HARTMANN, KARL ROBERT EDUARD VON (18421906)

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 36 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HAN-HEG

HARTMANN, KARL ROBERT EDUARD VON (18421906) ,
German philosopher, was born in Berlin on the 23rd of February 1842. He was educated for the army, and entered the artillery of the

Guards

GUARDS, AND HOUSEHOLD TROOPS

as an officer in 186o, but a malady of the knee, which crippled him, forced him to quit the service in 1865. After some hesitation between music and philosophy, he decided to make the latter the serious

work

WORK

of his life, and in 1867 the university of

Rostock

ROSTOCK

conferred on him the degree of

doctor

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

of philosophy. He subsequently returned to Berlin, and died at Grosslichterfelde on the 5th of June 1906. His reputation as a philosopher was established by his first book, The Philosophy of the Unconscious (1869; loth ed. 189o). This success was largely clue to the originality of its title, the diversity of its contents (von Hartmann professing to obtain his speculative results by the methods of inductive science, and making plentiful use of concrete illustrations), the fashionableness of its pessimism and the vigour and lucidity of its style. The conception of the Unconscious, by which von Hartmann describes his ultimate metaphysical principle, is not at bottom as paradoxical as it sounds, being merely a new and mysterious designation for the Absolute of German metaphysicians. The Unconscious appears as a combination of the metaphysic of

Hegel

HEGEL, GEORG WILHELM
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
(1770-1831)

with that of Schopenhauer. The Unconscious is both Will and Reason and the absolute all-embracing ground of all existence. Von Hartmann thus combines " pantheism " with " panlogism " in a manner adumbrated by Schelling in his " positive philosophy." Nevertheless Will and not Reason is the primary aspect of the Unconscious, whose melancholy career is determined by the primacy of the Will and the subservience of the Reason. Precosmically the Will is potential and the Reason latent, and the Will is void of reason when it passes from potentiality to actual willing. This latter is absolute misery, and to cure it the Unconscious evokes its Reason and with its aid creates the best of all possible worlds, which contains the promise of its redemption from actual existence by the emancipation of the Reason from its subjugation to the Will in the conscious reason of the enlightened pessimist. When the greater part of the Will in existence is so far enlightened by reason as to perceive the inevitable misery of existence, a collective effort to will non-existence will be made, and the world will relapse into nothingness, the Unconscious into quiescence. Although von Hartmann is a pessimist, his pessimism is by no means unmitigated. The individual's happiness is indeed unattainable either here and now or hereafter and in the future, but he does not despair of ultimately releasing the Unconscious from its sufferings. He differs from Schopenhauer in making salvation by the " negation of the Will-to-live " depend on a collective social effort and not on individualistic asceticism. The conception of a redemption of the Unconscious also supplies the ultimate basis of von Hartmann's ethics. We must provisionally affirm life and devote ourselves to social

evolution

EVOLUTION

, instead of striving after a happiness which is impossible; in so doing we shall find that morality renders life less unhappy than it would otherwise be. Suicide, and all other forms of selfishness, are highly reprehensible. Epistemologically von Hartmann is a transcendental realist, who ably defends his views and acutely criticizes those of his opponents. His

realism

REALISM (from Low Lat. realis, appertaining to res, things, as opposed to ideas and imaginations)

enables him to maintain the reality of Time, and so of the process of the world's redemption.
Von Hartnmann's numerous works extend to more than 12,000 pages. They may be classified intoA. Systematical, including Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie; Kategorienlehre; Das sittliche Bewusstsein; Die Philosophic des SchOnen; Die Religion des Geistes; Die Philosophic des Unbewussten (3 vols., which now include his, originally

anonymous

ANONYMOUS

, self-criticism, Das Unbewusste vom Standpunkte der Physiologic and Descendenztheorie, and its refutation, Eng. trs. by W. C. Coupland, 1884) ;

System

SYSTEM

der Philosophic ins Grundriss, i.; Grundriss der Erkenntnislehre. B. Historical and criticalDas religiose Bewusstsein der Menschheit; Geschichte der Metaphysik (2 vols.); Kant's Erkenntnistheorie; Kritische Grundlegung des transcendentalen Realismus; Uber die dialektische Methode; studies of Schelling, Lotze, von Kirchmann; Zur Geschichte des Pessimismus; Neukantianismus, Schopenhauerismus, Hegelianismus; Geschichte der deutschen Asthetik seit Kant; Die Krisis des Christentums in der modernen Theologie; Philosophische Fragen der Gegenwart; Ethische Studien; Moderne Psychologie; Das Christentum des neuen Testaments; Die Weltanschauung der modernen Physik. C. PopularSoziale Kernfragen; Moderne Probteme; Tagesfragen; Zwei Jahrzehnte deutscher Politik ; Das Judentum in Gegenwart and Zukunft; Die Selbstzersetzung des Christentums; Gesammelte Studien; Der Spiritismus and Die Geisterhypothese des Spiritismus; Zur Zeitgeschichle. His select works have been published in to volumes (2nd ed., 1885-1896). On his philosophy see R. Kober, Das pliilosophische

System

SYSTEM

Eduard von Hartmanns (1884) ; O. PlGmacher, Der Kampf urns Unbewusste (2nd ed., 1890), with a chronological table of the Hartmann literature from 1868 to 189o; A. Drews, E. von Hartmanns Philosophic and der Materialismus in der modernen Kullur (1890) and E. von Hartmanns philosophisches System ins Grundriss (1902), with biographical introduction; and for further authorities, J. M. Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology (19011905).

End of Article: HARTMANN, KARL ROBERT EDUARD VON (18421906)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/HAN_HEG/HARTMANN_KARL_ROBERT_EDUARD_VO.html">
HARTMANN, KARL ROBERT EDUARD VON (18421906)
</a>

(Previous)
HARTMANN VON AUE (c. 1170-c. 1210)

(Next)
HARTMANN, MORITZ (18211872)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email