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Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi

1743–1819

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Any philosophy that follows reason all the way ends up denying freedom and God, so only a leap of faith can save them.

Placement

German Idealism & Its Heirs · Western Europe · Religion, Epistemology

Sparked the pantheism controversy: every consistent philosophy of reason ends, like Spinoza’s, in fatalism – only a leap of faith saves freedom.

Key ideas

  • Pantheism controversy
  • Salto mortale of faith
  • “Nihilism” as a reproach

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Influence

Influenced by 2

  • Thomas Reid

    influenced by

    Jacobi drew on Scottish common-sense philosophy, Reid’s included, for his realist thesis in David Hume (1787) that perception gives immediate certainty of things, as M. Kuehn has shown. F. H. Jacobi, David Hume über den Glauben (1787); M. Kuehn, Scottish Common Sense in Germany, 1768–1800 (1987); G. di Giovanni, “Hume, Jacobi, and Common Sense” (1998)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Thomas Reid › 1710–1796

  • David Hume

    influenced by ✓

    In David Hume on Faith, or Idealism and Realism (1787) Jacobi took over Hume’s ‘belief’ as his own term for the immediate certainty of external things. F. H. Jacobi, David Hume über den Glauben, oder Idealismus und Realismus (1787); SEP “Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi”

    Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata

    David Hume › 1711–1776

Influenced 1

  • Friedrich Schleiermacher

    influenced

    Schleiermacher first studied Spinoza through Jacobi’s Letters on Spinoza (1785) and set down what he learned in notes, including a ‘Short Presentation of the Spinozist System’ (1793–94). F. Schleiermacher, Spinozismus; Kurze Darstellung des Spinozistischen Systems (1793–94); F. H. Jacobi, Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen (1785); SEP “Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Friedrich Schleiermacher › 1768–1834

Criticism

Criticized by 2

  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

    criticised by

    Hegel judged Jacobi’s immediate knowledge through faith a philosophy of subjectivity that renounces conceptual knowledge of the absolute (Faith and Knowledge, 1802; Encyclopaedia, §§61–78). G. W. F. Hegel, Glauben und Wissen (1802), B; Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (1830), §§61–78

    Evidence: AI draft

    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

    criticised by

    Schelling answered Jacobi’s Of Divine Things (1811), which accused him of atheistic naturalism, arguing against Jacobi that God can be known, not only believed (Denkmal, 1812). F. W. J. Schelling, Denkmal der Schrift von den göttlichen Dingen etc. des Herrn Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1812); F. H. Jacobi, Von den göttlichen Dingen und ihrer Offenbarung (1811)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling › 1775–1854

Criticizes 3

  • Baruch de Spinoza

    criticised

    Jacobi judged Spinozism the only consistent philosophy of demonstration and therefore fatalism and atheism (Letters on Spinoza, 1785; 2nd ed. 1789). F. H. Jacobi, Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn (1785; 2nd ed. 1789); SEP “Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Baruch de Spinoza › 1632–1677

  • Immanuel Kant

    criticised

    Jacobi objected that without the thing in itself one cannot enter Kant’s system, and with it one cannot remain inside (David Hume on Faith, 1787, appendix). F. H. Jacobi, David Hume über den Glauben (1787), appendix “Über den transzendentalen Idealismus”; SEP “Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804

  • Moses Mendelssohn

    criticised

    Jacobi revealed to Mendelssohn Lessing’s avowal of Spinozism and argued against Mendelssohn’s rational theism that demonstration ends in fatalism, escaped only by a leap of faith (1785). F. H. Jacobi, Über die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn (1785); SEP “Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Moses Mendelssohn › 1729–1786

Works

Position

Jacobi reported that Lessing had confessed to being a Spinozist, and so set off the pantheism controversy with Mendelssohn. His thesis was that any consistent philosophy of demonstration leads, as in Spinoza, to a closed chain of causes with no room for a personal God or for freedom – to fatalism. The way out is not another proof but a “salto mortale”, a leap into faith, understood as the immediate certainty on which all knowledge rests. Against Kant he objected that without the thing in itself one cannot enter his system, and with it one cannot remain there; against Fichte he raised the charge of “nihilism”. He deeply shaped German Idealism.

Life & context

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi was born in Düsseldorf in 1743 into a merchant family and trained in commerce in Frankfurt and Geneva. He later became a civil servant and made his estate at Pempelfort a meeting place for writers, Goethe among them. Fleeing French troops in 1794, he lived in Holstein, then moved to Munich, where he presided over the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. He died there in 1819.

Further main works

  • David Hume on Faith, or Idealism and Realism (1787)
  • Jacobi to Fichte (1799)
  • On Divine Things and Their Revelation (1811)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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