Who was Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and what were his basic beliefs?
Wikipedia gives some good information on him eg Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (25 January 1743 – 10 March 1819), was a German philosopher who made his mark on philosophy by coining the term nihilism and promoting it as the prime fault of Enlightenment thought and Kantianism. Instead of speculative reason, he advocated faith (or “belief” aka Glaube) and revelation (though he differed from the religious meaning in that he took this to be rational). On this basis he might be seen as the great-grandfather to present-day writers who criticize philosophy as relativistic and dangerous for religious faith. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Heinrich_Jacobi Here is something else about him: Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich, 1743–1819, German philosopher. Although educated for commerce, he early gave up business and became in 1770 a member of the council for the duchies of Berg and Jülich. A brilliant personality, he attracted to his home near Düsseldorf a notable literary and philosophic circle. His
