Karl Christian Friedrich Krause

Teacher

In 1804, a lack of pupils compelled Krause to move to Rudolstadt, and later to Dresden, where he gave private lessons in music. In Dresden, he privately taught Indian philosophy to Arthur Schopenhauer.

In 1805, his ideal of a universal world-society led him to join the Freemasons, whose principles seemed to tend in the direction he desired. In Dresden, he published two books on Freemasonry, Höhere Vergeistigung der echt überlieferten Grundsymbole der Freimaurerei: in zwölf Logenvorträgen (1811) and Die drei ältesten Kunsterkunden der Freimaurerbrüderschaft (1819), but his opinions attracted opposition from the Masons. From 1809, Krause held a teaching position the Ingenieur-Akademie Dresden.

Krause lived for a time (1813–1815) in Berlin and became a Privatdozent there, but was unable to obtain a professorship at the University of Berlin. From 1823 to 1830, he was Privatdozent at the University of Göttingen.

In 1831, he moved to Munich, where he died of apoplexy at the very moment when the influence of Franz von Baader had at last obtained a position for him. Krause is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich, Germany.

Identitätsphilosophie, panentheism, and other aspects of Krausism

Krause's philosophy, as a whole, is an example of what historians of philosophy refer to as Identitätsphilosophie (philosophy of identity). An Identitätsphilosophie is a philosophical system that posits the fundamental identity of spirit and nature. In Krause's philosophical system, the parts of the system which, technically, constitute its "panentheism", are only parts of a much broader whole. Therefore, although Krause's philosophy is accurately described as being "panentheistic", Krausism as a whole is better categorized as an Identitätsphilosophie which features panentheism as one of its primary fundamental components.

Krause endeavoured to reconcile the ideas of a God known by faith or conscience and the world as known to sense. According to Krause, God — intuitively known by conscience — is not a personality (which implies limitations), but an all-inclusive essence (Wesen), which contains the universe within itself. Krause used the term panentheism (Panentheismus in German) in an attempt to accurately describe and encapsulate — in a single technical term — diverse aspects of his philosophical system which were cosmo-theological (simultaneously cosmological and theological) in nature. When considered from a theological perspective, panentheism can be viewed, broadly, as a synthesis of various elements derived from both monotheism and pantheism.

Etymology of "panentheism"

Historians of philosophy usually give Krause sole credit for coining the term "panentheism" in 1828. However, according to evidence provided by Philip Clayton, the German idealist philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling had already used this term (albeit in a slightly different form — in the form of the phrase "pan + en + theism"), and also had discussed numerous concepts and issues related to it, in his Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit und die damit zusammenhängenden Gegenstände (Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom and Matters Connected Therewith, 1809).

Additionally, Krause and Schelling scholars now recognize that Krause's philosophy, as a whole, reflects, and partially incorporates, many of the themes, concepts and insights present in Schelling's Naturphilosophie (Philosophy of Nature), which itself is a form of panentheism. It now appears that Schelling's work may have provided much more of the framework of Krausean panentheism than historians of philosophy in the past had realized. Based on Clayton's evidence, it is quite possible that Krause, who was well-acquainted with Schelling and his works, adopted at least some of the initial basic concepts of his own panentheistic system from various works of Schelling (especially from Schelling's Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom) and then gradually developed those basic concepts into his own very elaborate version of panentheism.

Looking forward, it might be more accurate for historians of philosophy to now say that Schelling in 1809 provided not only the terminological framework of Krausean panentheism but also some of the basic concepts (at least), of what was to become Krausean panentheism. Krause not only adopted and greatly expanded upon those concepts and insights from Schelling but also adopted Schelling's phrase "pan + en + theism". In 1828, he merely reduced Schelling's phrase into a more concise and compact form (as the single term "panentheism") in an attempt to succinctly and adequately describe, in a single term, the cosmotheological aspects of his own philosophical system.

