Geschichte des Materialismus
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Geschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart ("History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance") is a philosophical work by Friedrich Albert Lange, originally written in German and published in October 1865 (although the year of publication was given as 1866).[1] Lange vastly extended the second edition published in two volumes in 1873-75. A three-volume English translation of the opus was published 1877-81.[2]
Adopting the Kantian standpoint that we can know nothing but phenomena, Lange maintains that neither materialism nor any other metaphysical system has a valid claim to ultimate truth. For empirical phenomenal knowledge, however, which is all that man can look for, materialism with its exact scientific methods has done most valuable service. Ideal metaphysics, though they fail of the inner truth of things, have a value as the embodiment of high aspirations, in the same way as poetry and religion.
- ^ Wolfdietrich von Kloeden: F.A. Lange, in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, ed. Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen: Bautz, 2007 (available online).
- ^ Andrew Seth: Review of History of Materialism, in Mind, vol. 7, no. 25., 1882, pp. 124-136.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
