Abstract

The “explicable original sin of all experience”. Critique and metaphysics of knowledge by J.F. Herbart. The Author claims that, in the system of Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841), multiple foundation relationships between psychology and metaphysics interweave as a result of the intermediate position assigned to the human being within the methodological framework. To highlight the quest for objectivity in his general and applied metaphysics, its overall structures are analysed on several levels: the problematic assumption of external and internal data; formality of knowledge; essences and events in realistic ontology; and the connection between events and objective appearance, which is further specified in scientific psychology. The condition of individual observers amidst manifold essences proves to be decisive in linking ontology and experience. Yet Herbart’s metaphysics is intended to rearrange and develop Kant’s critical philosophy: it is argued that the establishment of scientific psychology is aimed at legitimating objectivity and that Herbart’s metaphysical foundation of knowledge also relies on the definition of the subject as a blank position.