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Agnes Taubert

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Agnes Taubert
Born
Agnes Marie Constanze Taubert

(1844-01-07)7 January 1844
Stralsund, Kingdom of Prussia
Died8 May 1877(1877-05-08) (aged 33)
Berlin, German Empire
NationalityGerman
Other namesA. Taubert
Notable workPessimism and Its Opponents
Spouse
​
(m. 1872)​
Children1
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolPost-Schopenhauerian pessimism

Agnes Marie Constanze von Hartmann[1] (née Taubert; 7 January 1844 – 8 May 1877), who wrote under the name A. Taubert, was a German philosopher and writer. She is known for her 1873 book Pessimism and Its Opponents and its contribution to the pessimism controversy in Germany.

Biography

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Taubert was born on 7 January 1844, in Stralsund, Kingdom of Prussia.[2] She was the daughter of an artillery colonel,[3] who was friends with the father of the philosopher Eduard von Hartmann.[4] In 1872, Taubert married Von Hartmann in Berlin-Charlottenburg and had a child with him.[5]

Taubert was a staunch supporter of her husband's work, Philosophy of the Unconscious (1869), and wrote two books—both critiquing and defending his ideas—under the pen name A. Taubert.[6][7] By publishing under a pen name, she was not recognized as a woman philosopher and was instead engaged with as if she were a man.[8]

Taubert's work, Pessimism and Its Opponents (1873), was a major influence on the pessimism controversy in Germany.[7] In the text, she defined the problem that philosophical pessimism engages with as "a matter of measuring the eudaimonological value of life in order to determine whether existence is preferable to non-existence or not"; like her husband, Taubert argued that the answer to this problem is "empirically ascertainable".[9]

Taubert died in Berlin, on 8 May 1877,[2] of "an attack of a rheumatism of the joints",[10] which was described as "extremely painful".[11]

Legacy

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Taubert has been described as "one of the first women to have a prominent role in a public intellectual debate in Germany"[7] and has been compared to Olga Plümacher and Amalie J. Hathaway, two contemporary women philosophers who also contributed to the pessimism controversy.[12][13]

A chapter on Taubert and Plümacher by Frederick C. Beiser was included in the 2024 Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition.[14]

Works

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  • Philosophie gegen naturwissenschaftliche ueberhebung: Eine zurechtweisung des dr. med. Geo Stiebeling und seiner angeblichen widerlegung der Hartmann schen lehre vom unbewussten in der leiblichkeit [Philosophy versus scientific arrogance: A reprimand from Dr. med. Geo Stiebeling and his alleged refutation of Hartmann's theory of the unconscious in corporeality] (in German). Berlin: Carl Duncker's verlag (C. Heymons). 1872. OCLC 555590478.
  • Der pessimismus und seine gegner [Pessimism and Its Opponents] (in German). Berlin: Carl Duncker's verlag (C. Heymons). 1873. OCLC 16408190.

References

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  1. ^ "T". Namensverzeichnis Sterbberegister 1877 (PDF) (in German). Landesarchiv Berlin. p. 78. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  2. ^ a b "Taubert, Agnes (1844-1877)". History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. Retrieved 2024-01-30.
  3. ^ Hall, Granville Stanley (1912). Founders of Modern Psychology. New York; London: Appleton. p. 184.
  4. ^ Tsanoff, Radoslav A. (1931). The Nature of Evil. New York: The Macmillan Company. p. 344.
  5. ^ Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der briefadeligen Häuser [Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the post-aristocratic houses] (in German). Gotha: J. Perthes. 1907. p. 270.
  6. ^ Cusack, Andrew (2021). Johannes Scherr: Mediating Culture in the German Nineteenth Century. Boydell & Brewer. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-64014-057-8.
  7. ^ a b c Beiser, Frederick C. (2016). "The Pessimism Controversy, 1870–1890". Weltschmerz: Pessimism in German Philosophy, 1860–1900. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 168. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198768715.001.0001. ISBN 9780198768715.
  8. ^ Beiser, Frederick C. (2024-03-21), Gjesdal, Kristin; Nassar, Dalia (eds.), "Two Female Pessimists", The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 471–492, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190066239.013.30, ISBN 978-0-19-006623-9, retrieved 2024-10-18
  9. ^ Dahlkvist, Tobias (2007). Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Pessimism: Schopenhauer, Hartmann, Leopardi (PDF) (Doctoral thesis). Uppsala University. p. 78
  10. ^ Beiser, Frederick C. (2016). "Two Forgotten Women Philosophers". After Hegel: German Philosophy, 1840–1900. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 217. doi:10.23943/princeton/9780691163093.001.0001. ISBN 9780691173719.
  11. ^ Hartmann, Edward von (1895). The Sexes Compared and Other Essays. Translated by Kenner, A. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. p. v.
  12. ^ Roehr, Sabine (2015-10-27). "After Hegel: German Philosophy 1840–1900 by Frederick C. Beiser (review)". Journal of the History of Philosophy. 53 (4): 790–791. doi:10.1353/hph.2015.0073. ISSN 1538-4586. S2CID 170193435.
  13. ^ Bensick, Carol (2018-04-12). "An Unknown American Contribution to the German Pessimism Controversy: Amalie J. Hathaway's 'Schopenhauer'". Blog of the APA. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
  14. ^ Beiser, Frederick C. (2024-03-21), Gjesdal, Kristin; Nassar, Dalia (eds.), "Two Female Pessimists", The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 471–492, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190066239.013.30, ISBN 978-0-19-006623-9, retrieved 2024-10-18

Further reading

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