LOTZE, RUDOLF HERMANN. – Philosopher, b. 23 May 1817 at Bautzen, d. 10 July 1881 at Berlin. He studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Leipzig, where he obtained the venia legendi for medical sciences (1839) and for philosophy (1840). From 1844 to 1881 he held the chair of philosophy at the University of Göttingen. In 1881 he moved to Berlin.
For his intellectual formation L. was indebted on the one hand to idealistic philosophy, on the other to the positivist trend in the sciences of his time. The reconciliation of these two tendencies became the dominant motif of his thought. Fundamentally he adopted Leibniz’s solution (v.). Mechanical laws are universally valid and sufficient even for the empirical explanation of organic life; they are, however, further posited as means and instruments for the realization of the good. At the beginning of each of the great periods of the history of the universe, God establishes initial conditions that are the starting points for the realization of a divine plan. Matter moreover is merely the spatio-temporal appearance of a spiritual reality, consisting in a multitude of monad-like entities, though their substantial character remains, for L., uncertain.
More than in the structural ideas of his system, L.’s originality is revealed in the treatment of particular questions. In his Medizinische Psychologie, oder Physiologie der Seele (Leipzig 1852) he sought to clarify the relationship between soul and body through a description and interpretation of empirical data, including those of psychopathology. It was with this work that he became one of the precursors of modern experimental psychology. In his Logik (ibid. 1843) he developed the concept of Geltung (validity), characterizing thereby the mode of existence of meanings and contents of thought. In so doing he created an element of primary importance for the philosophers of neokantianism in the schools of Marburg (H. Cohen, P. Natorp) and Heidelberg (W. Windelband, H. Rickert). An even greater influence was exerted by 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 revealing being as powerful as the first principles of ontology and logic. L. in fact attempted to support his teleology and finalism on axiological considerations. Through 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); Geschichte der Ästhetik in Deutschland (Munich 1868, Leipzig 1913); System der Philosophie, I, Logik (ibid. 1874); II, Metaphysik (ibid. 1879; French trans. by Duval, Paris 1883).