Un capitolo svevo del tardo illuminismo tedesco. Per un profilo biografico e intellettuale di Jakob Friedrich Abel (1751-1829)

This paper aims at reconstructing life and thought of the German philosopher Jakob Friedrich Abel (1751-1829), who has been up to now considered in historiographical perspective only because of his having being Schiller’s favourite professor at the Stuttgart Karlsschule. Beside this doubtless very important biographical factor, Abel deserves some attention as an autonomous though surely non original thinker as well, since he is a typical exponent of the late German Enlightenment. In fact, he connects anthropology and empirical psychology with ethics and religion in a very interesting way and faces the Kantian revolution from an authentically eclectic background. Furthermore, his having being professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Tübingen since 1790 brings him in connection with Hegel, Hölderlin and Schelling too.