DUHRING, (KARL) EUGEN

born Jan. 12, 1833, Berlin, Prussia died Sept. 21, 1921, Nowawes, Ger. philosopher, political economist, prolific writer, and a leading German adherent of positivism, the philosophical view that positive knowledge is gained through observation of natural phenomena. Dhring practiced law from 1856 to 1859 and lectured on philosophy at the University of Berlin from 1864 to 1877. He was an unflinching critic whose targets included militarism, Marxism, religion, Judaism, and universities. A versatile scholar, he wrote treatises on philosophy, economics, mathematics, physics, and literature. Dhring maintained the optimistic view that men possess instincts that naturally make them sympathetic to one another. This attitude has led some critics to call his socialism excessively utopian. The same notion, transferred to his economic theory, led him to reject the social Darwinist concept of a constant struggle for existence among men in favour of a free society, in which all human relations based on power are abolished. Disagreement between Dhring and Marxian socialists was also reflected in Dhring's ethics of sympathy, by which he asserted that the Marxist dichotomy between capitalist and proletariat was unnecessary. Friedrich Engels in his renowned book Anti-Dhring, first entitled Herrn Eugen Dhrings Umwlzung der Wissenschaft (187778; Eugen Dhrings's Revolution in Science), attacked Dhring's socialist ideas and his vulgar Materialism. Among Dhring's major works are Capital und Arbeit (1865; Capital and Labour); Natrliche Dialektik (1865); Kritische Geschichte der Philosophie (1869; Critical History of Philosophy); and Cursus der National- und Socialkonomie (187392; Course of National and Social Economy).