Abstract

One of the least intelligible things about German Idealism is what is meant by calling it “idealism.” The temptation is to suppose that it means that only minds and their states are real, or, more narrowly, that all direct knowledge is of mind or its states. Unfortunately, any such interpretation of German Idealism is ruled out. Each of the major classical German philosophers explicitly rejects both metaphysical and epistemological subjectivism. Worse, they reject it on the grounds that it is incompatible with their self-proclaimed idealism. Such traces of subjectivism as can be found must be regarded as peripheral rather than definitive of German Idealism.