Oskar Kraus

Oskar Kraus was born on 24 July 1872 in Prague. A philosopher and legal scholar, Kraus undertook the considerable task of editing Brentano’s work along with colleague Alfred Kastil. Kraus completed his doctorate on ‘The Theory of Value: A Bentham Study’ at the University of Prague in 1902, joining the faculty shortly after. He succeeded Anton Maurus Marty as Professor of Philosophy in 1916. Detained in a Nazi concentration camp in 1938, he escaped to the UK and became a public lecturer until his death in 1942. 

Founder of the Prague Brentano Society in 1931, Kraus developed an a priori value theory and applied this method to economics. Known for his criticism of Einstein’s theory of relativity, he also worked on topics relating to war, ethics, and international law. Important works include Anton Marty: sein Leben und seine Werke (1916), Sensory and Noetic Consciousness (1928), Wege und Abwege der Pholosophie (1934), Werttheorien: Geschichte und Kritik (1937), and Albert Schweitzer: His Work and His Philosophy (translated by E. G. McCalman), posthumously published in 1944.