Intro to German Idealism (1/2)

Introduction to Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Goethe, and Hegel

Part 1 of 2

[jan]

I'm only at the beginning of the video and noticed again: You really should invest some pence into audio equipment; it's worth it when you express yourself so meticulously. It really doesn't cost much and has a great impact on hearing experience!

[kentbye]

This is an amazing lecture Matthew. I love how you spatialized & diagram out these concepts as I think it helps to conceptualize the evolution of ideas & fundamental differences in their concepts. You're a great teacher, and I'm looking forward to part 2!

[nigelhunter]

This is a superb introduction into German Idealism in which some very deep and difficult concepts are explained in a truly excellent way. Incredibly helpful.
Thanks Matthew from UK.

[oyinbocele]

Respect! I have never seen a German who was able to give such a simple presentation of these complex correlations. Simple but not simplified, to express myself clearly.

[jayarava]

I'm enjoying this so far. One thing I notice, and from other online presentations by Matthew, is that from Fichte onwards, the Idealists were very obviously influenced by ideas found in the Upaniṣads. For example the idea of that philosophy is grounded in "I am" seems very much to take the Upaniṣadic view.

[Harmonic_shift]

Thank you so much, this is fantastic explanation into terms the laymen can understand.

[galacticguardian]

I lost it when the tree grew its roots literally outside Kants senses

[blablabla]

So, maybe we could say, for Fichte - because he (over)emphasized or "absolutized" (as Matt put it) a Kantian critique of practical reason, intermixed with his founding idea of the "I-ness" (I-ness because, lack of "substance" or "thing") as the dynamic axiomatic first principle, which has quality as primary as opposed to a Newtonian quantity as primary - that the Cartesian cogito-ergo-sum statement had had it backwards: that "I am (doing) therefore I think" is essential to the shifting I-hood and its foundation of an active, mercurial consciousness which always transcends fixed terminology or systems thinking.

This said verbosity of the humanizing will therefore always throws categorical thinking into flux, co-terminus only with its own capacity for positing new ways of (re)positing; Fichte's I-ness is the potential Kantian Newton of the blade of grass as of yet unrealized/untapped, just as Manhattan had once been a swampy bog wetland before it was concretized, gridded and over-humanized.

Funny how Fichte's logic is almost like Schopenhauer's idea of the will to life, ever-groping and reaching outward inexorably, never fixed or terminal in its scope by innate moral categories or universal platonic realms; except, this is seen in a pejorative light as a kind of cancer in Schopenhauer's mind, whereas for Fichte it is celebrated honorific. The Manhattanization of nature is a Fichtean success, as its obvious downsides would simply be rationalized or posited as a process, a glass and steel and fiber-optic cocooning of the I-becoming amid landfills and gentrification and over-caffeination, a quality or state that need not be thingized (which technically avoids the pitfall of solipsism, but not by much..), and which is always morphing into new human posits made actual, a sort of electrical I-ed up Newtonian grass blade limited only by its own set limitations, to Kant's dismay were he alive today.

Another interesting thing to consider is that the media-centric understanding that "reality is created, crafted, " rather than something that is outside the human realm of activity as a subjectivity granted to all living things, also resonates deeply in the halls of Fichtean logic. I wonder if Bernays read a lot of Fichte...?

I suppose this is where Shelling will come in as much needed relief from the overactive humanism of Fichte, seeing subjectivity in organismic life as well. Looking forward to Part 2!

Edit:

Of course, Schopenhauer's Will, while attainable through introspection, was irrational and devoid of aim or intellect - so he differs from Fichte in this sense. But S's Will is like the Fichtean I in the sense that they both are idealist, and they both emphasize dynamic action and flux as opposed to otherworldly static categories or thing-like substances reflecting universals. In a way, both S and F have affinities with Heraclitus, where nothing endures but change, flux.

[TerexJ]

Thanks for uploading your lecture, man. It's much appreciated.

[patternsinchaos]

I don't have the background with the texts to speak to the degree of your apprehension of these bodies, but I can't image someone better suited intellectually. I greatly appreciate your work and luminosity, Professor Segal.

[RJH]

Great lecture, Schopenhauer should be part of this though

[patternsinchaos]

There is a subtle resonance between the imperative of internally guided freedom sought by Kant and Fichte as it challenges our culture today. The modern machinery imposes its will on the individual with no regard for what is lost in the process, nor its divine consequences. This aspect is as pertinent today as ever.

[polas]

Great job, easy to understand, will watch part 2

[adam]

Are you a professor now? I just came back to your channel again from a video I watched back in 2008 about primary vs. secondary qualities.

[cmiguel]

interesting video, but, was it filmed in a car park?

[anneallison]

What is the relation of this with vitalism?

[adopto]

It's interesting to point that the Hebrew word "davar/dabar" (since you've mentioned Goethe's "In the beginning was the deed/act") which was used in the opening sentence of the Old Testament, has multiple meanings, second most prominent of which is "act/deed".

So in some sense, Goethe's opening sentence is just a rereading or reinterpreting of the original one.

However, really appreciating these series, thanks for 'em!

[hopelessstrlstfan]

Can anyone tell me what the California Institute of .... Is? The California Institute of Technology? Or something? I liked the talk. He is a student doing a presentation for a Prof? We hear Prof, he's the guy in the background giving guidance, right?

[patternsinchaos]

"Something about being really cold." Yep. "Abstract mental exercises." Indeed. "In what furnace was thy brain?" - "Warming his hands by the fire."

[trimasael]

I always include Schopenhauer inside the german idealism school of thought. He definitely belongs to that movement.