FRIEDRICH HEINRICH JACOBI AND THE ENDS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT:
Religion, Philosophy, and Reason at the Crux of Modernity
PUBLICATION | FEBRUARY 2023 | CAMBRIDGE
Despite his great importance, the Anglophone world has been very slow to appreciate Jacobi. Now, with Alexander Hampton’s excellent anthology, we can say that it has finally got up to speed. This volume contains first-rate articles by some fifteen specialists on every aspect of Jacobi’s thought; it is indispensable for every student of Jacobi and German idealism.
Frederick C. Beiser, Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University.
Jacobi held a position of unparalleled importance in the so-called ‘golden age’ of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century intellectual history. Yet despite this, his work has always posed a range of interpretative challenges that continue to hinder his reception to this day. Because of the range and style of his thought and its expression, disciplinary and interdisciplinary boundaries have limited the scope for a comprehensive presentation of his work and its legacy. The colloquium and publication which are the end of this project intends to evaluate Jacobi’s pivotal place in this period. This includes his role in bringing about the close of the Aufklärung through his critique of reason, his central part in shaping the reception of Kant’s critical philosophy and the subsequent development of German idealism, his effect on the development of Romanticism and religion through his emphasis on feeling, and his role in shaping the emergence of existentialism. The outcome of the colloquium will be the publication of an authoritative volume that will bring together major scholars on Jacobi and his period to produce an updated, authoritative resource for one of the most important but underappreciated figures in both German and European intellectual history.
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PURCHASE & ACCESS
Contents
Introduction / Jacobi: At the Crux of Modernity – Alexander J. B. Hampton
Part 1. The Critique of Reason: Debates on Rationalism, Empiricism, and Skepticism
1. Jacobi and Philosophy: Rationalism and Skepticism – Benjamin Crowe
2. Jacobi and Spinoza – Birgit Sandkaulen
3. Jacobi on the Nature of Mind and Intuitive Certainty – Brady Bowman
4. Jacobi and Kant: Freedom, Reason, Faith – James J. DiCenso
Part 2. Faith and Revelation: Debates on Theism, Atheism, and Nihilism
5. Theism and Christianity: Jacobi’s Argument and Dilemma – Ariberto Acerbi
6. The Jacobi–Schelling Debate – Sean J. McGrath
7. Jacobi’s Response to Religious Nihilism – Peter Jonkers
8. Jacobi and the German Protestant Tradition – Jörg Lauster
Part 3. Jacobi and the Revival of Socraticism: The Muenster Circle and Existentialism
9. Jacobi and Hemsterhuis – Daniel Whistler
10. Dioscuri: Hamann and Jacobi – John Betz
11. Jacobi and Kierkegaard – Anders Moe Rasmussen
Part 4. Jacobi’s Impact on Idealism and Romanticism
12. Jacobi and German Idealism – Ernst-Otto Onnash
13. Jacobi’s Philosophy of Faith in Fichte’s 1794 Wissenschaftslehre – David W. Wood
14. Jacobi and the Romantics – Alexander J. B. Hampton
15. Jacobi as Literary Author – George di Giovanni
Jacobi Sources
Index
Colloquium
The year 2019 was the two hundredth anniversary since Jacobi’s death. To mark this a colloquium, supported by the DAAD, SSHRC, and McGill School of Religious Studies, was held in Montréal, Canada, on 28-29 September, 2019. This volume is an outcome of that meeting.