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Heinrich Gomperz

Austrian philosopher (1873–1942)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ86073 ↗
Source-derived summary

Heinrich Gomperz (German: [ˈɡɔmpɐts]; January 18, 1873, Vienna, Austria-Hungary – December 27, 1942, Los Angeles, California) was an Austrian philosopher.

Life

A son of Theodor Gomperz, he studied law at the University of Vienna from 1891. In the meantime, he studied church history with Adolf Harnack at the University of Berlin. He then returned to Vienna to study classical philology and philosophy. He obtained his doctorate in 1896 under Ernst Mach with the topic Zur Psychologie der logischen Grundtatsachen. He completed his habilitation in Bern in 1900 on The World as an Ordered Event.

From 1905, he worked at Vienna as a private lecturer until he was appointed associate professor in 1920 and full professor of philosophy from 1924 to 1934, specializing in the history of ancient philosophy. During this time, he was associated with the Vienna Circle. Gomperz is considered a late representative of empirio-criticism.

He was forced into retirement in 1934 under the Austrofascist regime; he was persecuted due to his Jewish heritage.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Heinrich Gomperz” is austrian philosopher (1873–1942). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Heinrich, Gomperz and Austrian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1942, 1891, 1896—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1873-01-18. For this dossier, Heinrich, Gomperz and Austrian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “austrian philosopher (1873–1942)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q86073. VIAF identifies the subject as 29604075. The Library of Congress control number is n83050276. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1942, 1891 and 1896.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Heinrich Gomperz”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Heinrich Gomperz primary sources, Heinrich Gomperz archive and Heinrich research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Heinrich Gomperz”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Heinrich Gomperz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.