Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
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Jacobi by Unknown, dated before 1830
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| Born | 25 January 1743 |
| Died | 10 March 1819 (aged 76) |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | German idealism |
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Main interests
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Common sense realism, religious philosophy, metaphysics, moral philosophy |
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Notable ideas
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Glaube, Offenbarung, nihilism |
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Influences
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Influenced
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Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (German: [jaˈkoːbi]; January 25, 1743 – March 10, 1819) was an important German philosopher and writer. He was also a well-known person in society.
He is famous for making the term nihilism popular. This word means the belief that life has no real meaning or values. Jacobi thought this idea was a big problem with the Enlightenment way of thinking. He saw it in the ideas of philosophers like Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Johann Fichte, and Friedrich Schelling.
Jacobi believed in Glaube (which means faith or "belief") and revelation. He thought these were more important than just using pure logic or "speculative reason." Because of this, some people see Jacobi as someone who predicted modern writers. These writers criticize modern philosophy for being too focused on what people think is true, rather than on religious faith.
During his time, he was also known for his opinions on the Sturm and Drang movement in literature. He was close friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Jacobi's writings tried to balance the idea of individual freedom with what people owe to society.
He was the younger brother of the poet Johann Georg Jacobi. His son, Maximilian Jacobi, became a famous psychiatrist.
Contents
Biography
Early life and career
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi was born in Düsseldorf. He was the second son of a rich sugar merchant. He was first trained to work in business. In 1759, he had a short apprenticeship in Frankfurt-am-Main. After that, he went to Geneva for a general education. Jacobi was a quiet and thoughtful person. In Geneva, he spent most of his time with a group of writers and scientists.
He carefully studied the works of Charles Bonnet. He also looked into the political ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire. In 1763, he was called back to Düsseldorf. The next year, he married Elisbeth von Clermont and took over his father's business.
After a short time, he stopped working in business. In 1770, he became a member of the council for the areas of Jülich and Berg. He was very good at handling money and worked hard for social improvements. Jacobi kept his interest in writing and philosophy alive by writing many letters. His large house at Pempelfort, near Düsseldorf, became a meeting place for important writers. He also helped start a new literary magazine with Christoph Martin Wieland.
Some of his first writings were about practical or economic topics. These were published in a magazine called Der Teutsche Merkur. This magazine also published parts of his first philosophical work, Edward Allwill's Briefsammlung (1776). This book mixed romance with deep thoughts. In 1779, he published Woldemar, another philosophical novel. It was not perfectly structured but was full of clever ideas. It showed Jacobi's way of thinking very well.
In 1779, he visited Munich. He had been appointed as a minister and adviser for Bavaria's customs and trade. He did not agree with Bavaria's trade policies and wanted to make taxes and customs more open. But after a short time, he had disagreements with his colleagues and the authorities. He also did not want to get into power struggles. So, he returned to Pempelfort. This experience led him to publish two essays. In these essays, Jacobi supported Adam Smith's ideas about political economy (how countries manage their money). These essays were followed in 1785 by a work that made Jacobi well-known as a philosopher.
Later life and philosophical debates
The time at Pempelfort ended in 1794. This was when the French Revolution spread into Germany during the French Revolutionary Wars. French troops occupied Düsseldorf, which forced Jacobi to move. He lived in Holstein for almost ten years. There, he became good friends with Karl Leonhard Reinhold and Matthias Claudius.
The Atheism Discussion
In 1799, the philosopher Gottlieb Fichte was removed from the University of Jena. This happened because he was accused of atheism (not believing in God). The accusation came after he wrote an essay in 1798. In this essay, Fichte said that God should be understood mainly in terms of morality. He wrote that "The living and actively working moral order is itself God. We need no other God, nor can we understand any other."
Jacobi responded to Fichte's ideas. He published a Letter to Fichte in 1799. In this letter, Jacobi argued that philosophy, especially Fichte's way of thinking, could lead to nihilism. Nihilism is the idea that life has no meaning or values. Jacobi connected this to his own philosophical beliefs about theology (the study of religious faith).
President of the Academy and retirement
Soon after returning to Germany, Jacobi was invited to Munich. This was for the new academy of sciences that had just been started there. He had lost a lot of his money, so he accepted the offer. He moved to Munich in 1804. In 1807, he became the president of the academy.
In 1811, he published his last philosophical work. It was called Von den göttlichen Dingen und ihrer Offenbarung (Of Divine Things and Their Revelation). This work was mainly against the philosopher Friedrich Schelling. Schelling wrote a strong reply, but Jacobi did not answer it. However, it started a lively debate among other philosophers.
In 1812, Jacobi retired from being president. He began to prepare a collection of all his works. He passed away before he could finish it. His friend F. Koppen continued the work, and it was completed in 1825. His collected works fill six volumes.
