Friedrich Ueberweg


Friedrich Ueberweg, was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy.

Biography

Friedrich Ueberweg was born in Leichlingen, Rhineland. His parents were Johann Gottlob Friedrich Ueberweg, who was pastor of a Lutheran church in Leichlingen, and Helene Boeddinghaus. Helene was a daughter of Karl Theodor Boeddinghaus, who was a Lutheran pastor in the neighboring town of Ronsdorf.
Educated at the University of Göttingen and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Friedrich qualified at the University of Bonn as Privatdozent in philosophy. In 1862 he was called to the University of Königsberg as extraordinary professor, and in 1867 he was promoted to the grade of professor ordinarius. He married Anna Henriette Luise Panzenhagen on 1 September 1863, in Pillau, Province of Prussia. Ueberweg died in Königsberg in 1871.

Philosophy

At first Ueberweg followed the empiricism of Friedrich Eduard Beneke, and strongly opposed the subjectivistic tendency of the Kantian system, maintaining in particular the objectivity of space and time, which involved him in a somewhat violent controversy. His own mode of thought he preferred later to describe as an ideal realism, which refused to reduce reality to thought, but asserted a parallelism between the forms of existence and the forms of knowledge. Beneke and Friedrich Schleiermacher exercised most influence upon the development of his thought.

Selected works

Ueberweg's compendious is regarded by many academics and scholars as remarkable for its fullness of information, conciseness, accuracy and impartiality.
Other works include:
  • De elementis animae mundi Platonicae, Dissertation, 1850
  • Die Entwicklung des Bewußtseins durch den Lehrer und Erzieher, 1853
  • System der Logik und Geschichte der logischen Lehren, 1857
  • Über Idealismus, Realismus und Idealrealismus, 1859
  • Über die Echtheit und Zeitfolge der platonischen Schriften, 1861
  • Schiller als Historiker und Philosoph, 1884
  • Die Welt- und Lebensanschauung Friedrich Ueberwegs in seinem gesammelten philosophisch-kritischen Abhandlungen, Leipzig: Gustav Engel, 1889