ABSTRACT
An observer of the German philosophical landscape of the 1790s would have surveyed a complex and confusing scene, in which individuals tended to align themselves with particular factions or “schools,” frequently associated with specific universities or, in some cases, periodicals, and engaged in often bitter public controversies with their opponents. Within this context, Kantianism (or “the Critical philosophy,” as it was styled by both its opponents and its exponents) was simply one party among others. Self-appointed representatives of “Enlightenment,” inspired by English and French examples and pledging their allegiance to the legacy of Lessing, dominated more urbane intellectual circles, such as that of Moses Mendelssohn and his associates in Berlin. A more academic variety of rationalism was defended by the many proponents of the LeibnizianWolffian philosophy, which still dominated the philosophy departments of most German universities. At the same time, there was a widespread vogue for what was then called “popular philosophy,” the adherents of which, though they usually shared the liberal assumptions and conclusions of the Aufklärer and Wolffians, based their philosophy not upon a priori reasoning, but upon an appeal to the testimony of “healthy common sense.” In opposition to the dominant spirit of the age, these “popular philosophers” distrusted the systematic impulse and were suspicious of all attempts to turn philosophy into a well-grounded “science.”
