20 - Symbolization in Kant's Critical Philosophy

Summary

Just as he concluded in great style the secular development of philosophical enlightenment, Kant also opened a new space in which the programs of subsequent philosophy would be developed. In particular, German Idealism owes a great deal to him concerning the conceptions of reason, idea, and even philosophy itself.

I would like to show that Kant can also be considered the philosopher who marked the place in which both idealists and romantics would soon lay claim to what they called a “new mythology.” Therefore, I will begin with a short text first published in 1917 by Franz Rosenzweig, “Das älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus” (The oldest system program of German idealism), that can be considered a real program of post-Kantian German philosophy at the end of eighteenth century.

Dated from 1796, or at the latest 1797, this fragment has been the object of an endless debate that has even involved the question of its authorship; it is sometimes attributed to Hegel, sometimes to Schelling or even Hölderlin. This difficulty in determining the authorship of the text clearly points to these authors' community of purpose, at least at that moment. Without exaggeration, one could consider this fragment a shared program of both romantics and idealists until the end of eighteenth century. Thus, this program raises various issues about Kant's critical philosophy.