Dietrich Tiedemann (3 April 1748,

Bremervörde Bremervörde () is a town in the north of the district (''Landkreis'') of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the Oste river near the centre of the "triangle" formed by the rivers Weser and Elbe, roughly equidistant from the cit ...

– 24 May 1803,

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

) was a German

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

historian of philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

born in

. He was father to

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical a ...

Friedrich Tiedemann Friedrich Tiedemann Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE (23 August 178122 January 1861) was a German anatomist and physiologist. He was an expert on the anatomy of the brain. Tiedemann spent most of his life as professor of anatomy and physi ...

(1781–1861).

Biography

He studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and philosophy at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

,Wikisource
at

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

and later was a professor at Collegium Carolinum in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

(from 1776) and at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

(from 1786). Teidemann's belief system was based on the

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...

and the

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

of Locke. He was author of the six-volume ''Geist der spekulativen Philosophie von Thales bis Berkeley'' ("The Spirit of Speculative Philosophy from

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

"). Tiedemann had strong disagreements in regard to the philosophic beliefs of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

(1724-1804), of which he critiqued in two publications; "On the Nature of Metaphysics: An Examination of Professor Kant's Principles-Against the Aesthetic" and "Continuation of the Examination of Professor Kant's Thoughts About the Nature of Metaphysics-Against the Analytic". Kant dismissed Tiedemann's arguments, which he reasoned were caused by a lack of understanding. Tiedemann was a pioneer of empirical

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, and an early practitioner in regard to scientific study of

child development Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, developmental psychology, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages o ...

. He kept a journal of his son's sensory, motor, language, and cognitive behavior during the first thirty months of his life. Through empirical observation, he claimed that children possessed a "pre-linguistic knowledge".

Selected publications

* ''Versuch einer Erklärung des Ursprunges der Sprache'' (1772) – "Essay Explaining the Origin of Language" * ''System der stoischen Philosophie'', three volumes (1776) – "System of

Stoic Philosophy Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...

" * ''Über die Natur der Metaphysick, zur Prüfung von Herrn Prof. Kants Grundsätzen'' (1785) * ''Geist der spekulativen Philosophie von Thales bis Berkeley'' (1791–97) – "The Spirit of Speculative Philosophy from

" * ''Theätet; oder, Über das menschliche Wissen; ein Beitrag zur Vernunft-Kritik'' (1794) – " Theaetetus; About Human Knowledge, a Contribution to the Critique of Reason"

Notes

References

Manchester.edu, Professors at Kassel (Collegium Carolinum)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiedemann, Dietrich 1748 births 1803 deaths People from Bremervörde German philosophers Academic staff of the University of Marburg German male writers