Reviews for The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism

The average rating for The Agrarian Roots of Pragmatism based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-12-01 00:00:00 Jjj Jjjj Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi is a rather under appreciated and seldom read German author. Living from 1743 to 1819, he was a contemporary of Kant, Goethe, Hamann, Fichte, Hegel, etc. I was interested in him for 2 reasons: 1. He is considered somewhat of a protoexistentialist, and even apparently coined the term 'nihilism.' Having myself benefited greatly from the writings of many existential thinkers (Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Camus, Sartre, Heidegger, etc.) I was interested to locate the germ of his existential thought. 2. In learning about German philosophy at this time period one will see that there are two dominant traditions. One being thinkers in the rationalist tradition as exemplified by Leibniz, Wolff, and Kant, and the other being those in the "Sturm und Drang" romantic movement (exemplified by such figures as Goethe, Schiller, Novalis), which could be considered a revolt against the dominance of rationalism in the early 18th century. Jacobi is interesting in that he was a critic of both. This book contains a lengthy introduction by the translator, which does an excellent job at situating Jacobi in his historical and philosophical context, introducing the ideas that he most often grappled with along with the figures with whom he most often engaged. The rest of the book contains the translation (of all editions) of 4 of his works: 1. Concerning the Doctrine of Spinoza: Part dialogue with Lessing, part letters to/ from Moses Mendelssohn, part polemic. Jacobi finds Spinoza's reasoning impeccable, yet unacceptable, and confesses to his colleague Lessing (a famous playwright at this time, I could recommend him) that he must escape it through a "salto mortale," or "deadly jump" -- similar to the Kierkegaardian leap of faith. He does a good job at laying out what he takes to be Spinoza's teachings (mostly found in his Ethics); Spinoza denies a first cause (a personal God in this Christian framework), a final cause (enjoying God forever in heaven), and free will. Jacobi goes through polemics against each of these 2. David Hume on Faith: My personal favorite. Jacobi discusses with a friend the ramifications of Hume's conclusions in "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding." The (later written) introduction is also excellent. His main argument is that "all human cognition derives from revelation and faith." He states: "Just as the actuality that reveals itself to the outer sense needs no guarantor, since it is itself the most powerful representative of its truth, so too the actuality that reveals itself to that inward sense that we call reason needs no guarantor; in like manner it is the most powerful testimony of its own truth all by itself. Man necessarily believes in his senses; he necessarily believes in his reason, and there is no certainty above the certainty of this faith." The end deals more with the doctrines of Spinoza and, mostly, Leibniz. I must confess that despite a number of readings a proper understanding of Leibniz still escapes me, so this section was largely lost on me. His conclusions I quite like, and I find them somewhat Wittgensteinian: "the chain of reasons must stop somewhere." 3. The Novel Allwill: I really did not like the Novel at all. It deals with similar philosophical themes as his other works. I could not get around to enjoying the format (friends writing letters to each other). However, it does have some redeeming parts at the end. 4. Jacobi to Fichte: A published letter Jacobi wrote to Fichte. He agrees with some aspects of Fichte and disagrees with others. Fichte is a thinker who I plan to dive more deeply into at some point, so I appreciated this section. Overall, this was a good collection. However, I wouldn't recommend it it to someone that did not have at least a basic knowledge of the problems and thinkers Jacobi deals with here and/ or and interest interest in the period of German philosophy.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-08-12 00:00:00 Gary Massey I am very glad to have finally read this collection of Jacobi's writings. He is a bit hard to classify; he had elements of both "Sturm Und Drang" and "Idealism", while at the same time, heavily criticizing both movements. If one were to sum him up philosophically, maybe one could use the term Ideal-Realist; he seemed to retain certain aspects of Idealist thought, while also being an advocate of tangible realism. He is noted in the history of philosophy as being a proponent of "glaube" or faith. He held that reason and rationality are really only partially correct modes; they needed to be supplemented by, or completed with, faith. Prior to reading this, I was not aware of Jacobi's profound influence on Fichte and on Idealism in general. His philosophy regarding the "ich" or "I" undoubtedly had some affect on Fichte, and thus, on Idealism. Although an opponent of Fichte's subjective Idealism, Jacobi also said some positive things about Fichte. Jacobi saw all subsequent Idealism as having it's roots in Spinoza, whom Jacobi considered an atheistic philosopher. Jacobi saw Fichte as the culmination of Spinozistic philosophical atheism. Of course, he also saw Schelling this way as well. His opposition to Schelling was a lot less cordial, unfortunately; and Schelling and Jacobi were not always entirely civil in their philosophical debate. Jacobi echoes Leibniz and Berkeley in some of his ideas; and one must acknowledge as the editor does, that Jacobi was probably also influenced by Spinoza. Jacobi was not always the most consistent, but he was certainly often profound and did have a considerable influence in Germany during the romantic period. In some ways, as I said before in a review, Jacobi and Hamann were precursors to the Christian Existentialism of Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard. There are definite parallels. Kierkegaard was known to have an overall favorable opinion of both and some influence in his writings is evident. For those who are interested in Existentialism and German Idealism, I would highly recommend Jacobi. This collection was long, but well worth reading.