German idealism

German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with romanticism and revolutionary politics. The predominant philosophers in the movement were Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Lesser lights include Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Schleiermacher. It is generally taken to have culminated with Hegel.

Meaning of "Idealism"

The word "idealism" has more than one meaning. It could mean thinking about objects as having the best or most perfect qualities. This is not the meaning that should be associated with German Idealism.

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The other meaning is that we do not directly know objects. We directly know only the sensations, ideas, images, or representations that are in our minds. These directly known ideas stand for or represent the objects, which are known indirectly. This is the meaning that should be associated with the philosophy of German Idealism.

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