German idealism

German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, largely as a response to the skepticism and materialism of the Enlightenment. Key figures like Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, and G.W.F. Hegel sought to re-establish reason's capacity to understand reality.123

Central to German idealism is the idea that reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual. Philosophers like Hegel proposed that the everyday world is merely an appearance, and true reality is reflected in a self-conscious mind or an "Absolute Idea". Truth, in this context, is often seen as a coherence among thoughts rather than a correspondence to external facts. This philosophical tradition significantly influenced subsequent thought, particularly schools of Kantianism and idealism.45