Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi: the natural history of speculative reason

Author(s)

Juliana Ferraci Martone

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2020-10-23

Examining board members

Oliver Tolle; Eduardo Brandão; Faustino Fabbianelli; Celí Hirata; Yves Radrizzani

• Advisor: Oliver Tolle

Abstract

The thesis intends to present the philosophy, or better yet, the so-called non-philosophy or not-knowing of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, whilst it outlines an answer to the broader question about the meaning of philosophy itself with the help of Jacobi\'s conception that living philosophy is always historical, and that the way of life is prior to the way of thinking. The human condition is distinguished by a hiatus or a dualism, since men are incapable of unifying existence on the one hand, and knowledge on the other. In other words, the order of being and the order of knowledge are not equivalent. Therefore, no philosophy will ever find such impossible synthesis (the \"creative monosyllable\"). When philosophy tries to unify them (monism), it inevitably ends up in fatalism or nihilism: renouncing either the existence or the conceptual knowledge. Jacobi reveals that the solution to this dualism is not inside knowledge itself, whose tendency is always to unify mediations, but rather in a wise ignorance (wissendes Nichtwissen), namely in the personal conduct or the concrete moral and political action in society, hence in a personal philosophy; not in an categorical imperative, but rather in a \"categorial optative\". (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 17/03803-8 - Realism and unphilosophie in F. H. Jacobi
• Grantee: Juliana Ferraci Martone
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)