Johann Eduard Erdmann - Biography

Biography

Erdmann was born in Wolmar, livonia on June 13, 1805, where his father was a pastor. His was a cousin of Julius Walter. He studied theology at Dorpat (Tartu) and afterwards at Berlin, where he fell under the influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and was known never to miss his lectures. Then, from 1829 to 1832 he was a minister of religion in his native town of Wolmar. Afterwards he resigned from his position as pastor to devote himself to education and philosophy, but continued to minister throughout his life. He obtained a doctoral degree in from the University of Kiel with the treatise, Quidnam sit discremen philosophiam inter et theologiam (What is the Distinction between Philosophy and Theology?), written in 1830, in which he argued that philosophy and religion converge to a common truth, even though they differ in form of approach. In 1834 he began writing his Habilitation thesis to qualify in Berlin. This would eventually become the first volume of Versuch einer wissenschaftlichen Darstellung der Geschichte der neuern Philosophie (Attempt at a Scientific Presentation of the History of Modern Philosophy). In 1836 he was professor-extraordinary at Halle, became full professor in 1839, and remained there until his death. He died on June 12, 1892 in Halle.

He published many philosophical text-books and treatises, and a number of sermons; but his chief claim to remembrance rests on his elaborate Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie (Outline the History of Philosophy, 2 vols, 1866), the 4th edition of which has been translated into English. Erdmann's special merit is that he does not rest content with being a mere summarizer of opinions, but tries to exhibit the history of human thought as a continuous and ever-developing effort to solve the great speculative problems with which man has been confronted in all ages. His chief other works were: Leib und Seele (Body and Soul, 1837), Grundriss der Psychologie (Outline of Psychology, 1840), Grundriss der Logik und Metaphysik (Outline of Logic and Metaphysics, 1841), and Psychologische Briefe (Psychological Letters, 1851).

Erdmann had many readers, students and followers, and effected many intellectuals of his time. Some of these include Niels Thulstrup, his student Albrecht Ritschl, his collegue Martin Kähler, and members the Hegelian school, such as Kuno Fischer, Bruno Bauer, Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Ludwig Michelet. Søren Kierkegaard studied and was inspired in his early studies by Erdmann's works, in particular his Vorlesungen über Glauben und Wissen als Einleitung in die Dogmatic und Religionphilosophie (Lectures on Faith and Knowledge as an Introduction to Dogma the Philosophy of Religion). Although Kierkegaard integrated much of Erdmann's work into his own, the only work in which Erdmann was cited by him was his dissertation On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates.