Gottlob Ernst Schulze (; 23 August 1761 – 14 January 1833) was a German philosopher, born in Heldrungen (modern-day

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

). He was the grandfather of the pioneering biochemist

Ernst Schulze Ernst Schulze may refer to: * Ernst Schulze (poet), a German Romantic poet * Gottlob Ernst Schulze, a German philosopher * Ernst Schulze (chemist), a German Chemist and the grandson of Gottlob Ernst Schulze * Sadananda, born Ernst-Georg Schulze, a ...

Biography

Schulze was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...

, Helmstedt, and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. His most influential book was '' Aenesidemus'' (1792), a

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the ...

al polemic against

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

's '' Critique of Pure Reason'' and

Karl Leonhard Reinhold Karl Leonhard Reinhold (26 October 1757 – 10 April 1823) was an Austrian philosopher who helped to popularise the work of Immanuel Kant in the late 18th century. His "elementary philosophy" (''Elementarphilosophie'') also influenced German ideal ...

's ''Philosophy of the Elements''. In Göttingen, he advised his student Arthur Schopenhauer to concentrate on the philosophies of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and Kant. This advice had a strong influence on Schopenhauer's philosophy. In the winter semester of 1810 and 1811, Schopenhauer studied both

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

and

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

under Schulze. Schulze died in

Quotes

*"As determined by the ''Critique of Pure Reason'', the function of the principle of causality thus undercuts all philosophizing about the where or how of the origin of our cognitions. All assertions on the matter, and every conclusion drawn from them, become empty subtleties, for once we accept that determination of the principle as our rule of thought, we could never ask, "Does anything actually exist which is the ground and cause of our representations?". We can only ask, "How must the understanding join these representations together, in keeping with the pre-determined functions of its activity, in order to gather them as one experience?"Di Giovanni, George, and H. S. Harris (eds.), ''Between Kant and Hegel'', Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000, p. 131, (original quote from: Gottlob Ernst Schulze, ''Aenesidemus'', 1792, pp. 176–7).

References

1761 births 1833 deaths 18th-century essayists 18th-century German philosophers 18th-century philosophers 19th-century essayists 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German non-fiction writers 19th-century German philosophers 19th-century philosophers Continental philosophers Epistemologists German male essayists German male non-fiction writers Metaphysicians Ontologists People from Kyffhäuserkreis Philosophers of education Philosophers of mind Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Philosophy academics Philosophy writers University of Göttingen faculty University of Helmstedt faculty University of Wittenberg alumni University of Wittenberg faculty {{Germany-philosopher-stub