The great quest for systematic knowledge in the decades around the year 1800 gave rise to one of the most spirited eras in the history of philosophical exploration, exemplified by the school of German Idealist philosophy. With confidence and sweeping aspirations, the Idealist philosophers Immanuel Kant, Johann Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, and Georg Hegel set out to make metaphysics a science, to explore the nature of the self and man's role in society, to examine the essence of the natural world, and to develop a vision of world history and the progressive consciousness of man. In this masterful introduction to German Idealism, Rudiger Bubner brings together key texts and lesser known extracts from the works of these four powerful intellects, together with insightful overviews of each philosopher and an account of the movement as a whole.