Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus (3 July 1796, in
Pfaffroda – 22 September 1862, in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
) was a German
philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
best known for his
exegetical work on philosophy, such as his characterisation of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
's
dialectic
Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...
as a triad of "
thesis–antithesis–synthesis."
Biography
Chalybäus was born at Pfaffroda in
Saxony
Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
. For some years he taught at the
knight academy
Knight academies were first established in Western European states in the late 16th century. They prepared aristocratic youth for state and military service. It added to the hitherto rudimentary education of the aristocratic youth natural science, ...
in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, and won a high reputation by his lectures on the history of philosophy in Germany. In 1839 he became professor in
Kiel University
Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public University, public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ...
, where, with the exception of one brief interval, when he was expelled with several colleagues because of his German sympathies, he remained until his death.
His first published work, ''Historische Entwicklung der spekulativen Philosophie von Kant bis Hegel'' (1837, 5th ed. 1860), which still ranks among the best expositions of modern German thought, has been twice translated into English, by
Alfred Tulk (London, 1854), and by
Alfred Edersheim (Edinburgh, 1854). His chief works are ''Entwurf eines Systems der Wissenschaftslehre'' (Kiel, 1846) and ''System der spekulativen Ethik'' (2 vols., 1850).
He opposed both the extreme realism of
Herbart and what he regarded as the one-sided idealism of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
, and endeavoured to find a mean between them, to discover the ideal or formal principle which unfolds itself in the real or material world presented to it. His ''Wissenschaftslehre'', accordingly, divides itself into:
#''Principlehre'', or theory of the one principle;
#''Vermittelungslehre'', or theory of the means by which this principle realizes itself; and
#''Teleologie''.
The most noticeable point is the position assigned by Chalybäus to the
World Ether, which is defined as the infinite in time and space, and which, he thinks, must be posited as necessarily coexisting with the Infinite Spirit or God. The fundamental principle of the ''System der Ethik'' is carried out with great strength of thought, and with an unusually complete command of ethical material.
Works
Historical Development of Speculative Philosophy, from Kant to HegelEdersheim trans archive.org
Notes
References
*
J. E. Erdmann, ''Grundriss der Gesch. d. Philos.'' ii. 781-786;
*
K. Prantl, in ''Allgem. deutsch. Biog.''
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalybaus, Heinrich Moritz
19th-century German philosophers
1796 births
1862 deaths
German male writers