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TOPIC 7

CLASSIC GERMAN PHILOSOPHY

Lecture 12. Idealistic systems of German classics

1. I. Kant – the forefather of classic German philosophy.

2. H. Hegel’s dialectics – the peak of philosophic culture.

As a question concerns the period of classical German philosophy,
it should be mentioned, that after reaching the bound of progressive

development in European idealistic systems, classical German idealism
has become connected with the traditions, that prevailed in the 17 – 18th
centuries. It concerned first of all the principles of rationalism and

domination of natural mind in a person.
Kant (1724-1804) - is the founder of German classic philosophy of
idealism, though in the first period of his creative work he acted as a
materialist. In fact, Kant’s acquaintance with David Hume changed his

previous views. Being the thinker of the 18th century I. Kant decided to
evaluate critically the ability of human cognition and on this basis he

made “Copernican revolution”, changing all his philosophy in this
direction. The period of his activity, known as “Critiques”, was
represented by such works as: “Critique of pure reason”, “Critique of
practical mind”, “Critique of the ability to judge”.

I. Kant strived for giving philosophical grounding of the
connection between natural processes and behavior of a man, his moral
ontology. The work “Critics of the practical mind” contains the whole

palette of studies, connected with the question of a man as a personality
(“a thing inside itself”) and a phenomenon of an empiric natural
individual. The students should pay attention to the main principles of
Kant`s philosophy concerning a human being. First of all to the fact that

the landmark of ethics should be born in mind, as the scientist speak
about the apriorism, in this case about the “clear moral will”, the norm
of duty. The original and very useful for the understanding is stating the

categorical imperative, which is the key principle, formed not on the
basis of empirical human nature, but on transcendental one. In general
all Kant`s works are based on anthropological studies of the human
individual value. To the question: “What can I know?” the philosopher

adds three more questions: “What should I do?”, “What can I hope
for?”, “What is a human being and what can it become by himself?”. It

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