Friedrich Albert Lange
German philosopher
born Sept. 28, 1828, Wald, near Solingen, Prussia
died Nov. 21, 1875, Marburg, Ger.
Main
German philosopher and Socialist, important for his
refutation of materialism and for establishing a lasting
tradition of Neo-Kantianism at the University of Marburg.
Lange was the son of theologian Johann Peter Lange and
was educated at Cologne, Bonn, and Duisburg. In 1861 he
became involved in politics. Among his best known works are
Die Leibesübungen (1863; “On Physical Exercise”); Die
Arbeiterfrage (1865; “The Worker Question”); Die Grundlagen
der mathematischen Psychologie (1865; “The Foundation of
Mathematical Psychology”); Geschichte des Materialismus und
Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart (1866; History of
Materialism); J. St. Mill’s Ansichten über die soziale Frage
(1866; “John Stuart Mill’s Theories About the Social
Question”). Lange left Germany in 1866 and moved to
Winterthur, near Zürich, to write for a democratic
newspaper. He also wrote the Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte
des Materialismus (1867; “A New Contribution on the History
of Materialism”) and in 1870 became professor of philosophy
at the University of Zürich, resigning his post in 1872
because of the pro-French sympathies of the Swiss in the
Franco-German War. He then accepted the chair of philosophy
at the University of Marburg and was largely responsible for
a Kantian revival there. His Logische Studien (“Studies in
Logic”) was published in 1877, after his death.
