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Empiricism and rationalism in nineteenth-century histories of philosophy
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Vanzo, Alberto (2016) Empiricism and rationalism in nineteenth-century histories of philosophy. Journal of the History of Ideas, 77 (2). pp. 253-282. doi:10.1353/jhi.2016.0017 ISSN 1086-3222.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jhi.2016.0017
Abstract
This paper traces the ancestry of a familiar historiographical narrative, according to which early modern philosophy was marked by the development of empiricism, rationalism, and their synthesis by Immanuel Kant. It is often claimed that this narrative became standard in the nineteenth century, due to the influence of Thomas Reid, Kant and his disciples, or German Hegelians and British Idealists. The paper argues that the narrative became standard only at the turn of the twentieth century. This was not due to the influence of Reid, German Hegelians, or British Idealists as they did not endorse the narrative, although Thomas Hill Green may have facilitated its uptake. The narrative is based on Kant’s historiographical sketches, as corrected and integrated by Karl Leonhard Reinhold. It was first fleshed out into full-fledged histories by two Kantians, Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann and Johann Gottlieb Buhle. Numerous historians, several of whom were not Kantians, spread it in the English-speaking world. They include Kuno Fischer, Friedrich Ueberweg, Richard Falckenberg, and Wilhelm Windelband. However, the wide availability of their works did not suffice to make the narrative standard because, until the 1890s, the Hegelian account was at least as popular as theirs. Among the factors that allowed the narrative to become standard are its aptness to be adopted by philosophers of the most diverse persuasions, its simplicity and suitability for teaching.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Idealism, English, Empiricism, Philosophy of history, Rationalism | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of the History of Ideas | ||||||
| Publisher: | University of Pennsylvania Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1086-3222 | ||||||
| Official Date: | April 2016 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 77 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 253-282 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1353/jhi.2016.0017 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 19 May 2017 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 19 May 2017 | ||||||
| Funder: | European Community | ||||||
| Related URLs: |
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