Ludwig Büchner

Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner was a Philosophe and a Naturaliste German, born with Darmstadt the March 29th 1824, died in this same city on May 1st 1899.

Wire of Ernst Büchner, a Medical examiner and famous Chemist industrial; inventor of scientific tools like the Buchner funnel and younger brother of Georg Büchner, writer, poet, philosophical, revolutionary.

Course

In 1843, it went to the Université of Gießen, where it studied the Philosophie first of all, then turned to the Médecine to satisfy the wish of its family. It also went to follow the courses of the medical school of Strasbourg, then returned to Gießen, where, on the presentation of a thesis entitled: “ Beiträge zur Hall' schen Lehre von einem excitomotorischen Nervensystem ” in 1848, it accepted the title of doctor. He also took share with the political movements of this year, and he gave of it a humorous description in an article of the Humoristiches Deutschland of Stettenheim entitled “ Eninnerungen eines 1848ers ”. A news of him ( Im schönen Grund ) was inserted in the Westliche Post of Saint-Louis into the the United States. Several work of the same kind remained new.

Once received doctor, it went, for some time, to improve its knowledge at the universities of Würzburg (where it studied the Pathologie with Rudolf Virchow, celebrates materialist) and of Vienna. Then it returned in Germany, where, under the direction of his father, Ernst Büchner, famous Medical examiner, it was devoted to the study of legal medicine, writing a series of memories and expertises on medico-legal controversies which was published in a newspaper devoted to this discipline: Vereinte deutsche Zeitschrift für die Staats Arzneikunde , which appeared then in the town of Freiburg-in-Brisgau. This series of articles had such a success near the experts that the Company of the doctors badois for the progress of legal medicine named it honorary member, and decreed a medal with the literary merit to him.

While being devoted to science, it found time to collect the writings left by his/her older brother, Georg, which died at 23 years, after having conquered a certain fame as literary man, in 1835, by its drama Dantons Tod . It made them publish with an introduction and a biography in 1850 at Sauerländer with Frankfurt.

In 1852, it was named attending the medical private clinic of Tübingen and was authorized at the same time in the capacity as privatdocent. When in 1855 with Tübingen the congress of the doctors and the German naturalists took place, Büchner wrote of them the reports for the Würtembergischen Staatsanzeiger and the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung . These reports and the reading of the work of Moleschott on the circulation of the life, gave him the idea of the book, to which it owes most of its fame: Kraft und Stoff, Empirisch-naturphilosophische Studien (translated into French by Force and matter, popular studies of natural history and philosophy at Reinwald, Paris). This book, whose boldnesses had an immense repercussion, had like result first obliging its author, marked immorality, to give up its pulpit of Tübingen, and to return in its birthplace, where it took again the exercise of his profession.

In this book, he sought to show the indestructibility of the force and the matter, and the finality of the physical force, being based on infinite matter and the immutability of the natural laws, recommending the experimentation, only source, according to him, of truth. But they were especially the extreme materialism of this talk, which also treats heart and idea of God, and the suppression of the free will, destroying the concept of responsibility (“the man is not free, it goes where its brain pushes it”), which caused the violence of these attacks. This work was however an immense success and was greeted by Lange like “the fruit of a fanatic enthusiasm for the progress of humanity”.

This book was translated into very many languages, and the German republications, each one, were preceded by a different introduction, as many answers of Büchner to the attacks raised by its work. At the same time, the author developed his system materialist in a series of articles and tests which it published in the Jahrhundert of Hamburg, in the Anregungen für Kunst, Leben und Wissenschaft of Leipzig, in the Stimmen der Zeit , and in the Gartenlaube .

In 1857, it published Natur und Geist oder Gespräche zweier Freunde über den Materialismus und über die realphilosophischen Fragen of Gegenwart . But after the publication of the first volume concerning Macrocosmos, it convainquit that the dialogued form was not most easily understandable for the general public. Also it did not make appear the second volume which was to deal with Microcosmos. In spite of that, the work although incomplete knew multiple republications at T. Thomas of Leipzig. The abandonment of this second volume and regular employment in the title of its works of the expression in allgemein verständlicher Darstellung (in a comprehensible form by all) show its concern first of being accessible to greatest number the. Büchner was thus rather a popularizer trying to make pass to the general public a simple, but revolutionary idea at the time: the Materialism. It was not a thinker fertile, nor even truly original, since it had precursors who inspired it, but it had courage to present this idea highly and clearly, and to be held all its life to with it. In short, for him, Nature was purely physical, it had neither goal, neither Volonté, nor laws imposed by a supernatural authority, and thus without sanctions inflicted in the event of transgression.

