German Idealism & Existentialism Skill

Master the philosophical traditions spanning from Kant's successors through 20th-century existentialism—movements that fundamentally shaped modern thought about consciousness, freedom, history, and human existence.

Overview

Historical Arc

KANT (1724-1804)
     │
     ▼
GERMAN IDEALISM (1781-1831)
├── Fichte: Absolute Ego
├── Schelling: Nature Philosophy
└── Hegel: Absolute Spirit, Dialectic
     │
     ├─────────────────────────────────────┐
     ▼                                     ▼
REACTION AGAINST HEGEL              NEO-HEGELIANISM
├── Kierkegaard: Individual         ├── British Idealists
├── Schopenhauer: Will              └── Marxism
└── Nietzsche: Will to Power
     │
     ▼
PHENOMENOLOGY (1900-)
├── Husserl: Intentionality
└── Heidegger: Being-in-the-world
     │
     ▼
EXISTENTIALISM (1940-)
├── Sartre: Radical Freedom
├── Camus: The Absurd
├── Beauvoir: Situated Freedom
└── Merleau-Ponty: Embodiment

---

German Idealism

Kant's Critical Philosophy (Background)

The Problem: How is knowledge possible?

• Empiricists: From experience alone
• Rationalists: From reason alone
• Kant: Both are necessary; mind structures experience

Transcendental Idealism:

• Space and time: forms of sensibility (how we perceive)
• Categories: forms of understanding (how we think)
• We know phenomena (appearances), not noumena (things-in-themselves)

Fichte: The Absolute Ego

Key Move: Eliminate the thing-in-itself

The Three Principles:

1. The Ego posits itself (I = I)
2. The Ego posits the Non-Ego (Not-I) as opposite
3. The Ego and Non-Ego are mutually limited

Implication: Reality is the product of absolute consciousness

Schelling: Philosophy of Nature

Key Move: Overcome subject-object dualism

Nature Philosophy:

• Nature is not dead matter but living spirit
• Subject and object are identical at the absolute level
• Art reveals this identity (aesthetic intuition)

Hegel: Absolute Idealism

The System:

HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY
══════════════════

LOGIC (The Idea in-itself)
├── Being, Nothing, Becoming
├── Categories of thought
└── Dialectical development

PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE (The Idea outside-itself)
├── Mechanics
├── Physics
└── Organics

PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRIT (The Idea returning to itself)
├── Subjective Spirit (individual mind)
├── Objective Spirit (social/political)
│   ├── Law
│   ├── Morality
│   └── Ethical Life (State)
└── Absolute Spirit
    ├── Art
    ├── Religion
    └── Philosophy

The Dialectic

Structure:

THESIS → ANTITHESIS → SYNTHESIS (Aufhebung)
   │          │            │
   │          │            └── Preserves truth of both
   │          │                Negates one-sidedness
   │          │                Elevates to higher unity
   │          │
   │          └── Negation, opposition
   │
   └── Initial position, one-sided

Aufhebung: To cancel, preserve, and elevate simultaneously

• The synthesis is not compromise but transcendence
• Contains the truth of both thesis and antithesis
• Becomes new thesis for further development

Example: Being and Nothing

1. Being (pure, indeterminate) → Thesis
2. Nothing (equally indeterminate) → Antithesis
3. Becoming (unity of being and nothing) → Synthesis

Key Hegelian Concepts

German	English	Meaning
Geist	Spirit/Mind	The absolute subject; consciousness in its development
Aufhebung	Sublation	Cancel, preserve, elevate
An sich	In-itself	Potential, implicit, unrealized
Für sich	For-itself	Actual, explicit, self-conscious
An-und-für-sich	In-and-for-itself	Fully realized, concrete
Vernunft	Reason	Rational comprehension of the whole
Wirklichkeit	Actuality	What is rational is actual; what is actual is rational
Entfremdung	Alienation	Spirit estranged from itself
Sittlichkeit	Ethical life	Concrete social ethics (vs. abstract morality)

Master-Slave Dialectic (Phenomenology of Spirit)

THE STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION
════════════════════════════

1. Two self-consciousnesses meet
   └── Each seeks recognition from the other

2. Life-and-death struggle
   └── Each risks life to prove freedom

3. One yields (becomes Slave); other dominates (becomes Master)
   └── Master gains recognition but from unfree being

4. Reversal:
   ├── Master: Dependent on slave; stagnates
   └── Slave: Through work, transforms world and self

5. Slave achieves true self-consciousness
   └── Work = objectification of self in world
   └── Fear of death = awareness of own being

