Laas, Ernst

Born June 16, 1837, in Fiirstenwalde; died July 25, 1885, in Strasbourg. German philosopher and educator. Subjective idealist. Professor of philosophy at Strasbourg from 1872. Offered a critique of neo-Kantianism.

According to Laas’ theory of knowledge, which he called “correlativism,” the subject and object are “correlated,” and being is immanent in consciousness. The world is the sum total of possible sensations. He regarded the history of philosophy as a struggle between Platonism and positivism. V. I. Lenin criticized Laas as a subjective idealist close to the Machists and exponents of immanentism (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 14, p. 220).