Editing Kuno Fischer

{{Short description|German philosopher (1824–1907)}}
{{more footnotes|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region           = [[Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[19th-century philosophy]]
|image       = Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer (HeidICON 3746) (cropped).jpg
|caption     = 
|name             = Kuno Fischer
|birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=y|1824|7|23}}
|birth_place      = Sandewalde (near [[Guhrau]]), [[German Confederation]]
|death_date       = {{death date and age|df=y|1907|7|5|1824|7|23}}
|death_place      = [[Heidelberg]], [[German Empire]]
|education        = [[University of Leipzig]]<br>[[University of Halle]] ([[PhD]], 1847)
|institutions     = [[Heidelberg University]]<br>[[University of Jena]]
|school_tradition = [[Hegelianism]] (early)<ref>Theodore M. Porter, ''Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age'', Princeton University Press, 2010, p. 63: Kuno Fischer's early Hegelianism had got him into political trouble in 1848. In 1852 he was accused of pantheism..."</ref><br>[[Neo-Kantianism]] (late)<ref>[[Frederick C. Beiser]], ''The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1796-1880'', Oxford University Press, 2014, p.  221.</ref>
|main_interests   = [[Metaphysics]]
|notable_ideas    = The [[empiricism]]–[[rationalism]] distinction
|thesis_title = De Parmenide Platonico (On Plato's Parmenides)
|thesis_url   = https://archive.org/details/deparmenideplat00fiscgoog
|thesis_year  = 1847
|doctoral_advisor  = 
|academic_advisors = [[Christian Hermann Weisse]] (Leipzig), [[Johann Eduard Erdmann]] (Halle), [[Julius Schaller]] (Halle)
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students = {{Interlanguage link multi|Richard Falckenberg|de}}
}}
[[File:Caspar Ritter - Portrait Kuno Fischer, 1898.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Fischer by<br /> [[Caspar Ritter]] (1898)]]

'''Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|ʃ|ər}}; {{IPA|de|ˈfɪʃɐ|lang}}; 23 July 1824 – 5 July 1907) was a German [[philosopher]], a historian of philosophy and a critic.

==Biography==
[[File:Kuno fischer grab.JPG|thumb|His grave in Heidelberg]]
After studying philosophy at [[University of Leipzig|Leipzig]] and [[University of Halle|Halle]],
he became a [[privatdocent]] at [[University of Heidelberg|Heidelberg]] in 1850. The [[Grand Duchy of Baden|Baden]] government in 1853 laid an embargo on his teaching owing to his liberal ideas, but the effect of this was to rouse considerable sympathy for his views, and in 1856 he obtained a professorship at [[University of Jena|Jena]], where he soon acquired great influence by the dignity of his personal character. In 1872, on [[Eduard Zeller]]'s move to Berlin, Fischer succeeded him as professor of philosophy and the history of modern [[German literature]] at Heidelberg.

He was a brilliant lecturer and possessed a remarkable gift for clear exposition. His fame rests primarily on his work as a historian and commentator of philosophy. As far as his philosophical views were concerned, he was, generally speaking, a follower of the [[Hegelianism|Hegelian school]]. His writings in this direction, especially his interpretation of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], involved him in a quarrel with [[Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg|F. A. Trendelenburg]], professor of philosophy at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]], and his followers.  In 1860, Fischer's ''Kants Leben und die Grundlagen seiner Lehre'' (Kant's life and the foundations of his doctrine) lent the first real impulse to the so-called "return to Kant".

In honor of his 80th birthday, celebrated in 1904, [[Otto Liebmann]], [[Wilhelm Wundt]], [[Theodor Lipps]] and others published ''Die Philosophie im Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Festschrift für Kuno Fischer'' (Heidelberg, 1907).

==Philosophy==
One of Fischer's most significant and lasting contributions to philosophy was the use of the [[empiricism]]/[[rationalism]] distinction in categorising philosophers, particularly those of the 17th and 18th centuries.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} These include [[John Locke]], [[George Berkeley]] and [[David Hume]] in the empiricist category and [[René Descartes]], [[Baruch Spinoza]] and [[G.W. Leibniz]] in the rationalist category. Empiricism, it is said, claims that human knowledge is derived from sensation, i.e. experience, while rationalism claims that certain knowledge can be acquired before experience through pure principles. Although influential, in more recent times this distinction has been questioned{{By whom|date=April 2024}} as anachronistic in its failure to represent precisely the exact claims and methodologies of the philosophers it categorises.