Philosophical ideas
Jacobi's philosophy is not a strict system. He had a main idea that he used to look at other philosophical systems. He focused on those ideas that seemed to go against his own. He only shared his positive philosophical results from time to time.
His main idea was that there is a complete difference between "understanding" (logic) and "apprehension of real fact" (knowing something directly). For Jacobi, "understanding" or logic is only about organizing information. It can never go beyond the information it is given. When we think using logic, we compare things and find patterns. This helps us connect facts, but it stays limited and depends on what we already know.
Logical thinking always looks for reasons and causes. It forces us to see every fact as having a condition. This leads to an endless chain of ideas that are just comparisons. So, logic deals only with things that are "conditioned" (have a cause or reason). If there is any true reality, we must know about it in a way that is not just logical thinking. Since logical thought needs something that cannot be logically proven, it means we must be aware of some truths directly.
Because of this, philosophy should stop trying to explain everything in a logical system. Instead, it should look at the facts of our consciousness (what we are aware of). Jacobi believed it was a mistake for philosophers to think that logical, proven knowledge is better than knowing truths or facts directly.
Jacobi believed that logical thought is limited. It can only connect facts but cannot explain why they exist. So, he found any philosophical system that tried to explain everything through logic to be wrong. The most important logical system in modern philosophy was by Spinoza. So, Jacobi first criticized Spinoza's ideas.
Here are some of the main points from his study of Spinoza:
- Spinozism (Spinoza's philosophy) leads to atheism (not believing in God).
- Other philosophies, like those of Leibniz and Wolff, are just as much about fatalism (the idea that everything is decided by fate) as Spinoza's.
- Any method that relies only on logical proof ends in fatalism and nihilism (the belief that life has no meaning).
- We can only prove similarities or things that are true under certain conditions. Every proof needs something that is already proven. This starting point is given to us directly. Jacobi used the term Offenbarung (revelation) for this direct, unproven truth.
- The most important part of all human knowledge and actions is belief (Glaube, or "faith").
Jacobi argued that if we follow the rule of logic, we end up with the idea of a huge, undefined Nature that has no will or intelligence. This leads to atheism. He also said that the same logical method leads to fatalism and nihilism. If human actions must be understood logically, they seem to be caused by earlier events. This means there is no liberty or free will.
For Jacobi, if there were a God that could be understood logically, that God would have to be limited. But a limited God is not truly God. Also, if there were free will, it would mess up the logical order of things, making the world seem confusing. So, for logical understanding, there can be no God and no freedom.
Jacobi believed that true knowledge is in the middle. It is between sensing things (which is belief in what we see and feel) and reason (which is belief in things beyond our senses).
Works
- Early essays in Der Teutsche Merkur. Available online.
- Edward Allwill’s Briefsammlung (1781).
- Etwas das Lessing gesagt hat (1782). Werke, vol. 2, pp. 325-388.
- Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn (1785). 2nd edition, 1789. NYPL.
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi wider Mendelssohns Beschuldigungen betreffend die Briefe über die Lehre des Spinoza (1786). Oxford.
- David Hume über den Glauben, oder Idealismus und Realismus (1787). University of Lausanne.
- Woldemar (1794). 2 volumes. Oxford. 2nd edition, 1796. NYPL.
- Jacobi an Fichte (1799). University of Michigan. Text 1799/1816, Italian Translation, 3 Appendices with Jacobi's and Fichte's complementary Texts, Commentary by A. Acerbi): La Scuola di Pitagora, Naples 2017, ISBN: 978-88-6542-553-4.
- Ueber das Unternehmen des Kriticismus (1801). Werke, vol. 3, pp. 59-195.
- Ueber Gelehrte Gesellschaften, ihren Geist und Zweck (1807). Harvard.
- Von den göttlichen Dingen und ihrer Offenbarung (1811). University of California.
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi's Werke (1812–1825).
- Volume 1, 1812. Harvard; NYPL; University of Michigan; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Volume 2, 1815. Harvard; NYPL; University of Michigan; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Volume 3, 1816. Harvard; NYPL; University of Michigan; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Volume 4, 1819. Harvard. Parts 1 & 2: Oxford; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Part 1. NYPL; University of Michigan.
- Part 2. NYPL; University of Michigan.
- Part 3. NYPL; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Volume 5, 1820. Harvard; NYPL; University of Michigan; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Volume 6, 1825. NYPL; University of Michigan (Morris).
- Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi's auserlesener Briefwechsel (1825–27). 2 volumes.
- Volume 1, 1825. Harvard; University of Michigan.
- Volume 2, 1827. Harvard; University of Michigan.
See also
In Spanish: Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi para niños
