Rudolf Christoph Eucken

Rudolf Christoph Eucken (; ; 5 January 1846 15 September 1926) was a German philosopher. He received the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life", after he had been nominated by a member of the Swedish Academy.

Early life

Eucken was born on 5 January 1846 in Aurich, then in the Kingdom of Hanover (now Lower Saxony). His father, Ammo Becker Eucken died when he was a child, and he was brought up by his mother, Ida Maria (née Gittermann). He studied at Göttingen University (1863–1866), where Hermann Lotze was one of his teachers, and Berlin University. In the latter place, Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg was a professor whose ethical tendencies and historical treatment of philosophy greatly attracted him.

Career

Eucken received his PhD in classical philology and ancient history from Göttingen University in 1866 with a dissertation titled De Aristotelis dicendi ratione. However, the inclination of his mind was definitely towards the philosophical side of theology. During World War I, Eucken, like many of his academic colleagues, took a strong line in favour of the causes with which his country had associated itself.

thumb|Birthplace of Rudolf Eucken in Aurich, Osterstraße 27 (September 2015)

Ethical activism

Eucken's philosophical work is partly historical and partly constructive, the former side being predominant in his earlier, the latter in his later works. Their most striking feature is the close organic relationship between the two parts. The aim of the historical works is to show the necessary connection between philosophical concepts and the age to which they belong; the same idea is at the root of his constructive speculation. All philosophy is philosophy of life, the development of a new culture, not mere intellectualism, but the application of a vital religious inspiration to the practical problems of society. This practical idealism Eucken described by the term "ethical activism" ().