Friedrich Albert Lange
Lange held that materialism is a sound method of natural science but fails as a worldview, since the physiology of the senses shows that we know only appearances – a Kantian conclusion reached from science.
Placement
Neo-Kantian philosopher and social reformer: his History of Materialism read Kant through the physiology of the senses and became an early and lasting reading for Nietzsche, Cohen and Natorp.
Key ideas
- The physiology of the senses as confirmation of Kant
- Materialism as a method of science, not a worldview
Influence
Influenced 2
Hermann Cohen
influenced ✓
Lange was a mentor of Cohen, who received his Kantian thought partly through disagreement and became the founder of the Marburg School. SEP “Friedrich Albert Lange” (N. Hussain, L. Patton, E. Widmer), §4
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Hermann Cohen › 1842–1918
Friedrich Nietzsche
influenced ✓
From Lange’s History of Materialism Nietzsche learned about the psychophysics of Fechner and the physiological reading of Kant, and he cited Lange as an influence, though how far this reached is contested. SEP “Friedrich Albert Lange” (N. Hussain, L. Patton, E. Widmer), §4.1, after G. Stack, Lange and Nietzsche (1983) and critical replies; SEP “Friedrich Nietzsche” (R. L. Anderson), §6.2
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Works
Lange’s book of 1865 on the social condition of workers, written as he moved from liberal politics toward socialism; it argues for state support of workers and was revised in later editions.
History of materialism from antiquity to the nineteenth century combined with a critique: materialism is a legitimate method of natural science but not a worldview, and the physiology of the senses confirms Kant’s thesis that we know appearances; Nietzsche read it, and Natorp credited it with leading him to philosophy.
Position
Lange is on the map as the neo-Kantian whose History of Materialism (1866) became a standard reading of Kant through the physiology of the senses. It combines a history of materialism with a critique: materialism is a legitimate method for natural science but fails as a worldview, since the physiology of the senses itself shows that we know appearances, and ethical ideals are creations of the imagination. Hermann Cohen, his protégé, became the founder of the Marburg School, and Paul Natorp and Hans Vaihinger reported that reading Lange led them into philosophy. Nietzsche learned from the book about the psychophysics of Fechner and the physiological reading of Kant and cited Lange as an influence; how far this reached is contested. As a politician Lange moved from liberalism toward socialism and took part in the congress of German workers’ associations at Leipzig in 1864; his Labour Question (1865) argued for state support of workers.
Life & context
Friedrich Albert Lange was born on 28 September 1828 in Wald near Solingen and grew up in Duisburg and Zurich. He studied philology and philosophy in Bonn and took his doctorate in 1851, taught at a Cologne school and from 1858 to 1862 at the Gymnasium in Duisburg, from which he was dismissed after political conflicts with the school authorities. He then worked as a newspaper editor and secretary of the chamber of commerce in Duisburg, moved to Switzerland in 1866, became professor in Zurich in 1870 and took a chair at Marburg in 1872. He died in Marburg on 21 November 1875.
Further main works
- Logical Studies (Logische Studien, 1877)
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