Carus, Paul

CARUS, PAUL: Philosopher and student of comparative religion; b. at Ilsenburg (27 m. s.e. of Brunswick), Germany, July 18, 1852. He was educated at the universities of Tübingen, Greifswald, and Strasburg (Ph.D., Tübingen, 1876), and after teaching in two realgymnasia in Dresden and in the Royal Saxon Cadet Corps, he came to America in 1883, and since 1887 has been editor of The Open Court, Chicago, also editing The Monist, Chicago, since 1890. He has been secretary of the Religious Parliament Extension since its inception, and has shown an active interest in the knowledge and appreciation of ethnic religion by the West. He is also a member of the Leopoldina, Germany, the Press Club, Chicago, the American Oriental Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In theology he holds that religion is to be purified by scientific criticism and ultimately to be based upon the facts of experience. He has written, in addition to a large number of minor articles and contributions: Helgi und Sigrun, ein episches Gedicht der nordischen Sage (Dresden, 1880); Metaphysik in Wissenschaft, Ethik und Religion (1881); Algenor, eine epischlyrische Dichtung (1882); Gedichte (1882); Lieder eines Buddhisten (1882); Ursache, Grund und Zweck (1883); Aus dem Exil (1884); Monism and Meliorism (New York, 1885); Fundamental Problems (Chicago, 1889); The Ethical Problem (1890); The Soul of Man (1891); Homilies of Science (1892); Primer of Philosophy (1893); The Religion of Science (1893); Truth in Fiction (1893); The Gospel of Buddha, According to Old Records (1894); De rerum natura, philosophisches Gedicht (1895); Religion of Enlightenment (1896); Buddhism and its Christian Critics (1897); Chinese Philosophy (1898); Kant and Spencer: A Study of the Fallacies of Agnosticism (1899); Sacred Tunes for the Consecration of Life (1899); The Dawn of a New Era, and Other Essays On Religion (1899); Whence and Whither: An Inquiry into the Nature of the Soul, Its Origin and Its Destiny (1900); The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil (1900); The Surd of Metaphysics (1903); Friedrich Schiller (1905); Magic Squares (1906); and The Rise of Man (1906). His works of fiction include: Karma: A Story of Early Buddhism (Chicago, 1895); Nirvana: A Story of Buddhist Psychology (1897); The Chief's Daughter: A Legend of Niagara (1901); The Crown of Thorns: A Story of the Time of Christ (1901); and Amitabha (1906). He has also translated from Latin the Eros and Psyche of Apuleius (Chicago, 1900), and from German the Xenions of Goethe and Schiller (1896) and Kant's Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics (1902), while he has edited and translated the Chinese texts of Lâo-tse's Tao-Teh-King (Chicago, 1898), as well as the Kan Ying P’ien (1906) and the Yin Chih Wen (1906).