Kuno Fischer
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Kuno Fischer | |
---|---|
Born | Sandewalde (nearGuhrau),German Confederation | 23 July 1824
Died | 5 July 1907 | (aged 82)
Education | University of Leipzig University of Halle(PhD,1847) |
Era | 19th-century philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Hegelianism(early)[1] Neo-Kantianism(late)[2] |
Institutions | Heidelberg University University of Jena |
Thesis | De Parmenide Platonico (On Plato's Parmenides)(1847) |
Academic advisors | Christian Hermann Weisse(Leipzig),Johann Eduard Erdmann(Halle),Julius Schaller(Halle) |
Notable students | Richard Falckenberg |
Main interests | Metaphysics |
Notable ideas | Theempiricism–rationalismdistinction |
Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer(23 July 1824 – 5 July 1907) was a Germanphilosopher,a historian of philosophy and a critic.
Biography
[edit]After studying philosophy atLeipzigandHalle, became aprivatdocentatHeidelbergin 1850. TheBadengovernment in 1853 laid an embargo on his teaching owing to his liberal ideas, but the effect of this was to rouse considerable sympathy for his views, and in 1856 he obtained a professorship atJena,where he soon acquired great influence by the dignity of his personal character. In 1872, onEduard Zeller's move to Berlin, Fischer succeeded him as professor of philosophy and the history of modernGerman literatureat Heidelberg.
He was a brilliant lecturer and possessed a remarkable gift for clear exposition. His fame rests primarily on his work as a historian and commentator of philosophy. As far as his philosophical views were concerned, he was, generally speaking, a follower of theHegelian school.His writings in this direction, especially his interpretation ofKant,involved him in a quarrel withF. A. Trendelenburg,professor of philosophy at theUniversity of Berlin,and his followers. In 1860, Fischer'sKants Leben und die Grundlagen seiner Lehre(Kant's life and the foundations of his doctrine) lent the first real impulse to the so-called "return to Kant".
In honor of his 80th birthday, celebrated in 1904,Otto Liebmann,Wilhelm Wundt,Theodor Lippsand others publishedDie Philosophie im Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Festschrift für Kuno Fischer(Heidelberg, 1907).
Philosophy
[edit]One of Fischer's most significant and lasting contributions to philosophy was the use of theempiricism/rationalismdistinction in categorising philosophers, particularly those of the 17th and 18th centuries.[citation needed]These includeJohn Locke,George BerkeleyandDavid Humein the empiricist category andRené Descartes,Baruch SpinozaandG.W. Leibnizin the rationalist category. Empiricism, it is said, claims that human knowledge is derived from sensation, i.e. experience, while rationalism claims that certain knowledge can be acquired before experience through pure principles. Although influential, in more recent times this distinction has been questioned[by whom?]as anachronistic in its failure to represent precisely the exact claims and methodologies of the philosophers it categorises.
Reception
[edit]Kuno Fischer'sHistory of Modern Philosophyhad a strong impact onFriedrich Nietzscheand his view on modern philosophy, particularly regardingSpinoza.[4][5]FregeandW. Somerset Maughamwere amongst his students.
Hermann Weyl,writing about pre-WWII academic life in Germany, told the following anecdote about Fischer:
- A little anecdote of German university life in the nineties may illustrate the point. Kuno Fischer, a second-rate philosopher at Heidelberg, was one day disturbed by the noise of workers who were putting in new cobblestones in the street before his house. He had at that time been offered a professorship in Berlin. So he opened his window and shouted to the workmen, "If you don't stop that noise at once, I'll accept the call to Berlin". Whereupon the foreman ran to the mayor, he summoned the Stadtbaumeister and they decided to postpone repair of the street until after the beginning of the academic vacation.[6]
Works
[edit]- De Parmenide Platonico.Stuttgart (thesis, 1847,online).
