JERUSALEM, WILHELM

JERUSALEM, WILHELM (1854–1923), Austrian philosopher and psychologist. Jerusalem, who was born in Drenic, Bohemia, was a schoolteacher for several years after completing his university studies in philology. During this time he became interested in the psychology of speech and the education of blind deaf-mutes, and in 1890 wrote a book on the American blind deaf-mute, Laura Bridgman. In 1891 he began lecturing in philosophy at the University of Vienna, and in 1903 in pedagogics, but it was not until 1920 that he received a professorship in these two subjects. Between 1894 and 1902 he also taught at the Juedisch-Theologische Lehranstalt in Vienna. Jerusalem's general philosophical view was empirical, employing the genetic method, and biological and social ways of interpreting the mind. He was influenced by H. Spencer, E. Mach, and W. James, whose Pragmatism he translated into German. Jerusalem opposed neo-Kantianism and E. Husserl\>\> 's pure logic as merely intellectual and unrelated to life. He saw no need for a conflict between religion and philosophy, as long as the fundamental principles of science are utilized to erect structures of faith, interpreting the spiritual nature of man and developing a world view that can "inspire human life with incentive, purpose and direction." He wrote on the sociological in Der Krieg im Lichte de Gesellschaftslehre (1915) and Moralische Richtlinien nach dem Kriege (1918). Among Jerusalem's major works were Einleitungin die Philosophie (1899; Introduction to Philosophy, 1910), Gedanken und Denker (1905), Der Krittische Idealismus und diereine Logik (1905), and Einfuehrung in die Soziologie (1926). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Eckstein, Wilhelm Jerusalem, sein Leben und Wirken (1935); M. Schloemann, Die Denksoziologie Wilhelm Jerusalems (1953); Festschrift fuer Wilhelm Jerusalem … (1915); E. Jerusalem, Verzeichnis der Veroeffentlichungen Wilhelm Jerusalems (1925); W. Jerusalem, in: Die Philosophie der Gegenwart in Sebstdarstellungen, 3 (1922), 53–98; Winiger, Biog, 3 (1928). (Richard H. Popkin)