RUDOLF CHRISTOPH

See also:

• RUDOLF CHRISTOPH EUCKEN (1846– )

EUCKEN (1846– )  , German philosopher, was born on the 5th of January 1846 at Aurich in East Friesland . His father died when he was a child, and he was brought up by his mother, a woman of considerable activity . He was educated at Aurich, where one of his teachers was the philosopher Wilhelm Reuter, whose influence was the dominating factor in the 'development of his thought . Passing to the university of Gottingen he took his degree in classical philology and ancient history, but the bent of his mind was definitely towards the philosophical side of theology . Subsequently he studied in Berlin, especially under Trendelenburg,'whose ethical tendencies and historical treatment of philosophy greatly attracted him . From 1871 to 1874 Eucken taught philosophy at Basel, and in 1874 became professor of philosophy at the university of Jena . In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature . Eucken's philosophical work is partly historical and partly constructive, the former side being predominant in his earlier, the latter in his later works . Their most striking feature is the close organic relationship between the two parts . The aim of the historical works is to show the necessary connexion between philosophical concepts and the age to which they belong; the same idea is at the root of his constructive speculation . All philosophy is philosophy of life, the development of a new culture, not mere intellectualism, but the application of a vital religious inspiration to the practical problems of society . This practical idealism Eucken described by the term "Activism." In accordance with this principle, Eucken has given considerable attention to social and educational problems .

His

chief works are:—Die Methode der aristotelischen Forschung (1872) ; the important historical study on the history of conceptions, Die Grundbegriffe der Gegenwart (1878; Eng. trans. by M . Stuart Phelps, New York, 188o; 3rd ed. under the title Geistige Stromungen der Gegenwart, 1904; 4th ed., 1909); Geschichte der philos . Terminologie (1879) ; Prolegomena zu Forschungen caber die Einheit des Geisteslebens 1885) ; Beitrage zur Geschichte der neueren Philosophic (1886, 1905) Die Einheit des Geisteslebens ' (1888) ; Die Lebensanschauungen der grossen Denker (189o; 7th ed., 1907; Eng. trans., W . Hough and Boyce Gibson, The Problem of Human Life, 1909) ; Der Wahrheitsgehalt der , Religion (1901; and ed., 1905) ; Thomas von Aquino and Kant (1901); Gesammelte Aufsatze zu Philos. and Lebensanschauung (1903); Philosophic der Geschichte (1907); Der Kampf um einen geistigen Lebensinhalt (1896, 1907); Grundlinien enter neuen Lebensanschauung (1907) ; Einfi hrung in die Philosophic der Geisteslebens (1908; Eng, trans., The Life of the Spirit, F . L . Pogson, 1909, Crown Theological Library) ; Der Sinn and Wert des Lebens (1908; Eng. trans., 1909); Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie der Gegenwart (1907) . The following of Eucken's works also have been translated into English :—Liberty in Teaching in the German Universities (1897) ; Are the Germans still a Nation of Thinkers ? (1898) ; Progress of Philos. in the 19th Century (1899); The Finnish Question (1899) The Present Status of Religion in Germany (19011)) . See W . R . Boyce Gibson, Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy of Life (2nd ed., 1907), and God with Us (1909); for the historical work, Falckenberg's Hist. of Philos . (Eng. trans., 1895, index) ; also H .

Pohlmann, R . Euckens Theologie mil ihren philosophischen Grundlagen dargestellt (1903); O . Siebert, R .