[Lecture Five] Modern Philosophy: Kant to the Present
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Course summary: Presented as two complementary twelve-lecture courses—Founders of Western Philosophy: Thales to Hume and Modern Philosophy: Kant to the Present—The History of Philosophy covers the whole of western philosophy from its discovery in Ancient Greece to the twentieth century, including Objectivism. Dr. Peikoff argues that philosophy is the means by which we can understand any human culture and, more broadly, the history and changing course of a civilization. Read more »
In this lecture: The consequence of Kant and Hegel’s assault on reason was a wave of open irrationalism in German philosophy. Dr. Peikoff surveys the philosophic contributions of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Marx. He explains the doctrine of metaphysical voluntarism and its worship of the will, leading both to Schopenhauer’s pessimism and Nietzsche’s worship of power and action. Peikoff also lays out Marx’s dialectical materialism and how it gave rise to his interpretation of human history and his support for communism.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download below a PDF study guide for the entire course.
| Explain the assumptions behind the voluntarist approach. |
| What is Schopenhauer’s theory of how humans can know reality? |
| How does Schopenhauer arrive at his metaphysical pessimism? |
| What ultimate guidance does Schopenhauer give for man? |
| Why is Nietzsche mistakenly seen as an individualist? |
| How does Nietzsche use the concept of power? |
| What are the types of men according to Nietzsche? What are the implications for society? |
| How does Marx arrive at his materialism and his dialecticism? |
| Explain how Marx leads to the theory of polylogism. |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 2:16:32 | Does Schopenhauer advocate universal suicide, the ultimate self-denial, as a means to Nirvana? |
| 2:17:07 | If the Will survives human suicide, does it then generate a new being? |
| 2:19:53 | Did Schopenhauer claim that it’s inevitable that reality will stamp itself out in existence? |
| 2:20:04 | Who was the commentator on Marx that you quoted? |
| 2:20:29 | Did Nietzsche ever express his admiration for the great entrepreneurs and/or robber barons of the 19th century? |
| 2:20:46 | How does a Marxist explain divergent opinions within one economic system? |
| 2:21:21 | Does the dialectic process in history stop at the attainment of the pure communist level, or will it generate an antithesis? If so, does Marx state what this antithesis will be? |
| 2:23:14 | If all men’s thought is determined by the economic conditions they live in, how does Marx account for his own thought? |
| 2:25:30 | The Marxist seems to be concerned with the virtue of economic equality. What he means by this is equality of the effects (products), but inequality of the causes (human actions). How does he defend the justice of this latter element? In other words, how do the Marxists defend the view that it is fair that one man should work harder and more productively than another and receive less than another whose needs are greater, but who is paid according to his needs not according to his ability? |
| 2:27:54 | Could you explain what Nietzsche meant by “God is dead”? |