Karl Eugen Dühring

German philosopher and political economist. Born in Berlin, he studied law and became a trainee judicial officer, but gave up due to eye disease and switched to philosophy. He went blind in 1861 but still obtained his degree, and in 1863 he lectured in philosophy and economics at the University of Berlin. He started out as a Kantian, but later opposed metaphysics and advocated "realist philosophy," aiming for a comprehensive explanation of the world that could be compatible with natural science. However, his epistemology, which regards the activity of consciousness as a mechanical process, remained at the level of simple materialistic positivism, and his theory that regards the evolution of the universe as the development of a primordial being did not go beyond the level of dogmatic metaphysics. While he attacked religion and mysticism and approached socialism, he preached a morality based on feelings of empathy and argued that the interests of capitalists and workers could be reconciled through free competition, opposing Marx. He was popular with the masses as a patriot and anti-Semite, and at one time influenced the German Social Democratic Party, but he was expelled from the university in 1877, and was thoroughly criticized by Engels in Anti-Duhring, leading to his isolation in his later years and his death in Potsdam in despair. His major works include Dialectics of Nature (1865), A Critical History of Philosophy (1869), National Economics and a Critical History of Socialism (1871), and The Jewish Question (1881).

[Kenichiro Fujisawa]

"Anti-Duhring" by Engels, translated by Kenzo Awata (Iwanami Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ドイツの哲学者、政治経済学者。ベルリンに生まれ、法学を学んで司法官見習い実習生になったが、眼病のために断念し、哲学に転じた。1861年失明するも学位を取得、1863年よりベルリン大学で哲学と経済学を講ずる。カント主義者として出発したが、のちには形而上(けいじじょう)学に反対して「現実哲学」を唱え、自然科学と両立しうるような世界の包括的説明を目ざした。しかし意識の活動を機械的な過程ととらえるその認識論は、素朴な唯物論的実証主義にとどまり、宇宙の進化を原初的存在の発展とみなす理論は独断的形而上学の水準を出ていない。宗教や神秘主義を攻撃して社会主義に近づく反面で、共感の感情に基づく道徳を説き、資本家と労働者の利害は自由競争によって調停されうると主張して、マルクスには反対した。愛国主義者、反ユダヤ主義者として大衆受けし、一時期ドイツ社会民主党にも影響を与えたが、1877年には大学を追われ、また『反デューリング論』でエンゲルスに徹底的に批判されるなどあって、晩年には孤立し、失意のうちにポツダムで没した。主著に『自然弁証法』（1865）、『批判的哲学史』（1869）、『国民経済学と社会主義の批判的歴史』（1871）、『ユダヤ人問題』（1881）などがある。

［藤澤賢一郎］

『エンゲルス著、粟田賢三訳『反デューリング論』（岩波文庫）』

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