Volkelt, Johannes

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 taught successively at Jena, Basel, Würzburg and finally, from 1894 to 1921, at Leipzig.

V. proceeds from German idealism, especially that of Kant, of Hegel and then of E. von Hartmann. He intended to found a theory of knowledge (v.) as a science without presuppositions and to reconcile the demands of metaphysics with those of experience (v.). In principle one can express 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 found knowledge on pure experience leads to skepticism (v.). Only thought (v.) can guarantee the transubjective validity of knowing, which extends to all subjects and to objects independent of thought.

His principal work is Erfahrung und Denken (Hamburg and Leipzig 1886), preceded by I. Kant, Erkenntnistheorie (Leipzig 1879) and followed by Die Quellen der menschlichen Gewissheit (Munich 1900), Gewissheit und Wahrheit (ibid. 1918) and Die Gefühlsgewissheit (ibid. 1922). The System der Aesthetik (3 vols., Munich 1905-14) seeks to reconcile speculative aesthetics with psychological aesthetics. Other aesthetic writings: Der Symbolbegriff in der neuesten Aesthetik (Jena 1876); Aesthetische Zeitfragen (Munich 1895); Aesthetik des Tragischen (ibid. 1897); Zwischen Dichtung und Philosophie (ibid. 1908). Also to be remembered: 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).

Andrea Ferro