Wilhelm Traugott Krug (22 June 1770 – 12 January 1842) was a German philosopher and writer. He is considered to be part of the Kantian School of logic.

Life

Krug was born on June 22, 1770, near Wittenberg to a farming family. He studied at the University of Wittenberg under Franz Volkmar Reinhard and Karl Gottfried Jehnichen, at Jena under Karl Leonhard Reinhold, and at Göttingen. After finishing his studies, he was employed as an adjunct professor at the University of Wittenberg. From 1801 to 1804, Krug was professor of philosophy at Frankfurt (Oder), after which he succeeded Immanuel Kant in the chair of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg. From 1809 till his death he was professor of philosophy at the University of Leipzig. He fought in the War of Liberation (1813–14) as captain of mounted chasseurs. He became Kant's successor at the University of Königsberg after the faculty of philosophy elected him to Kant's chair of logic and metaphysics. He died at Leipzig on January 12, 1842.

Views

In philosophy, Krug's method was psychological; he attempted to explain the Ego by examining the nature of its reflection upon the facts of consciousness. Being is known to us only through its presentation in consciousness; consciousness only in its relation to Being. Both Being and Consciousness, however, are immediately known to us, as also the relation existing between them. By this Transcendental Synthesis he proposed to reconcile Realism and Idealism, and to destroy the traditional difficulty between transcendental, or pure, thought and things in themselves. Krug challenged Schelling to deduce his quill or pen from German Idealism's Philosophy of Nature. It was part of his empiricist objections to the new idealist philosophy. In so doing, he challenged the thinking that particular, perceptually real things could be logically known from general concepts. It prompted Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to issue a critical response and forced him to deal with the issue of the knowledge of singulars. ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des XIX. Jahrhunderts'' (1835–1838) contains criticisms of Hegel and Schelling. Krug was a prolific writer on a great variety of subjects, excelling as a popularizer rather than as an original thinker. His work stimulated freedom of thought in religion and politics, and he was a firm supporter of Jewish emancipation.

Personal life

In 1804, Krug married Wilhelmine von Zenge (1780–1852), the eldest daughter of a Prussian major-general. They had six children. Wilhelmine had previously been engaged to Heinrich von Kleist.

Principal works

For a bibliography of Krug's writings see his autobiography Lebensreise (1842, pp. 343–360).