VISCHER, FRIEDRICH THEODOR (1807-1887)

This article appears in Volume V28, Page 128 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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VISCHER, FRIEDRICH THEODOR (1807-1887) , German writer on the philosophy of art, was born at Ludwigsburg on the 3oth of June 1807, and was the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Tubingen, and began life in his father's profession. In 1835 he became Privatdozent in aesthetics and German literature at his old university, was advanced in 1837 to extra-

ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

professor, and in 1844 to full professor. In consequence, however, of his outspoken inaugural address, he was suspended for two years by the Wurttemberg government, and in his enforced leisure wrote the first two volumes of his Aesthetik, oder WVissenschafl des Schonen (1846), the fourth and last volume of which did not appear till 1857. Vischer threw himself heartily into the

great

GREAT

German political

movement

MOVEMENT

of 1848-49, and shared the disappointment of patriotic democrats at its failure. In 1855 he became professor at Zurich. In 1866, his fame being now established, he was invited back to Germany with a professorship at Tubingen combined with a post at the Polytechnikum of

Stuttgart

STUTTGART

. He died at Gmunden on the 14th of September 1887. His writings include literary essays collected under the titles. Kritische Gange and Altes and Neues, poems, an excellent

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

study of Goethe's Faust (1875), and a successful novel, Audi Einer (1878; 25th ed., 1904). Vischer was not an

original

ORIGINAL

thinker, and his monumental Aesthelik, in spite of industry and learning, has not the higher qualities of success. He attempts the hopeless task of explaining art by the Hegelian dialectic. Starting with the definition of beauty as " the

idea

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

in the form of limited

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

," he goes on to develop the various elements of art (the beautiful, sublime and comic), and the various forms of art (plastic art, music and poetry) by means of the Hegelian antitheses-form and content, objective and subjective, inner conflict and reconciliation. The shape of the

work

WORK

also is repellently Hegelian, consisting of short highly technical paragraphs containing the main argument, followed by detailed explanations printed , in different type. Still, Vischer had a thorough knowledge of every branch of art except music, and much valuable material is buried in his volumes. In later life Vischer moved consider-ably away from Hegelianism, and adopted the conceptions of sensuous completeness and cosmic harmony as criteria of beauty; but he never found time to rewrite his

great

GREAT

book. His own

work

WORK

as a literary artist is of high quality; vigorous, imaginative and thoughtful without academic technicality.
See O. Keindl, F. T. Vischer, Erinnerungsblatter (1888); J. E. von Gunthert, F. T. Vischer, ein Charakterbild (i888); I. Frapan, Vischer-Erinnerungen (1889); T. Ziegler, IF. T. Vischer (Vortrag) (1893) ; J. G.

Oswald

OSWALD (c. 605—642)
OSWALD (d. 992)

, F. T. Vischer sits Dicker (1896). (H. ST.),

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