Editing Frederick C. Beiser (section)

==Philosophical work==

In 1987, Beiser released his first book, ''The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte'' ([[Harvard University Press]]). In the book, Beiser sought to reconstruct the background of German idealism through the narration of the story of the Spinoza or Pantheism controversy. Consequently, a great many figures, whose importance was hardly recognized by the English-speaking philosophers, were given their proper due. The work won the [[Thomas J. Wilson|Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize]] for best first book.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/news/thomas-j-wilson-prize.html|title=The Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize|access-date=2012-10-03|author=Harvard University Press}}</ref> He has since edited two [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] anthologies on Hegel, ''The Cambridge Companion to Hegel'' (1993) and ''The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy'' (2008), and written a number of books on German philosophy and the English Enlightenment. He also edited ''The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics'' (Cambridge University Press) in 1996.

Beiser is notable amongst English-language scholars for his defense of the metaphysical aspects of German idealism (e.g. ''[[Naturphilosophie]]''), both in their centrality to any historical understanding of German idealism, as well as their continued relevance to contemporary philosophy.<ref>Beiser, Frederick. "Hegel and Naturphilosophie." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34.1 (2003): 135-147.</ref>