The following years, between 1861 and 1881, it continued its publications, joining together in these new works the contents of its preceding articles and memories bound by its constant concern of the Matérialisme. It also gave in 1864 a translation of the work of the geologist English Lyell, The Geological Evidence off the Antiquity off Man, with remarks one theories off the origin off species by variation which it entitled Das Alter of Menschengeschlechts auf der Erde und der Ursprung der Arten durch Abänderung, nebst einer Beschreibung der Eiszeit in Europa und Amerika . It continued in this same vein by its own works: Die Darwin' sche Theory in sechs Vorlesungen (1868), Der Mensch und the Seine Stellung in der Natur (1869), etc

During the winter 1872-1873, it went to the the United States, where it held several conferences which almost all were included or redesigned in its various works, except for a talk on the question of the woman, written about the prayer of an association for the women's rights, and another on the naturalism which was published only in English under the title Materialism: its history and influence one society .

The materialism of Büchner was the starting point of the movement free-thinker in Germany. In 1881, it founded with Frankfurt Deutsche Freidenkerbund (German League of the Libre-pensée), allowing the atheistic of this country to publicly declare itself for the first time.

He died with Darmstadt on May 1st, 1899.

Works

Kraft und Stoff, Empirisch-naturphilosophische Studien, in allgemein verständlicher Darstellung , at Meidinger Sohn, Frankfurt amndt Hand (1855), then at T. Thomas, Leipzig. Translated on French starting from the 8th German edition, 272 pages, Force and matter, popular studies of natural history and philosophy at Reinwald, Paris (6 editions between 1855 and 1884). Principal chapters: force and matter - Immortalité of the Matière - immortality of the force - Infini and dignity of the matter - immutability and universality of the natural laws - Ciel - periods of creation of the ground - primitive generation - destiny of the beings in nature - Cerveau and heart - Pensée - seat of the heart - innate ideas - idea of God - personal existence after death - vital force - animal heart - free will;
Natur und Geist oder Gespräche zweier Freunde über den Materialismus und über die realphilosophischen Fragen der Gegenwart, in allgemein verständlicher Form (1857), then at T. Thomas, Leipzig (1874);
Physiologische Bilder at T. Thomas, Leipzig, in 2 volumes (1861-1875);
Aus Natur und Wissenschaft. Studien, Kritiken und Abhandlungen, in allgemein verständlicher Darstellung at T. Thomas, Leipzig, in 2 volumes (1862-1884). Translated into French starting from the 3rd German edition by Dr. Gustave Lauth, Natural and science, studies, criticisms and memories, put at the range of all at G. Baillière (1881), then Reinwald, Paris (1886), 377 pages. Also translated into Italian and Russian. Principal chapters: the quintessence of the Socialism - philosophy and Darwinism - half-man, half-animal - Heredity and development - persecutions of the Heresy S scientists - professor Virchow and Freedom of science - education and Reason - Mr Hansen and faith with the marvellous one - Culture - influence on the free will of the hereditary laws of transmissions - dogmatist of the Darwinism - freethinking - will of the priest Jean Meslier - solution on the question of the Jews - materialism in France - unknowable - philosophy of the natural science - origin and history of the religions - immortality - morals of the heretics - materialism and mesmerism - official faith in science - martyrs of the freethinking - natural morals - selfishness and civilization - anti-Kant - Kant and F.A. Lange - brain and Spirit - professor W. Wundt and materialism - finality and development - future life and modern science - body and spirit - Jesus-Christ and Buddha - in connection with the monument of Schopenhauer;
Das Alter of Menschengeschlechts auf der Erde und der Ursprung der Arten durch Abänderung, nebst einer Beschreibung der Eiszeit in Europa und Amerika , at T. Thomas, Leipzig (1864), translation of the work of Lyell The Geological Obviousness off the Antiquity off Man, with remarks one theories off the origin off species by variation , ( seniority of the man proven by geology and remarks on the theories relative to the origin of the species by variation at G. Baillière Paris 1870, translated by Chaper)

