Freedom is one of the central themes of classical German philosophy. For Kant freedom is the "keystone of the edifice of a system of pure reason." Fichte called his Science of Knowledge the "first system of freedom." To the early Schelling freedom is "the alpha and omega of all philosophy," while the later Schelling joins the philosophy of freedom with the question of the origin of evil. Hegel conceives freedom as "the essence of spirit," whose concrete forms in art, religion, and world history it is the task of philosophy to describe.
The articles collected in the 9th volume of theInternationales Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus/International Yearbook of German Idealism offer views from different perspectives on the diverse significance and systematic function distinctive of the concept of freedom in classical German philosophy.

Beiträger/Contributors:Hans Friedrich Fulda, Pierre Keller, Heiner F. Klemme, Christian Klotz, Franz Knappik, Michelle Kosch, Charles Larmore, Wayne Martin, Alex Neill / Sandy Shapshay, Rocco Porcheddu, Sebastian Schwenzfeuer, Allen Wood.

Herausgeber/Editors: Fred Rush (University of Notre Dame); Jürgen Stolzenberg (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle/Wittenberg)

Jürgen Stolzenberg,Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany;Fred Rush,University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.