HARTMANN, KARL ROBERT EDUARD VON 0842-1906), German philosopher, was born in Berlin on Feb. 23, 1842. He was educated for the army, but turned to philosophy, and in 1867 the university of Rostock conferred on him the degree of D. Phil. He subsequently returned to Berlin, and died at Grosslichterfelde on June 5, 1906. Von Hartmann's reputation was established by his first book, The Philosophy of the Uncon scious (1869; i i th ed. 1904) . Its success was due to the diversity of its contents (von Hartmann professing to obtain his speculative results by the methods of inductive science, and using many concrete illustrations), the fashionableness of its pessimism and the vigour and lucidity of its style. The Unconscious appears as a combination of the metaphysic of Hegel with that of Schopen hauer. It is both Reason and Will and the absolute all-embracing ground of all existence, the spiritual principle required by nature. Von Hartmann thus combines "pantheism" with "panlogism" in a manner adumbrated by Schelling in his "positive philosophy." At the Fall, Will and Reason were separated, and the former, as blind impulse, determines the melancholy career of the Uncon scious in the world process. Reason is in constant strife against Will and only when it is emancipated from this strife in the conscious reason of the enlightened pessimist can the world be redeemed. When the greater part of the Will in existence is so far enlightened by reason as to perceive the inevitable misery of existence, a collective effort to will non-existence will be made, and the world will relapse into nothingness, the Unconscious into quiescence. Civilization, like the happiness of the individual, means the annullment of the will-to-live and the gradual releasing of the Unconscious from its sufferings. Meanwhile we must provisionally affirm life and devote ourselves to social evolution, instead of striving after a happiness which is impossible; in so doing we shall find that morality renders life less unhappy. Suicide, and all other forms of selfishness, are highly reprehensible.
Von Hartmann's works number about thirty of which the chief are: Kategorienlehre (1896) ; Das sittliche Bewusstsein (1879) : Die Philosophie des Schonen (1887) ; Die Philosophie des Unbewussten (1869) (3 vols., which now include his, originally anonymous, self criticism, Das Unbewusste vom Standpunkte der Physiologie and Descendenztheorie, (and its refutation, Eng. trs. by E. C. Coupland, 1884) ; Grundriss der Erkenntnislehre (i9o7) ; Das Problem des Lebens Biologische Studien (1908) ; Das religiose Bewusstsein der Menschheit (1881) ; Geschichte der Metaphysik (2 vols., 1899) ; Kant's Erkenntnistheorie; studies of Schelling, Lotze, von Kirchmann ; Zur Geschichte des Pessimismus (188o) ; Neukantianisnius, Schopenhauer ismus, Hegelianismus (1877) ; Moderne Psychologie (1901) ; Das Chris tentum des neuen Testaments (1905) ; Soziale Kernfragen (1894) ; Moderne Probleme (1886) ; Zwei Jahrzehnte deutscher Politik (1888). His select works have been published in io volumes (2nd ed., 1885-96). See R. Kober, Das philosophische System E. von Hartmanns (1884) ; O. Plumacher, Der Kampf ums Unbewusste (2nd ed., 189o) ; A. Drews, E. von Hartmanns Philosophie and der Materialismus in der modernen Kultur (189o) and E. von Hartmanns philosophisches System (1906) ; O. Braun, E. von Hartmann (1909) ; N. E. Pohorilles, Entwicklung and Kritik der Erkenntnislehre E. v. Hartmanns (Vienna, 1911) ; G. S. Hall, Founders of Modern Psychology (1912) ; J. P. Steffs, E. von Hartmonns Religions philosophie (1921) ; C. O. Petraschek, Die Logik des Unbewussten (Munich, 1926) . Full bibliography in Uberweg, Grund. der Gesch. der Phil. pt. 4 (1923)•