6. Path to mutual recognition
   └── Only free beings can truly recognize each other

---

Reactions Against Hegel

Kierkegaard: The Individual

Against Hegel:

• System cannot contain existence
• Truth is subjectivity
• The individual vs. the universal
• Passion vs. reason

Three Stages of Existence:

KIERKEGAARD'S STAGES
════════════════════

1. AESTHETIC STAGE
   └── Life of pleasure, variety, immediacy
   └── Don Juan, seducer
   └── Despair: Boredom, emptiness

2. ETHICAL STAGE
   └── Life of duty, commitment, universality
   └── Judge Wilhelm, marriage
   └── Despair: Guilt, inability to fulfill duty

3. RELIGIOUS STAGE
   └── Life of faith, individual relation to God
   └── Abraham, leap of faith
   └── "Teleological suspension of the ethical"

Key Concepts:

Concept	Meaning
Anxiety (Angst)	Dizziness of freedom; facing infinite possibility
Despair	Being in sin; not willing to be oneself
Leap of Faith	Non-rational commitment; choosing without proof
Subjectivity	Truth as personal appropriation
Repetition	Willing the eternal in the temporal

Schopenhauer: The Will

Metaphysics:

• Reality is will (blind, striving force)
• Representations are phenomena of will
• Will is irrational, endless desire
• Life is suffering (will can never be satisfied)

Response:

1. Aesthetic contemplation (temporary relief)
2. Ethical compassion (recognizing unity of will)
3. Ascetic denial of will (permanent liberation)

Influence: Nietzsche, Freud, Buddhism in West

Nietzsche: Will to Power

Key Moves:

• "God is dead" — Collapse of metaphysical foundations
• Critique of morality — "Slave morality" vs. "Master morality"
• Affirmation of life — Despite meaninglessness

Central Concepts:

NIETZSCHE'S PHILOSOPHY
══════════════════════

WILL TO POWER
├── Not political domination
├── Self-overcoming, creativity
├── Life's fundamental drive
└── Basis of all values

ETERNAL RETURN
├── "What if you had to live this life eternally?"
├── Test of affirmation
├── Heaviest thought
└── Amor fati: love of fate

ÜBERMENSCH (Overman)
├── Beyond good and evil
├── Creates own values
├── Affirms life completely
└── Not a biological type

PERSPECTIVISM
├── No "view from nowhere"
├── All interpretation, no facts
├── Multiple perspectives valuable
└── Against dogmatic truth

Master vs. Slave Morality:

Master Morality	Slave Morality
Good = noble, powerful	Good = meek, humble
Bad = base, common	Evil = powerful, proud
Creates values	Reactive, resentful
Affirms self	Denies life

---

Phenomenology

Husserl: Intentionality

Founding Insight: Consciousness is always consciousness of something

Method:

PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD
═══════════════════════

1. EPOCHÉ (Bracketing)
   └── Suspend natural attitude
   └── Don't assume world exists independently
   └── Focus on how things appear

2. PHENOMENOLOGICAL REDUCTION
   └── Reduce to pure phenomena
   └── Describe structures of consciousness
   └── Eidetic variation: find essences

3. TRANSCENDENTAL ANALYSIS
   └── How consciousness constitutes objects
   └── Noesis (act) / Noema (content)
   └── Intentional structures

Heidegger: Being-in-the-World

Fundamental Question: What is the meaning of Being?

Dasein: Human existence as the being that questions Being

Existential Structures:

BEING AND TIME (Sein und Zeit)
══════════════════════════════

BEING-IN-THE-WORLD (In-der-Welt-sein)
├── We are always already in a world
├── Not subject vs. object
└── Holistic, engaged existence

THROWNNESS (Geworfenheit)
├── We find ourselves already in situations
├── Not chosen but given
└── Facticity of existence

PROJECTION (Entwurf)
├── We project possibilities
├── Future-oriented existence
└── Freedom within thrownness

FALLENNESS (Verfallenheit)
├── Absorption in "the They" (das Man)
├── Inauthenticity
└── Fleeing from oneself

ANXIETY (Angst)
├── Not fear of something specific
├── Confrontation with Being-toward-death
└── Reveals authentic existence

BEING-TOWARD-DEATH (Sein-zum-Tode)
├── Death as ownmost possibility
├── Cannot be transferred or avoided
└── Individualizes Dasein

