Marx the Fichtean

We ignore the history of philosophy at our peril. Engels, who typically conflates Marx and Marxism, points to the relation of Marxism to the tradition while also denying it. In his little book on Feuerbach, Engels depicts Feuerbach as leading Marx away from Hegel, away from classical German philosophy, away from philosophy and towards materialism and science. This view suggests that Marx is at best negatively related to Classical German philosophy, including Hegel. Yet Engels elsewhere suggests that Marx belongs to the classical German philosophical tradition. In the preface to Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Engels wrote: “We German socialists are proud that we trace our descent not only from Saint Simon, Fourier and Owen, but also from Kant, Fichte and Hegel” (Marx & Engels, Collected Works). In this paper I will focus on Marx’s relation to Fichte. This relation is rarely mentioned in the Marxist debate, but I will argue, it is crucial for the formulation of Marx’s position, and hence for assessing his contribution accurately. One of the results of this study will be to indicate that Marx, in reacting against Hegel, did not, as is often suggested, ‘leave’ philosophy, but in fact made a crucial philosophical contribution.

Ethical Theory in Classic German Philosophy Then and Now

The volume brings together contributions in the spirit embodied by Marek J. Siemek († 2011) and Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz († 2021), two Warsaw philosophers truly devoted to Classical German Philosophy. They were simultaneously in a relationship between thinker and adept, and thinker and thinker. They both taught philosophy, with a strong emphasis on classic German philosophy, at Warsaw University. Under the theme “Ethical Theory in Classic German Philosophy Then and Now,” students and companions continue their discussions with both of them.

Michaił Katkow — u początków myśli politycznej apologety rosyjskiego samodzierżawia

Mikhail Katkov (1818–1887), a leading Russian political journalist, began his career as a liberal fascinated by German philosophy, especially the views of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. At that time, he represented a moderate pro-Polish attitude. After the outbreak of the January Uprising in 1863, on the pages of Moskowskije Wiedomosti, which he edited, he promoted the Russian state’s viewpoint in favour of the monarchy and full dimension of the Russian Empire’s state integrity, which led to his conservative position.

Introduction

The history of German philosophy’s thinking about guilt deserves our attention for: (i) German philosophy was more consistently interested in guilt than other European philosophical traditions; (ii) it presents different approaches to the phenomenon of guilt and thus provides an opportunity to survey the phenomenon from three distinct perspectives, metaphysical (Kant, Schelling, Schopenhauer), naturalist (Rée, Nietzsche), and phenomenological-existential (Heidegger); (iii) no sustained examination of the history of the philosophy of guilt with special emphasis on the German tradition has appeared. A main claim is formulated in this introductory chapter the examination of the history of German philosophy reveals that the different approaches to guilt embodied by the three perspectives follow upon each other in dialectical fashion. Some conceptual clarifications and methodological reflections are presented. Of central importance is the distinction between empirical or factical guilt (guilt for specific misdeeds) and ontological guilt (guilt in one’s very being).

Being Guilty

What can guilt, the painful sting of the bad conscience, tell us about who we are as human beings? This book seeks to answer this question through an examination of the views of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling, Arthur Schopenhauer, Paul Rée, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger on guilt, freedom, responsibility, and conscience. The concept of guilt has not received sufficient attention from scholars of the history of German philosophy. The book addresses this lacuna and shows how the philosophers’ arguments can be more deeply grasped once read in their historical context. A main claim of the book is that this history could be read as proceeding dialectically. Thus, in Kant, Schelling, and Schopenhauer, there are variations on the idea that guilt is justified because the human agent is a free cause of his or her own being—a causa sui—and thus responsible for his or her “ontological guilt.” In contrast, in Rée and Nietzsche, these ideas are rejected, and the conclusion is reached that guilt is not justified but is explainable psychologically. Finally, in Heidegger, we find a synthesis of sorts, where the idea of causa sui is rejected, but ontological guilt is retained and guilt is seen as possible, because for Heidegger, a condition of possibility of guilt is that we are ontologically guilty yet not causa sui. In the process of unfolding this trajectory, the various philosophers’ views on these and many other issues are examined in detail.

German philosophy and Stoicism. Lampe, K., & Benjamin, A. (Eds.). (2021). German Stoicisms: From Hegel to Sloterdijk. London: ‎Bloomsbury Academic.

Review of Lampe, K., & Benjamin, A. (Eds.). (2021). German Stoicisms: From Hegel to Sloterdijk. London: ‎Bloomsbury Academic.

Concept of Personal Identity

Leibniz's concept of monads had of great importance for the development of the idealistic conception. Through Kant and his "Physical Monadology" she infiltrated into modern German philosophy. However, not only modern idealists referred to the concept of monads. Especially, that many scientific disciplines, which emanated from philosophy, related to the scope of idealistic notions, for example: psychology or sociology. German psychology and its creators have many often referred to monads theory. Freud, Fromm and Jung presented even their own point of views on this topic. Later theories, such as Lowe's theory, also refer to the concept of monads. These relations and the historical connections between monad theory and modern German psycho-philosophy are shown in this work.