The Experiential Turn in Eighteenth-Century German Philosophy (Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Philosophy)

This collection of essays challenges the prevailing assumption that eighteenth-century German philosophy prior to Kant was largely defined by post-Leibnizian rationalism and, accordingly, a low esteem of the cognitive function of the senses. It does so by highlighting the various ways in which eighteenth-century German philosophers reconceived the notion and role of experience in their efforts to identify, defend, and contest the contribution of sensibility to disciplines such as metaphysics, theology, the natural sciences, psychology, and aesthetics. Engaging in depth with Tschirnhaus, Wolff, the Wolffians, eclecticism, Popularphilosophie, the Berlin Academy, Tetens, and Kant, its thirteen chapters present a more nuanced understanding of the German reception of British and French ideas and dismiss the prevailing view that German philosophy was largely isolated from European debates. Moreover, the book introduces a number of relatively unknown, but highly relevant philosophers and developments to non-specialized scholars and contributes to a better understanding of the richness and complexity of the German Enlightenment.

Karin de Boer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leuven. She is the author of Thinking in the Light of Time: Heidegger’s Encounter with Hegel (2000), On Hegel: The Sway of the Negative (2010), and Kant’s Reform of Metaphysics: The Critique of Pure Reason Reconsidered (2020).

Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet is researcher at the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (Humanities Divison). She is the author of L’avènement de la métaphysique kantienne. Prémisses et enjeux d’une réception au XXe siècle (forthcoming) and co-editor of Kant et Wolff: Héritages et ruptures (2011).