Andreas Weber (philosopher)

Andreas Weber (born March 27, 1718 in Eisleben , † May 26, 1781 in Kiel ) was a German philosopher and Lutheran theologian.

Life

Weber owed his first lessons to the educational establishments in his hometown. In 1738 he studied theology at the University of Jena , from 1740 at the University of Leipzig and then at the University of Halle , where in 1742 he obtained the academic degree of a master's degree in philosophy by defending his dissertation: "de cognitione spiritus finiti circa mysteria" . After that he was given the right to read philosophical, mathematical and philological colleges, which were widely recognized. In 1749 he was an associate professor of philosophy in Halle. In vain did he seek permission to hold theological lectures.

With the statutes of the theological faculty at that time, of which Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten was dean , the granting of this request did not seem to be compatible. As early as 1750 Weber received a call to the University of Göttingen , where he was given a full professorship in philosophy. He followed this call, as he explained in the third volume of his 1750 work “The Agreement of Nature and Grace”, “to have to accept the call to a spiritual office in his fatherland (pastor at the main church in Eisleben) for the sake of conscience. “In Göttingen he read philosophical lectures with applause for several years.

But when the then 20-year-old professor Johann Georg Heinrich Feder (1740-1821) appeared next to Samuel Christian Hollmann and himself as a philosopher, in 1770 he accepted the request to become full professor of philosophy and associate professor of theology at Kiel University . There he taught mathematics, logic, metaphysics, practical philosophy, natural law, morality and natural theology, mostly according to the principles of Christian Wolff . According to Baumgarten's compendium, he read about theological dogmatics and morals, as well as pastoral theology and the truth of the Christian religion. At the same time he held disputation and examination exercises, those on philosophical and these on theological matters.

Act

Weber, distinguished valuable knowledge in philosophy, theology and literary history. Individual articles of Christian dogmatics, which he used to deal with in public lectures, especially in the last years of his life, showed the strict adherents and defenders of the orthodox doctrine of the Lutheran Church. He particularly protected the doctrine of the Trinity against the divergent views of older and newer theologians, as a dogma in accordance with the Bible and the symbolic books. His strict orthodoxy had a decisive influence on his way of philosophizing, especially on his presentation of moral philosophy. In 1745 he tried to present in his own writing that true religion absolutely required a revealed faith based on divine satisfaction. The only and true revelation to him was the Bible. With a great deal of acumen he sought to demonstrate the exact correspondence between nature and grace, especially in the doctrines necessary for human happiness, in a detailed work in 1742.

In 1743 Weber was accepted into the Halle Freemason's lodge To the three golden keys ; his lodge speeches appeared in print in 1748.

Works

• Diss, de spatio vicaria temporis mensura. Jena 1739
• Diss, de differentia spirituum ex actionibus illorum eruta. Jena 1740
• Diss. De cognitione spiritus finiti circa mysteria. Hall 1742
• Prove that in our circumstances, a true religion necessarily requires revealed faith based on divine satisfaction. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1745. Digitized version of the Kiel University Library
• That a person who denies God is bound to live in a godly way when he denies God. Hall 1745
• That God should have given revelation to fallen men is proved, and the characteristics thereof, imparted to all others, mistakenly believed to be differentiated, and the scriptures considered to be only the only true revelation, are set forth. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1746
• The correspondence of nature and grace, both in general and in particular, in all the doctrines of Christianity necessary for the counsel of God about our salvation, has been thoroughly demonstrated, etc. 3 volumes. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1748–1750
• Progr. De persuasione foecunda malorum tristiffimorum matre. Goettingen 1750
• The sage (a program) Göttingen 1750
• Collection of some sermons. Hall 1752
• Oratio de officiis situdioH litterarum. Goettingen 1753
• Two sermons on the duty to love God and on righteousness that is better than the Pharisee. Goettingen 1755
• Comm. de prima Melanchthonis locorum communium editione. Kiel 1771
• Progr. Utrum Judaeus Mosi ut legislatori solum non ob miracula, quibus conspicuus erat, religiosam obedientiam debeat. Kiel 1771
• Progr. Draft of a specific concept of learning; along with some general consequences from it. Kiel 1772
• Diss. De contingentia legum motus. . . . 17 ??

literature

• Heinrich Doering : The learned theologians of Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Vol. 4, Verlag Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, Neustadt an der Orla 1835, p. 658. ( full text in the Google book search)
• Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Vol. 14, Gerhard Fleischer the Elder J., Leipzig 1815, p. 422. ( full text in the Google book search)
• Johann Stephan Pütter : Attempt of an academic scholarly story from the Georg Augustus University in Göttingen. Vol. 1, Verlag Vandenhoeck, Göttingen 1765, p. 172. ( full text in the Google book search)

Web links

• Entry on Andreas Weber in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ after Meusel 1720
2. ^ Eugen Lennhoff / Oskar Posner / Dieter A. Binder: International Freemasons Lexicon. Special edition, Herbig: Munich 2006, p. 889