Johannes Rehmke (1 February 1848 – 23 December 1930) 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 since 1885 professor at

Greifswald University The University of Greifswald (; german: Universität Greifswald), formerly also known as “Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald“, is a public research university located in Greifswald, Germany, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pom ...

, later also provost of this university. He offered sharp criticisms 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 ...

's approach to

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 ...

. In his article "The Conquest of Subjectivism," Paul Ferdinand Linke pointed out that it was Rehmke who first made a courageous break from

subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. The success of this position is historically attribute ...

, which was the pervasive philosophical paradigm in late modern

German philosophy German philosophy, here taken to mean either (1) philosophy in the German language or (2) philosophy by Germans, has been extremely diverse, and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from Gottfried ...

Biography

John Rehmke was born on 1 February 1848 in Hainholz near

Elmshorn Elmshorn (; nds, Elmshoorn) is a town in the district of Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. It is 30 km north of Hamburg on the small river Krückau, a tributary of the Elbe, and with about 50,000 inhabitants is the sixth-largest t ...

, the second son of school teacher Hans Hinrich Rehmke and his wife Margaret, née Engelbrecht. After his first lessons from his father, he attended the elementary school in

Uetersen Uetersen (, formerly known as ''Ütersen ( Holstein)'') is a town in the district of Pinneberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately south of Elmshorn, and northwest of Hamburg at the small Pinnau River, close to the ...

and then the Gymnasium Christianeum in Altona, where among others Helmuth von Moltke was his classmate. In 1867 he went to study at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in ...

, then a year later to the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

to study under the Swiss theologian

Alois Emanuel Biedermann Alois Emanuel Biedermann (2 March 1819, in Münchhof near Bendlikon – 25 January 1885, in Zürich) was a Swiss Protestant theologian. He was a prominent dogmatician of the so-called " Young Hegelian" school of thought,doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1873 at Zurich with the

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

''Hartmanns Unbewußtes auf die Logik hin kritisch beleuchtet'' (''Hartmann's Unconscious Critically Examined from a Logical Standpoint''; a work on

Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, was a German philosopher, independent scholar and author of '' Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). His notable ideas include the theory of the Unconscious and a pessimistic interpretation of the "best of all ...

) and his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1884 at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

with his 1880

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

''Die Welt als Wahrnehmung und Begriff'' (''The World as Percept and Concept''). Rehmke admired the works of

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

and visited him. Since 1885, Rehmke was professor of philosophy at Greifswald University. In 1921, Rehmke was forced by local

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

-groups (among them student organisations) to give up his professorship at Greifswald. He died on 23 December 1930 in

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 ...

and was buried in

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...

Philosophical work

Rehmke was the founder of Greifswald objectivism, a form of

anti-psychologism In logic, anti-psychologism (also logical objectivism or logical realism) is a theory about the nature of logical truth, that it does not depend upon the contents of human ideas but exists independent of human ideas. Overview The anti-psychologisti ...

. He opposed individualism on philosophical grounds.Dietrich, Otto, "The Philosophical Fundamentals of National Socialism A Call to the Weapons of the German Mind", 1934.
/ref>

Works

*''Die Welt als Wahrnehmung und Begriff'' (''The World as Percept and Concept), 1880. *''Logik oder Philosophie als Wissenslehre'' (''Logic or Philosophy as Theory of Knowledge''), 1918.

References

External links

* * 19th-century philosophers German philosophers 19th-century German people Academic staff of the University of Greifswald 1848 births 1930 deaths 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers People educated at the Gymnasium Christianeum {{Germany-philosopher-stub