The Practical Beyond Ethics. Notes on George di Giovanni’s Interpretation of Classical German Philosophy

Abstract

This essay analyzes George di Giovanni’s books Freedom and Religion in Kant and His Immediate Successors: The Vocation of Humankind, 1774-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and Hegel and the Challenge of Spinoza: A Study in German Idealism, 1801-1831 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). We address the central topic of these publications and identify its sources. The essay then clarifies how di Giovanni’s analysis pivots on the anti-metaphysical interpretation of Fichte’s and Hegel’s philosophies, which then leads to a distinct definition of the philosophy of religion.