Johannes Immanuel Volkelt (21 July 1848, Lipnik near Biala,

Austrian Galicia The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe. The crown land was established ...

– 8 May 1930,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

) 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 ...

Biography

He was educated at

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

, and

. He became professor of philosophy at

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in 1883 and at

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

in 1889, and 1894 was made professor of philosophy and pedagogy in

Philosophy

In philosophy, his main efforts have been his opposition to

positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

and his attempt at a new metaphysical theory. His independent position was arrived at after successive periods in which he followed

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 ...

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the manife ...

, and Hartmann. Alongside

Theodor Lipps Theodor Lipps (; 28 July 1851 – 17 October 1914) was a German philosopher, known for his theory regarding aesthetics, creating the framework for the concept of ''Einfühlung'' (empathy)'','' defined as, "projecting oneself onto the object of p ...

and Stephan Witasek, he is considered one of the most important representatives of the psychology of aesthetics. He is particularly noted for his investigations of the concept of empathy as a fundamental principle of the theory of art. He proposed that experiencing a work of art with empathy has two variations: "proper empathy" (''eigentliche Einfühlung'') and "empathy of mood" (''Stimmungseinfühlung''). His thoughts on ''Einfühlung'' and the emphatic process were documented in his work ''System der Ästhetik''.

Dream interpretation

Volkelt spent time analysing the meaning of dreams, and captured his analysis in ''Die Traumphantasie''. He is cited several times in '' The Interpretation of Dreams'' as a foundation for

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

's claims. Volkelt believed that elements of a dream were directly related to the body of the dreamer, such as a dreamed roaring stove representing the dreamer's lungs.

Works

His more important works are: * ''Pantheismus und Individualismus im System

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

s'' (1872) * ''Die Traumphantasie'' (1875) * ''

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel 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, et ...

s Erkenntnistheorie'', a searching piece of criticism (1879) *
Erfahrung und Denken
Kritische Grundlegung der Erkenntnistheorie'' became a standard textbook on epistemology, especially due to its thorough examination of the concept of 'experience'. (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1886) Reprinted with introduction and Index by Harald Schwaetzer 2000. * ''Aesthetische Zeitfragen'' (1895) *
Arthur Schopenhauer, seine Persönlichkeit, seine Lehre, sein Glaube
' (1900) * ''Die Kunst des Individualisierens in den Dichtungen

Jean Paul Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories. Life and work Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Ficht ...

s'' (1902) * ''System der Aesthetik'' (1905—14) * ''Phänomenologie und Metaphysik der Zeit'' (1925)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkelt, Johannes 1848 births 1930 deaths 19th-century German philosophers 20th-century German philosophers Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University German male writers People from Bielsko-Biała People from Austrian Silesia