RIEHL, ALOIS. - Philosopher, born at Bolzano on 27 April 1844, died near Berlin on 21 November 1924. He taught at Graz (1873), Freiburg i. B. (1887), Kiel (1896), Halle (1898), and Berlin (1905–19).
R. proceeded from the philosophy of Herbart (Realistische Grundzüge, Graz 1870), but later turned to criticism (Über Begriff und Form der Philos., Berlin 1872). In his most important work, Der philosoph. Kritizismus u. seine Bedeut. für die positive Wissenschaft (I, Leipzig 1876; II, part 1, 1879, part 2, 1887), he states: “it is correct to say that Kant, with his method, determined the part played by the subject in experience and knowledge, but it is more correct and certainly more important to say that he demonstrated, first of all, the part played by objects in the possibility of real knowledge, that is, knowledge of universal and necessary validity” (preface to the 2nd ed., 1907). For R., only the theory of knowledge and the special sciences are justified; the doctrine of value is not properly science, but wisdom and the art of life, which discovers new ends for the will.
Other works: Moral und Dogma (Vienna 1871); Beiträge zur Logik (Leipzig 1892; 2nd ed. 1914); Zur Einführung in die Philos. der Gegenwart (ibid. 1903; 6th ed. 1921); Logik u. Erbenutsütheorie (Berlin 1907; 3rd ed. 1921), etc.