REINHOLD, KARL LEONHARD. - Kantian philosopher, b. in Vienna on 26 Oct. 1758, d. in Kiel on 10 Apr. 1823. Educated by the Jesuits, he studied philosophy and theology, was a professor at the Barnabite College in Vienna, then (1787) at Jena, and subsequently (1793) at Kiel.
R. sought to construct an elementary philosophy as an inquiry into principles common to all the sciences. The first of these, possessing the character of immediacy and necessity, is the fact of consciousness, expressed as follows: « representation is distinguished in consciousness from the represented and the representing, and referred to both ». Once the act of the representing subject had been posited as an act common to sensibility and intellect, the other elements of knowledge, from sensation to ideas, were consequently deduced.
Principal works: Briefe über die kantische Philosophie (1786-88, in Wieland’s Deutscher Merkur; 2nd ed., Leipzig 1790); Versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschl. Vorstellungsvermögens (Jena 1789).