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I. IMMANUEL KANT
A. BIOGRAPHY - German philosopher, considered by many the most influential thinker of modern times. -He was born in Konigsberg in 1724 and died on 12th of February 1804. -He was a person of incredibly regular habits and almost as regular a producer of paper and books. -Kant entered the university of his native city at the age of 16th and graduated from it six years later. -Being unable to secure an academic position, he took work as a private tutor in various households. It was not until the age of 31 that he obtained a post at the university, as a private docent, an unsalaried employment which conferred the privilege of giving public lectures, and a chance of securing a reward through private tuition. -Born in Knigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), April 22, 1724, Kant received his education at the Collegium Fredericianum and the University of Knigsberg. At the college he studied chiefly the classics, and at the university he studied physics and mathematics. After his father died, he was compelled to halt his university career and earn his living as a private tutor. In 1755, aided by a friend, he resumed his studies and obtained his doctorate. Thereafter, for 15 years he taught at the university, lecturing first on science and mathematics, but gradually enlarging his field of concentration to cover almost all branches of philosophy. -Although Kant's lectures and works written during this period established his reputation as an original philosopher, he did not receive a chair at the university until 1770, when he was made professor of logic and metaphysics. For the next 27 years he continued to teach and attracted large numbers of students to Knigsberg. Kant's unorthodox religious teachings, which were based on rationalism rather than revelation, brought him into conflict with the government of Prussia, and in 1792 he was forbidden by Frederick William II, king of Prussia, to teach or write on religious subjects. Kant obeyed this order for five years until the death of the king and then felt released from his obligation. In 1798, the year following his retirement from the university, he published a summary of his religious views. He died February 12, 1804. - In addition to works on philosophy, Kant wrote a number of treatises on various scientific subjects, many in the field of physical geography. His most important scientific work was General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755), in which he advanced the hypothesis of the formation of the universe from a spinning nebula, a hypothesis that later was developed independently by Pierre de Laplace. -Among Kant's other writings are Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783), Metaphysical Rudiments of Natural Philosophy (1786), Critique of Judgment (1790), and Religion Within the Boundaries of Pure Reason (1793).
B. PHILOSOPHY -Kant tried to synthesize the problem posed by empiricism and rationalism. The synthesis he proposed affirmed the existence of sensible intuition [favoring the empiricists] and concepts [favoring the rationalists] in the idea of knowledge or consciousness. In his synthetic a priori judgment, he made mention that things exist because there is/are necessary property/ies of natural phenomena, that although with an a posteriori basis, they have an a priori reality. Thus, the nearest distance between two points is indeed a straight line not only because it is observed by drawing a curve line and a straight line [and comparing the two] to connect the two lines, but because it is in fact the nearest distance in itself. Kant further said that the mind possesses a priori categories of human thought. These categories [time and space] give shape and form to phenomena. Realities observed by the senses are made clear by these categories after being grasped. Nonetheless, Kant posited the idea of the thing-in-itself as something which exists yet cannot be known [and in no way can be known]. Herein, he distinguished the world of noumena from the world of phenomena
systematic statement of his entire philosophy entitled Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1817; trans. 1959). In 1818 Hegel was invited to teach at the University of Berlin, where he was to remain. He died in Berlin on November 14, 1831, during a cholera epidemic. -The last full-length work published by Hegel was The Philosophy of Right (1821; trans. 1896), although several sets of his lecture notes, supplemented by students' notes, were published after his death. Published lectures include The Philosophy of Fine Art (1835-38; trans. 1920), Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1833-36; trans. 1892-96), Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (1832; trans. 1895), and Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837; trans. 1858). -Strongly influenced by Greek ideas, Hegel also read the works of the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, the French writer Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the German philosophers Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Schelling. Although he often disagreed with these philosophers, their influence is evident in his writings. B. PHILOSOPHY -Hegel's aim was to set forth a philosophical system so comprehensive that it would encompass the ideas of his predecessors and create a conceptual framework in terms of which both the past and future could be philosophically understood. Such an aim would require nothing short of a full account of reality itself. Thus, Hegel conceived the subject matter of philosophy to be reality as a whole. This reality, or the total developmental process of everything that is, he referred to as the Absolute, or Absolute Spirit. According to Hegel, the task of philosophy is to chart the development of Absolute Spirit. This involves (1) making clear the internal rational structure of the Absolute; (2) demonstrating the manner in which the Absolute manifests itself in nature and human history; and (3) explicating the teleological nature of the Absolute, that is, showing the end or purpose toward which the Absolute is directed.
