Stammler, Rudolf

Born Feb. 19, 1856, in Alsfeld; died Apr. 25, 1938, in Wernigerode. German neo-Kantian legal philosopher, whose social views were close to those of the Kathe-der-socialists.

Stammler became a professor at the University of Marburg in 1882, at the University of Giessen in 1884, and at the University of Halle in 1885. From 1916 to 1923 he was a professor at the University of Berlin. In his book Economy and Law From the Point of View of A Materialist Conception of History (1896; Russian translation, 1899), he adopted a “juridical” world view and tried to refute Marxism by equating it with economic determinism. Stammler asserted that law is primary with respect to the economy and state—if not in a temporal and causal sense, then at least from the standpoint of logic. All types of societies require that people live together in an orderly manner, and law provides such regulation. Economic and political development must therefore be accomplished through partial changes in the law, and the criteria for making such changes must be the “correct law” created by human reason.

Stammler’s views were criticized by V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov, and other Marxists.