Del 156 - Ideas in Context

Freedom and Perfection

German Political Thought from Leibniz to Marx

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

Av Douglas Moggach, Douglas (University of Ottawa and University of Sydney) Moggach

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Leibniz, this study argues, is the genuine initiator of German Idealism. His analysis of freedom as spontaneity and the relations he establishes among freedom, justice, and progress underlie Kant's ideas of rightful interaction and his critiques of Enlightened absolutism. Freedom and Perfection offers a historical examination of perfectionism, its political implications and transformations in German thought between 1650 and 1850. Douglas Moggach demonstrates how Kant's followers elaborated a new ethical-political approach, 'post-Kantian perfectionism', which, in the context of the French Revolution, promoted the conditions for free activity rather than state-directed happiness. Hegel, the Hegelian School, and Marx developed this approach further with reference to the historical process as the history of freedom. Highlighting the decisive importance of Leibniz for subsequent theorists of the state, society, and economy, Freedom and Perfection offers a new interpretation of important schools of modern thought and a vantage point for contemporary political debates.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-08-14
Mått157 x 235 x 24 mm
Vikt690 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieIdeas in Context
Antal sidor356
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009590433

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Douglas Moggach is Distinguished University Professor in Political Studies and Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, and Honorary Professor, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney. Publications, in nine languages, include Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer (Cambridge, 2003); The New Hegelians (Cambridge, 2006); Politics, Religion, and Art (2011); and (as co-editor), The 1848 Revolutions and European Political Thought (Cambridge, 2018).

1. Thinking freedom; 2. Leibniz: spontaneity, justice, and perfection; 3. Receptions of Leibniz: Wolff and Herder; 4. The Kantian revolution; 5. Foundational arguments: Humboldt and Dalberg on the scope and end of the state; 6. Friedrich Schiller: perfection, freedom, and beauty; 7. Fichte: the labour of spontaneity; 8. Hegel as post-Kantian perfectionist; 9. Hegelian perfectionism before 1848; 10. Karl Marx: historical perfectionism; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.

'Kant transformed political philosophy by making freedom rather than happiness the 'essential end' of humankind, and Fichte, Hegel, and Marx rang variations on this theme. True enough, but so did Schiller and von Humboldt, and it all began with Leibniz, whom Kant adapted as well as criticized, and who remained the source of so much in German philosophy. Douglas Moggach tells this important story with verve as well as accuracy!' Paul Guyer, Brown University