Friedrich Eduard Beneke, the German philosopher and psychologist, was born in Berlin and after his gymnasium education studied theology and philosophy, first at Halle and then at Berlin. He became university lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Berlin in 1820 and, despite Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's power and official connections, managed to have a considerable number of students.

His first books were Erkenntnislehre nach dem Bewusstsein der reinen Vernunft (Theory of knowledge according to the consciousness of pure reason) and Erfahrungsseelenlehre als Grundlage alles Wissens (Experiential theory of the soul as foundation of all knowledge). Both were published in Jena in 1820. Two years later, he published in Berlin Grundlegung zur Physik der Sitten (Foundations of the physics of morals), a work that found disfavor among the entrenched Absolute Idealists and resulted in his being forbidden to lecture. Beneke was accused of Epicureanism, although...