Geman Idealism

Issues of subjectivity and consciousness are dealt within very different waysw in the analytic tradition and in the idealistic phenomenological tradition central to continental philosophy. This book brings together analytically inspired philosophers working on the contintent with English-speaking philosophers to address specific issues regarding subjectivity and consciousness. The issues range from acquaintance and immediacy in perception and apperception, to the role of agency in bodily 'mine-ness', to self-determination (Selbstbestimmung) through (free) action. Thus involving philosophers of different traditons should yield a deeper vision of consciousness and subjectivity; oe relating the mind not only to nature, or to first-perso authority in linguistic creatures Questions which, in the analytic tradition, are sometimes treated as exhausting the topic but also to many other aspects of mind's understanding of itself in ways which disrupt classic inner/outer boundaries.

If any basic concept has played the leading role in the history of Western
philosophy, it is that of self-consciousness. Descartes wished to give to metaphysics an indubitable foundation in the certainty of self of a thinking being.
Leibniz believed self-consciousness to be not only the first, indubitable
certainty of a real existent entity, but also the principle of deduction for the justification of all fundamental concepts of ontology. And Kant followed Leibniz, giving his ~ principle a turn to the subjective; through an analysis of the structure of self-consciousness, one can ascertain, what "knowledge" and "understanding" in general mean.

One of the most fundamental goals for the german philosopher Johan Gottlieb Fichte(1762-1814)  was to bring unity and coherence to the human consciousness. His main concern was to prove  a unified account of subjectivity and to explain the diverse activities of the subject combined in one single structure. To unify theoretical and practical aspects of subjectivity are related to the capacities for knowledge and free agency dependent upon the subjective features of the I.

The following paper argues that J.G. Fichte, despite his apparent philosophical neglect of art and aesthetics, does develop a strong, original, and coherent account of art, which not only allows the theorization of modern, non-representative art forms, but indeed anticipates Nietzsche and Heidegger in conceiving of truth in terms of art rather than scientific rationality. While the basis of Fichte’s philosophy of art is presented in the essay “On Spirit and Letter in Philosophy,” it is not developed systematically either in this text or anywhere else in his writings, but must be reconstructed through a broad consideration of all his works, including, above all, his political and economic writings. For Fichte, the art-work does not exist as an object possessing “aesthetic value” and which can, in turn, be possessed, consumed, and enjoyed through the subjective act of aesthetic experience. Rather, it involves a mode of praxis which, grounded in a radical and original power of imagination, creatively discloses possibilities for future forms of existence, experience, and political community that cannot be theoretically anticipated. While Fichte cannot himself theorize specific forms of art, since the art that concerns him belongs to the future, we can, however, retrospectively try to understand non-representational painting and non-mimetic dance as concrete realizations of Fichte’s art-work of the future. In this way, Fichte’s philosophy of art ultimately suggests an alternative to Heidegger’s understanding of the work of art as a projective institution of truth. Fichte suggests that the human body, rather than human language, is the fundamental medium of art.

Quanti "mostri" ci sono nella letteratura tedesca? Certo è che rivolte, delitti, suicidi sembrano essere una costante non solo letteraria, ma anche umana e sociale. La letteratura tedesca offre una vasta gamma di personaggi, di giovani ribelli o giovani suicidi, attraverso i quali è possibile ricostruire la mappa delle speranze tradite e delle angosce delle giovani generazioni. Si tratta di un progetto di saggio del 1986 rifiutato dalla Feltrinelli che torna oggi di forte attualità per il tragico fenomeno del BLUE WHALES. Con una lettera di protesta alla Feltrinelli del 19 novembre 1986.