All or Nothing: Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism

In the first conceptual, methodological overview of German Idealism, Franks offers a reconstruction true to the movement’s own times but also deeply relevant to contemporary thought. The result is a characterization of German Idealism that reveals its sources as well as its pertinence—and its challenge—to contemporary philosophical naturalism.

Table of Contents:
Cover Title Page Copyright Acknowledgments Contents Introduction Chapter 1. Kantian Dualism Chapter 2. Post-Kantian Monism Chapter 3. Post-Kantian Skepticism Chapter 4. Post-Kantian Transcendental Arguments Chapter 5. The Fact of Reason and the Standpoint of German Idealism Chapter 6. Intuition, Negation, and the Possibility of Evil Conclusion Bibliography Index

Review :
A notable feature in recent Anglo-American professional philosophy is the mounting return of attention to the post-Kantian development of German Idealism--that development, or outburst, of philosophical activity that became largely off limits in the analytical pedagogy adopted in virtually all of the dominant English-speaking departments of philosophy over most of the twentieth century. The unfailing historical sophistication and the persistent illumination of philosophical questioning that characterize Paul Franks's All or Nothing, as well as its narrative scope, make it an early culmination of this revived attention. Franks's presentation demonstrates that a massively influential era and register of Western philosophical heritage need no longer remain strange to those who have not yet found their way to it--or, to put the matter positively, and more accurately, that this register may now become pertinently strange, in a way such that it itself, as Franks insists, recognizes its own unavoidable strangeness. It is part of the pedagogical generosity of his book that Franks includes references and quotations marking various moments from that tradition which help, in their differences as well as their similarities, in articulating the progress of the tradition he has remarkably set in motion. -- Stanley Cavell, Harvard University What Franks has managed to do is to drive a single, unified line of argument through the historical material without distortion or suppression, and in a way which on the contrary throws so much light on the figures and themes dealt with that his central contentions emerge with a very high degree of historical corroboration. He has provided a cogent demonstration that the fundamental thrust of German idealism is not philosophically arbitrary and not of merely antiquarian interest, but has a strong, legitimate claim on our contemporary philosophical interest. -- Sebastian Gardner, University College London The subjects that Franks has taken on are both timely and enormous. He shows what the problems were in Kantian philosophy that ultimately drove the development of what has come to be known as German Idealism, and he shows what motivated those who moved away from Kant. Even more ambitiously, he shows the inherent plausibility of those moves in terms of their own inner dynamics and logic. This is no easy task, and Franks has pulled it off superbly. -- Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University