Karl, Freiherr von Prel
Karl Ludwig August Friedrich Maximilian Alfred, Freiherr von Prel, or, in French, Carl Ludwig August Friedrich Maximilian Alfred, Baron du Prel (3 April 1839 Landshut, Germany – 4 August 1899 Heiligkreuz, Austria), was a German philosopher and writer on mysticism and the occult. In the literature it has become customary to refer to him under various abbreviated French forms of his name, usually "Carl Du Prel," "Baron Carl Du Prel," or simply "Baron Du Prel."
Biography
He was born at
Du Prel sought to combine early parapsychological research and Kantian transcendental idealism to argue that mystical experiences were universal and subjective, paralleling a similar argument made by William James. He attempted to deduce the existence of spirit, apart from, and yet entering from time to time into connection with, the phenomena of the senses, by an examination of the relation between the ego of thought and the age of sensible experience as understood by Immanuel Kant.
In Der Kampf ums Dasein am Himmel, Du Prel endeavoured to apply the
Although today regarded mostly as an obscure figure in the history of occultism, in his own lifetime Du Prel was widely respected as a scientist and philosopher. The fourth edition of Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1914) positively cites Du Prel as both a mystic and one whose conclusions parallel and apply Freud's work.
Works
- Der gesunde Menschenverstand vor den Problemen der Wissenschaft (1872)
- Der Kampf ums Dasein am Himmel (1874) (republished in 1882 under the title Entwickelungsgeschichte des Weltalls)
- Die Planetenbewohner and die Nebularhypothese (1880)
- Die Philosophie der Mystik (1885)
- Justinus Kerner und die Seherin von Prevorst (1886)
- Die monistische Seelenlehre (1888)
- Die Mystik der alten Griechen (1888)
- Kants mystische Weltanschauung (1889)
- Studien aus dem Gebiete der Geheimwissenschaften (1890)
- Der Spiritismus (1893)
- Die Entdeckung der Seele durch die Geheimwissenschaften (1894–1895)
References
- ISBN 3-486-56337-8, pp. 388, 457, 485.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prel, Karl, Freiherr von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 277–278. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Weber, Thomas P. (2007). "Carl du Prel (1839–1899): explorer of dreams, the soul, and the cosmos". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A. 38 (3): 593–604. .