Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann

Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann (born December 7, 1761 in Kleinbrembach , † September 30, 1819 in Marburg ) was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy . He wrote a multi-volume work on the history of philosophy that was highly valued by experts and was reprinted in 2010 .

biography

At the age of five, Tennemann fell ill with smallpox, which often appeared epidemic in the 18th century . The consequences of this disease affected his development. His lifelong weak constitution together with his reserved manner later hampered his lecturing activities. His father taught him. From 1778 to 1779 he attended high school in Erfurt . He then went to the University of Erfurt to study . He studied here with Johann Christian Lossius . In 1781 he moved to the University of Jena and attended events by Johann August Heinrich Ulrich and Carl Leonhard Reinhold . He dealt in particular with ancient and then still young Kantian philosophy . In 1788 he completed his habilitation with the disputation of a thesis to refute Kantian rationalism .

In the same year he became a private lecturer in the history of philosophy at the University of Jena. In Jena he published research results such as the teachings and opinions of the Socratics on immortality (1791), four volumes on the system of Platonic philosophy (1792/5), an improved translation of David Hume's Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1793). In the introduction written by Carl Leonhard Reinhold , Hume's skepticism was recognized as a possible renewal of philosophical developments. This work was followed by the three-volume translation of Locke's Essay on the Human Mind (1795/7). In 1795 he began to publish his multi-volume work on the history of philosophy . In the same year he married Christine Sophie Johanne Ruß. Two years later (1797) he became a member of the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt . In 1798 the University of Jena appointed him extraordinary professor of philosophy. In 1804 he accepted a professorship at the University of Marburg . Here he published the two-volume translation of JM Degerando’s Comparative History of Systems of Philosophy (1806). From 1808 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Act

“If the history of philosophy is to satisfy not only curiosity, but the thirst for knowledge, then its purpose can be no other than the thorough knowledge of the gradual becoming, advancing or stepping back, and consequently of the course of philosophizing in general, and of the progressive development of philosophy as a Science. This end cannot be achieved by mere knowledge of what has happened as true and definite facts, but also depends on knowledge of the reasons and consequences or the connection between the occurrences. ”(P. 5)

His main work is the incomplete History of Philosophy (1798–1819), from which an extract was available with the outline of the history of philosophy for academic teaching from 1812. After his death, the Göttingen philosophy professor Amadeus Wendt edited and completed the incomplete publication. He used handwritten notes from Tennemann for this. This edition was soon sold out. Two further edited editions by Wendt followed. In 2010 an eight-volume new edition of his history of philosophy was published . Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel criticized Tennemann's work in his Introduction to the History of Philosophy as overly historicizing .

In Tenne's history of philosophy it was the second release of a comprehensive history of philosophy from the perspective of a German philosopher. 70 years earlier, Johann Jakob Brucker had presented the first history of philosophy. Before that, Pierre Bayle , Christian Thomasius and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz had published topics relating to the history of philosophy and conceptual considerations on the principles of a history of philosophy. In his Dictionnaire historique et critique , Bayle had limited himself to writing short articles and he presented opposing perspectives on the respective philosophy. The articles were supplemented in the form of footnotes by an extensive bibliographic apparatus. Other philosophers should be able to get a true source picture of the presented philosophers and their philosophies.

Tennemann followed Bayle's example in his history of philosophy . The extensive literature on individual philosophers was a treasure trove for philosophical historical research. At the end there were chronological tables and a name register, which made it easier to find the relevant articles. Tennemann wrote knowledgeably and legibly.

Tennemann's description of the history of philosophy was based on the basic idea that the history of philosophy shows progress and setbacks, detours and errors in order to reach a certain goal. For him this goal was the "self-knowledge of reason" and the "final justifications" of a philosophical science. This goal served him as a measure of the importance or the marginality of a philosophy. For him, the history of philosophy was therefore the narrative of how the idea of reason "is realized in substance and form ". So has z. B. Leibniz's "... philosophy, full of bold hypotheses and splendid discoveries, brought about an advance in philosophical reason, and circulated a host of new views, to which the French language in which he usually wrote contributed greatly." He described the philosophers of his time in a mostly objective-neutral way. To the representation of the ancient philosophies he applied the concepts of the philosophy of his time without hesitation . "In theoretical terms were persecuted initially a hypothesis after another, until a system of reason knowledge recognized as a task." He characterized the Ionian philosophy . This was critically noted in research on the history of philosophy alongside the recognition of its presentation.

With his history of philosophy, Tennemann also wanted to make a novel contribution to the further development of research on the history of philosophy of his time. It was important to him to present the person of the philosopher and his philosophy in context. For this connection he took into account the condition of a philosopher by contemporary history , culture , national character and upbringing and the progress that the idea of reason made in his philosophical system. This demanding program was a result of the educational debates on philosophical concepts of history in the second half of the 18th century. It was never tackled again in the Tennemannian form. Tennemann has received a lot of criticism for his comments on this. The criteria he formulated in the introduction then led to conclusions such as B. the following about nominalists : "Almost all of these were in their time ... bright minds with no particular philosophical talent; ..." He attested to the Roman Epicureans that, with a few exceptions, they were reckless and lazy philosophers: " Epicurus' teaching .. . found a large crowd of followers among the Romans ... because it was so light and comfortable, did not violate the tendencies ... "

Tennemann concluded his history of philosophy with the following outlook: "Even if the opposing directions of philosophizing reason that we perceive in modern times make all philosophizing suspicious ...", "... these attempts must revive the hope that philosophizing reason will sooner or later come to true self-knowledge , develop the true method of philosophizing more and more, ... "

Appreciation and criticism

Tennemann's program of the history of philosophy documents a turning point within the process of developing a largely valid philosophical conception of European history of philosophy. The principle of factual presentation of philosophies was retained. It was used to make certain speculative philosophical-historical principles of German idealism and the Enlightenment demonstrable. Other principles were rejected. As a result, the connection between rationalistic text interpretation and metaphysical speculation became the didactics of university philosophy. The self-understanding of philosophical science, which is shaped by ideas of continuity and timelessly valid paradigms of philosophizing, has resulted in the exclusion of philosophy from the canon of other sciences since the end of the 19th century. Representatives of university philosophy are currently u. a. busy with justifying and defending the special role that has arisen.