CARE (Sorge)
├── Being-ahead-of-itself (future)
├── Already-being-in (past)
├── Being-alongside (present)
└── Unified structure of Dasein

Authenticity vs. Inauthenticity:

Authentic (Eigentlich)	Inauthentic (Uneigentlich)
Owns existence	Lost in "the They"
Faces death	Flees from death
Resolute	Dispersed
Individual choice	Follows the crowd

The Later Heidegger:

• "The Turn" (die Kehre)
• From Dasein to Being itself
• History of Being (Seinsgeschichte)
• Technology as danger and saving power
• Dwelling, poetry, thinking

---

Existentialism

Sartre: Radical Freedom

Fundamental Thesis: "Existence precedes essence"

• Humans have no predetermined nature
• We create ourselves through choices
• Total freedom = total responsibility

Key Concepts:

SARTREAN EXISTENTIALISM
═══════════════════════

BEING-IN-ITSELF (En-soi)
├── Non-conscious being
├── Solid, complete, identical with itself
└── "Is what it is"

BEING-FOR-ITSELF (Pour-soi)
├── Conscious being (human)
├── Always beyond itself
├── "Is what it is not, is not what it is"
└── Nothingness, lack, desire

BAD FAITH (Mauvaise foi)
├── Denying freedom
├── Pretending to be a thing
├── "I had no choice"
└── Self-deception

RADICAL FREEDOM
├── We are "condemned to be free"
├── No excuses: situation doesn't determine choice
├── Anguish: awareness of freedom
└── Responsibility: we choose for all humanity

THE LOOK (Le regard)
├── Being seen by another
├── Becomes object for another consciousness
├── Conflict: each wants to possess the other's freedom
└── "Hell is other people"

Being and Nothingness: Consciousness is nothing but the negation of being-in-itself. Freedom is the heart of being.

Camus: The Absurd

The Absurd:

• Arises from confrontation between human desire for meaning and universe's silence
• Neither in us nor in world, but in their meeting
• "The absurd is born of this confrontation between human need and the unreasonable silence of the world"

Responses to Absurdity:

1. Suicide — Reject it (wrong answer)
2. Philosophical suicide — Leap to transcendence (bad faith)
3. Revolt — Accept and live with it (authentic response)

The Myth of Sisyphus:

• Sisyphus pushing the rock eternally
• "We must imagine Sisyphus happy"
• Revolt, freedom, passion
• Creating meaning despite meaninglessness

Beauvoir: Situated Freedom

Contribution: Freedom is always situated

• Abstract freedom vs. concrete freedom
• Social conditions constrain genuine freedom
• Ethics requires extending freedom to all

The Second Sex:

• "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman"
• Critique of woman as "Other"
• Application of existentialism to gender

Merleau-Ponty: Embodiment

Contribution: Critique of Cartesian mind-body dualism

• Body-subject: we are our bodies
• Perception is primary
• Motor intentionality
• Flesh (chair): intertwining of subject and world

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Key Vocabulary

German Terms

Term	Meaning
Geist	Spirit, Mind
Aufhebung	Sublation (cancel, preserve, elevate)
Angst	Anxiety, dread
Dasein	Being-there, human existence
Geworfenheit	Thrownness
Eigentlichkeit	Authenticity
Verfallenheit	Fallenness
Sorge	Care
Sein	Being
Seiendes	Beings, entities
Wille zur Macht	Will to Power
Übermensch	Overman
Ewige Wiederkehr	Eternal Return
Weltanschauung	Worldview

French Terms

Term	Meaning
En-soi	Being-in-itself
Pour-soi	Being-for-itself
Mauvaise foi	Bad faith
Néant	Nothingness
Le regard	The Look
L'absurde	The Absurd
Révolte	Revolt

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Integration with Repository

Related Thinkers

• thinkers/hegel/, thinkers/nietzsche/, thinkers/heidegger/
• thinkers/sartre/, thinkers/kierkegaard/

Related Themes

• thoughts/existence/: Being, authenticity
• thoughts/free_will/: Freedom, determinism
• thoughts/consciousness/: Phenomenology
• thoughts/life_meaning/: Absurdity, meaning-creation

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Reference Files

• methods.md: Dialectical, phenomenological, hermeneutic methods
• vocabulary.md: Comprehensive term glossary
• figures.md: Philosophers with key works and ideas
• debates.md: Central controversies
• sources.md: Primary texts and scholarship