Christoph Meiners

Statut : academic

1747-1810

Notes : Christoph Meiners was born in Warstade north of Cuxhaven as the son of a postmaster. Since 1763 he went to a grammar school in Bremen but did not enjoy the teaching he received. Instead he withdrew into private studies which consisted of the reading of a wide range of books, especially by authors such as Rabener, De la Mettrie and Rousseau. Meiners was a student at Göttingen from 1767 to 1770, where he continued to read voraciously. Two of his most influential teachers were the philosopher J. G. H. Feder and the historian L. T. Spittler. Subsequently he worked on a treatise entitled “Revision der Philosophie”, which was published anonymously in 1772 and argued that all philosophy was based on psychology. On the strength of this publication he was elected into a professorship at Göttingen in 1772, and he was advanced to a full professorship in 1775. He lectured in the fields of psychology, aesthetics, history of philosophy and history of religions. In 1776 he became a member of the ‘Göttinger Societät’. Meiners was a prolific writer and published over thirty books. Especially his historical works, which include the “Versuch über die Religions-Geschichte der ältesten Völker, besonders der Aegypter” (1774), the "Grundriß der Geschichte der Menschheit" (1785), the "Grundriß der Geschichte der Weltweisheit” (1786), the "Grundriß der Geschichte und Theorie der schönen Wissenschaften" (1787), and the "Allgemeine kritische Geschichte der Religionen" (1806-07), constitute a reflection of the author’s extensive learning and reading. Apart from historical works Meiners also published philosophical treatises, accounts of travels he undertook in Germany and Switzerland, as well as books on German university and educational history. Together with Spittler, he also edited the "Göttingisches historisches Magazin", to which he contributed 160 essays frequently in the fields of ethnology and comparative anthropology. Meiners died in Göttingen on 1 May 1810. Meiners’ publications in the field of Ancient History include his "Geschichte des Luxus der Athenienser" (1781) and the "Geschichte des Ursprungs, Fortgangs und Verfalls der Wissenschaften in Griechenland und Rom" (1781-82). Both works were also fully or partly translated into French. His "Geschichte des Verfalls der Sitten und der Staatsverfassung der Römer", which first came out in Leipzig in 1782, was republished in Vienna in 1791. It dealt with the late Republic and the first centuries A. D. by focusing on the moral decline and the increase of corruption in Roman society. Meiners’ "Geschichte des Verfalls der Sitten, der Wissenschaften, und Sprache der Römer in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach Christi Geburt" also came out as an introduction to the German version of Gibbon’s "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" published by Stahel in Vienna and Leipzig in 1791.

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