REINHOLD, KARL LEONHARD. — Kantian philosopher, born in Vienna on 26 Oct. 1758, died in Kiel on 10 Apr. 1823. Educated by the Jesuits, he studied philosophy and theology, and was professor at the Barnabite College in Vienna, then (1787) in Jena, and subsequently (1793) in Kiel.
R. sought to construct an elementary philosophy as the search for principles common to all the sciences. The first of these, which has the characteristic of immediacy and necessity, is the fact of consciousness, expressed as follows: “the representation is distinguished in consciousness from the represented and from the representer and is referred to both.” Once the act of representing is posited as the common act of sensibility and intellect, the other elements of knowledge are deduced therefrom, from sensation to ideas.
Principal works: Briefe über die kantische Philosophie (1786–88, in Wieland’s Deutsche Merkur; 2nd ed., Leipzig 1790); Versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschl. Vorstellungsvermögens (Jena 1789).