- Diotima. Die Idee des Schönen(Diotima, the idea of the beautiful; Pforzheim, 1849) (online)
- System der Logik und Metaphysik oder Wissenschaftslehre(System of logic and metaphysics, or doctrine of knowledge; 1852) (online)
- Das Interdict meiner Vorlesungen(The prohibition of my lectures; Mannheim, 1854)
- 1854:Die Apologie meiner Lehre nebst Replik auf die „Abfertigung “des Herrn Schenkel(online)[7]
- Geschichte der neuern Philosophie(History of modern philosophy; 6 vols., Stuttgart-Mannheim-Heidelberg, 1854–77; new edition, Heidelberg, 1897–1901) This is considered by some to be his greatest work. It is written in the form of monographs on Descartes, Kant, Fichte, Schelling and other great philosophers down to Schopenhauer:
- erster Band:Descartesund seine Schule(1. Teilonline,2. Teilonline)[8]
- zweiter Band:Leibnizund seine Schule(online)
- dritter Band:Immanuel Kantund seine Lehre(online)
- vierter Band:Kant's System der reinen Vernunft
(online:2. Aufl. 1869,3. neu bearb. Aufl. 1882,4. ed. 1899) - fünfter Band:Fichteund seine Vorgänger(online)
- achter Band:HegelsLeben, Werke und Lehre(online:part 1 (1901),part 2 (1901))
- neunter Band:SchopenhauersLeben, Werke und Lehre(online(Jubiläumsausgabe 1898))
- Franz Baco von Verona(Leipzig, 1856 (2nd edition 1875); translated into English by J. Oxenford, London, 1857)
- Schillerals Philosoph(Frankfurt am Main, 1858; 2nd ed. 1891-92)
- Kants Leben und die Grundlagen seiner Lehre(Mannheim, 1860)
- Akademische Reden:J. G. Fichte;Die beiden Kantischen Schulen in Jena(The two schools of Kant in Jena; Stuttgart, 1862)
- Lessings“Nathan der Weise”(Stuttgart, 1864; translated into English byEllen Frothingham,New York, 1868)
- Baruch SpinozasLeben und Charakter(Heidelberg, 1865; translated into English by F. Schmidt, Edinburgh, 1882)
- System der reinen Vernunft auf Grund der Vernunftkritik(1866)
- ShakespearesCharakterentwickelung Richards III(Character development of Shakespeare's Richard III; Heidelberg, 1868)
- Über die Entstehung und die Entwickelungsformen des Witzes(The origins and modes of development of wit; Heidelberg, 1871)
- Schellings Leben, Werke und Lehre(Heidelberg, [1872] - taken from the Fourth Edition, issued in monographic series,Geschichte der Neuern Philosophie von Kudo Fischer,published in Heidelberg, 1923 - on the work of German philosopherFriedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling)
- Kritik der Kantischen Philosophie(Munich, 1883; translated into English by W. S. Hough, London 1888)
- Goethe-Schriften(8 vols., Heidelberg, 1888–96)
- Kleine Schriften(Heidelberg, 1888–98)
- Schiller-Schriften(2 vols., Heidelberg, 1891)
- Philosophische Schriften(3 parts, Heidelberg, 1891–92)
- Hegels Leben und Werke(Heidelberg, 1911)
Other translations of his works are:
- A Commentary of Kant's "Critic of Pure Reason"(trans. byJ. P. Mahaffy,London-Dublin, 1866;online)
- Descartes and his School(trans. by John P. Gordy, New York, 1887)
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^Theodore M. Porter,Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age,Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 63: Kuno Fischer's early Hegelianism had got him into political trouble in 1848. In 1852 he was accused of pantheism... "
- ^Frederick C. Beiser,The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1796-1880,Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 221.
- ^Frederick C. Beiser,The German Historicist Tradition,Oxford UP, 2011, p. 370.
- ^Andreas Urs Sommer:Nietzsche’s Readings on Spinoza. A Contextualist Study, Particularly on the Reception of Kuno Fischer, in: Journal of Nietzsche Studies 43/2 (2012), pp. 156–184.
- ^Jason Maurice Yonover:Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Philosophical Etiology (On the Example of Free Will), in: European Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming).
- ^H. Weyl, "Universities and Science in Germany" (1953), in Weyl'sGesammelte Abhandlungen(collected essays), Band IV, p. 538.
- ^Cf.Daniel Schenkelhad publishedAbfertigung für Herrn Kuno Fischer in Heidelberg
- ^1. Teil (4. Aufl. 1897),online
References
[edit]- Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). .Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920).Encyclopedia Americana.This work in turn cites:
- Alexander, A. B. D., “Kuno Fischer. An Estimate of his Life and Work” (inJournal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods,Vol. V, p. 57, New York, 1908)
- Falkenheim, H.,Kuno Fischer und die Litterar-Historische Methode(Berlin, 1892)
- Goehring, H., “Von Kuno Fischers Geistesart” (inPädagogisches Magazin,Heft 317, Langensalza, 1907)
- Petsch, R., “Kuno Fischer” (inDeutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft Jahrbuch,Vol. XLIV, p. 189, Berlin, 1908)
- Trendelenburg, F. A.,Kuno Fischer und sein Kant(Leipzig 1869)
- Vaihinger, H.,“Der Streit zwischen Trendelenburg und Fischer” (inCommentar zu Kants “Kritik der Reinen Vernunft”,Vol. II, pp. 290 and 545, Stuttgart, 1882–92)
- Windelband, W.,Kuno Fischer(Heidelberg 1907)
. - Gilman, D. C.;Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). .New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
External links
[edit]- Works by Kuno FischeratProject Gutenberg
- Works by or about Kuno Fischerat theInternet Archive
- Short German text
- Francis Baconof Verulam. Realistic Philosophy and its Ageby Kuno Fischer, translated from the German byJohn Oxenford.London, 1857[1]
- 1824 births
- 1907 deaths
- 19th-century German philosophers
- 19th-century German people
- People from the Province of Silesia
- Leipzig University alumni
- Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni
- Academic staff of Heidelberg University
- Academic staff of the University of Jena
- German historians of philosophy
- 19th-century German writers
- 19th-century German male writers
- German male non-fiction writers
- Spinoza scholars
- Goethe scholars