Christoph Gottfried Bardili

Christoph Gottfried Bardili (1761-1808), German philosopher, was born at Blaubeuren in Württemberg, and died at Stuttgart. His system has had little influence in Germany; Reinhold alone expounded it against the attack of Fichte and Schelling. Yet in some respects his ideas opened the way for the later speculations of Schelling and Hegel. He dissented strongly from the Kantianian distinction between matter and form of thought, and urged that philosophy should consider only thought in itself, pure thought, the ground or possibility of being.

The fundamental principle of thought is, according to him, the law of identity; logical thinking is real thinking. The matter upon which thought operated is in itself indefinite and is rendered definite through the action of thought. Bardili worked out his idea in a one-sided manner. He held that thought has in itself no power of development, and ultimately reduced it to arithmetical computation. He published:

• Grundriss der ersten Logik (1800); Über die Gesetze der Ideenassociation (1796).
• Briefe über den Ursprung der Metaphysik (1798); Philos. Elementarlehre (1802-1806).
• Beiträge zur Beurteilung des gegenwärtigen Zustandes der Vernunftlehre (1803).