Translator's Note ix Preface to the English Translation xi 1 Does German Philosophy Have a History? And Has There Ever Been a "German Spirit"? 1 2 The Birth of God in the Soul: The Beginnings of German-language Philosophizing in the Middle Ages in the Work of Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa's Consummation and Demolition of Medieval Thought 13 3 The Change in the Philosophical Situation Brought about by the Reformation: Paracelsus's New Natural Philosophy and the "No" in Jakob Bohme's God 29 4 Only the Best Is Good Enough for God: Leibniz's Synthesis of Scholasticism and the New Science 39 5 The German Ethical Revolution: Immanuel Kant 57 6 The Human Sciences as a Religious Duty: Lessing, Hamann, Herder, Schiller, the Early Romantics, and Wilhelm von Humboldt 82 7 The Longing for a System: German Idealism 97 8 The Revolt against Christian Dogmatics: Schopenhauer's Discovery of the Indian World 129 9 The Revolt against the Bourgeois World: Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx 139 10 The Revolt against Universalistic Morals: Friedrich Nietzsche 156 11 The Exact Sciences as a Challenge and the Rise of Analytic Philosophy: Frege, the Viennese and Berlin Circles, Wittgenstein 176 12 The Search for a Foundation of the Human Sciences and the Social Sciences in Neo-Kantianism and Dilthey, and Husserl's Exploration of Consciousness 193 13 Is Philosophy Partly to Blame for the German Catastrophe? Heidegger between Fundamental Ontology and the History of Being 217 14 National Socialist Anthropology and Political Philosophy: Arnold Gehlen and Carl Schmitt 232 15 The Federal Republic's Adaptation to Western European Normality: Gadamer, the Two Frankfurt Schools, and Hans Jonas 241 16 Why We Cannot Assume That There Will Continue to Be a German Philosophy 263 Index of Names 269

"Short, lively, and appealing, this book covers the whole of German philosophy, providing clear, crisp outlines laced with humor and vivid imagery. Vittorio Hoesle's pithy summaries capture the most important characteristics of German philosophers in a stimulating way. There is nothing quite like this book. It is a literary as much as an intellectual work, and a pleasure to read throughout."-Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton"With its engaging style, remarkable clarity, and unusual combination of breadth and brevity, this is a magnificent book and, as far as I know, the only one in any language that surveys the full landscape of German philosophy. Vittorio Hoesle evaluates philosophers with a light touch and makes them come alive. This book provides a window into the German tradition that will interest not only philosophers but also students and scholars in a wide range of other fields, including intellectual history, German studies, and religion and theology."-Mark W. Roche, University of Notre Dame"Vittorio Hoesle wrote this book for general readers and he has succeeded. I have rarely encountered such lucid and forceful explanations of complex philosophical arguments; the discussions of Hegel and Heidegger are exemplary."-Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia"After the publication of Martin Heidegger's Black Notebooks it is more necessary than ever to take stock of German philosophy since the eighteenth century. How is light and shadow distributed, seen from our current standpoint? Which intellectual highroads and byroads lead further-and which ones lead to dead ends or even abysses? Such an inventory is now available. . . . Vittorio Hoesle's book A Short History of German Philosophy consists, like each of his works, of an exciting mixture of analysis and polemic."-Die Zeit