Von Kant zu Schelling

The traditional interpretation of German Idealism assumes a singular line of development from Kant over Fichte and the early Schelling to completion in Hegel’s system. Vetö suggests a different view of this history. Starting from Kant, he traces two separate paths of development. One path of development, corresponding to the traditional interpretation, follows the idea of a rationality that is constantly becoming more perfect. A second path involves an exploration of the idea of “finitude” as found in the ideas of the late Fichte and developed more precisely in Schelling’s “later philosophy”. This monograph provides an interpretation of the four major German Idealists and weights their relative importance. The author takes all their works into account but focuses on problems of metaphysics, moral philosophy, and philosophy of religion.