Felix von Hartmann

Writer whose published works engage with European intellectual and philosophical traditions. The von Hartmann name in philosophy is most notably associated with Eduard von Hartmann (1842–1906), the German philosopher whose Philosophy of the Unconscious (1869) was one of the most widely read philosophical works of the late nineteenth century, influencing Freud, Nietzsche, and the development of depth psychology.

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1. Biography

A short life of the author

Felix von Hartmann is a writer whose published works engage with European intellectual and philosophical traditions.

The von Hartmann name in philosophy is most prominently associated with Eduard von Hartmann (1842–1906), the German philosopher whose Philosophie des Unbewussten (Philosophy of the Unconscious, 1869) was an intellectual sensation in its time. Hartmann synthesised elements of Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Schelling into a metaphysical system centred on the concept of the unconscious as a fundamental cosmic principle — anticipating psychoanalytic thought by decades. The book went through twelve German editions and was widely translated.

Collecting von Hartmann

For collectors of European philosophy, Eduard von Hartmann’s Philosophy of the Unconscious in early German editions (1869, Carl Duncker) or the English translations (1884, Kegan Paul) represents the primary area of interest.

Early editions are collected by scholars of nineteenth-century German philosophy and the prehistory of psychoanalysis. Hartmann’s once-enormous fame has faded, but his influence on subsequent thinkers remains a subject of scholarly investigation.