Spranger, Eduard

Eduard Spranger, born 1882 in Berlin (Germany), was one of the most important representatives of a human-scientific approach to mental life. He contributed to the disciplines of education, philosophy, psychology, and the humanities. He died in 1963 in Tübingen.

Early Life and Educational Background

Spranger “majored” in philosophy and received his doctoral degree with an analysis of the epistemological and psychological foundations of historiography in 1905.

Professional Career

Spranger’s Habilitationon Wilhelm von Humboldt and the ideal of humanity was accepted at the University of Berlin in 1909. Three years later he became full professor for philosophy and pedagogy at the University of Leipzig. He left for the University of Berlin in 1919 where he worked on his psychological books “Lebensformen” (originally published in 1914 but significantly expanded and revised in the 1921 edition) and “Psychologie des Jugendalters” (published 1925). Following his teacher Wilhelm Dilthey...