LOTZE, RUDOLF HERMANN German philosopher, was born in Bautzen on May 21, 1817, the son of a physician. He studied in the gymnasium of Zittau, and in 1834 entered the university of Leipzig where, four years later, he gained his M.D. and also a doctorate in philosophy. Lotze's studies were governed by two distinct interests. The first was scientific, based upon mathematical and physical studies under the guidance of E. H. Weber, W. Volckmann and G. T. Fechner. The second was his aesthetical and artistic interest, which was developed under the care of C. H. Weisse. His scientific interests led him to condemn the form which Schelling's and Hegel's ex positions had adopted, especially the dialectic method of the latter, whilst his love of art and beauty, and his appreciation of moral purposes, revealed to him the existence of a trans-phenom enal world of values into which no exact science could penetrate. His vocation then seemed to be the reconciliation of science with art, literature and religion ; and hence the central point of his philosophy has been described as an analysis of the concept of the mechanism of nature with the object of proving that this concept necessarily leads to the assumption of an ideal principle of existence.
Lotze laid the foundation of his system in his Metaphysik (1841) and Logik (1843), short books published while he was still a junior lecturer at Leipzig, from which university he mi grated to Gottingen in 1844, succeeding Herbart in the chair of philosophy. But he first became generally known through his Allgemeine Pathologie and Therapie als mechanische Naturwis senschaften (Leipzig, 1842, 2nd ed., 1848), his Allgemeine Physi ologie des Korperlichen Lebens (Leipzig, 1851), and his Mediz inische Psychologie oder Physiologie der Seele (Leipzig, 1852). In these he tried to show that the laws which govern particles of matter in the inorganic world govern them if they are joined into an organism. Final causes, vital and mental forces, and even the soul itself can only act through the inexorable mechanism of natural laws. But this mechanical view of nature is noLidentical
with the materialistic. In the last of the above-mentioned works he asserts that mind must be considered as an immaterial prin ciple, though its action on the body and vice versa is purely mechanical. In spite of the fact that Lotze declared that these writings were not intended to solve the origin and meaning of this all-pervading mechanism or to set forth the whole of his conception of Nature, they were counted among the opposition literature which destroyed the phantom of Hegelian wisdom and vindicated the independent position of empirical philosophy.
These misinterpretations induced Lotze to publish his Streit schriften (Leipzig, 1857), in which he protested against being counted either as a materialist or as a follower of Herbart. Lotze's next work, the Mikrokosmos (3 vols., 1856-64, Eng. trs. 2 vols., 1885) was intended to be a popular expression of his interests in science, aesthetics and religion, and a working out of his belief that the significance of the phenomena of life and mind would only unfold itself if by an exhaustive survey of the entire life of man, individually, socially and historically, we gain the necessary data for deciding what meaning attaches to the existence of this microcosm, or small world of human life, in the macrocosm of the universe. All separate channels of thought lead to the view that everywhere in the wide realm of observation we find three distinct regions—the region of facts, the region of laws and the region of standards of value. The world of facts is the field in which, and laws are the means by which, the higher standards of moral and aesthetical value are being realized; and such a union can again only become intelligible through the idea of a personal Deity, who in the creation and preservation of a world has vol untarily chosen certain forms and laws, through the natural oper ation of which the ends of His work are gained.