Hi Michael,
I think it would be important to get a feel the reaction in the German speaking philosophical community to Kant's ideas. Certianly get familiar with Kant's three critiques and then get a sense of what thinkers struggled with in the challenge to the limitations of reason that Kant presented. I would say this would involved some exploration of Hamann, Herder, Reinhod, Jacobi, Schutz. A very good source for an overview of these thinkers is Frederick Beiser's The Fate of Reason. It is an excellent guide for your whole study. Then. of course Fichte is importand and Schelling is one of my favorites. He is so underrated today but offers an important alternative to Hegel. He also infulenced later thinkers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. I loved the System of Transcendental Idealism of 1800. And its a delight to read after strugglng with Kant and Hegel. And his early veiw of Freedom are also very important. Schelling was a prodigy and shined brightly for his early career and then sort of burned out, so I wouldn't worry about his later wrtings unless you are going into more depth at a later time. The of course, my all time fav: Hegel's Phenomenology. Of course you wont be able to do this in that semester. It truly is a book you can spend years on. I hope this independent will inspire you to go futher with this material. Kudos to you for doing it!

Dear Michael

Please read carefully Rene Descartes meditation's, than read Bishop George Berkely,The Three Dialouges of Hylas and Philonus, Go on then to Emmanuel Kant's the Critique of Pure Reason and then read all of Arthur Schopenhauer;s The World as Will and idea plus Schopenhauer's essays, by reading those philosophers carefully and deeply you will perhaps be able to scratch the surface on what the concept of philosophical idealism is.

Please skip Hegel as he is an intellectual charlatan as Schopenauer so notably pointed out.Schelling has much poetic insight as Nietzsche wrote. He is worth reading. Fichte writes complete nonsense ,he is a tool of the Prussian police and political establishment.Best of luck in your philosophical endeavors .I have been reading these philosophers for many years. Of those that I have mentioned Descartes Kant and Schopenhauer are the most important to read, in my humble opinion.Perhaps you can write back to me to discuss your journey into philosophical idealism, and other philosophical endeavors

sincerely

Sheldon

Hegel is the most central representative of German Idealism. To not know Hegel is to not know
German Idealsim. His phenomenology is fantastic on many levels: metaphysical, epistimological, psychological and existential. But Hegel is hard and slow going and I think some of the disparagement of Hegel is that people either do not understand him or they have not taken the time with him and have adopted their lazy professor's position, who themselves never read Hagel. The Only serious ciriticsm of Hegel I take seriously comes from people like Judith Butler and Theodor Adorno, who know Hegel from the inside.