In his published works, Krause first used the term "panentheism" (in its German-language form "Panentheismus") in Vorlesungen über das System der Philosophie (Göttingen: 1828). The term "Panentheismus" next appears in his Vorlesungen über die Grundwahrheiten der Wissenschaft, zugleich in ihrer Beziehung zu dem Leben. Nebst einer kurzen Darstellung und Würdigung der bisherigen Systeme der Philosophie, vornehmlich der neusten von Kant, Fichte, Schelling und Hegel, und der Lehre Jacobi's. (Göttingen: 1829).

Krause argued that the world itself and mankind, its highest component, constitute an organism (Gliedbau), and the universe is therefore a divine organism (Wesengliedbau). The process of development is the formation of higher unities, and the last stage is the identification of the world with God. The form which this development takes, according to Krause, is Right or the Perfect Law.

Right is not the sum of the conditions of external liberty but of absolute liberty, and embraces all the existence of nature, reason and humanity. It is the mode, or rationale, of all progress from the lower to the highest unity or identification. By its operation, the reality of nature and reason rises into the reality of humanity. God is the reality which transcends and includes both nature and humanity. Right is, therefore, at once the dynamic and the safeguard of progress.

Ideal society results from the widening of the organic operation of this principle from the individual man to small groups of men, and finally to mankind as a whole. The differences disappear as the inherent identity of structure predominates in an ever-increasing degree, and in the final unity Man is merged in God. Krause's theory of the world and of humanity is therefore universal and idealistic.

Animal rights

Krause was an advocate of animal rights and has been cited as the first philosopher to argue for animal rights in the context of a philosophy of law. In his book Das System der Rechtsphilosophie (published posthumously in 1874), he argued that non-human animals should hold a right not to be subjected to pain as well as a right to general physical well-being. Krause rejected Fichte's anthropocentric premisses. He held the view that animals are persons whose rights must be protected by law.

Influence and works

The comparatively small area of Krause's influence was due partly to him being overshadowed by Schelling and Hegel, and partly to two difficulties present in his written works. The spirit of his thought is mystical and by no means easy to follow, and this problem is accentuated, even for German readers, by his use of artificial and/or invented terminology. He makes use of Germanized foreign terms which were frequently unintelligible.

His principal works are (beside those quoted above): Entwurf des Systems der Philosophie (1804), System der Sittenlehre (1810), and Das Urbild der Menschheit (1811).

Johann Gottlieb Fichte's science of knowledge (Wissenschaftslehre) morphs into Grundwissenschaft in Krause; the term is later taken up by Johannes Rehmke.

At his death Krause left behind a mass of unpublished notes, some of which have been collected and published by his disciples K. D. A. Röder, J. H. Ahrens, F. W. T. Schliephake, H. K. von Leonhardi (Krause's son-in-law), Guillaume Tiberghien, and others.

Krausism became particularly influential in Spain in the 19th century, where Krause's ideas were introduced and promoted by Julián Sanz del Río (1814-1869), an academic based in Madrid. Krause's philosophy flourished in Spain (where it was known as "Krausismo") because it contains elements which were very appealing — at the time — to a diverse class of people. Krausism in Spain was popular and successful, more as a broad cultural movement rather than as a specialised form of cosmo-theology. As a cultural movement, it emphasised scientific rationalism, combined with Christian spirituality, a liberal commitment to individual freedom, and opposition to privilege and arbitrary power. Spanish intellectuals influenced by Krause include Francisco Giner de los Ríos (1839-1915) and Gumersindo de Azcárate (1840-1917). In addition, Krause's influence extended to Latin America, where his work made an impact on Hipólito Yrigoyen (1852-1933), José Batlle y Ordóñez (1856-1929) and Juan José Arévalo (1904-1990). Richard Gott has argued that Krause influenced José Martí (1853-1895), Fidel Castro (1926-2016) (through Martí and other Cuban thinkers), and Che Guevara (1928-1967).