Transcendental Idealism usually refers to the philosophy of knowledge developed by Immanuel Kant in the last decades of the 18th century. However, its significance extends far beyond the limits of Kantian philosophy, so that it would be no exaggeration to claim that most part of European and a fortiori Western philosophy has been developed against a background modelled on Transcendental Idealism. German Idealism, Historicism, Psychologism, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology are just a few of the philosophical traditions which have addressed the question of the method and content of transcendental idealist philosophy and which have tried in different ways to either reject the program of Transcendental Idealism or to defend it against ever-present criticisms.
This year’s Summer School on “Transcendental Idealism in Post-Kantian German Philosophy” is co-organized by Marquette University and the Universität zu Köln (Cologne University) and aims to give a broad historical and systematic overview of Transcendental Idealism in its th development from the end of the 18 till today for advanced B.A. and graduate students. Through a program that retraces the main stages of the path of Transcendental Idealism in the 19th and 20th centuries (German Idealism, post-Hegelian philosophy, Neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology, and Speculative Realism), the summer school will offer keynote lectures by experts in the field in addition to close reading sessions of classical texts on the dominant philosophers that have tackled the issue of Transcendental Idealism. The leading question in the light of current debates in contemporary philosophy will be: has Transcendental Idealism been overcome today or can still play a role in the current philosophical landscape? Only after reviewing the classic “foes” and “keepers” of Transcendental Idealism over the last two centuries, it will be possible to address this question.