Friedrich Albert Lange: Biography Of This German Philosopher
Friedrich Albert Lange was a German philosopher known for having tried to compile the entire history of materialism up to his time and, in addition, for having proposed reforms in the German educational system.
Not only did his life pass between the classrooms of the Gymnasium and German universities, but he also dedicated himself to the political struggle, working in opinion newspapers critical of how German unification was taking place.
We’ll see now a biography of Friedrich Albert Lange in addition to going into more detail about his thinking about how the educational process should take place.
Friedrich Albert Lange was born on September 28, 1828 in Wald, present-day Germany to. He was the son of a Protestant theologian and dogmatic writer Johann Peter Lange. As a child he moved with his family to Langenberg, in 1832, and then to Duisburg. Then, in 1841 he would go to Zurich, where his father would take over the position of professor of theology that David Friedrich Strauss had left vacant. Lange would study philology and theology in Zurich, especially the doctrines of Hegel and Herbart, in addition to becoming interested in Kant while in this city.
In 1898 he moved to Bonn to study at its university, in which he would pursue higher studies in philosophy, German literature, analytical geometry and calculus. Later, in 1851 he would obtain his doctorate with his work on metric issues.
After having completed his military service in Cologne, he went on to work as a professor at an institute in that same city and, starting in 1955, he joined the teaching staff at the University of Bonn, working as a “privatdozent”. In 1857 he began to offer lessons on materialism, however, failing to improve his position as a teacher in Bonn and his lectures on pedagogy having little success, he decided to return to Duisburg and work in his Gymnasium (German lyceum). ).
In Duisburg I would teach Greek, Latin, German and philosophy between the years 1858 and 1862, and it would be in this period that he would write several pedagogical articles for the Enzyklopädie des gesammten Erziehungs and Unterrichtswesens by Karl Schmid.
But the life of Friedrich Albert Lange is not merely academic. Also He developed important political activism, becoming involved in new consumer cooperatives and supporters of the unification of Germany
He dedicated himself to working for several months as co-editor of the liberal newspaper “Rhein und Ruhrzeitung”, which was critical of Otto von Bismarck. In 1866 he joined the International Workers’ Association, which would be known, over time, as the First International. A year later he would publish the first edition of his “History of Materialism.”
In 1869 he joined the University of Zurich, where he obtained a position as professor. However, he would later move to Marburg to practice this same profession. While in that city, in 1872, he was already beginning to show signs of illness, a cancer that would be responsible for his death on November 21, 1875
It should be noted that despite his final years being ill, this did not prevent him from working on his work, trying to finish the second edition of “History of Materialism”, which would be published in two volumes published in 1873 and 1875.
The pedagogy of Friedrich Albert Lange
Lange was always very interested in the theoretical questions about what the purpose of education should be, and what was the best method to do it. In fact, even before he started teaching at a Gymnasium in Cologne, he was already considering what the method should be to reform the German educational system of his time.
He was especially concerned about the importance being given to the classics, too much, in his opinion, while the study of natural sciences was ignored which were becoming increasingly important.
Despite his interest in this issue, and even having contributed to the writing of articles on pedagogy in Encyklopädie des gesammten Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesens by Karl Schmid, Lange does not seem to have had a great impact on his contemporaries or on the history of pedagogy, although his vision of it turns out to be something really interesting. When he started working as a “privatdozent” at the University of Bonn, he tried to give lectures on pedagogy, but unfortunately he failed to generate much interest in his students.
However, there are those who consider that this initial lack of interest on the part of Lange’s pedagogy was temporary, given that There are many great German thinkers contemporary with this philosopher who claim to have been influenced by his work Among the most notable are Max Weber, Friedrich Paulsen, Paul Natorp and Hans Vaihinger.
Friedrich Albert Lange stated that the purpose of education should be to ensure that the students become rational and culturalized people once they reach adulthood To do this, it was necessary to take a retrospective look at the history of both education and pedagogy, and thus the keys to achieving such a purpose could be obtained. With the history of education it would be possible to understand the way in which social, political and cultural conditions interact in a way that generates specific types of educational environments.
To achieve free citizens who act with great leadership It is necessary for teachers themselves to feel actively involved in their community That is, teachers should not find themselves isolated from the political situation they are experiencing or from the sociocultural context that is occurring in their town or region. Only those politically involved teachers will be able to foster in their students a love of freedom and appreciation for the motherland.
Freethinking at school
Friedrich Albert Lange considered that a crucial aspect of a society that allowed free thought was that Every social entity should have the right to decide what they want to teach in school However, this does not mean that any type of ideology should be allowed. Lange considered that the state should restrict the appearance of certain schools in case what is taught poses a real threat to the legitimacy of the state or promotes criminal activities.
Although Lange considered Christian values to be an essential part of education, he also believed that there should not be a single, predetermined religious instruction for all German schools. He considered that each school, and in the same vein with respect to freethought and the topics to be taught in class, religion should be chosen by those entities that were behind the school’s overture.
Lange considered Christian values to be an essential part of education, although he later gave greater importance to the idea that philosophy played an important role in achieving an effective educational process. Furthermore, he ended up considering that the Christian religion should not be imposed, but rather
In Lange’s pedagogical method it is maintained that A balance must be sought between the student’s natural talent, that is, those strengths that he demonstrates, and the social stimuli coming from his family and community environment. Considers that the environment plays a significant role in the type of learning that the student demonstrates, and can help the student know how to focus and direct their learning abilities, especially in what they are good at.
He is critical of social Darwinism, since he thinks there is no need to pay attention to the barriers to development created by socioeconomic inequalities.