Chap 1: Introduction
Chap 2: Recent period: dig peat and cluster of shells to the Denmark, quoted lake Swiss
Chap 3: Human fossils and objets d'art of the recent period
Chap 4: The Pleistocene: bones of men and mammals extinguished in Belgian caves
Chap 5: The Pleistocene: human craniums of the caves of Neandertal and Engis
Chap 6: Tools of Flint in the alluvia of Pleistocene and the ground of the caves
Chap 7: Dig peat and alluvia of Pleistocene in the valley of the Somme
Chap 8: Flint tools in the alluvia of the Pleistocene of the valley of the Sum
Chap 9: Objets d'art in the alluvia of the Pleistocene of France and England
Chap 10: Contents of the caves and sites of the burials at Pleistocene
Chap 11: Age of the human fossils of Puy in France and Natchez in the the Mississippi
Chap 12: Seniority of the Man relative to the glacial period and the Flora and the existing fauna
Chap 13: Chronological relations between the glacial period and the first signs of appearance of the man in Europe
Chap 14: Chronological relations between the glacial period and the first signs of appearance of the man in Europe (continuation)
Chap 15: The Glacier S disappeared from the the Alps and their chronological relationship to the human period
Chap 16: Human remainders found in the Loess, and their probable age
Chap 17: Postglacial upheavals, crumplings of the Cretaceous and displacements of the layers in the island of Moen to the Denmark
Chap 18: The glacial period in North America
Chap 19: Recapitulation of the geological evidence of the seniority of the Man
Chap 20: Theories of the progressive variation and the transmutation
Chap 21: On the origin of the species by variation and Natural selection
Chap 22: Objections with the assumption of the transmutation
Chap 23: Comparison between the origin and the development of the languages and the species
Chap 24: Examination of the thesis of the origin of the man by transmutation, and its place in creation

Die Darwin' sche Theory in sechs Vorlesungen at T. Thomas Leipzig (1868), French translation at C. Reinwald Paris (1869);
Der Mensch und the Seine Stellung in der Natur in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft, oder Woher kommen to wir? Wer sind to wir? Wohin gehen to wir? (1869), French translation the Man according to science, his past, its present, its future at C. Reinwald Paris (1878);
Aus dem Geistesleben der Thiere oder Staaten und Thaten der Kleinen , at A. Hofmann Berlin (1876),
Liebe und LiebesLeben in der Thierwelt , at A. Hofmann, Berlin, (1879), translated by Dr. CH. Letourneau, psychic Life of the animals , at C. Reinwald Paris (1881);
Licht und Leben at T. Thomas Leipzig (1882);
Die Macht der Vererbung und ihr Einfluss auf den moralischen und geistigen Forstchritt der Menschheit , at E. Günther Leipzig (1882);
Thatsachen und Theorien aus dem naturwissenschaftlichen Leben der Gegenwart , at Allgemeiner Verein für deutsche Literatur Berlin (1887), French translation Made and theories biological in contemporary physical sciences and natural ;
Das künftige Leben und die modern Wissenschaft, zehn Briefe year eine Freundin , at Mr. Spohr Leipzig (1889);
Fremdes und Eignes aus dem geistigen Leben der Gegenwart , at Mr. Spohr Leipzig (1890);
Darwinismus und Sozialismus, oder der Kampf um das Dasein und die modern Gesellschaft , at E. Günther Leipzig (1894);
Am Sterbelager of Jahrhunderts, Blicke eines freien Denkers aus der Zeit in die Zeit , at E. Roth Giessen (1898);
Im Dienste der Wahrheit. Ausgewählte Aufsätze aus Natur und Wissenschaft , at E. Roth. Giessen (1900);

Force and matter, or Principles of the natural order of the universe put at the range of all, with a theory of the morals based on these principles , C. Reinwald Paris (1894), translation of A. Regnard with the approval of the author, starting from the 17th ED. entirely remelted and increased allemande, with a biography of the author and a foreword of the translator;
With the service of the truth, Choice of articles on nature and science with a biography of the author written by Prof Alex. Büchner;
With the Dawn of the century, glance of a thinker on the past and the future , Schleicher brothers, version of Dr. L. Laloy (1901);
the Man according to science , transl. CH. Letourneau, Schleicher brothers;
Conferences on the theory darwinienne , transl. Aug. Jacquot, Schleicher brothers;
psychic Life of the animals , transl. CH. Letourneau, Schleicher brothers;
Light and Vie , transl. CH. Letourneau, Schleicher brothers;
Actual position of our knowledge on the origin of the man , transl. L. Laloy, Schleicher brothers;

See too

Source

Angelo de Gubernatis: international Dictionary of the writers of the day (1891)

Internal bonds

History of the climate

External bond

Biography and facsimile of text of L. Büchner

Simple: Ludwig Büchner

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