Fries, Jakob Friedrich (1773–1843)

German philosopher. In his treatise Die neue oder anthropologische Kritik der Verkunft (1807) he attempted to give a new foundation of psychological analysis to the critical theory of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. He is a link between Kant's system and the so-called ‘historical school’.

Fries was born at Barby, Saxony. He was professor of philosophy and elementary mathematics at Heidelberg in 1806, and in 1816 was invited to fill the chair of theoretical philosophy at Jena, but was deprived of his professorship for participating in the democratic disturbances of 1819. He was, however, recalled in 1824 as professor of mathematics and physics.