Research group on German Philosophy of the 18th century

The project of the research group on German Philosophy of the 18^th century is to reconstruct the history of the German Enlightenment which cannot simply be reduced to the works of Leibniz and Kant. Our objective is to retrace the philosophical debates of that time period and to examine their continuities and their discontinuities. Christian Wolff, the "master of German philosophers" according to Hegel, represents a major character in this history. He has been one of the most important philosophical interlocutors for most of his contemporaries and immediate successors. Our concern is therefore to present a view of his philosophy which is as complete as possible, in order to grasp its originality and its impact. The aim of the group is to examine both the "vertical" history of influences (starting from the early German Enlightenment and ending with the French Revolution and the beginning of Idealism and Romanticism) and to reveal influences on the "horizontal" level between art, literature, religion and philosophy.

The group is open to scholars with different scientific backgrounds, such as specialists of aesthetics, epistemology, political philosophy and metaphysics, philosophers, historians and scholars specialized in German literature and intellectual history. The sessions take place once a month. Each session, one or two of the group members present a paper reflecting their current work. In cooperation with other french and international research centers, the group regularly organizes conferences and works on collective translations of philosophical works which have not yet been published in French. It possesses a library on the Enlghtenment including primary and secondary texts of that time period of German thought.

[Wolf Feuerhahn made this website. Stefanie Buchenau translated the research areas]

For any kind of informations,

Please contact Jean-François Goubet : jfgoubet@wanadoo.fr