NDPR Frederick C. Beiser Early German Positivism

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Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

2025.12.3 View this Review Online View Other NDPR Reviews

Frederick C. Beiser. Early German Positivism, Oxford University Press, 2024, 240pp., $89.50 (hbk) ISBN 9780198927259.

Reviewed by Mark Textor, King’s College London

Frederick C. Beiser’s Early German Positivism makes a welcome contribution to the study of German philosophy by introducing an underexplored part of the history of positivism, detailing its reception and development in the second half of the nineteenth century in Germany. The book expounds the thought of little-known positivist thinkers such as Eugen Dühring, Ernst Laas, and Friedrich Jodl, as well the better-known Richard Avenarius and the much better-known Ernst Mach. The book provides the background against which the distinctive features of later positivism become clearly visible. Early German Positivism is organised in a clear and straightforward way. The introduction...