He was born at
Langenhorn (
Schleswig) and educated at the
Gymnasium Christianeum, the
University of Erlangen, and the
University of Berlin. He completed his
doctoral thesis under
Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg at Berlin in 1871, he
habilitated there in 1875, and he became extraordinary professor of
philosophy and
pedagogy there in 1878. In 1896 he succeeded
Eduard Zeller as professor of
moral philosophy at Berlin. He was the greatest of the followers of
Gustav Theodor Fechner, to whose doctrine of
panpsychism he gave great prominence by his
Einleitung in die Philosophie (1892; 7th ed., 1900; Eng. trans., 1895). He went, however, considerably beyond Fechner in attempting to give an
epistemological account of the knowledge of the
psychophysical. Admitting
Immanuel Kant's hypothesis that by inner sense we are conscious of
mental states only, he holds that this consciousness constitutes a knowledge of the
thing-in-itself which Kant denies. Soul is, therefore, a practical reality which Paulsen, with
Arthur Schopenhauer, regards as known by the act of
will. But this will is neither
rational desire,
unconscious irrational will, nor
conscious intelligent will, but an
instinct, a will to live (
Zielstrebigkeit), often
subconscious, pursuing
ends, indeed, but without
reasoning as to
means. This conception of will, though consistent and convenient to the main thesis, must be rigidly distinguished from the ordinary significance of will, i.e. rational desire. Paulsen was a proponent of
hylozoism, stating it is “a conception which almost irresistibly forces itself upon modern biology." He is better known for his educational writings than as a pure philosopher, including his
German Education, Past and Present (Eng. trans., by I. Lorenz, 1907). He died in Berlin. ==Works==