Idealism and Justification of Aufklärung

It is a commonplace of intellectual history that any philosophical movement must be understood in its historical context. This dictum is especially true of German Idealism, whose aims and problems become intelligible only in the context of the culture of late eighteenth-century Germany. This culture was essentially that of the Enlightenment or Aufklärung, which had dominated intellectual life in Germany since the middle of the eighteenth century. But, toward the close of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment began to show signs of a crisis. The fundamental principles of the Enlightenment were rational criticism and scientific naturalism. While criticism seemed to end in skepticism, naturalism appeared to result in materialism. Both results were unacceptable. If skepticism undermines our common-sense beliefs in the reality of the external world, materialism threatens the beliefs in freedom, immortality, and [God]. German Idealism and All its various forms – the transcendental idealism of Kant, the ethical idealism of Fichte, and the absolute idealism of the romantics – were so many attempts to resolve these aporiai of the Enlightenment. Thus, aim of this article is representation of German Idealism as the constant attempt to preserve the legacy of the Enlightenment.