Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner (
March 29, 1824 –
May 1, 1899) was a German
philosopher, physiologist and
physician who became one of the exponents of
19th century scientific materialism.
Büchner was born at
Darmstadt, Germany, on
March 29, 1824. From 1842 to 1848 he studied
physics, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, philosophy and
medicine at the
University of Giessen, where he graduated in 1848 with a dissertation entitled
Beiträge zur Hall'schen Lehre von einem excitomotorischen Nervensystem (Contributions to the Hallerian Theory of an Excitomotor Nervous System). Afterwards, he continued his studies at the University of
Strasbourg, University of Würzburg (where he studied
pathology with the great
Rudolf Virchow) and at the
University of Vienna. In 1852 he became lecturer in
medicine at the
University of Tübingen, where he published his great work
Kraft und Stoff: Empirisch-naturphilosophische Studien (Force and Matter: Empiricophilosophical Studies, 1855). In this work, the product, according to Lange, of a fanatical enthusiasm for humanity, he sought to demonstrate the indestructibility of
matter and
force, and the finality of physical force. The extreme
materialism of this work excited so much opposition that he was compelled to give up his post at Tübingen. He retired to
Darmstadt, where he practiced as a physician and contributed regularly to pathological and physiological magazines.
He continued his philosophical work in defense of materialism, and published
Natur und Geist (Nature and Soul, 1857),
Aus Natur und Wissenschaft (From Nature and Science, vol. I., 1862; vol. II., 1884),
Der Fortschritt in Natur und Geschichte im Lichte der Darwinschen Theorie (Progress in Nature and History in the Light of the Darwinian Theory, 1884),
Tatsachen und Theorien aus dem naturwissenschaftlichen Leben der Gegenwart (Facts and Theories from the Scientific Life of Present, 1887),
Fremdes und Eigenes aus dem geistligen Leben der Gegenwart (Extraneous and Self from the Spiritual Life of Present, 1890),
Darwinismus und Socialismus (1894),
Im Dienste der Wahrzeit (In the Service of Truth, 1899).
Ludwig Büchner's materialism was the founding ground for the
freethinkers' movement in Germany. In
1881 he founded in
Frankfurt the "
Deutsche Freidenkerbund" (German Freethinkers League), where the first
atheists gathered together publicly in that country.
He died at Darmstadt on
May 1, 1899.
In estimating Büchner's philosophy it must be remembered that he was primarily a
physiologist, not a
metaphysician. Matter and force (or
energy) are
infinite; the
conservation of force follows from the
imperishability of matter, the ultimate basis of all science.
Büchner is not always clear in his theory of the relation between matter and force. At one time he refuses to explain it, but generally he assumes that all natural and spiritual forces are indwelling in matter. Just as a
steam engine, he says in
Kraft und Stoff (7th ed., p. 130), produces
motion, so the intricate
organic complex of force-bearing substance in an animal organism produces a total sum of certain effects, which, when bound together in a unity, are called by us
mind, soul, thought. Here he postulates force and mind as emanating from original matter, a materialistic
monism. But in other parts of his works he suggests that mind and matter are two different aspects of that which is the basis of all things a monism which is not necessarily materialistic, and which, in the absence of further explanation, constitutes a confession of failure.
Büchner was much less concerned to establish a scientific metaphysics than to protest against the romantic
idealism of his predecessors and the
theological interpretations of the universe. Nature according to him is purely physical; it has
no purpose, no will, no laws imposed by extraneous
authority, no
supernatural ethical sanction.
Modern Christian apologists consider Büchner the father of
atheistic evangelism in Germany, a counterpart to
Thomas Huxley.
Friedrich Büchner was the brother of
Georg Büchner, a famous
playwright. 
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