STERN, WILHELM:

By: Isidore Singer

German physician and philosophical writer; born at Sandberg, Posen, Aug. 11, 1844; son of a rabbi. From 1860 to 1865 he attended the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, and thereafter studied philosophy for two semesters, finally deciding upon a medical career (M.D. Berlin, 1869). In 1870 he settled in Bromberg as a practising physician, removing to Berlin in 1873, where he engaged in literary work.

Stern, whose philosophical bent is critical positivism, is the author of the following works: "Ueber die Tiefe Lage der Nieren" (Berlin, 1869); "Grundlegung der Ethik als Positiver Wissenschaft" (ib. 1897); "Die Allgemeinen Principien der Ethik auf Naturwissenschaftlicher Basis" (ib. 1901); "Das Wesen des Mitleids" (ib. 1903); and "Ueber den Begriff der Handlung" (ib. 1904), which appeared in the "Philosophische Aufsätze," published by the Philosophical Society of Berlin on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary.

S.