Fritz Mauthner (22 November 1849 – 29 June 1923) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

novelist, theatre critic and satirist. He was an exponent of

philosophical scepticism Philosophical skepticism ( UK spelling: scepticism; from Greek σκέψις ''skepsis'', "inquiry") is a family of philosophical views that question the possibility of knowledge. It differs from other forms of skepticism in that it even reject ...

derived from a critique of human knowledge and of

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

. Mauthner was born on 22 November 1849 into an assimilated, well-to-do

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family from Horzitz in Bohemia (now

Hořice Hořice (, also known as Hořice v Podkrkonoší; german: Horschitz) is a town in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,600 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Březovice, Chlum, Chvalina, ...

in the Czech Republic). He was the fourth of the six children of Emmanuel and Amalie Mauthner. He became editor of the ''

Berliner Tageblatt The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time. History The ''Berline ...

'' in 1895, but is remembered mainly for his ''Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache'' (''Contributions to a Critique of Language''), published in three parts in 1901 and 1902.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

took several of his ideas from Mauthner, and acknowledges him in his ''

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and cited as TLP) is a book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein which deals with the relationship between language and reality and aims to define th ...

'' (1922).Wittgenstein L., ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'', "4.0031 All philosophy is a 'critique of language' (though not in Mauthner's sense)." Mauthner died in

Meersburg am Bodensee Meersburg () is a town in Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany. It is on Lake Constance. It is known for its medieval city. The lower town ("Unterstadt") and upper town ("Oberstadt") are reserved for pedestrians only, and connected by t ...

on 29 June 1923.

Works

;Philosophy
''Beiträge zu einer Kritik der Sprache''
three volumes, Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta, 1901–1903. * ''Aristoteles'', 1904 * ''Spinoza'', 1906 * ''Die Sprache'', 1907 * ''Wörterbuch der Philosophie'', 1910–11, 1923–24 * ''Schopenhauer'', 1911 * ''Der letzte Tod des Gautama Buddha'', 1913 * ''Der Atheismus und seine Geschichte im Abendlande'' (4 books), 1920–23 * ''Muttersprache und Vaterland'', 1920 ;Fiction * ''Anna'', 1874 * ''Lyrik'' * ''Die große Revolution'', 1872 * ''Nach berühmten Mustern'', satirical, 1878, 1889 * ''Einsame Fahrten'', 1879 * ''Vom armen Franischko'', story, 1879 * ''Die Sonntage der Baronin'', 1881 * ''Der neue Ahasver'', 1882 * ''Dilettantenspiegel'', satirical, 1883 * ''Gräfin Salamanca'', 1884 * ''Xanthippe'', 1884 * ''Berlin W.'' (trilogy of novels): ''Quartett'', 1886; ''Die Fanfare'', 1888; ''Der Villenhof'', 1890 *
Der letzte Deutsche von Blatna
', novel, 1887 * ''Der Pegasus'', 1889 * ''Zehn Geschichten'', 1891 * ''Glück im Spiel'', 1891 * ''Hypatia'', 1892 * ''Lügenohr'', 1892 (under the title: ''Aus dem Märchenbuch der Wahrheit'', 1899) * ''Kraft'', novel 1894 * ''Die Geisterseher'', novel 1894 * ''Die bunte Reihe'', 1896 * ''Der steinerne Riese'', novella, 1896 * ''Die böhmische Handschrift'', novella 1897 * ''Der wilde Jockey'', 1897 * ''Der letzte Tod des Gautama Buddha'', novel 1913 * ''Der goldene Fiedelbogen'', 1917 ;Essays and theoretical works * ''Kleiner Krieg'', 1879 * ''Credo'', 1886 * ''Tote Symbole'', 1892 * ''Zum Streit um die Bühne'', 1893 * ''Totengespräche'', 1906 * ''Gespräche im Himmel und andere Ketzereien'', 1914 ;Translations * ''Henriette Marechal'', by

Edmond de Goncourt Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (; 26 May 182216 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt. Biography Goncourt was born in Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot d ...

, 1895 ;Editorial * ''Wochenschrift für Kunst und Literatur'', 1889-1890 * ''Magazin für die Literatur des In- und Auslandes'', 1991 * ''Bibliothek der Philosophen'', from 1911 ;Collected works * ''Ausgewählte Schriften'', 6 books, 1919 ;Miscellaneous * ''Erinnerungen'', autobiography 1918 * ''Selbstbiographie 1922'', in: ''Philosophie der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen'', Bd. 3.

References

External links

Fritz Mauthner Collection
at the Leo Baeck Institute
Guide to the Fritz Mauthner Correspondence Collection 1765-1868

Book review of Fritz Mauthner's Die Sprache
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mauthner, Fritz 1849 births 1923 deaths People from Hořice People from the Kingdom of Bohemia Austro-Hungarian Jews German people of Czech-Jewish descent Czech writers in German Austrian-Hungarian writers Austrian male writers 19th-century Czech philosophers

Works

References

Further reading

External links