The Fate of Reason is the first general history devoted to the period between Kant and Fichte, one of the most revolutionary and fertile in modern philosophy. The philosophers of this time broke with the two central tenets of the modem Cartesian tradition: the authority of reason and the primacy of epistemology. They also witnessed the decline of the Aufkldrung, the completion of Kant's philosophy, and the beginnings of post-Kantian idealism.

Thanks to Beiser we can newly appreciate the influence of Kant's critics on the development of his philosophy. Beiser brings the controversies, and the personalities who engaged in them, to life and tells a story that has uncanny parallels with the debates of the present.

Frederick C. Beiser is Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University.

Read More by Frederick C. Beiser:

• Enlightenment, Revolution, and Romanticism: The Genesis of Modern German Political Thought, 1790-1800
• German Idealism: The Struggle against Subjectivism, 1781-1801
• The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism