He was born and educated at
Erfurt. In 1788, he became a lecturer on the
history of philosophy at the
University of Jena. Ten years later, he became a professor at the same university, where he remained till 1804. His great work is an eleven-volume history of philosophy (
Geschichte der Philosophie), which he began at Jena and finished at the
University of Marburg, where he was professor of philosophy from 1804 till his death. He was one of the numerous German philosophers who accepted the
Kantian theory as a revelation. In 1812, he published a shorter history of philosophy (
Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie für den akademischen Unterricht), which was translated into English in 1852 under the title
A manual of the history of philosophy. He died at
Marburg. ==See also==