University of Oxford
Faculty of Philosophy, Wolfson College
DPhil, 1980
Syracuse, New York, United States of America
  • Historicism
    In Brian Leiter & Michael Rosen (eds.), The Oxford handbook of continental philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2007.
  •  16
    The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1796-1880
    Oxford University Press. 2014.
    Neo-Kantianism was an important movement in German philosophy of the late 19th century: Frederick Beiser traces its development back to the late 18th century, and explains its rise as a response to three major developments in German culture: the collapse of speculative idealism; the materialism controversy; and the identity crisis of philosophy
  •  10
    Hegel and Ranke: A Re‐examination
    In Stephen Houlgate & Michael Baur (eds.), A Companion to Hegel, Wiley‐blackwell. 2011.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Ranke's Troubling Legacy Ranke's Methodology The Secret Fellowship Hidden Differences Ranke's Polemic against Hegel Hegel's Attack on Ranke and Niebuhr.
  •  7
    The Context and Problematic of Post‐Kantian Philosophy
    In Simon Critchley & William R. Schroeder (eds.), A Companion to Continental Philosophy, Blackwell. 2017.
    Usually, the history of philosophy in the first two decades after the publication of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason) in May 1781 is seen as little more than commentary upon and criticism of Kant's classic text. It is chiefly a story about how Kant's successors tried to defend and systematize, or criticize and dismember, his philosophy. The main theme of this story is the central outstanding problem of Kant's philosophy: the transcendental deduction, the problem of the po…Read more
  •  9
    Romanticism
    In Randall Curren (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Education, Blackwell. 2003.
    This chapter contains sections titled: A Romantic Philosophy of Education? The Romantic Ideal of Bildung The Enlightenment and Educational Reform The Romantic Revolt Human versus Political Education The Role of the Arts in Education.
  •  4
    The Fate of Reason
    Harvard University Press. 1987.
    The Fate of Reason is the first general history devoted to the period between Kant and Fichte, one of the most revolutionary and fertile in modern philosophy. The philosophers of this time broke with the two central tenets of the modem Cartesian tradition: the authority of reason and the primacy of epistemology. They also witnessed the decline of the Aufkldrung, the completion of Kant's philosophy, and the beginnings of post-Kantian idealism. Thanks to Beiser we can newly appreciate the influenc…Read more
  •  5
    Hermann Cohen: An Intellectual Biography
    Oxford University Press. 2018.
    This book is the first complete intellectual biography of Hermann Cohen and the only work to cover all his major philosophical and Jewish writings. Frederick C. Beiser pays special attention to all phases of Cohen's intellectual development, its breaks and its continuities, throughout seven decades. The guiding goal behind Cohen's intellectual career, he argues, was the development of a radical rationalism, one committed to defending the rights of unending enquiry and unlimited criticism. Cohen'…Read more
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    This book is an account of the philosophical movement named Lebensphilosophie, which flourished at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. There many philosophers who participated in the movement, but this book concentrates on the three most important: Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey and Georg Simmel. The movement was called Lebensphilosophie—literally, philosophy of life—because its main interest was not life as a biological phenomenon but life as it is lived by human be…Read more
  •  7
    The Neo-Kantians and Schiller’s Transcendental Idealism
    In Antonino Falduto & Tim Mehigan (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Friedrich Schiller, Springer Verlag. pp. 559-571. 2023.
    It is a tale often told, and one that has never lost much in the retelling. Scholars never cease to ponder the Schiller-Kant relationship, which continues to be controversial. It is not hard to see why. Schiller once said that he only wanted to follow the spirit of Kant’s philosophy, even if, on a few minor points, he would depart from its letter. But he also did not hesitate to contradict Kant explicitly on major points, attempting, for example, to build an objective aesthetics in direct confli…Read more
  •  4
    L’humanisme de Schiller
    Les Cahiers Philosophiques de Strasbourg 52 27-39. 2022.
