Two books inaugurated the revival of Kantianism in German universities in the second half of the nineteenth century. Both works were exercises in the history of philosophy. And both took to the his...

ABSTRACT : This paper contributes to explor the historical background of contemporary conceptualism. It suggests that a step forward toward a more promising understanding of this historical background can be made if we focus, not on the much-discussed, controversial position of Kant, but rather on the straightforward position of some main representatives of classical neo-Kantianism. My main hypothesis is that criticisms of Kant’s transcendantal aesthetics coming from Paul Natorp and Bruno Bauch may be regarded as a significant historical source for (...) the so-called “content” conceptualism, insofar as they imply that the contents of perception are conceptual contents. (shrink)

The processual relation of thinking and perceiving shall be examined from a historical perspective as well as on the basis of methodically conducted first-person observation. Historically, these two psychological aspects of human knowledge and corresponding philosophical positions have predominant alternating phases. At certain historical points, thinking and perceiving tend to converge, while in the interim phases they seem to diverge with an emphasis on one of them. While at the birth of modern science, for instance, these two forms of mental (...) life were deeply interlinked, today they seem to be separated more than ever before – as a number of scientific crises have shown. Turning from the outer to the inner aspect of this issue, a phenomenological view becomes relevant. In terms of the consciousness phenomenology developed by Steiner (1861–1925) and Witzenmann’s (1905–1988) Structure Phenomenology, this article will show how a methodical integration of thinking and perceiving can be carried out on the basis of first-person observation. In the course of a skilled introspective or meditative self-observation the individual’s own mental micro-actions of separating and integrating come into view, jointly constituting what we usually call thinking and perceiving. Consequently, this approach includes a conceptual as well as a perceptual dimension the experimental confluence of which ties in with the methodological core principle of modern natural science. At the same time, making this principle explicit may open the way to a further development of human consciousness and its scientific delineation. (shrink)

¿Es necesaria la historia para la filosofía? En tiempos de especialización disciplinaria como los actuales, parecería ésta una pregunta obvia y la respuesta, casi innecesaria. Sin embargo, lo cierto es que en la actualidad asistimos a un debate y a una fragmentación del campo filosófico en relación precisamente con el carácter contingente o necesario de la historia para la filosofía. Por ello, tomando como modelos de relación con la historia tanto el ámbito del arte como el de la ciencia, en (...) este artículo trataremos de elucidar qué papel puede cumplir la historia en el ámbito filosófico. Frente a los defensores de la historia como un elemento esencial de la filosofía, pero también distanciándonos de quienes reservan un lugar secundario a la historia en nuestra disciplina, plantearemos una tercera vía. (shrink)