FISCHER

fischer, ernst kuno berthold (1824-1907), german philosopher, was born at sandewalde in silesia, on the 23rd of july 1824. after studying philosophy at leipzig and halle, he became a privat-docent at heidelberg in 1850. the baden government in 1853 laid an embargo on his teaching owing to his liberal ideas, but the effect of this was to rouse considerable sympathy for his views, and in 1856 he obtained a professorship at jena, where he soon acquired great influence by the dignity of his personal character. in 1872, on zeller's removal to berlin, fischer succeeded him as professor of philosophy and the history of modern german literature at heidelberg, where he died on the 4th of july 1907. his part in philosophy was that of historian and commentator, for which he was especially qualified by his remarkable clearness of exposition; his point of view is in the main hegelian. his _geschichte der neuern philosophie_ (1852-1893, new ed. 1897) is perhaps the most accredited modern book of its kind, and he made valuable contributions to the study of kant, bacon, shakespeare, goethe, spinoza, lessing, schiller and schopenhauer. some of his numerous works have been translated into english: _francis bacon of verulam_, by j. oxenford (1857); _the life and character of benedict spinoza_, by frida schmidt (1882); _a commentary on kant's kritik of pure reason_, by j.p. mahaffy (1866); _descartes and his school_, by j.p. gordy (1887); _a critique of kant_, by w.s. hough (1888); see also h. falkenheim, _kuno fischer und die litterar-historische methode_ (1892); and bibliography in j.m. baldwin's _dictionary of philosophy and psychology_ (1905).