Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

VISCHER, FRIEDRICH THEODOR (1807-1887)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 128 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

VISCHER, See also:FRIEDRICH THEODOR (1807-1887) , See also:German writer on the See also:philosophy of See also:art, was See also:born at See also:Ludwigsburg on the 3oth of See also:June 1807, and was the son of a clergyman. He was educated at See also:Tubingen, and began See also:life in his See also:father's profession. In 1835 he became Privatdozent in See also:aesthetics and German literature at his old university, was advanced in 1837 to extra-See also:ordinary See also:professor, and in 1844 to full professor. In consequence, however, of his outspoken inaugural address, he was suspended for two years by the See also:Wurttemberg See also:government, and in his enforced leisure wrote the first two volumes of his Aesthetik, See also:oder WVissenschafl See also:des Schonen (1846), the See also:fourth and last See also:volume of which did not appear till 1857. Vischer threw himself heartily into the See also:great German See also:political See also:movement of 1848-49, and shared the disappointment of patriotic democrats at its failure. In 1855 he became professor at See also:Zurich. In 1866, his fame being now established, he was invited back to See also:Germany with a professorship at Tubingen combined with a See also:post at the Polytechnikum of See also:Stuttgart. He died at See also:Gmunden on the 14th of See also:September 1887. His writings include See also:literary essays collected under the titles. Kritische Gange and Altes and Neues, poems, an excellent See also:critical study of See also:Goethe's See also:Faust (1875), and a successful novel, Audi Einer (1878; 25th ed., 1904). Vischer was not an See also:original thinker, and his monumental Aesthelik, in spite of See also:industry and learning, has not the higher qualities of success. He attempts the hopeless task of explaining art by the Hegelian See also:dialectic.

Starting with the See also:

definition of beauty as " the See also:idea in the See also:form of limited See also:appearance," he goes on to develop the various elements of art (the beautiful, See also:sublime and comic), and the various forms of art (plastic art, See also:music and See also:poetry) by means of the Hegelian antitheses-form and content, See also:objective and subjective, inner conflict and reconciliation. The shape of the See also:work also is repellently Hegelian, consisting of See also:short highly technical paragraphs containing the See also:main See also:argument, followed by detailed explanations printed , in different type. Still, Vischer had a thorough knowledge of every See also:branch of art except music, and much valuable material is buried in his volumes. In later life Vischer moved consider-ably away from Hegelianism, and adopted the conceptions of sensuous completeness and See also:cosmic See also:harmony as criteria of beauty; but he never found See also:time to rewrite his great See also:book. His own work as a literary artist is of high quality; vigorous, imaginative and thoughtful without See also:academic technicality. See O. Keindl, F. T. Vischer, Erinnerungsblatter (1888); J. E. von Gunthert, F. T. Vischer, ein Charakterbild (i888); I.

Frapan, Vischer-Erinnerungen (1889); T. Ziegler, IF. T. Vischer (Vortrag) (1893) ; J. G. See also:

Oswald, F. T. Vischer sits Dicker (1896). (H.

End of Article: VISCHER, FRIEDRICH THEODOR (1807-1887)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
VISCHER
[next]
VISCONTI