The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte

Rating:
Summary: Endgames
Review: The cultural context in which Kant's Critique of Pure Reason appeared was a complex and volatile mixture that responded to his work in a prolonged period of philosophical fireworks culminating in Hegel. This extremely interesting history of the first decade of reactions to Kant foretells in many ways the whole fate of modern philosophy, beginning with the first delayed review and then the attacks and challenges from Rheinhold to Jacobi and Maimon. One must wonder if this debate advanced beyond or frittered away the Kantian advance, as the outcome seems so very much to produce the reversal of original intent. Yet the issues raised by these critics are essential to consider, and often fail to appear in purely partisan accounts. The history stops before even Fichte and yet zooming in on this curious scene in detail brings alive the real issues that will echo all the way to Schopenhauer, and beyond.
It is, presumably, a quibble to point out that the word 'fate' is severely cautioned at the begining of Kant's deduction. One should wonder at its usage here. Perhaps this comedy of sudden philosophical raining cats and dogs ambushing Kant is a tragic fate in search of tragicomedy.