==Reception==
Kuno Fischer's ''History of Modern Philosophy'' had a strong impact on [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] and his view on modern philosophy, particularly regarding [[Spinoza]].<ref>[[Andreas Urs Sommer]]: Nietzsche’s Readings on Spinoza. A Contextualist Study, Particularly on the Reception of Kuno Fischer, in: Journal of Nietzsche Studies 43/2 (2012), pp. 156–184.</ref><ref>[[Jason Maurice Yonover]]: Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Philosophical Etiology (On the Example of Free Will), in: European Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming).</ref> [[Gottlob Frege|Frege]] and [[W. Somerset Maugham]] were amongst his students.

[[Hermann Weyl]], writing about pre-WWII academic life in Germany, told the following anecdote about Fischer:

:A little anecdote of German university life in the nineties may illustrate the point.  Kuno Fischer, a second-rate philosopher at Heidelberg, was one day disturbed by the noise of workers who were putting in new cobblestones in the street before his house.  He had at that time been offered a professorship in Berlin.  So he opened his window and shouted to the workmen, "If you don't stop that noise at once, I'll accept the call to Berlin".  Whereupon the foreman ran to the mayor, he summoned the Stadtbaumeister and they decided to postpone repair of the street until after the beginning of the academic vacation.<ref>H. Weyl, "Universities and Science in Germany" (1953), in Weyl's ''Gesammelte Abhandlungen'' (collected essays), Band IV, p. 538.</ref>

==Works==
* ''De Parmenide Platonico''. Stuttgart (thesis, 1847, [https://archive.org/stream/deparmenideplat00fiscgoog#page/n4/mode/2up online]).
* ''Diotima. Die Idee des Schönen'' (Diotima, the idea of the beautiful; Pforzheim, 1849) ([https://archive.org/stream/diotimadieideed00fiscgoog#page/n6/mode/2up online]) 
* ''System der Logik und Metaphysik oder Wissenschaftslehre'' (System of logic and metaphysics, or doctrine of knowledge; 1852) ([https://archive.org/stream/logikundmetaphy00fiscgoog#page/n6/mode/2up online])
* ''Das Interdict meiner Vorlesungen'' (The prohibition of my lectures; Mannheim, 1854)
* 1854: ''Die Apologie meiner Lehre nebst Replik auf die „Abfertigung“ des Herrn Schenkel'' ([https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_U-vxOowydN0C#page/n3/mode/2up online])<ref>Cf. [[Daniel Schenkel]] had published [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_rmlZAAAAcAAJ#page/n1/mode/2up ''Abfertigung für Herrn Kuno Fischer in Heidelberg'']</ref> 
* ''Geschichte der neuern Philosophie'' (History of modern philosophy; 6 vols., Stuttgart-Mannheim-Heidelberg, 1854–77; new edition, Heidelberg, 1897–1901) This is considered by some to be his greatest work.  It is written in the form of monographs on Descartes, Kant, Fichte, Schelling and other great philosophers down to Schopenhauer: 
** erster Band: ''[[René Descartes|Descartes]] und seine Schule'' (1. Teil [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne18unkngoog#page/n5/mode/2up online], 2. Teil [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne21unkngoog#page/n6/mode/2up online])<ref>1. Teil (4. Aufl. 1897), [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne06fiscgoog#page/n9/mode/2up online]</ref> 
** zweiter Band: ''[[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] und seine Schule'' ([https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne20fiscgoog#page/n6/mode/2up online]) <!-- 2. ed 1867 --> 
** dritter Band: ''[[Immanuel Kant]] und seine Lehre'' ([https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne22fiscgoog#page/n10/mode/2up online]) <!-- 3. ed 1882-->
** vierter Band: ''Kant's<!--sic--> System der reinen Vernunft'' <br/>(online: [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne23fiscgoog#page/n7/mode/2up 2. Aufl. 1869], [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne00unkngoog#page/n10/mode/2up 3. neu bearb. Aufl. 1882], [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_4EQ1AAAAIAAJ#page/n7/mode/2up 4. ed. 1899]) 
** fünfter Band: ''[[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]] und seine Vorgänger'' ([https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne10unkngoog#page/n6/mode/2up online]) 
** achter Band: ''[[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegels]] Leben, Werke und Lehre'' (online: [https://archive.org/stream/geschichtederne08fiscgoog#page/n7/mode/2up part 1 (1901)], [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_W6gQAAAAYAAJ#page/n5/mode/2up part 2 (1901)])  
** neunter Band: ''[[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauers]] Leben, Werke und Lehre'' ([https://archive.org/stream/schopenhauersle01fiscgoog#page/n6/mode/2up online] (Jubiläumsausgabe 1898)) 
* ''Franz Baco von Verona'' (Leipzig, 1856 (2nd edition 1875); translated into English by J. Oxenford, London, 1857)
* ''[[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]] als Philosoph'' (Frankfurt am Main, 1858; 2nd ed. 1891-92)
* ''Kants Leben und die Grundlagen seiner Lehre'' (Mannheim, 1860)
* ''Akademische Reden: [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|J. G. Fichte]]; Die beiden Kantischen Schulen in Jena'' (The two schools of Kant in Jena; Stuttgart, 1862)
* ''[[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]s “[[Nathan der Weise]]”'' (Stuttgart, 1864; translated into English by [[Ellen Frothingham]], New York, 1868)
* ''[[Baruch Spinoza]]s Leben und Charakter'' (Heidelberg, 1865; translated into English by F. Schmidt, Edinburgh, 1882)
* ''System der reinen Vernunft auf Grund der Vernunftkritik'' (1866)
* ''[[Shakespeare]]s Charakterentwickelung Richards III'' (Character development of Shakespeare's Richard III; Heidelberg, 1868)
* ''Über die Entstehung und die Entwickelungsformen des Witzes'' (The origins and modes of development of wit; Heidelberg, 1871)
* ''Schellings Leben, Werke und Lehre'' (Heidelberg, [1872] - taken from the Fourth Edition, issued in monographic series, ''Geschichte der Neuern Philosophie von Kudo Fischer'', published in Heidelberg, 1923 - on the work of German philosopher [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]])
* ''Kritik der Kantischen Philosophie'' (Munich, 1883; translated into English by W. S. Hough, London 1888)
* ''[[Goethe]]-Schriften'' (8 vols., Heidelberg, 1888–96)
* ''Kleine Schriften'' (Heidelberg, 1888–98)
* ''Schiller-Schriften'' (2 vols., Heidelberg, 1891)
* ''Philosophische Schriften'' (3 parts, Heidelberg, 1891–92)
* ''Hegels Leben und Werke'' (Heidelberg, 1911)

