Metaphysics As a Science in Classical German Philosophy

This volume is dedicated to questions about the nature and method of metaphysics in Classical German Philosophy. Its chapters offer original investigations into the metaphysical projects of many of the major figures in German philosophy between Wolff and Hegel.

The period of Classical German Philosophy was an extraordinarily rich one in the history of philosophy, especially for metaphysics. It includes some of the highest achievements of early modern rationalism, Kant’s critical revolution, and the various significant works of German Idealism that followed in Kant’s wake. The contributions to this volume critically examine certain common themes among metaphysical projects across this period, for example, the demand that metaphysics amount to a science, that it should be presented in the form of a system, or that it should proceed by means of demonstration from certain key first principles. This volume also includes material on influential criticisms of metaphysical projects of this kind.

Metaphysics as a Science in Classical German Philosophy is a useful resource for contemporary metaphysicians and historians of philosophy interested in engaging with the history of the methodology and epistemology of metaphysics.

Robb Dunphy is an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany. He has previously held research fellowships at the Goethe University Frankfurt, University College Dublin, and the University of Hamburg, and has taught philosophy at Northeastern University London, the University of Winchester, and the University of Sussex. His primary research interests are in the theoretical philosophy of Kant and the German Idealists and in the history of scepticism. He is the author of Hegel and the Problem of Beginning: Scepticism and Presuppositionlessness and has published research articles in journals, including The Review of Metaphysics, the Hegel Bulletin, and Apeiron.

Toby Lovat teaches in the school of humanities and social science at the University of Brighton, UK. His PhD (2018) and most recent publications develop a Kantian critique of Quentin Meillassoux’s ambitious argument in After Finitude, largely on the basis that Meillassoux, and many others, fundamentally misunderstand Kant’s theoretical philosophy. In other teaching and research, Toby’s work ranges widely over broader issues in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and political and social theory, taking in German Idealism, Frankfurt school critical theory, Marxist political economy and social theory, and the histories and ideologies of liberalism and conservatism.