LOTZE, RUDOLF HERMANN. - Philosopher, b. 23 May 1817 at Bautzen, d. 1 July 1881 at Berlin. He studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Leipzig and there obtained the venia docendi for the medical sciences (1839) and for philosophy (1840). From 1844-81 he held the chair of philosophy at the University of Göttingen. In 1881 he moved to Berlin.
In his formation L. was bound on the one hand to idealistic philosophy, on the other to the orientation of the positive sciences of his time. The reconciliation between these two tendencies became the dominant motif of his thought. Fundamentally he takes up the solution of Leibniz (v.). Mechanical laws are universally valid and sufficient also for the empiriological explanation of organic life; they nonetheless further present themselves as means and instrument for the realization of the good. At the beginning of each of the great periods of the history of the universe, God posits initial conditions that are the starting points of the realization of a divine plan. Matter, moreover, is only the spatio-temporal form of appearance of a spiritual reality, consisting in a multitude of monad-like egos, whose substantial character nevertheless remains, for L., uncertain.
More than in the structural ideas of his system, L.'s originality reveals itself in the treatment of certain particulars. In his Medizinische Psychologie, oder Physiologie der Seele (Leipzig 1852) he seeks to clarify the relations between soul and body by way of a description and interpretation of empirical data, including those of psychopathology. It is with this work that he became one of the precursors of modern experimental psychology. In his Logik (ibid. 1843) he develops the concept of Geltung (validity), characterizing with it the form of existence of the significations and contents of thought. With this he brought a constructive element of the first importance to the philosophers of the neo-Kantianism of the schools of Marburg (H. Cohen, P. Natorp) and of Heidelberg (W. Windelband, H. Rickert). An even greater influence had the introduction of the concept of "value" into philosophical speculation. According to L. man possesses in the faculty of feeling and discerning values a means of revelation of being as powerful as the first principles of ontology and logic. L. in fact attempted to support his theism and finalism on axiological considerations. With his conceptions of validity and value L. exercised a considerable influence on later philosophy. His most notable disciples were Gust. Teichmüller and Julius Bergmann.
Other principal works: Mikrokosmos, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1856-64; Italian trans., Pavia 1911-14); Gesch. der Aesthetik in Deutschland (Munich 1868, Leipzig 1913); System der Philosophie, I, Logik (ibid. 1874); II, Metaphysik (ibid. 1879; French trans. by Duval, Paris 1883).
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