Julius Hermann von Kirchmann (5 November 1802 – 20 October 1884) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Biography

Kirchmann was educated at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

and Halle. In 1846 he was made state's attorney in the criminal court of Berlin, and two years afterwards was chosen to the

Prussian National Assembly The Prussian National Assembly () came into being after the revolution of 1848 and was tasked with drawing up a constitution for the Kingdom of Prussia. It first met in the building of the ''Sing-Akademie zu Berlin'' (later the Maxim Gorki Th ...

. From 1871 to 1876 he was a member of the German Reichstag. His philosophy was an attempt to mediate between realism and idealism.On fugacity of law he said: "only three words of the legislature can destroy whole libraries":
, in Mondoperaio, n. 1/2016, p. 80-81

Writings

Kirchmann first attracted attention as a philosopher by his brochure ''Die Wertlosigkeit der Jurisprudenz als Wissenschaft'' (The worthlessness of jurisprudence as a body of knowledge; 1848). His other philosophical writings include: ''Ueber Unsterblichkeit'' (On immortality; 1865), ''Aesthetik auf realistischer Grundlage'' (A realistic foundation for aesthetics; 1868); translations of parts of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Roger Bacon Roger Bacon (; or ', also '' Rogerus''; ), also known by the Scholastic accolades, scholastic accolade ''Doctor Mirabilis'', was a medieval English polymath, philosopher, scientist, theologian and Franciscans, Franciscan friar who placed co ...

Hugo Grotius Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...

, and

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

, and a remarkable edition of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

in the ''Philosophische Bibliothek'', edited by him (1868 et seq.), and of

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

' ''De Cive'' (1873).

Notes

References

* This work in turn cites: ** Lasson and Meineke, ''Julius von Kirchmann als Philosoph'' (Halle, 1885)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirchmann, Julius von 1802 births 1884 deaths People from Saalekreis People from the Electorate of Saxony German Protestants German Progress Party politicians Members of the Prussian House of Representatives Members of the 1st Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 2nd Reichstag of the German Empire 19th-century German philosophers German male writers Leipzig University alumni University of Halle alumni Members of the Prussian National Assembly Members of the Reichstag of the North German Confederation