1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sigwart, Christoph Wilhelm von

SIGWART, CHRISTOPH WILHELM VON (1789-1844), German philosopher, was born at Remmingsheim in Württemberg, and died in Stuttgart. He became professor of philosophy at Tübingen, and wrote numerous books on the history of philosophy:—Über den Zusammenhaug des Spinozismus mit der Cartesianischen Philosophie (1816); Handbuch zu Vorlesungen über die Logik (1818, 3rd ed., 1835); Der Spinozismus (1839); and Geschichte der Philosophie (1844).

His son, Christoph von Sigwart (1830-1894), after a course of philosophy and theology, became professor at Blaubeuren (1859), and eventually at Tübingen, in 1865. His principal work, Logik, published in 1873, takes an important place among recent contributions to logical theory. In the preface to the first edition, Sigwart explains that he makes no attempt to appreciate the logical theories of his predecessors; his intention was to construct a theory of logic, complete in itself. It represents the results of a long and careful study not only of German but also of English logicians. In 1895 an English translation by Miss H. Dendy was published in London. Chapter v. of the second volume is especially interesting to English thinkers as containing a profound examination of the Induction theories of Bacon, J. S. Mill and Hume. Among his other works are Spinozas neu entdeckter Traktat von Gott, dem Menschen und dessen Glückseligkeit (1866); Kleine Schriften (1881); Vorfragen der Ethik (1886). The Kleine Schriften contains valuable criticisms on Paracelsus and Bruno.