LOTZE, RUDOLF HERMANN

Physician and philosopher; b. Bautzen, Germany, May 21, 1817; d. Berlin, July 1, 1881. The son of a physician, Lotze studied medicine, psychology, and philosophy at Leipzig under E. H. Weber, G. T. Fechner, and C.H. Weisse (1801–66), receiving his M.D. and Ph.D. in 1838. His dissertation in medicine, De futurae biologiae principiis philosophicis (Leipzig 1838), gave indication of a special competence in philosophy. In Leipzig Lotze wrote his first Metaphysik (1841), became a lecturer in philosophy, and wrote his first Logik (1843). In 1844 he was appointed professor at the University of Göttingen, where he composed his Medizinische Psychologie oder Physiologie der Seele (Leipzig 1852). His Mikrokosmus, 3 v. (Leipzig 1856–58, 5th ed. 1896–1909) is one of the most important documents in modern German philosophy. In 1881 he was called to Berlin and died shortly after his arrival there.

Lotze had an excellent background in the natural sciences and put his knowledge of inductive and experimental methods to use in the modernization of philosophy. At a time when others were hostile to metaphysics, however, he undertook to combine the inductive method of the exact sciences with metaphysical insights, mainly those in the tradition of German idealism. He acknowledged the existence of mechanistic functions in nature, but regarded these as the means by which the Deity actualizes the final good of the entire universe. He also taught the substantiality of the human soul and its freedom of action. The ego, for him, is not merely a logical subject, as it was for I. kant; rather it is an active principle. Body and soul he conceived to be in constant reciprocal relationship: the body affects the soul (e.g, in perception and feeling), while the soul acts upon the body (e.g., in acts of free will). In this teaching Lotze was opposed to 19th–century determinism. He held that without freedom, morality would have no foundation.

Lotze's impact on contemporary philosophy is perhaps best expressed in his three notions of being, happening, and value. The characteristic of the external world is being (inductive metaphysics); that of man's perception is happening, which is channeled from the without to the within (physiology of the soul); and that of the inner world is thought, truth, and value (axiology). Greatly influenced by Lotze were C. Stumpf, W. Windelband,A. Wenzl, F. brentano, and, through Brentano, E. husserl.

Bibliography: j. hirschberger, The History of Philosophy, tr. a. n. fuerst, 2 v. (Milwaukee 1958–59) v.2. f. barone, Enciclopedia filosofica 3:168–170. w. ziegenfuss, ed., Philosophen–Lexikon, 2 v. (Berlin 1949–50) 2:80–87. m. wentscher, Lotzes Leben und Werke (Heidelberg 1913). s. hall, Die Begründer der modernen Psychologie (Lotze …) (Leipzig 1914).

[c. e. schÜtzinger]