Concepts of Idea
Cesare Ripa: Iconologia, overo Descrittione dell'imagini universali cavate dall' antichita et da altri luoghi. Venice 1645, 362.
The concept of “idea” undergoes a fundamental change of meaning at the end of the 18th century, which is largely due to the use of the term in Kant’s transcendental philosophy. Whereas “idea” had become a synonym for any content of consciousness (representation) in the early modern period, Kant redefines its meaning following Plato. In doing so, the concept plays a crucial systematic role in the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason, as well as in the Critique of Judgment.
Following Kant’s transcendental philosophy, his predecessors developed the concept of “idea” from four different perspectives:
The foundation of transcendental philosophy in a philosophy of principles (Grundsatzphilosophie) as well as a doctrine of science (Wissenschaftslehre),
Spinozistic-Platonic attempts at substantiation
Logical-speculative foundations
Post-Kantian empiricism
A two-volume anthology on this topic will be published (together with Gideon Stiening) in 2024. Its aim is to examine the concept of “idea” in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, based on a historical reconstruction and systematic analysis. We compile a compendium of the relevant texts (part I), comment and reflect on them analytically (part II), and, finally, present the common horizon of this development. For a list of contributing authors, see the conference program from November 2022.
Published Papers (Selection)
(with Gideon Stiening) Der Begriff der Idee von Kant bis Fries. Texte und Kommentare. 2 vols. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2024.
“The Logical Origin of the Transcendental Ideas. Kant’s Derivation of the Concepts of Reason and its Logical Roots in the Early Modern Era”. Logique & Analyse 63 (2020), 131–146.
“Heuristisch legitimierte Grundsätze der Vernunft und ideell interpretierte Vernunftideen. Zur Funktion der wissenschaftstheoretischen Beispiele des ersten Teils des Anhangs zur Transzendentalen Dialektik der Kritik der reinen Vernunft”. Con-Textos Kantianos 11 (2020), 55–91.
“Die Schematistik der Vernunft. Die logische Struktur der Ideendeduktion im Doppelanhang der Transzendentalen Dialektik der Kritik der reinen Vernunft”. In: Violetta L. Waibel, Margit Ruffing (eds.): Conference Proceedings of the XII. International Kant-Congress “Nature and Freedom” in Vienna. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter 2018, 1153–1160.
“Die Ideendeduktion der Kritik der reinen Vernunft aus Hegels schlusslogischer Perspektive”. In: Andreas Arndt, Jure Zovko, Myriam Gerhard (eds.): Hegel-Yearbook. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2017, 441–446.