Richard Avenarius

Who was Richard Avenarius?

Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism.

Avenarius attended the Nicolaischule in Leipzig and studied in Zurich, Berlin, and Leipzig. At the University of Leipzig, he received the Doctor of Philosophy in 1868 with his thesis on Baruch Spinoza and his pantheism, obtained the habilitation in 1876 and taught as Privatdozent. One year later, he became professor at the University of Zurich. He died in Zurich in 1896.