SPITZER, HUGO

SPITZER, HUGO (1854–1937), Austrian philosopher and scientist. Spitzer, who was born in Einoede, Carinthia, was professor of philosophy and natural science at Graz from 1903 to 1924. He was an ardent supporter of Darwin and wrote Beitraege zur Deszendenztheorie und zur Methodologie der Naturwissenschaft (1886). In common with Haeckel, Spitzer claimed that consciousness could be derived from matter (in his Ueber Ursprung und Bedeutung des Hylozoismus (1881). Spitzer also wrote Kritische Studien zur Aesthetik der Gegenwart (1897), and Untersuchungen zur Theorie und Geschichte der Aesthetik (19232), in which he tried to clarify the relationship between aesthetics and the philosophy of art. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zeitschrift fuer Aesthetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, 18 (1924), Festschrift H. Spitzer; E. Binder, in: Archiv fuer Philosophie und Soziologie, 30 (1926), 181–90. (Richard H. Popkin)