Other translations of his works are:
* ''A Commentary of Kant's "Critic of Pure Reason"'' (trans. by [[John Pentland Mahaffy|J. P. Mahaffy]], London-Dublin, 1866; [https://archive.org/stream/acommentaryonkan00fiscuoft#page/n7/mode/2up online]) 
* ''Descartes and his School'' (trans. by John P. Gordy, New York, 1887)

==See also==
* [[Fischer–Trendelenburg debate]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Fischer, Ernst Kuno Berthold}}
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Fischer, Ernst Kuno Berthold|year=1920}} This work in turn cites:
** Alexander, A. B. D., “Kuno Fischer. An Estimate of his Life and Work” (in ''Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods'', Vol. V, p.&nbsp;57, New York, 1908)
** Falkenheim, H., ''Kuno Fischer und die Litterar-Historische Methode'' (Berlin, 1892)
** Goehring, H., “Von Kuno Fischers Geistesart” (in ''Pädagogisches Magazin'', Heft 317, Langensalza, 1907)
** Petsch, R., “Kuno Fischer” (in ''Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft Jahrbuch'', Vol. XLIV, p.&nbsp;189, Berlin, 1908)
** Trendelenburg, F. A., ''Kuno Fischer und sein Kant'' (Leipzig 1869)
** [[Hans Vaihinger|Vaihinger, H.]], “Der Streit zwischen Trendelenburg und Fischer” (in ''Commentar zu Kants “Kritik der Reinen Vernunft”'', Vol. II, pp.&nbsp;290 and 545, Stuttgart, 1882–92)
** [[Wilhelm Windelband|Windelband, W.]], ''Kuno Fischer'' (Heidelberg 1907)
* {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Fischer, Kuno|year=1905}}

==External links==
{{Nuttall poster|Fischer, Ernst Kuno Berthold}}
* {{Commons category inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2182| name=Kuno Fischer}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Kuno Fischer}}
* [http://www.philosophenlexikon.de/fischer.htm Short German text]
* ''[[Francis Bacon]] of Verulam. Realistic Philosophy and its Age'' by Kuno Fischer, translated from the German by [[John Oxenford]]. London, 1857 [https://archive.org/details/cu31924029010219].

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Kuno}}
[[Category:1824 births]]
[[Category:1907 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German philosophers]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Silesia]]
[[Category:Leipzig University alumni]]
[[Category:Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Heidelberg University]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Jena]]
[[Category:German historians of philosophy]]
[[Category:19th-century German writers]]
[[Category:19th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Spinoza scholars]]
[[Category:Goethe scholars]]