WEBER, JOSEPH. - Philosopher, b. 23 Sept. 1753 at Rain (Upper Bavaria), d. at Augsburg 14 Feb. 1831.
He studied theology at Augsburg with the Jesuits and philosophy at Dillingen. Ordained priest in 1776, he taught philosophy and physics at Dillingen (1781), at the University of Ingolstadt (1799), and later again at Dillingen (1803). He was also rector of the recently founded Lyceum in that city and held important ecclesiastical positions. He authored about a hundred writings, mostly short, on religious, scientific, and philosophical topics.
In his youth he was influenced by Wolff (v.) and Leibniz (v.), but later moved away from the dogmatism of Scholasticism, drawing closer to Kant, whose tone of Practical Reason he adopted. However, he later defended metaphysics against Kant (Estre metaphysica possibilis?, Dillingen 1795) and hoped to find in Schelling’s System of Identity (v.) the reconciliation of Christianity and philosophy (Philos., Religion und Christentum im Bunde, Munich 1808–1809, and Die Philos. in einer freien Darstellung, ibid. 1911).