Eberhard

Eberhard, JOHANN AUGUST, philosophical writer, was born at Halberstadt, 31st August 1739; studied theology at Halle, and after some years preaching in Berlin and Charlottenburg, became professor of Philosophy at Halle in 1778. He died 6th January 1809. Eberhard's first work was his Neue Apologie des Socrates (1772), an able and outspoken book, in which the rights of common sense are vindicated against the assumptions of a narrow theology. Among his numerous books may be mentioned, Sittenlehre der Vernunft (1781), and Versuch einer allgemeinen Deutschen Synonymik (6 vols. 1795-1802), a work which was enriched and improved by Maas (12 vols. 1818-21), and again by Gruber (6 vols. 1826-30). Towards the close of his life, Eberhard vainly strove to controvert the metaphysics of Kant by vindicating the earlier theories of Leibnitz and Wolf.