Eugen Dühring | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Dühringc. 1880s | |
| Born | Eugen Karl Dühring (1833-01-12)12 January 1833 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation |
| Died | 21 September 1921(1921-09-21) (aged 88) Nowawes, Weimar Republic (nowBabelsberg) |
| Occupations |
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Eugen Karl Dühring (German:[ˈdyːʁɪŋ]; 12 January 1833 – 21 September 1921) was anantisemitic,positivist andsocialist German philosopher and economist who was a strong critic ofMarxism.
Dühring was born inBerlin,Prussia. After a legal education he practised law in Berlin until 1859. A weakness of the eyes, ending in totalblindness, led him to take up the studies with which his name is now connected. In 1864, he becamedocent of theUniversity of Berlin, but, in consequence of a quarrel with the professoriate, was deprived of his licence to teach in 1874.[1]
Among his works areKapital und Arbeit (1865);Der Wert des Lebens (1865);Natürliche Dialektik (1865);Kritische Geschichte der Philosophie (von ihren Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart) (1869);Kritische Geschichte der allgemeinen Principien der Mechanik (1872), one of his most successful works;Kursus der National und Sozialokonomie (1873);Kursus der Philosophie (1875), entitled in a later editionWirklichkeitsphilosophie;Logik und Wissenschaftstheorie (1878); andDer Ersatz der Religion durch Vollkommeneres (1883).[1] He also publishedDie Judenfrage als Racen-, Sitten- und Culturfrage (1881,The Jewish Question as a Racial, Moral, and Cultural Question).[2][3]
He published his autobiography in 1882 under the titleSache, Leben und Feinde; the mention ofFeinde ('enemies') is characteristic. Dühring'sphilosophy claims to be emphatically the philosophy of reality. He is passionate in his denunciation of everything which, likemysticism, tries to veil reality. He is, in the words of historianCarlton J. H. Hayes "almostLucretian in his anger against religion"[4] which would withdraw the secret of the universe from our direct gaze. His substitute for religion is a doctrine in many points akin toAuguste Comte andLudwig Andreas Feuerbach, the former of whom he resembles in hissentimentalism.[1]
Dühring's economic views are said to derive largely from those ofFriedrich List.[5][6] On other matters, particularly their attitudes toward Jews, the two men held very different opinions.[7]
He was "deeply" influenced bySchopenhauer throughout his career.[8] Dühring's opinions changed considerably after his first appearance as a writer. His earlier work,Natürliche Dialektik (Natural Dialectics), is entirely in the spirit ofcritical philosophy. Later, in his movement towardspositivism, beginning with the publication ofKritische Geschichte der Philosophie (Critical History of Philosophy), he rejectsImmanuel Kant's separation ofphenomenon fromnoumenon and claims that our intellect is capable of grasping the whole reality. This adequacy of thought to things is because the universe contains but one reality, i.e. matter. It is to matter that we must look for the explanation both of conscious and of physical states. But matter is not, in his system, to be understood with the common meaning, but with a deeper sense as the substratum of all conscious and physical existence; and thus the laws of being are identified with the laws of thought. In this idealistic system Dühring finds room forteleology. The end ofnature, he holds, is the production of a race of conscious beings. From his belief in teleology he is not deterred by the enigma of pain. As a determined optimist, he asserts that pain exists to throw pleasure into conscious relief.[1]
In ethics, Dühring followsAuguste Comte in making sympathy the foundation of morality. In political philosophy, he teaches an ethicalcommunism and attacksHerbert Spencer's principle ofSocial Darwinism. In economics, he is best known by his vindication of the American writerH. C. Carey, who attracts him both by his theory of value, which suggests an ultimate harmony of the interests of capitalists and labourers; and also by his doctrine of national political economy, which advocates protection on the ground that the morals and culture of a people are promoted by having its whole system of industry complete within its own borders. His patriotism is fervent, but narrow and exclusive. He idolizedFrederick the Great, and denouncedJews,Greeks, and the cosmopolitanGoethe. His writing has been characterized as clear and incisive, "though disfigured by arrogance and ill-temper, failings which may be extenuated on the ground of his physical affliction".[1]
Throughout his life, Dühring was a vehement antisemite and was one of the first proponents ofracial antisemitism in Germany. In 1881 Dühring's pamphletDie Judenfrage als Racen-, Sitten- und Culturfrage (The Jewish Question as a Question of Race, Morals and Culture) was published. It was a pseudo-scientific attempt to give antisemitism as a political movement a biological, historical, and philosophical foundation. He described the "Jewish question" similarly toWilhelm Marr, as an expression of an irresolvableracial antagonism, and openly advocated for the "murder and extermination" of Jews as a solution to the Jewish question.[9]
He is chiefly remembered among English-speakers because ofEngels' criticism of his views inAnti-Dühring: Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science. Engels wrote hisAnti-Dühring in opposition to Dühring's ideas, which had found some disciples among the GermanSocial Democrats. He is also the most prominent representative of thesocialism of that era attacked byNietzsche in his later works. Most of Dühring's work remains unavailable in English, aside from his work on theJewish question.[10] Dühring's writing on the Jewish question influenced later antisemites and racist thinkers such asTheodor Fritsch,Houston Stewart Chamberlain andGeorg von Schönerer. Through this legacy, Dühring's antisemitic views later found their way into the racial doctrines ofNazism.[11]
Friedrich Nietzsche heavily criticized Dühring's opinions on morality in his workOn the Genealogy of Morality:
I again remind readers who have ears to hear of thatapostle of revenge from Berlin, Eugen Dühring, who makes the most indecent and disgusting use of moral clap-trap of anyone in Germany today: Dühring, today's biggest loudmouth of morality, even amongst his kind, the anti-Semites.[12]
"Heroicmaterialism" characterised Dühring'sphilosophy. He attackedcapitalism,Marxism, and organisedChristianity andJudaism. Many scholars[13] believe that Dühring's invention of a modern-sounding antisemitism helped persuadeTheodor Herzl thatZionism was the only answer:
Herzl acknowledged this over and over in his diaries and correspondence: "I will fight anti-Semitism in the place it originated—in Germany and in Austria," he said in one letter. He identified the genealogy of modern, racist antisemitism in the writings of the German social scientist Dr. Eugen Duehring in the 1890s.[14]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Sturt, Henry (1911). "Dühring, Eugen Karl". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 649.