Reaction in the fifties

pp. 29-48

in: Frederick Gregory, Scientific materialism in nineteenth century Germany, Berlin, Springer, 1977

Abstract

"Take any three doctors, and two will be atheists every time." In mid-nineteenth century Germany this old maxim read: "Take any three natural scientists, and two will be atheists and materialists every time."¹ During the 1850's there was heard in Germany a loud and sudden outcry against materialism in general, and scientific materialism in particular. Of the antimaterialistic books and tracts that were published in the 1850's, the majority appeared in 1856.² In 1855 two of the three most well known formulations of German scientific materialism were penned: Karl Vogt's Köhlerglaube und Wissenschaft, which went through four editions between January and June, and Ludwig Büchner's Kraft und Stoff.³