48. Adolf Steudel - The Golden ABCs of Philosophy

Introduction to the work "Philosophy in Outline". Newly edited and annotated by Max Schneidewin. Friedrich Stahn. Berlin 1891

This book belongs to the group of the many unnecessary ones produced by contemporary literature. As a philosopher, Steudel was on that shallow point of view which believes that the knowledge material gathered from everywhere can be deepened to philosophical results by mere intellectual considerations made about the individual facts of experience. Steudel had no idea that philosophy needs an object that does not lie in the sphere of the "sensually and intellectually" given. This is why he completely lacks the organ to appreciate the great advances in philosophy made by Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and he would like to see all deeper intuition replaced by the rational raison d'être arising from Nicolaitan sentiments, which those luminaries of science, despite their great errors, brought to the ground in such mighty intellectual battles. He wants to assert the absolute judgment of reason as opposed to the absolute judgment of understanding. The only difference is that the absolute of reason is deep, while that of understanding is superficial. In all of this, Steudel's honest endeavors must be acknowledged, and for the philosophical expert it is of interest to read Steudel's "Philosophy in Outline" as the most consistent work of shallow common sense, which many still - or rather today even more so - consider to be the only sound one. However, we are unable to see who is to be served by a special reprint of the introduction, which has no independent value at all, but only acquires such value in connection with the work as a whole.