EUCKEN, RUDOLF. — Philosopher, born at Aurich on 5 January 1846, died at Jena on 6 September 1926. From 1871 to 1874 he was professor of philosophy at Basel, and subsequently at Jena.
E. was one of the first to rise up against the naturalism and positivism of his time. His philosophy begins with a consideration of human life, analyzed and interpreted not by the means of psychological research, but according to a special “noological” method, intended to comprehend spiritual life as the source and means of the development of ideas and subjective and universal values. In the philosophy of religion, E. gives this conception more clearly defined metaphysical foundations.
God, considered in himself, is a spiritual and personal power, absolutely superior to the world. His productions and emanations are antithetical in nature: on the one hand, he is the origin of the material world, in which spirit is present only as formal rationality; on the other, he radiates into this world the forces that can rise above nature. The first stage in this ascent is represented by organic life, the second by subjective consciousness. A new communication of divine life makes psychic subjectivity capable of objectifying its activity in productions of objective and ideal validity. Yet, in order to make possible the attainment of the highest degree of the ascent toward spirituality, the Divine had to communicate itself in a final irradiation that gives the human spirit true interiority and a direct and personal relation with God. Christianity is the religion of this perfect union with the divine spirit; it represents the “characteristic” religion, superior to the other religions, which remain within the sphere of moral and cultural life. With this appreciation, however, E. combines a very negative judgment on the Christian Churches.
For several decades E. exercised considerable international influence. The E.-Bund, founded in 1920, seeks to continue his work as an exhorter and reformer of cultural life.
Principal works: Gesch. der philosophischen Terminologie (Leipzig 1879); Die Einheit des Geisteslebens in Bewusstsein und Tat der Menschheit (there 1888); Die Lebensauschwungen der grossen Denker (there 1890, 18th ed., Berlin 1922); Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion (Leipzig 1901, 3rd ed. 1912); Hauptprobleme der Religionsphilosophie der Gegenwart (Berlin 1907, 5th ed. 1912); Kienen wir noch Christen sein? (Leipzig 1911); Mensch und Welt. Eine Philosophie des Lebens (there 1918, 2nd ed. 1920).
BIBLI: G. Wunderle, Die Religionsphilosophie R. E. and Paderborn 1912; E. Hermann, E. und Bergson. Their significance for christian thought. London 1912; W. S. Macgowan. The religious philosophy of R. E., there 1914; W. Ziegenfuss, Philosophen-Lexikon. I. Berlin 1949, pp. 302-303.