German Idealism: Moral, Legal & Political Philosophy - PHI00073H

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Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 2 2025-26

Module aims

Subject Content

• To provide an introduction to the moral, legal, and political philosophy of German idealists such as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.
• To consider the relevance of that philosophy for debates in contemporary moral, legal, and political philosophy.

Academic and Graduate Skills:

• To develop students' abilities to engage critically with philosophical texts.
• To develop students' abilities to develop and defend their own interpretations of philosophical texts.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of the module students should be able to:

Subject content:

• understand and evaluate the moral, legal, and political philosophy of German idealists such as Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.
• understand and explain key concepts such as 'recognition', 'the pure I', 'striving', 'ethical life', etc.
• relate the moral, legal, and political philosophy of the German idealists to debates within contemporary moral, legal, and political philosophy.

Academic and graduate skills:

• read and critically engage with complex and difficult philosophical material;
• develop and defend a considered view on complex and difficult material.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

All formative and summative feedback will be returned in accordance with University and Departmental policy.

Indicative reading

Fichte, J. G. Foundations of Natural Right (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.)

Fichte, J. G. The System of Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.)

Hegel, G. W. F. Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.)

Honneth, A. The Struggle for Recognition. The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996).