Young Hegelians
The Young Hegelians, or Left Hegelians, were a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in 1831, reacted to and wrote about his ambiguous legacy. The Young Hegelians drew on his idea that the purpose and promise of history was the total negation of everything conducive to restricting freedom and reason; and they proceeded to mount radical critiques, first of religion and then of the Prussian political system. They ignored anti-utopian aspects of his thought that some have interpreted to mean that the world has already essentially reached perfection.
Edmund Burke
Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century.[5] Since the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism.[6][7] Early life[edit] Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland, to a prosperous solicitor father (Richard; died 1761) of the Church of Ireland. It is unclear if this is the same Richard Burke who converted from Catholicism.[8][9] His mother Mary (c. 1702 – 1770), whose maiden name was Nagle, was a Roman Catholic and came from an impoverished but genteel County Cork family. The Burke dynasty descended from an Anglo-Norman surnamed de Burgh (Latinised as de Burgo) who arrived in Ireland in 1185 following the Norman invasion of Ireland by Henry II of England in 1171.[10]
Die Freien
Die Freien was a 19th-century circle of political philosophers in Germany, gathering for informal discussion over a period of a few years. Formation[edit] Die Freien was the name given to the Berlin wing of the Young Hegelians, headed by Bruno Bauer. The group was formed at the University of Berlin. Its leader, Bruno Bauer was a student who had attended Hegel’s lectures and was then asked to defend the position of the Old Hegelians against the claims of David Strauss’s Life of Jesus. After reviewing the book however, Bauer was converted and became even more radical than Strauss, becoming an atheist and arguing that Christianity was not only historically baseless, but was also irrational and a barrier to progress.
Karl Marx
Karl Marx[note 1] (/mɑrks/;[4] German pronunciation: [ˈkaɐ̯l ˈmaɐ̯ks]; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought.[5][6][7][8] He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–1894). Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier in the Prussian Rhineland, Marx studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. After his studies he wrote for Rheinische Zeitung, a radical newspaper in Cologne, and began to work out the theory of the materialist conception of history.
Edgar Bauer
Edgar Bauer (7 October 1820 – 18 August 1886) was a German political philosopher and a member of the Young Hegelians. He was the younger brother of Bruno Bauer. According to Lawrence S. Stepelevich, Edgar Bauer was the most anarchistic of the Young Hegelians, and "...it is possible to discern, in the early writings of Edgar Bauer, the theoretical justification of political terrorism." [1] German anarchists such as Max Nettlau and Gustav Landauer credited Edgar Bauer with founding the anarchist tradition in Germany.[2] In the mid-1840s, Marx' and Engels' critique of the Bauer brothers marked the beginning of their collaboration and an important stage in the development of Marxist thought. Edgar Bauer participated in the Revolution of 1848. Subsequently he became a conservative.
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill, FRSE (20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory and political economy. He has been called "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century".[3] Mill's conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.[4] He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham.
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels (German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɛŋəls]; 28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895) was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research. In 1848 he co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, and later he supported Marx financially to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (/kænt/;[1] German: [ɪˈmaːnu̯eːl kant]; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher who is widely considered to be a central figure of modern philosophy. He argued that fundamental concepts structure human experience, and that reason is the source of morality. His thought continues to have a major influence in contemporary thought, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics.[2] Kant's major work, the Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1781),[3] aimed to explain the relationship between reason and human experience.
August Cieszkowski
Biography[edit] Cieszkowski studied at the Jagiellonian University and in then, from 1832, at the University of Berlin where he became interested in Hegelianism through the lectures of Karl Ludwig Michelet, who became a lifelong friend. He gained his doctorate in philosophy from Heidelberg in 1838. After his studies he travelled around Europe, visiting France, England and Italy before returning to Poland in 1840 and settling permanently in Wierzenica, near Poznań, in 1843. Cieszkowski co-founded the Polish League (Liga Polska) in 1848.
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (/ˈsɔrən ˈkɪərkəɡɑrd/ or /ˈkɪərkəɡɔr/; Danish: [ˈsɶːɐn ˈkiɐ̯ɡəɡɒːˀ] ( )) (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.[5] He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.[6] He was a fierce critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Swedenborg,[7] Hegel, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, and Hans Christian Andersen. Early years (1813–1836)[edit] Kierkegaard in a coffee-house, an oil sketch by Christian Olavius, 1843 Journals[edit]
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin (German: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) is one of Berlin's oldest universities, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin (Universität zu Berlin) by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. From 1828 it was known as the Frederick William University (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität), and later (unofficially) also as the Universität unter den Linden after its location. In 1949, it changed its name to Humboldt-Universität in honour of both its founder Wilhelm and his brother, geographer Alexander von Humboldt. In 2012, the Humboldt University of Berlin was one of eleven German top-universities (also known as elite universities) to win in the German Universities Excellence Initiative, a national competition for universities organized by the German Federal Government. History[edit]
