Johannes Rehmke (1 February 1848 – 23 December 1930) was a German

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 ...

and since 1885 professor at

Greifswald University The University of Greifswald (; ), formerly known as Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, is a public university, public research university located in Greifswald, Germany, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Founded in 14 ...

, later also provost of this university. He offered sharp criticisms 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 ...

's approach to

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

. In his article "The Conquest of Subjectivism," Paul Ferdinand Linke pointed out that it was Rehmke who first made a courageous break from

subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. While Thomas Hobbes was an early proponent of subjecti ...

, which was the pervasive philosophical paradigm in

late modern The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...

German philosophy German philosophy, meaning philosophy in the German language or philosophy by German people, in its diversity, is fundamental for both the analytic and continental traditions. It covers figures such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, ...

Biography

John Rehmke was born on 1 February 1848 in Hainholz near

Elmshorn Elmshorn (; ) is a town in the district of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It is 30 km north of Hamburg on the small river Krückau, a tributary of the Elbe, and with about 50,000 inhabitants is the sixth-largest town in the sta ...

, the second son of school teacher Hans Hinrich Rehmke and his wife Margaret, née Engelbrecht. After his first lessons from his father, he attended the elementary school in

Uetersen Uetersen (, formerly known as ''Ütersen (Holstein)'') is a town in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately south of Elmshorn, and northwest of Hamburg at the small Pinnau River, close to the El ...

and then the

Gymnasium Christianeum The Gymnasium Christianeum is a famous former Latin school (German: ''Lateinschule'') in Hamburg, northern Germany. Founded in 1738 by King Christian VI of Denmark, it is now housed in a building planned by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. His ...

in Altona, where among others Helmuth von Moltke was his classmate. In 1867 he went to study at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

, then a year later to the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

to study under the Swiss theologian

Alois Emanuel Biedermann Alois Emanuel Biedermann (2 March 1819, in Münchhof near Bendlikon – 25 January 1885, in Zürich) was a Swiss Protestant theologian. He was a prominent dogmatician of the so-called " Young Hegelian" school of thought,doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in 1873 at Zurich with the

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

''Hartmanns Unbewußtes auf die Logik hin kritisch beleuchtet'' (''Hartmann's Unconscious Critically Examined from a Logical Standpoint''; a work on

Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann (23 February 1842 – 5 June 1906) was a German philosopher, independent scholar and writer. He was the author of the influential '' Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). Von Hartmann's notable ideas include the ...

) and his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1884 at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

with his 1880

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

''Die Welt als Wahrnehmung und Begriff'' (''The World as Percept and Concept''). Rehmke admired the works of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

and visited him. Since 1885, Rehmke was professor of philosophy at Greifswald University. In 1921, Rehmke was forced by local

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

-groups (among them student organisations) to give up his professorship at Greifswald. He died on 23 December 1930 in

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

and was buried in

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...

Philosophical work

Rehmke was the founder of Greifswald objectivism, a form of

anti-psychologism In logic, anti-psychologism (also logical objectivism or logical realism) is the theory that logical truth does not depend upon the contents of human ideas, but exists independent of human ideas. Overview The anti-psychologistic treatment of logic ...

. He opposed individualism on philosophical grounds.Dietrich, Otto, "The Philosophical Fundamentals of National Socialism A Call to the Weapons of the German Mind", 1934.
/ref>

Works

*''Die Welt als Wahrnehmung und Begriff'' (''The World as Percept and Concept''), 1880. *''Logik oder Philosophie als Wissenslehre'' (''Logic or Philosophy as Theory of Knowledge''), 1918.

References

External links

* * 19th-century German philosophers 20th-century German philosophers Academic staff of the University of Greifswald 1848 births 1930 deaths 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers People educated at the Gymnasium Christianeum {{Germany-philosopher-stub