Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (German: [jaˈkoːbi]; 25 January 1743 – 10 March 1819) was an influential German philosopher, literary figure, and socialite.
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi | |
|---|---|
Jacobi painting by Johann Friedrich Eich, 1780 | |
| Born | 25 January 1743 |
| Died | 10 March 1819 (aged 76) Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation |
| Children | Carl Wigand Maximilian Jacobi |
| Relatives | Johann Georg Jacobi (brother) |
| Era | 19th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | German idealism |
Main interests | Common sense realism, religious philosophy, metaphysics, moral philosophy |
Notable ideas | Glaube, Offenbarung, nihilism |
He is notable for popularizing nihilism, a term coined by Obereit in 1787, and promoting it as the prime fault of Enlightenment thought particularly in the philosophical systems of Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Johann Fichte and Friedrich Schelling.
Jacobi advocated Glaube (variously translated as faith or "belief") and revelation instead of speculative reason. In this sense, Jacobi can be seen to have anticipated present-day writers who criticize secular philosophy as relativistic and dangerous for religious faith.
His aloofness from the Sturm and Drang movement was the basis of a brief friendship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
He was the younger brother of poet Johann Georg Jacobi and the father of the great psychiatrist Maximilian Jacobi.