
Otto Liebmann (; 25 February 1840 – 14 January 1912) was a German
neo-Kantian 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
He was born at
Löwenberg,
Silesia
Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
, into a
Jewish
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family, and 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. He was made professor at
Strassburg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
(1872) and went to
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
in 1882. He died at
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
. The mathematician
Heinrich Liebmann was his son and the physician Otto Liebmann is his eponymous great-grandson.
Philosophical work
A forerunner of
neo-Kantianism
In late modern philosophy, neo-Kantianism () was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the thing-in-itself and his moral philosophy ...
, in his best-known book, ''Kant und die Epigonen'', he deals with the philosophy after
Kant
Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel 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, et ...
, discussing
Fichte,
Schelling,
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
,
Fries
French fries, or simply fries, also known as chips, and finger chips (Indian English), are ''List of culinary knife cuts#Batonnet, batonnet'' or ''Julienning, julienne''-cut deep frying, deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin. They are prepa ...
,
Herbart and
Schopenhauer. Having credited Kant's philosophy (though criticizing it on the vital point of accepting a
thing-in-itself), he focuses on what he sees as the shortcomings in the approaches of Kants successors. He frequently ends a section with the statement that one should return to Kant.
Liebmann's work also influenced his Jena colleague
Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic philos ...
.
[Gottfried Gabriel, "Frege, Lotze, and the Continental Roots of Early Analytic Philosophy," in: Erich H. Reck (ed.). ''From Frege to Wittgenstein: Perspectives on Early Analytic Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 39–51, esp. 44–48.]
Works
*''Kant und die Epigonen'', a critique of the followers of Kant urging a return to their master (1865) (Kant and his inferior successors)
*''Ueber die Freiheit des Willens'' (1866) (On free will)
*''Ueber den objektiven Anblick'' (1869) (On the objective point of view)
*''Vier Monate vor Paris'', a journal published anonymously (1871)
*''Zur Analysis der Wirklichkeit'' (1876; 3rd ed. 1900) (About the analysis of actuality)
*''Die Klimax der Theorien'' (1884) (The climax of theory)
*''Geist der Transcendentalphilosophie'' (1901)
*''Grundriss der kritischen Metaphysik'' (1901) (Outline of critical metaphysics)
*''Gedanken und Tatsachen'', 2 Bände (1882–1904) (Thoughts and facts)
References
*
External links
*
*
1840 births
1912 deaths
19th-century German Jews
Jewish philosophers
19th-century German philosophers
University of Halle alumni
Leipzig University alumni
Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
Academic staff of the University of Jena
German male writers
{{Germany-philosopher-stub