Johan August Eberhard

1739-1809. German philosopher and theologian. Born in Helberstedt, he studied philosophy, theology, and classical philology under such teachers as A.G. Baumgarten and J.S. Sember. After 1766 he moved into the Berlin circle of F. Nicolai and M. Mandelssohn. His Neue Apologie des Sokrates (2 vols., 1772- 78), a criticism of Kantian philosophy and a critique of such ideas as original sin, caused a controversy, and he was attacked by G.E. Lessing* and others. Eberhard was appointed a professor of philosophy at Halle where he was recognized as being in the tradition of Leibnitz* and Wolff. Later he turned his attention to aesthetics, publishing Handbuch der ästhetik (4 vols., 1803-5).