the given ' and one general methodology ' of human cognition. In contrast to the Marburg school his studies of the thing in itself based on psychological considerations in mind, in which he describes a relationship between consciousness and object. This language is necessary for consciousness, and only through language, the objectivity of an object is established.

Erich Kaufmann (1880-1972) accused the neo-Kantianism of quite philosophical point of view, the positive empiricism oppose any objective metaphysics, but rather to flee before the multiplicity of reality into abstract, yet merely formal, one-dimensional conceptions. At the same time he joined in this turning away now on the flow of neo-Hegelianism.

Leonard Nelson (1882-1927) builds in his philosophical work on as well as in its political and social commitment to both frieze as the Marburg School, but without her directly belonging.

Current reception

The current Neukantianismusforschung asks from three different perspectives according to the "unity of neo-Kantianism ," on the one hand is the basic theme of the neo-Kantian self, on the other hand also a historical sociology of knowledge and a culture result size.

First of all, taking the research from an inner view diaper, the question of the neo-Kantians themselves on, which dealt a result of the Kantian synthesis with the unit problem, think about the "unity of consciousness and reason " as a prerequisite for the " unity of experience ".

In addition to the more sensitive of the central theme, and thus the Neokantianism genuinely inherent self-understanding, the research in a second historical- sociological perspective on the one hand with the specification of neo-Kantianism, which goes beyond the two established flows of Marburg and Southwest German school concerned, and problematizes the other hand, its membership criteria. This perspective is thus characterized by the construction of a differentiated internal perspective, in turn, is interviewed by an outside perspective on their unity towards: An Internal differentiation of neo-Kantianism borders a physiological orientation ( Helmholtz, Lange) from both a metaphysical ( Liebmann, Volkelt ), realistic ( Riehl ) and logicist (Cohen, Natorp, Cassirer ) from, as well as a value- theoretical- criticist ( diaper band, Rickert, Münsterberg ), relativistic ( Simmel ) and a psychological expression (Fries and Neufriessche school). Hence, these Neokantianism inherent diversity raises the question of an all currents common criterion for membership in the neo-Kantianism on ("What is within the neo-Kantian ?") And requires both differentiation markers outside ( " What is outside of neo-Kantianism ").

The third perspective is a cultural philosophy that focuses on the unity of the philosophical and scientific efforts in the 19th century. Since the neo-Kantianism was eager to entangle the Kantian reason culture with the actual cultural perception of the 19th century, the neo-Kantianism is awarded to a contemporary historical motivation, with the emergence of a concept of culture or - awareness was closely, posing as historical time concept of the supra-historical of German idealism demarcated.