The Wall or the Door: German Realism around 1800

Abstract

Around 1800, in addition to the well-studied group of idealists, there was also a group of realists, who have received relatively scant scholarly attention individually and almost no attention as a group. This study examines this group of realists, primarily through its founder, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, whose systematic commitments inspired a larger group of realists, who variously adapted the position to their own needs, followed it to the point of orthodoxy or developed it further. Throughout the study, I will examine these various ways of being a realist in Jacobi‟s sense and will argue that there are many shared characteristics, commitments and lines of argumentation that the realists have in common with the idealists.