BECHER, ERICH. - German philosopher, b. at Reinshagen (Remscheid) on 1 Sept. 1882, d. on 5 Jan. 1929 at Monaco di Baviera, where he had been professor since 1916.
His principal works, besides an autobiography, are: Philosophische Voraussetzungen der exakten Naturwissenschaften (1907); Gehirn und Seele (1911); Naturphilosophie (1914); Weltgebäude, Weltgesetze, Weltentwicklung (1915); Einführung in die Philosophie (1926); Metaphysik und Naturwissenschaften (1926).
B. is a critical realist: existences not given in consciousness manifest themselves through their activity, and the reality of an external world is a seriously probable hypothesis. Substances are complexes of persistent qualities; bodies are space-filling qualities, and constitute the real correlates of immediately perceptible qualities. His conception of nature is mechanical, confirmed, according to B., by electronic theory. In psychology he insists on the doctrine of reciprocal activity, or Wechselwirkung; in ethics he advocates a social eudemonism, or properly understood utilitarianism.