Karl Christian Friedrich Krause

Born May 6, 1781, in Eisenberg, Thuringia; died Sept. 27, 1832, in Munich. German philosopher.

Krause studied at the University of Jena under J. G. Fichte and F. W. Schelling from 1797 to 1802. He was an assistant professor at the Universities of Jena (1802–05), Berlin (from 1814), and Gottingen (from 1824). Krause attempted to combine theism and pantheism into a system he called panentheism. According to this system, the world lies within god, who, however, does not merge with the world but is the primordial essence of all that exists. The world is god’s creation and the means by which he manifests himself. Krause’s doctrine of law based on morality and his appeal for a worldwide union of peoples also became famous. A school of Krausists arose in Spain and Latin America, whose foremost representatives were the Spanish philosophers Sanz del Rio and Giner de los Ríos.