FRIEDRICH

See also:

• FRIEDRICH PAULSEN (1846-1908)

PAULSEN (1846-1908)  , German philosopher and educationalist, was born atLangenhorn (Schleswig) and educated at Erlangen, Bonn and Berlin, where he became extraordinary professor of philosophy and pedagogy in 1878 . In 1896 he succeeded Eduard Zeller as professor of moral philosophy at Berlin . He died on the ,4th of August 1908 . He was the greatest of the pupils of G . T . Fechner, to whose doctrine of panpsychism he gave great prominence by his Einleitung in die Philosophie (1892; 7th ed., 1900; Eng. trans., 1895) . He went, however, considerably beyond Fechner in attempting to give an epistemological account of cur knowledge of the psycho-physical . Admitting Kant's hypothesis that by inner sense we are conscious of mental states only, he holds that this consciousness constitutes a knowledge of the " thing-in-itself " —which Kant denies . Soul is, therefore, a practical reality which Paulsen, with Schopenhauer, regards as known by the act of " will." But this " will" is neither rational desire, unconscious irrational will, nor conscious intelligent will, but an instinct, a " will to live" (Zielstrebigkeit), often subconscious, pursuing ends, indeed, but without reasoning as to means . This conception of will, though consistent and convenient to the main thesis, must be rigidly distinguished from the ordinary significance of will, i.e. rational desire . Paulsen is almost better known for his educational writings than ' as a pure philosopher . His German Education, Past and Present (Eng. trans., by I .

Lorenz, 1907) is a

work of great value . Among his other works are: Versuch einer Entwickelunggeschichte d . KantischenErkenntnistheorie (Leipzig, 1875) ; Im . Kant (1898, 1899); "Griindung Organization and Lebensordnungen der deutschen Universitaten im Mittelaiter " (in Sybel's Histor . Zeitschr. vol. xlv . 1881) ; Gesch. d. gelehrten Unterrichts auf d. deutschen Schulen and Universitaten (1885, 1896) ; System der Ethik (1889, 1899; Eng. trans . [partial] 1899) ; Das Realgymnasium u. d. humanist . Bildung (1889) ; Kant d . Philos. d . Protestantism= (1899); Schopenhauer, Hamlet u . Mephistopheles (1900); Philosophiamilitans (1900,1901); Parteipolitik u . Moral (1900) .