Metacritique

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Recent research challenges the conventional narratives of German Idealism, revealing that its development was neither linear from Kant to Hegel nor free from significant opposition. A notable critique emerged from a group of established philosophers known as "metacritique," which included figures like J. G. Hamann, S. Maimon, F. H. Jacobi, and J. G. Herder. They employed arguments reminiscent of later critiques from ordinary language philosophy, logical positivism, and cognitive psychology to challenge the transcendental claims of German idealists through a rigorous linguistic critique of their discourse. This debate also engaged early Romantic figures such as August and Friedrich Schlegel and August Ferdinand Bernhardi. Despite the significance of this intellectual exchange, key texts and discussions have remained inaccessible to English-speaking students. The current work addresses this gap by providing an extensive interpretive and critical overview of the metacritical challenge and the idealist responses, alongside English translations of essential texts, each accompanied by introductions and commentary. This collection serves as a valuable resource for courses on German idealism and offers crucial historical context for understanding later philosophical critiques of this tradition.