- Jakob Sigismund Beck
Jakob Sigismund Beck (1761-1840), German philosopher, was born at
Danzig in 1761. Educated atKönigsberg , he became professor ofphilosophy first at Halle (1791-1799) and then atRostock . He devoted himself to criticism and explanation of the doctrine ofKant , and in 1793 published the "Erläuternde Auszüge aus den kritischen Schriften des Herrn Prof Kant, auf Anrathen desselben" (Riga , 1793), which has been widely used as a compendium of Kantian doctrine.He endeavoured to explain away certain of the contradictions which are found in Kant's system by saying that much of the language is used in a popular sense for the sake of intelligibility, e.g. where Kant attributes to things-in-themselves an existence under the conditions of time, space and causality, and yet holds that they furnish the material of our apprehensions. Beck maintains that the real meaning of Kant's theory is
idealism ; that knowledge of objects outside the domain of consciousness is impossible, and hence that nothing positive remains when we have removed the subjective element. Matter is deduced by the original synthesis. Similarly, the idea ofGod is a symbolical representation of the voice of conscience guiding from within. The value of Beck's exegesis has been to a great extent overlooked owing to the greater attention given to the work ofFichte . Beside the three volumes of the "Erlauternder Auszug", he published the "Grundriss der krit. Philosophic" (1796), containing an interpretation of the Kantian "Kritik" in the manner of "Salomon Maimon".ee also
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Schema (Kant) References
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