The Philosophy Book

145

In the Romantic period, European

literature, painting, and music

became preoccupied with an

idealized view of nature, in marked

contrast to the sophisticated urban

elegance of the Enlightenment.

Perhaps the key difference was the

way in which the Romantics valued

feeling and intuition above reason.

The movement took hold throughout

Europe, continuing until the end of

the 19th century.

German Idealism

German philosophy came to

dominate the 19th century, largely

due to the work of Immanuel Kant.

His idealist philosophy, which

claimed that we can never know

anything about things that exist

beyond our selves, radically altered

the course of philosophical thought.

Although only a few years younger

than Hume and Rousseau, Kant

belonged to the next generation:

his major philosophical works were

written after their deaths, and his

new explanation of the universe

and our knowledge of it managed

to integrate the approaches of

rationalism and empiricism in a way

more suited both to Romanticism

and to Germanic culture.

Kant’s followers included Fichte,

Schelling, and Hegel, who together

became known as the German

Idealists, but also Schopenhauer,

whose idiosyncratic interpretation

of Kant’s philosophy incorporated

ideas from Eastern philosophy.

Among the followers of Hegel’s

rigid Idealism was Karl Marx, who

brilliantly brought together German

philosophical methods, French

revolutionary political philosophy,

and British economic theory. After

writing the Communist Manifesto

with Friedrich Engels, he wrote Das

Kapital, arguably one of the most

influential philosophical works of all

time. Within decades of his death,

countries across the world had set

up revolutionary states on the

principles that he had proposed.

Meanwhile in the US, which

had overthrown British colonial rule

and established a republic based

on Enlightenment values, an

American culture independent

of its European roots began to

develop. At first Romantic, by the

end of the 19th century it had

produced a homegrown strand

of philosophy, pragmatism, which

examines the nature of truth.

This was in keeping with the

country’s democratic roots and

well suited to the culture of

the new century. ■

THE AGE OF REVOLUTION

1802

1807 1890

1843– 46 188OS

1848

1859

1861

Søren Kierkegaard

writes Either/Or and

Fear and Trembling.

European powers

begin large-scale

colonization of the

African continent.

Karl Marx publishes his

Communist Manifesto.

Revolutionary movements

sweep across Europe.

Charles Darwin

publishes the Origin of

Species, explaining his

theory of evolution.

Georg Hegel publishes

Phenomenology of Spirit.

The leading

pragmatist

William James

publishes The

Principles of

Psychology.

Napoleon
Bonaparte
proclaims himself
Emperor of France.

John Stuart Mill

publishes

Utilitarianism.