Lask, Emil

LASK, EMIL (1875–1915), German philosopher. Born in Wadowitz, Austria, he studied under Rickert in Freiburg. In 1905 he became lecturer in philosophy at Heidelberg. Just before the outbreak of World War I, he was elected professor. Lask died in World War I in the Galician campaign. Lask's philosophy developed from the neo-Kantianism of Windelband and Rickert. Until 1913 Lask aimed at a synthesis of Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy and the Kantianism of Rickert; the seeds of the new metaphysics were to be found in this synthesis. He fought against the ordinary subjectivism to be found in Kant's system, and placed the emphasis on the objective world, which for him meant that the conscious subject must put up with the function of "servant." His later work approached subjectivism, but because of his early death, only fragments of his writings and some unfinished philosophy lectures are available. After Lask's death, Rickert published his writings in three volumes (the third volume contained his later writings).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Rickert, in: E. Lask, Gesammelte Schriften, 1 (1923), V–XVI (introd.); Lukács, in: Kantstudien, 27 (1918), 349–70; G. Pick, Die Uebergegensaetzlichkeit der Werte (1921); Herrigel, in: Logos, 12 (1923–24), 100–22; J. Cohn, Theorie der Dialektik (1923), 152–4; G. Gurvich, Les tendances actuelles de la philosophie allemande (repr. 1949); H. Levy, Die Hegel-Renaissance in der deutschen Philosophie (1927), 72–76.