German philosopher at Zurich who founded empirio-criticism with the Critique of Pure Experience
Born into a Leipzig publishing family, he studied philosophy at Zurich, Leipzig and Berlin and from 1877 until his death was professor of philosophy at the University of Zurich. In the Critique of Pure Experience (1888–1890) he made the description of pure experience, free of both metaphysics and materialism, the task of philosophy, and called his doctrine empirio-criticism. His ideas passed to Mach and influenced the Russian Machists, among them Lunacharsky, who studied under him, and Bogdanov. Lenin criticised his basic concepts in Materialism and Empirio-criticism.
Also known as: Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius
Activities and affiliations
-
1876–1877
Germany state institutionsPrivatdozent, University of Leipzig
Scholarship and theory -
1877–1896
Switzerland state institutionsProfessor of philosophy, University of ZurichMain
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1868Doctorate at Leipzig on Spinoza's pantheism
- 1876Habilitation at Leipzig
- 1877–1896Professor of philosophy at Zurich
- 1888–1890Critique of Pure Experience
- 1891The Human Concept of the World