Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Aesthetic Perspectives: 1. Baumgarten, Meier, and Kant on aesthetic perfection J. Colin McQuillan; 2. Mendelssohn, Kant, and the aims of art Paul Guyer; 3. Winckelmann's Greek ideal and Kant's critical philosophy Michael Baur; Part II. Historical Perspectives: 4. Eighteenth-century anthropological and ethnological studies of Ancient Greece: Winckelmann, Herder, Caylus, and Kant Elisabeth Décultot; 5. Conjectural truths: Kant and Schiller on educating humanity Lydia L. Moland; 6. Herder's theory of organic forces and its Kantian origins Nigel DeSouza; Part III. Political Perspectives: 7. Kant and Mendelssohn: enlightenment, history, and the authority of reason Kristi Sweet; 8. Johann Jakob Moser and Immanuel Kant on public law and the German religious constitution Ian Hunter; 9. A family quarrel: Fichte's deduction of right and recognition Gabriel Gottlieb; Part IV. Religious Perspectives: 10. Rational faith and the pantheism controversy: Kant's 'orientation essay' and the evolution of his moral argument Brian A. Chance and Lawrence Pasternack; 11. Reason and immortality – Herder versus Kant Marion Heinz; 12. Reason within the limits of religion alone: Hamann's onto-christology Daniel O. Dahlstrom.

Promotional Information

Uncovers the rich diversity and distinctive accomplishments of eighteenth-century German thinking, long overshadowed by Kant's philosophy.

About the Author

Daniel O. Dahlstrom is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. His previous publications include The Emergence of German Idealism (1999), Philosophical Legacies: Essays on the Thought of Kant, Hegel, and their Contemporaries (2008), and Identity, Authenticity, and Humility (2017).