Christoph Meiners

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Christoph Meiners, painting by Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Younger , around 1772, Gleimhaus Halberstadt

Christoph Meiners (born July 31, 1747 in Warstade ( Hemmoor ), † May 1, 1810 in Göttingen ) was a philosopher, ethnographer, professor of world wisdom in Göttingen and a representative of popular philosophy.

Life

He was born the son of a postmaster. At the grammar school in Bremen he was popular with his classmates because of his narrative talent. From 1767 to 1770 he was matriculated at the Göttingen University, where he did his work mainly in self-study. Manic reading and obsessive excerpts were his favorite occupations throughout his life. He saw psychology as the foundation of philosophy.

In 1772 he anonymously published the text Revision of Philosophy , in which he distinguished the " esoteric philosophy" (embodied by Pythagoras ) from the exoteric philosophy, which had to adapt to political conditions. At the same time, the esoteric philosopher feels obliged to enlighten the world: “The sun warms the world even when it is hidden behind the clouds: the way of thinking and judging can also enlighten the public when the esoteric is the first to explain the principles which he founded, does not show. "

In spite of all the peculiarities, he was promoted to a. full professor and in 1775 appointed full professor of philosophy. He conveyed the history of the empire and the European states.

In 1785 he announced in his Outline of Human History that “the present human race consists of two main tribes, the (...) Caucasian and the Mongolian tribe: that the latter is not only much weaker of body and mind, but also of much more evil nature and virtuous (...) be ".

His adversary was the naturalist Georg Forster .

In 1788, to the displeasure of his colleague Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , he was raised to the rank of court counselor. Since 1808 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

From 1788 to 1791 he edited the Philosophical Library together with Johann Georg Heinrich Feder .

From January 1787 to August 1791 he also published the Göttingisches Historisches Magazin together with Ludwig Timotheus Spittler . After the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, he debated the freedom rights of "Negroes" on the other side and Jews on this side of the Atlantic.

His work On the Constitution and Administration of German Universities (Göttingen 1801-1802) served as a model for the statutes of the Russian universities of Dorpat (Tartu), Moscow, Charkow and Kazan.

From 1803 Meiners worked as an appointment agent for the curator of Moscow University, Mikhail Muravyov . Meiners placed a number of Göttingen scientists at Moscow University, for example the mathematician Ide, the philosopher Reinhard, the statistician Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb Grellmann in 1803 . It was followed by the philologist Johann Gottlieb Buhle (1763-1821), the chemist Reuss (or Reiss), the botanist Hoffmann, the lawyer Christian Steltzer and the doctor and naturalist Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim .

During the French period he reported covertly to Johannes von Müller , Minister of State for the government in Kassel and, in 1808/09, director of public education in the Kingdom of Westphalia under King Jérôme , about the activities of the compatriots among the Göttingen students and other "grievances" at the Georgia-Augusta. He did not stop at reports about the incumbent Vice Rector, Professor Johann Gottfried Eichhorn , who was moderate in student matters . Eichhorn's successor Karl Friedrich Stäudlin is also commented on in detail as an object of the report.

Works

  • Revision of philosophy . 1772, anonymous.
  • Attempt on the religious history of the oldest peoples, especially the Egyptians . Goettingen 1775.
  • History of the origin, progress and decline of the sciences in Greece and Rome 1781, 2 volumes.
  • History of the luxury of the Athenians from the earliest times until the death of Philip of Macedonia . 1782.
  • Outline of the history of mankind . 1785 ( digitized version ).
  • Description of ancient monuments in all parts of the earth . 1786.
  • Outline of the theory and history of the beautiful sciences . 1787 ( digitized version ).
  • About animal magnetism . 1788.
  • Instructions for young people on their own work [,] especially for reading, excerpting and writing. Helwing, Hanover 1789.
  • About the nature of the African negroes (and the liberation or restriction of blacks depending on it) . 1790 (online) .
  • From letters about Switzerland. Travels in the summer of 1782 and 1788 . 1791.
  • Historical comparison of the manners and constitutions, the laws, and trades, trade, and religion, sciences, and educational institutions of the Middle Ages with those of our century with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of the Enlightenment . 3 vol., Helwing, Hanover 1793–1794.
  • Life of Ulrich von Hutten . 1797.
  • Biographies of famous men from the times of the restoration of science . 1797, 3 volumes.
  • General critical history of the ancient and modern ethics or life sciences along with an examination of the questions: Is there really a science of life then? How should its content, how should its method be? 2 volumes. Dieterich, Göttingen 1800–1801 (2nd volume under the title: General critical history of ethics or life science ; digitized version ).
  • Description of a trip to Stuttgart and Strasburg in autumn 1801. 1803.
  • General and Critical History of Religions. 2 volumes. Hanover 1806-1807.
  • Investigations into the Diversity of Human Nature . 3 volumes. Cotta, Tübingen 1811-1815 (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 ).

literature

  • Carl von Prantl:  Meiners, Christoph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 224-226.
  • Alexander Ihle, Christoph Meiners and Völkerkunde (preliminary work on the history of the Göttingen University and Library, 9), Göttingen 1931.
  • Friedrich Lotter, Christoph Meiners and the doctrine of the different values ​​of the human races, in: Geschichtswwissenschaft in Göttingen, ed. v. Hartmut Boockmann / Hermann Wellenreuther (Göttinger Universitätsschriften, A 2), Göttingen 1987, pp. 30–75.

Web links

Wikisource: Christoph Meiners  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excerpts from Otto Deneke: Alte Göttinger Landsmannschaften. Göttingen 1937, p. 57 ff.
  2. ↑ So z. B. the quote from Otto Deneke: Old Göttinger Landsmannschaften. Göttingen 1937, p. 58 ff.
  3. ^ Quotation from Otto Deneke: Alte Göttinger Landsmannschaften. Göttingen 1937, p. 67 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Mine, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Warstade ( Hemmoor )
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1810
Place of death Goettingen