Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy: Racism in the Formation of the Philosophical Canon, 1780–1830

Chapter 1: The Kantian School and the Consolidation of Modern Historiography of Philosophy

11 1 The Kantian School and the Consolidation of Modern Historiography of Philosophy The history of philosophy presents to us reason in its sublime aspect, in its divine striving after truth without concealing its weaknesses, since it shows us its aberrations and entanglements in vain whimsy; it gives us a faithful painting of the transience of human opinions and of the ever more victorious struggle of reason against error and superstition. —Wilhelm Tennemann (1798)1 In 1791, Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1758–1825), the important early exponent of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy, decried the lack of agreement among philosophers on what constitutes the proper object of the history of philosophy.2 There was no agreement on even a concept of philosophy.3 It remained an unresolved question whether the scientific study of nature, for instance, came under the domain of philosophy . None of the existing concepts of philosophy satisfied Reinhold, who was compelled to give his own definition: Philosophy is the “science of the determinate interrelation of things, independent of experience.”4 He elaborated this definition term by term: Philosophy is “scientific” as opposed to that which is “common, unordered” or “irregular.”5 The “philosophy of the common man” consists of accidental knowledge as means toward the satisfaction of sensual needs and does not qualify as philosophy.6 If philosophy is to fulfill its 12 Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy intended purpose, it should satisfy the need of consciousness only, the need of reason itself. Philosophy is the science of the “determinate” or “necessary,” as opposed to the accidental, interrelation of things.7 Things accidentally related to each other come under the domain of history and not philosophy.8 Philosophy is “independent of experience ” since the forms by which reason arrives at the interrelation of things are determined by the nature of human consciousness, the human faculty of representation, which does not originate in experience , but rather makes experience possible.9 Due to a “completely indeterminate” concept of philosophy, the idea of the history of philosophy has been equally indeterminate. This is the reason why one commonly confused the “actual” history of philosophy with intellectual history (the history of the sciences in particular) and with the “lives and opinions” of the philosophers. Reinhold also drew a distinction between the history of philosophy and the special histories of particular subfields of philosophy; such as metaphysics, which was often confused with philosophy in general.10 Reinhold considered the history of philosophy as separate and distinct also from the history of the literature of philosophy.11 This traditional confusion of genres gave him cause to strictly define the history of philosophy as “the portrayed quintessence of the changes that the science of the necessary interrelation of things has undergone from its [first] emergence to our times.”12 Reinhold also wanted to exclude from the history of philosophy biographical details of the philosophers, excerpts of their writings, and reports by others of their contents. He wanted to exclude even historical information derived from the philosophers’ own writings.13 However, he did concede—but only barely—that in the special cases in which the psychological or moral character of a man, or certain circumstances of his life, had a decisive impact on his philosophical system—indeed, if his philosophical system was a peculiar one; that in these rare cases, the history of philosophy may take such historical data (e.g., biographical details) into consideration.14 However, even the most accurate historical information could supply at best “nothing more than materials for the history of philosophy and not this history itself.”15 Notwithstanding rare exceptions, recounting the life circumstances of a philosopher would be a “useless waste of time” in the lecture hall and, Reinhold added, would even excuse the lecturer as well as the students from thinking.16 In this chapter I argue that, in distinguishing between what the history of philosophy had been previously and what it ought to be, Reinhold was calling for reform in this field of knowledge. He 13 The Kantian School inaugurated a movement in the writing of history of philosophy that would span the rest of the decade and spill into the nineteenth century . As never before, German university philosophers would explicitly discuss the concept, content, form, purpose, method, scope, types, and value of the history of philosophy. Greater space was allotted to the discussion of these themes in the introductions and prefaces to a growing...