Eugen Dühring

The intellectual trajectory of Eugen Dühring was fundamentally altered in the early 1860s when a progressive eye disease rendered him completely blind. Forced to abandon a nascent legal career, he pivoted to academic writing and lecturing. Despite this significant physical obstacle, he became a prolific voice in nineteenth-century German philosophy, economics, and sociology.

Academic Foundations and Methodology

Born in Berlin in 1833, Dühring was educated at the Köllnisches Gymnasium before enrolling at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He completed his doctoral thesis in philosophy and secured his habilitation by 1863. As a Privatdozent, he developed a unique approach to scholarship where his wife, Emilie Gladow, and later his sons, read texts aloud. He synthesized his theories by composing and dictating his arguments, a method he believed granted his work a fresher perspective by bypassing conventional scholarly habits.

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Public Notoriety and Institutional Conflict

Dühring achieved national attention following the Social Exposé Scandal of 1868, where he successfully litigated against Hermann Wagener regarding the misappropriation of a position paper. This legal victory established his reputation as a challenger to established authorities. However, his tenure at the University of Berlin became increasingly volatile. He faced repeated friction with colleagues, including Gustav Schmoller and Adolph Wagner, and was eventually dismissed in 1877 after leveling accusations of plagiarism against Hermann von Helmholtz.

Influence and Polemical Rivalries

During the 1870s, Dühring's materialist philosophy gained significant traction within the German Social Democratic movement. His systematic approach appealed to figures such as August Bebel and Eduard Bernstein, who found his ideas more pragmatic than existing socialist alternatives. This prominence prompted Friedrich Engels to author a scathing critique titled Anti-Dühring, which served to define and promote orthodox Marxism by systematically dismantling Dühring's intellectual framework.

Later Years and Ideological Shifts

Following his expulsion from the university, Dühring's writings transitioned toward an increasingly radical stance. He published The Jewish Question in 1881, a text that contributed to the rise of modern racial antisemitism. In his final decades, he focused on a theory he dubbed personalism, continuing to disseminate his views through a self-published journal, Personalist und Emancipator. Dühring died in 1921 in Nowawes and was buried at the Friedhof Goethestraße.