NATORP, PAUL. – Philosopher, b. Düsseldorf 24 Jan. 1854, d. Marburg 17 Aug. 1924, professor of philosophy at the University of Marburg from 1885.
He belongs to the Marburg school and follows Cohen (v.). A pupil of F. A. Lange (v.), he develops in its purest and most consistent form the logicist interpretation of Kant. Having resolutely excluded the concept of the thing-in-itself, a pure idealism is established. Perhaps more original is his social pedagogy, which in its emotional motifs recalls Schleicher more closely, but which adheres more strictly to Kant, to whom he is most indebted in *Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der Humanität* (Freiburg 1894). Of notable importance are his studies in ancient philosophy. Yet in his *Platos Ideenlehre* (Leipzig 1903) he advances the singular thesis that the Ideas are *methods* rather than things; positions of thought rather than objects in themselves. In substance, Plato is understood—or misunderstood—through Kant.
Other principal works: *Descartes Erkenntnistheorie* (Freiburg in Br. 1882); *Forschungen zur Gesch. des Erkenntnisproblems im Altertum* (ibid. 1884); *Pestalozzi Ideen über Arbeiterbildung und soziale Frage* (ibid. 1894); *Platos Staat und die Idee der Sozialpädagogik* (ibid. 1895); *Herbart, Pestalozzi und die heutigen Aufgaben der Erziehungstheorie* (Stuttgart 1899); *Sozialpädagogik* (ibid. 1899, 3rd ed. 1909); *Logik* (Marburg 1904); *Der Idealismus Pestalozzis* (Leipzig 1919); *Autobiografia*, in *Die deutsche Philosophie der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen*, I (Leipzig 1921).
**