Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T09:33:37.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Perfected System of Criticism’: Schopenhauer's Initial Disagreements with Kant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2012

Matthias Kossler
Matthias Kossler*
Affiliation:
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität
*
Email: kossler@uni-mainz-de
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I would like to know who of my

contemporaries should be more competent in

Kantian philosophy than me.

(Schopenhauer in a letter to Rosenkranz and Schubert, 18371)

In this paper the attempt is made to show how Schopenhauer's critique of Kant leads from initial disagreements to a fundamental modification, even a new formation, of the Kantian concepts of understanding, reason, imagination, perception, idea and thing-in-itself. The starting point and the core of his critique is the demand for the appreciation of intuitive knowledge which is apart from and independent of reason. The intuitive knowledge goes back to images and its highest form is aesthetic contemplation. Without a participation of concepts it is sufficient to explain objective reality. Particularly on the basis of Schopenhauer's critical examination of Kant's schematism it can be shown that his alternative conception of an image-based objectivity of experience is to be taken seriously, even if the way he presents it sometimes gives the impression of a mere misunderstanding of Kant's theory of cognition.

Keywords

better consciousnesscausalitycontemplationimaginationschematism
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 459 - 478
Copyright
Copyright © Kantian Review 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

The writings of Schopenhauer are quoted in English, in order to avoid an excessive amount of notes. The following English edns are used with standard abbreviations:Google Scholar
EFR Schopenhauer's Early Fourfold Root, trans. F. C. White (Schopenhauer 1997)Google Scholar
FR The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, trans. E. F. J. PayneGoogle Scholar
(Schopenhauer 1974)Google Scholar
MR I/II Manuscript Remains in Four Volumes, I, Early Manuscripts, and II, CriticalGoogle Scholar
Debates, trans. E. F. J. Payne (Schopenhauer 1988)Google Scholar
WWP I/II The World as Will and Presentation, trans. D. Carus and R. Aquila, I and IIGoogle Scholar
(Schopenhauer 2008/2011; app. = appendix to I)Google Scholar
To facilitate coordination with other translations, pagination for WWP will display that of the trans. first and then (preceded by ‘/’) that of the 1859 edn of the work, which appears in the margin of the cited trans. as well as in other trans. and edns. Where no English edn is available I have made trans. of my own, using the following German edns and abbreviations:Google Scholar
D I–XVI Sämtliche Werke, 16 vols, ed. P. Deussen (Schopenhauer 1911)Google Scholar
GBr. Gesammelte Briefe, ed. A. Hübscher (Schopenhauer 1985b)Google Scholar
HN I–V Der Handschriftliche Nachlaß, 5 vols, ed. A. Hübscher (Schopenhauer 1985a)Google Scholar
W I Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Faksimiledruck der ersten Auflage von 1819Google Scholar
[1818] (Schopenhauer 1987)Google Scholar
De Cian, Nicoletta (2002) Redenzione, colpa, salvezza: All'origine della filosofia di Schopenhauer. Trento: Verifiche.Google Scholar
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1971) Ueber Geist und Buchstab in der Philosophie. In I. H. Fichte (ed.), Fichtes Werke (Berlin: De Gruyter), vol. VII (reprint).Google Scholar
Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1994) Second Introduction to the Wissenschaftslehre: For Readers Who Already Have a Philosophical System of Their Own. In D. Breazeale (ed.), Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings (1797–1800) (Indianapolis: Hackett), 36–105.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (1999) Schopenhauer, Kant, and the Methods of Philosophy. In C. Janaway (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 93–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacquette, Dale (2005) The Philosophy of Schopenhauer. Chesham: Acumen.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janaway, Christopher (1989) Self and World in Schopenhauer's Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kamata, Yasuo (1988) Der junge Schopenhauer. Freiburg: Alber.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1998) Critique of Pure Reason, trans. and ed. P. Guyer and A. W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (2000) Critique of the Power of Judgement, ed. P. Guyer, trans. P. Guyer and E. Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kossler, Matthias (2008) ‘Life is But a Mirror: On the Connection between Ethics, Metaphysics and Character in Schopenhauer’. European Journal of Philosophy, 16, 230–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novembre, Alessandro (2011) Il giovane Schopenhauer e Fichte: La duplicità della coscienza. Mainz: Manuscript of Dissertation.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1911ff) Sämtliche Werke, ed. P. Deussen, 16 vols. Munich: Piper.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1974) The Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, trans. E. F. J. Payne. LaSalle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1985a) Der Handschriftliche Nachlaß, ed. A. Hübscher, 5 vols. Munich: dtv.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1985b) Gesammelte Briefe, ed. A. Hübscher. Bonn: Bouvier.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1987) Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. Faksimiledruck der ersten Auflage von 1819 [1818]. Frankfurt /M: Insel.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1988) Manuscript Remains in Four Volumes, trans. E. F. J. Payne. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (1997) Schopenhauer's Early Fourfold Root: Translation and Commentary, trans. F. C. White. Aldershot: Avebury.Google Scholar
Schopenhauer, Arthur (2008 /2011) The World as Will and Presentation, vols. I and II, trans. D. Carus and R. Aquila. New York: Pearson.Google Scholar
Schulze, Gottlieb (1969) Aenesidemus oder über die Fundamente der von dem Herrn Prof. Reinhold in Jena gelieferten Elementar-Philosophie: Nebst einer Vertheidigung des Skeptizismus gegen die Anmaaßungen der Vernunftkritik (1792). Brussels: Culture et Civilisation (Reprint).Google Scholar
Volpi, Franco (2001) ‘Vernunft; Verstand. B. Kritik der Begriffe’. In J. Ritter et al. (eds.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, vol. 11 (Basel: Schwabe), 833–838.Google Scholar