Construction and Experiment: Philosophical Method in Kant and German Idealism

“Construction and Experiment: Philosophical Method in Kant and German Idealism”

Hengstberger Symposium at IWH Heidelberg in cooperation with RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Heidelberg, 01. – 04. Sept. 2025

To philosophize is always linked to reflecting on the nature and legitimacy of that very activity. How can philosophical reflection arrive at truth as the goal of inquiry? Does philosophy have a method of its own? Is this method as scientific as those of mathematics and the natural sciences? 

After the scientific revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, this question became increasingly pressing in German philosophy. As is still the case today, philosophers were required to establish the scientific pedigree of their own work. In their attempt to endow philosophy with a scientific method, Kant, Maimon, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel fruitfully drew on the paradigms of the emerging sciences, especially those of geometric construction and scientific experimentation. Before the time of Kant and the German Idealists, these methods had been taken up by early modern philosophers such as Spinoza and Bacon, who clearly influenced the former. The reception and creative adaptation of these scientific and philosophical methods in Kant and German Idealism will be the focus of the conference.

The status of construction and experiment as overarching methodological paradigms within the constellation of classical German philosophy has not yet been systematically researched. There are currently only a few works that consider a cross-section of different authors and texts, whilst taking into account the systematic function of the constructive/experimental method. The conference brings together established specialists as well as more junior scholars to investigate these overarching methodological paradigms in an interrelated and problem-based perspective.

The conference’s aim is to provide a fresh perspective that enriches the research on Kant and German Idealism and to contribute to philosophy’s ongoing methodological self-reflection.

For further information and registration, please contact [email protected]@rptu.de. 

Organized by: Jelscha Schmid and Simon Schüz

Confirmed Speakers:

Peter Anstey (Sydney)

Karin de Boer (Leuven)

Emily Carson (McGill)

Idit Chikurel (LMU München)

Paul Franks (Yale)

Luis Garcia (Leuven)

Johannes Haag (Potsdam)

Ytzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins)

Dalia Nassar (Sydney)

Bennet Salzmann (Heidelberg)

Ulrich Schlösser (Tübingen)

Jelscha Schmid (Heidelberg)

Simon Schüz (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau)

Gesa Wellman (Oldenburg)

David Wood (Bonn)