Kantian and Post-Kantian Historiographies of Philosophy (1781-1828)

The ‘historical turn’ in modern philosophy is commonly associated with Hegel and contrasted with Kant’s alleged lack of interest in the historical development of philosophy. Yet Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason gave rise to a largely neglected debate on the intricate relation of philosophy to its past, the extent to which developments in the history of philosophy can be captured by a priori means, and the method to be employed in the study of the history of philosophy. During the 1790s, Fülleborn, Reinhold, Grohmann, Göss, Maimon, and Tennemann, among others, not only further developed Kant’s ideas but anticipated many of the methodological innovations that Hegel is standardly credited with. Examining contributions by Kant, Eberhard and Platner, neglected early post-Kantians, Schelling and Hegel, this conference aims show that Kant’s contemporaries played a key role in the emergence and consolidation of the historiography of philosophy as a philosophical discipline, and thus, gave shape to a crucial period in the history of modern philosophy.

Program (Central European Time)

Thursday, December 12

12.00-13:00 Registration and lunch

13.00-14.00  Karin de Boer (KU Leuven) – Kant’s Sketch of an A Priori History of Rational Cosmology in the Critique of Pure Reason

14.00-15.00  David Hereza Modrego (University of Zaragoza) – Eberhard’s Challenge to Kant’s Historical Narrative and the Origins of a Leibnizian-Wolffian School 

15.30-16.30  Luis Fellipe Garcia (KU Leuven) – Ernst Platner: From the Pragmatic History of the Mind to the Philosophical History of Philosophy

16.30-17.30  Pavel Reichl (University of Groningen) – From the Critique of Pure Reason to a Critique of Past Systems: the Contribution of Georg Gustav Fülleborn

17.30-18.30  Ioanna Bartsidi (University of Paris-Nanterre) – Extracting the a priori Content of the Platonic text: Tennemann between Tiedemann and Hegel

Friday, December 13

11.00-12.00  Fredrik Bjarkö (Södertörn University of Stockholm) – Grohmann’s Dilemma: The Conflict between the History and the System of Philosophy

13.00-14.00  Ives Radrizzani (University of Münich) – Fichte’s History of Philosophy

14.00-15.00  Paul Franks (Yale University) – Maimon’s Conception of a Pragmatic History of Philosophy  (online)

15.30-16.30  Daniel J. Smith (University of Memphis) – Seeds and Stones: Schelling and Reinhold on Models for Writing the History of Philosophy

16.30-17.30  Angelica Nuzzo (Brooklyn College CUNY) – Advancing the Claim of Philosophy Forward: Philosophy and (its) History in Hegel’s Differenzschrift (online)

17.30-18.30  Manuel Tangorra (KU Leuven) – Spirit, Truth and Life in Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy