VOLKELT, JOHANNES. – Philosopher, b. at Lipnik (Galicia) on 21 July 1848, d. at Leipzig on 8 May 1930. He studied at Vienna, Jena, and Leipzig. He successively taught at Jena, Basel, Würzburg, and finally, from 1894 to 1921, at Leipzig.
Volkelt proceeded from German idealism, especially that of Kant, Hegel, and later E. von Hartmann. He sought to establish a theory of knowledge (v.) as a presuppositionless science and to reconcile the demands of metaphysics with those of experience (v.). One can express at the outset only what is found with indubitable certainty in one’s own consciousness, and in the forms of the first person singular. But the attempt to ground knowledge in one’s own experience leads to scepticism (v.). Only thought (v.) can guarantee the trans-subjective validity of knowing, extending to all subjects and to objects independent of thought.
His principal work is Erfahrung und Denken (Hamburg and Leipzig 1886), preceded by J. Kant. Erkenntnistheorie (Leipzig 1879) and followed by Die Quellen der menschlichen Gewissheit (Munich 1900), Gewissheit und Wahrheit (ibid. 1918), and Die Gefühlsgeistigkeit (ibid. 1922). The System der Ästhetik (3 vols., Munich 1905–14) attempts to reconcile speculative aesthetics with psychological aesthetics. Other aesthetic writings include: Der Symbolbegriff in der neuesten Ästhetik (Jena 1876); Ästhetische Zeitfragen (Munich 1895); Ästhetik des Tragischen (ibid. 1897); Zwischen Dichtung und Philosophie (ibid. 1908). Also noteworthy are: Das Unbewusste und der Pessimismus (Berlin 1873); A. Schopenhauer (Stuttgart 1900); Was ist Religion (Leipzig 1913); Phänomenologie und Metaphysik (Munich 1925); Das Problem der Individualität (1928).