-He was egoistic, vain, quarrelsome and on occasion even boorish and he can hardly be said to have been remarkable for gifts of the heart. -He had a great admiration for Kant, but he had the habit of referring to thinkers such Fitche, Schelling, and Hegel. -He then settled in Frankfurt am Main, where he led a solitary life and became deeply involved in the study of Buddhist and Hindu philosophies and mysticism. He was also influenced by the ideas of the German Dominican theologian, mystic, and eclectic philosopher Meister Eckhart, the German theosophist and mystic Jakob Boehme, and the scholars of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. -Schopenhauer disagreed with the school of idealism and was strongly opposed to the ideas of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who believed in the spiritual nature of all reality. Instead, Schopenhauer accepted, with some qualification in details, the view of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant that phenomena exist only insofar as the mind perceives them, as ideas. He did not, however, agree with Kant that the thing-in-itself (Ding an sich), or the ultimate reality, lies hopelessly beyond experience. He identified it with experienced will instead. According to Schopenhauer, however, will is not limited to voluntary action with foresight; all the experienced activity of the self is will, including unconscious physiological functionings. This will is the inner nature of each experiencing being and assumes in time and space the appearance of the body, which is an idea. Starting from the principle that the will is the inner nature of his own body as an appearance in time and space, Schopenhauer concluded that the inner reality of all material appearances is will; the ultimate reality is one universal will. -His famous works are The World as Will and Idea I and II, On the Will in Nature, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason B. PHILOSOPHY -German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer developed a philosophy of pessimism that focused on the nature of the will, a term Schopenhauer used to mean both a person s individual desires as well as the overall essence of being alive. Schopenhauer believed that although will was essential to life, it was also the source of endless striving and discontent. In this excerpt from Parerga und Paralipomena (1851, translated as Essays and Aphorisms), Schopenhauer contemplated the role of suffering in human life, and argued that pain was an inescapable part of life. Schopenauer s acceptance of human suffering reflected the influence of both Christian and Indian Buddhist religious traditions.
gradually came into sharp conflict with the religious views of some of his faculty colleagues. In 1721 he delivered a lecture in which he cited the moral axioms of Confucius as proof that human reason could attain moral truth by its own efforts. As a result, he was banished from Prussia in 1723 on grounds of atheism and fatalism. He went to Hessen and taught at the University of Marburg until 1740. In that year Frederick II, king of Prussia, recalled Wolff to Halle, where, in 1743, he became chancellor of the university. B. PHILOSOPHY -Wolff's philosophy is a modification of the philosophic system developed by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Although he was not an original thinker, Wolff was important as an organizing and systematizing philosopher. His voluminous writings include Vernnftige Gedanken von Gott, der Welt, und der Seele des Menschen (Rational Thoughts on God, the World, and the Souls of Men, 1719).
trans. 1879) is one of the earliest modern treatises on the craft of the playwright. His literary criticism is best represented by the essays in Briefe; by the essay on the fable that forms the preface to Fabeln (3 volumes, 1759); and by Zur Geschichte und Literatur (Contributions to History and Literature, 1773-1781). In the essay Laocoon (1766; trans. 1930), he analyzed poetry, sculpture, and painting and defined the limits of each. As an archaeologist Lessing is known for Briefe Antiquarische (Letters on Archaeology, 1768-1769), and Wie die Alten den Tod Gebildet (How the Ancients Depicted Death, 1769). As a theologian he is known for Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (The Education of the Human Race, 1780).