JOHANN EDUARD

ERDMANN (1805-1892)  , German philosophical writer, was born at Wolmar in Livonia on the 13th of June 18o5 . He studied theology at Dorpat and afterwards at Berlin, where he fell under the influence of Hegel . From 1829 to 1832 he was a minister of religion in his native town . After-wards he devoted himself to philosophy, and qualified in that subject at Berlin in 1834 . In 1836 he was professor-extraordinary at Halle, became full professor in 1839, and died there on the 12th of June 1892 . He published many philosophical text-books and treatises, and a number of sermons; but his chief claim to remembrance rests on his elaborate Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie (2 vols., 1866), the 3rd edition of which has been translated into English . Erdmann's special merit is that he does not rest content with being a mere summarizer of opinions, but tries to exhibit the history of human thought as a continuous and ever-developing effort to solve the great speculative problems with which man has been confronted in all ages . His chief other works were: Leib and Seele (1837), Grundriss der Psychologie (184o), Grundriss der Logik and Metaphysik (1841), and Psychologische Briefe (1851) .