Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus (3 July 1796, in
Pfaffroda – 22 September 1862, in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
) was a German
philosopher best known for his
exegetical
Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...
work on philosophy, such as his characterisation of
Hegel's
dialectic as a triad of "
thesis–antithesis–synthesis."
Biography
Chalybäus was born at Pfaffroda in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. 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: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
, 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, (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 ...
, 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
Johann Friedrich Herbart (; 4 May 1776 – 14 August 1841) was a German philosopher, psychologist and founder of pedagogy as an academic discipline.
Herbart is now remembered amongst the post-Kantian philosophers mostly as making the greates ...
and what he regarded as the one-sided idealism of
Hegel, 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
References
*
J. E. Erdmann, ''Grundriss der Gesch. d. Philos.'' ii. 781-786;
*
K. Prantl, in ''Allgem. deutsch. Biog.''
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalybaus, Heinrich Moritz
German philosophers
1796 births
1862 deaths
German male writers