Works

• Teachings and Opinions of the Socratics on Immortality. Jena 1791. In Google book . Newly published in 2010 by Biblio Bazaar TB.
• System of Platonic Philosophy. 4 volumes, Jena 1792–1795. At google book .
• Translated by David Humes Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding . Jena 1793. In Google book . Newly published in 2010 by Kessinger Pub Co TB.
• Translation: Locke's attempt on the human mind. Jena 1795. In Google book .
• Remarks on so-called ethics in Aristotle. Jena 1798.
• Translation of JM Degérandos Comparative History of Systems of Philosophy. With special consideration of the principles of human knowledge. 2 volumes, Marburg 1806. On Google book . Newly published in 2010 by Kessinger Pub Co.
• History of philosophy. 12 volumes, Leipzig 1798-1819. At google book . Newly published in 2010 by Nabu Press TB, volumes 1–8.
• Floor plan of the history of philosophy for academic teaching. Edited by Johann Amadeus Wendt , professor of philosophy in Göttingen. Leipzig 1829. In Google book . Newly published in 2010 by Biblio Bazaar TB.

literature

• Otto Liebmann :  Tennemann, Wilhelm Gottlieb . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 566 f.
• Friedrich Ueberweg : Outline of the history of the philosophy of antiquity. Berlin (Mittler & Sohn) 1865, 2nd revised edition, p. 9.
• Other studies on the authenticity and chronological order of Platonic writings and on the main moments of Plato's life. Vienna (Gerold's Sohn) 1861, pp. 9–12.
• JR Morell (ed.): A manual of the history of philosophy by Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann. Translated by JRMorell. London (Bohn) 1852.
• Orrin F. Summerell: How reason subjectively creates the idea of ​​the world. In: Thomas Dewender & Thomas Welt (eds.): Imagination, fiction, creation: the creative faculty of the imagination. Leipzig / Munich (Saur) 2003, pp. 291-316.
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel : Lectures: selected transcripts and manuscripts. Hamburg (Meiner) 1989.
• Intelligence Gazette No. 23 , Saturday, March 25, 1807. In: Allgemeine Literaturzeitung. 4th volume. Halle / Leipzig 1807, p. 56.
• Dr Cupr: To be or not to be of German philosophy in Bohemia. Prague (Haase & Sons) 1847.
• Seebode & Jahn & Klotz: New Yearbooks for Philology and Education, Volume 4. Leipzig (Teubner & Claudius) 1832, p. 454.
• Gotthard Oswald Marbach: Textbook of the history of philosophy. 1st division. Leipzig (Wigand) 1838.
• Friedrich August Wolf : Literary Analects. Berlin (Nauck) 1818, pp. 429-457.
• Georg Rathgeber: Greater Greece and Pythagoras. Gotha (Opetz) 1866.
• Wilhelm Münscher : About church life and church institutions. An attempt at a history of the Hessian Reformed Church. First part. Cassel (Luckhardt'sche Buchhandlung) 1850, p. 153.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Schleiermacher may have felt challenged to do his own thing by Tennemann's literary activity about Plato. In two thirds of his introduction to “Platon's Works. First Part. ”(1804) Schleiermacher limited his publication to his predecessor a. a. with the following: "... look up your Tennemann about Platon's life! ... about time, language and literature, on and in which Plato rises, you will find the general and known - among others at Tennemann! ” Ernst Ferdinand Yxem : A Logos Protreptikos. Concerning Schleiermacher and Plato. Berlin (Besser) 1841, p. 7. Google book
2. ^ Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann: David Hume's study of the human mind. With a treatise on the philosophical skepticism by Carl Leonhard Reinhold. Jena 1793. Introduction. Completely downloadable from Google Book .
3. ↑ Outline of the history of philosophy for academic teaching , p. 418.
4. ↑ Outline of the History of Philosophy for Academic Education , p. 65.
5. ↑ See Ulrich Johannes Schneider: The past of the spirit. An archeology of the history of philosophy. Frankfurt am Main (Suhrkamp) 1990, p. 10f.
6. ↑ Outline of the History of Philosophy for Academic Education , p. 292.
7. ↑ Outline of the History of Philosophy for Academic Education , p. 185.
8. ^ Outline of the History of Philosophy for Academic Education , p. 567.
9. ^ The historical-philosophical ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder were rejected. The main criticism was that it was unsystematic. Cf. Marion Heinz (ed.): Herder and the philosophy of German idealism. Amsterdam (Rodopi) 1997, p. 1f. Google book Kant criticized the fact that Herder's representations of history allowed the conclusion that his transcendental philosophy could stand on shaky legs. Cf. Julia Roloff: Social change through deliberative processes. Marburg (Metropolis) 2006, p. 41. Google book
10. ↑ See Ulrich Johannes Schneider aoO p. 13.

Web links

Wikisource: Wilhelm Gottlieb Tennemann  - Sources and full texts