Product Description

In the second half of the eighteenth century, German philosophy came for a while to dominate European philosophy. It changed the way in which not only Europeans, but people all over the world, conceived of themselves and thought about nature, religion, human history, politics, and the structure of the human mind. In this rich and wide-ranging book, Terry Pinkard interweaves the story of ‘Germany’ - changing during this period from a loose collection of principalities into a newly-emerged nation with a distinctive culture - with an examination of the currents and complexities of its developing philosophical thought. He examines the dominant influence of Kant, with his revolutionary emphasis on ‘self-determination’, and traces this influence through the development of romanticism and idealism to the critiques of post-Kantian thinkers such as Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard. His book will interest a range of readers in the history of philosophy, cultural history and the history of ideas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #193988 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Review
"Pinkard does an incredible job of explaining Hegel's strictly philosophical ideas and largely overcomes the barrier of Hegel's notoriously obscure style." The New York Times Book Review

"...Pinkard offers a moving account of a precarious and harried life, interspersing it with lucid and not unduly long accounts of the main arguments of Hegel's works....Mr. Pinkard has written engrossingly of a supreme instance of the life dedicated to thinking." The Washington Times

"Pinkard takes readers-carefully, succinctly and in a manner sensitive to the political and social ferment of the time-on a journey through the most important hundred years in philosophy since the Renaissance...In Pinkard's hands, what could be just names come alive as men and ideas that have much to teach us about our own beliefs about how to live." Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

The Fog is lifting
German philosophy during the period covered by this book has long been labelled obscurantist and unintelligible. Terry Pinkard deserves to be thanked warmly for lifting the veil of fog which so often deters readers from examining the ideas of thinkers such as Fichte, Schelling or Hegel.

The book has many strengths, not the least of which is the trouble Mr Pinkard takes to place German philosophy in its intellectual, social, cultural and political context. He does this concisely and effectively.

The three chapter analysis of the essential aspects of Kant's philosophy with which the book really starts is one of the finest and most lucid brief summaries to be found in English and in itself would be enough for me to recommend the book. In fact there is much else to enjoy. Mr Pinkard incudes discussion of the thought and influence of such "minor" thinkers as Jacobi and Schliermacher. I certainly haven't found much in print in English on these thinkers.

Readers afraid of philosophical jargon need have no worries. Where it is possible to avoid jargon, Mr Pinkard does so. Where it is not he explains technical terms with admirable simplicitity.

All in all this is a book for the philosopher, the historian of ideas and culture or indeed any general reader who is fascinated by challenging philosophy which still resonates in 2003