Eduard Zeller

Eduard Zeller (1883)

Eduard Zeller

Eduard Gottlob Zeller (born January 22, 1814 in Kleinbottwar , † March 19, 1908 in Stuttgart ) was a German theologian and philosopher .

Life

The son of an administrative officer attended the Protestant seminary (grammar school) in Maulbronn for four years from 1827 . From 1831 he studied in Tübingen theology and philosophy and lived in Tubingen seminary . There he joined the fraternity "Patrioten Tübingen" in 1831 . Here he got to know David Friedrich Strauss and Friedrich Theodor Vischer better. He received his doctorate in 1836 with a thesis on Plato's writing Nomoi . He achieved his habilitation in 1840. As a representative of the Tübingen school , he applied the methods of historical-critical ancient studies.

Together with his teacher Ferdinand Christian Baur , he published the organ of the Younger Tübingen School, the “Theological Yearbooks”, from 1847, which had been in existence since 1842. Zeller founded the “contemporary year books” in 1843. At the University of Bern he taught as a. o. Professor of theology since 1847, then moved to Marburg in 1849 . In 1847 Zeller married Emilie Baur, a daughter of Ferdinand Christian Baur.

In Marburg he was offered the theological chair, which he was unable to fill because of objections to his liberal theology and historical-critical research approaches. By order of the government he had to change to the philosophical faculty. In Heidelberg he taught from 1862 to 1872 as a. o. Professor Philosophy. With the topic of his inaugural speech, "On the meaning and task of epistemology", he finally introduced the term epistemology into German literature. From 1871 to 1872, Zeller was a member of the First Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly as a representative of Heidelberg University . In Berlin he taught philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität from 1872 to 1894, giving his inaugural address on the subject of "On the current position and task of German philosophy".

In 1864 he was admitted to the Prussian Academy , in 1873 to the Bavarian Academy and in 1890 to the Austrian Academy of Sciences . In 1877 he was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite for Science and the Arts . From 1895 he lived in Stuttgart . With his pupil Ludwig Stein he founded the " Archive for the History of Philosophy " in 1888 . His first contribution to this series was entitled “The History of Philosophy, Its Aims and Ways”. During his time as a professor in Marburg, he and Heinrich von Sybel founded a charitable institution that provided the poor in the city with food and other necessities.

Grave of Eduard Zeller in the Pragfriedhof Stuttgart, Department 15.

Zeller was an important representative of the historical-critical method. In theology he dealt with questions of early Christianity . In philosophy he orientated himself first to Hegel , later to Immanuel Kant . He is one of the first representatives of neo-Kantianism and neo- criticism . He is also one of the most important historians of ancient Greek philosophy . His multi-volume work The Philosophy of the Greeks in their Historical Development has numerous editions and reprints to this day and has been translated into various languages. In systematic philosophy, in 1862, in his essay On the Meaning and Task of Epistemology, he was the first to outline the precise objects and concept of an epistemology .

Works

• Platonic Studies, 1839 in Google Book Search
• The philosophy of the Greeks. An Inquiry into Character, Gait, and Principles of Their Development, 1844–1852; Part 3/1: The philosophy of the Greeks in the Google book search.
• History of the Christian Church. Clearly shown, 1848 in the Google book search
• The philosophy of the Greeks in its historical development, 1856–1868; Leipzig: R. Reisland 3rd A. 1876–1882, [1] by Gallica ; 3rd edition (from 1880) Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-19504-6
  • Translations: French: La philosophie des Grecs considérée dans son développement historique, Paris: Hachette, 1877–1884, vol. 2 , 1882, by Gallica ; Italian: La filosofia dei greci nel suo sviluppo storico, edizione italiana a cura di Rodolfo Mondolfo, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1932; Authorized English translations: A History of Greek Philosophy, London 1881, ( Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 of Case Western Reserve) and in separate editions, each published by Longmans, Green and Co. in London:
    • Socrates and the Socratic schools, 2nd A. 1877, archive.org and archive.org
    • Plato and the Older Academy, (trans. The third dt. A.) 1876-88 ( edition Longmans, Green, 1876 , edition Longmans, Green, and Company, 1888 in the Google Book Search, archive.org , archive.org )
    • Aristotle and the earlier Peripatetics, 1897 ( Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 )
    • The Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics, 1880 ( archive.org )
    • A history of eclecticism in Greek philosophy, 1883 ( archive.org , archive.org )
• The book of Acts critically examined, 1854 ( limited preview in Google book search); engl. Translated: The contents and origin of the Acts of the Apostles, London 1875-76 , Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 at archive.org
• About the meaning and task of the theory of knowledge. An academic lecture. Groos, Heidelberg 1862 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive )
• Lectures and Papers , 1865–1884; Leipzig: R. Reisland, 1875–1884, 3rd collection by Gallica ( 3rd series, 1884 in the Google book search)
• Religion and Philosophy among the Romans, 1866
• State and Church. Lectures held at the University of Berlin, 1873
• History of German philosophy since Leibniz (= History of the Sciences in Germany, Vol. 13) 1873
• Outline of the History of Greek Philosophy, 1883; ( Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, London 1914 in Google Book Search, [2] , [3] )
• On the Reasons for Our Belief in the Reality of the Outside World, 1884
• Frederick the Great as a philosopher, 1886
• History of the Christian Church, 1898. (More on Wikisource under Eduard Zeller )

literature

• Gerald Hartung (Ed.): Eduard Zeller . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010. ISBN 978-3-11-020857-3
• Margret Lemberg (Ed.): Correspondence (1849–1895). Heinrich von Sybel and Eduard Zeller . Elwert, Marburg 2004. 445 pp. ISBN 3-7708-1261-1
• Bernhard Zeller: Memory of Eduard Zeller: Lecture at the celebration on the occasion of his 175th birthday in Kleinbottwar on January 22, 1989 . Appendix to Eduard Zeller's 175th birthday . Evang. Parish office, Steinheim-Kleinbottwar 1989. 12 p.
• Klaus-Gunther Wesseling:  Zeller, Eduard Gottlob. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 388-402. After

estate

Partial bequests (1–3) from Zeller are in various archives and university libraries.

Web links

• Lecture at the celebration on the occasion of his 175th birthday in Kleinbottwar on January 22, 1989 Prof. Dr. Bernhard Zeller

Wikisource: Eduard Zeller  - Sources and full texts

Commons : Eduard Zeller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Eduard Zeller in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christoph Horn : Foreword to the new edition by Eduard Zeller, "The philosophy of the Greeks in their historical development" . In: Eduard Zeller: The philosophy of the Greeks in their historical development. First part. First department. General introduction. Pre-Socratic philosophy. First half , Darmstadt 2006 (8th unchanged edition of 6th edition 1919), p. XVII f.
2. ↑ Ludwig Bauer, Bernhard Gißler: The members of the First Chamber of the Badische Ständeversammlung from 1819 - 1912. Fidelitas, Karlsruhe 1913, 5th edition, p. 86
3. ↑ Christoph Horn : Foreword to the new edition by Eduard Zeller, "The philosophy of the Greeks in their historical development" . In: Eduard Zeller: The philosophy of the Greeks in their historical development. First part. First department. General introduction. Pre-Socratic philosophy. First half , Darmstadt 2006 (8th unchanged edition of 6th edition 1919), p. XIX.
4. ↑ Federal Archives. Central database of estates