    Cet article avance l’idée selon laquelle l’humanisme schillérien doit se comprendre dans la tradition de l’anthropologie philosophique de la Karlschule. À partir d’un examen du kantisme de Schiller et en s’intéressant aux concepts d’humanisme religieux, d’autonomie, de providence, d’immanence et de transcendance, on en vient à la conclusion générale que Schiller fut un des premiers humanistes de la tradition allemande à affranchir l’éthique de la religion. À cet égard, Schiller peut être considé…Read more
  •  4
    David Friedrich Strauss is a central figure in 19th century intellectual history. The first major source for the loss of faith in Christianity in Germany, his work Das Leben Jesu was the most scandalous publication in Germany during his time. His book was a critique of the claims to historical truth of the New Testament, which had been the mainstay of Protestantism since the Reformation. As the father of unbelief, his critique of Christianity preceded that of Nietzsche, Marx, Feuerbach, and Scho…Read more
  •  8
    "This book is an intellectual biography of Johann Friedrich, who was one of the most famous philosophers in early 19th century Germany. Herbart was trained in the German idealist tradition under Fichte, but he eventually broke with Fichte and major idealist doctrines. His own philosophy was opposed to the idealist tradition in important respects: he defended a dualism between the factual and normative; he was an ontological pluralist rather than monist; and he accepted crucial Kantian dualisms t…Read more
  •  10
    Felsefedeki normal dönemler felsefenin belirlenmiş ve uzlaşılmış bir tanımının olduğu filozofların kendi disiplinlerinin ve onun içerdiği görevlerin doğası hakkında genel bir mutabakata sahip oldukları zamanlardır Devrimci zamanlar ise böyle bir tanımın olmadığı felsefeye ilişkin çelişen kavramsallaştırmaların olduğu zamanlardır Bu tanımlara göre geç on sekizinci erken on dokuzuncu ve geç yirminci yüzyıllar normal zamanlardı Bununla birlikte on dokuzuncu yüzyılın ikinci yarısı devrimciydi Çünkü …Read more
  •  9
    A Mayfly for Prof. Hegel: Herbart’s Forgotten Review of Hegel’s Rechtsphilosophie
    Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 33 (3-4): 277-288. 2021.
    ABSTRACT Herbart and Hegel were contemporaries and both became famous, in their time and thereafter. It would be interesting therefore to know what they thought of one another. We could easily answer this question if they reviewed one another. Hegel never reviewed Herbart; but Herbart did review Hegel. Though in his later years Herbart protested that he did not want to engage with Hegel, he had already written, in 1822, one of his longest and most important reviews, which was of Hegel’s Philosop…Read more
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    After Hegel: German Philosophy, 1840-1900
    Princeton University Press. 2014.
    Histories of German philosophy in the nineteenth century typically focus on its first half--when Hegel, idealism, and Romanticism dominated. By contrast, the remainder of the century, after Hegel's death, has been relatively neglected because it has been seen as a period of stagnation and decline. But Frederick Beiser argues that the second half of the century was in fact one of the most revolutionary periods in modern philosophy because the nature of philosophy itself was up for grabs and the v…Read more
  •  56
    Hegel and the history of idealism
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (3): 501-513. 2020.
    This article attempts to expose an unwarranted narrowness in the study of idealism in nineteenth century philosophy, and to show that the field of idealism is much wider than usually assumed. This narrowness stems from the influence of Hegel’s history of philosophy, which saw the idealist tradition as beginning in Kant, passing through Fichte and Schelling, and then culminating in his own system. This conception of history has been disseminated by Hegel’s followers and still prevails today. I ar…Read more
  •  60
    Neo-Kantianism as Neo-Fichteanism
    Fichte-Studien 45 309-327. 2018.
    This article defends the paradoxical thesis that neo-Kantianism is better described as neo-Fichteanism rather than neo-Kantianism. It maintains that neo-Kantianism is closer to Fichte than Kant in four fundamental respects: in its nationalism, socialism, activism, and in its dynamic and quantitative conception of the dualism between understanding and sensibility. By contrast, Kant’s philosophy was cosmopolitan, liberal, non-activist quietist and held a static and qualitative view of the dualism …Read more
  •  25
    Response to Pinkard
    Hegel Bulletin 17 (2): 21-26. 1996.
  •  18
    Bowie on Schelling
    Hegel Bulletin 15 (2): 1-5. 1994.
  •  92
    Historicism and neo-Kantianism
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 39 (4): 554-564. 2008.
    This article treats the conflict between historicism and neo-Kantianism in the late nineteenth century by a careful examination of the writings of Wilhelm Windelband, the leader of the Southwestern neo-Kantians. Historicism was a profound challenge to the fundamental principles of Kant’s philosophy because it seemed to imply that there are no universal and necessary principles of science, ethics or aesthetics. Since all such principles are determined by their social and historical context, they …Read more
  •  23
    August Wilhelm Rehberg
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.