Max Müller - Wikipedia

Max Müller - Wikipedia
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British philologist (1823–1900)
For other people named Max Müller, see
Max Müller (disambiguation)
"Max Mueller" redirects here. For the mayor of Idyllwild–Pine Cove, California, see
Mayor Max II
The Right Honourable
Max Müller
Müller in 1883, by
Alexander Bassano
Born
Friedrich Max Müller
1823-12-06
6 December 1823
Dessau
Duchy of Anhalt
German Confederation
Died
28 October 1900
(1900-10-28)
(aged 76)
Oxford
, England
Occupation
Comparative philologist
Orientalist
Alma mater
University of Leipzig
Notable works
The Sacred Books of the East
Chips from a German Workshop
Notable awards
Associé étranger
of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
; member of the
Privy Council
Spouse
Georgina Adelaide Grenfell
Children
4, including
Wilhelm Grenfell Max Müller
Signature
Friedrich Max Müller
German:
[ˈfʁiːdʁɪç
ˈmaks
ˈmʏlɐ]
6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born British
comparative philologist
and
Orientalist
. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of
Indology
and
religious studies
. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology. He directed the preparation of the
Sacred Books of the East
, a 50-volume set of English translations which continued after his death.
Müller became a professor at
Oxford University
first of modern languages,
then
of comparative philology
in a position founded for him, and which he held for the rest of his life. Early in his career he held strong views on India, believing that it needed to be transformed by Christianity. Later, his view became more nuanced, championing ancient
Sanskrit literature
and India more generally. He became involved in several controversies during his career: he was accused of being anti-Christian; he disagreed with Darwinian
evolution
, favouring
theistic evolution
; he raised interest in
Aryan
culture, opposing the racial misuse of the term ‘
Aryan
,’ which later developed into the racist
Aryan
ideology of the 20th century; and he promoted the idea of a
"Turanian" family of languages
Among his honours and distinctions, he was made an
associé étranger
of the French
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
; he was awarded the
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
; and he was made a member of the
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Early life and education
edit
Max Müller was born into a cultured family on 6 December 1823 in
Dessau
, the son of
Wilhelm Müller
, a
lyric poet
whose verse
Franz Schubert
had set to music in his song-cycles
Die schöne Müllerin
, and
Winterreise
. His mother, Adelheid Müller (née von Basedow), was the eldest daughter of a prime minister of
Anhalt-Dessau
Carl Maria von Weber
was a
godfather
Müller was named after his mother's elder brother, Friedrich, and after the central character, Max, in Weber's opera
Der Freischütz
. Later in life, he adopted Max as a part of his surname, believing that the prevalence of Müller as a name made it too common.
His name was recorded as "Maximilian" on some of his honours,
and in some other publications.
Müller entered the
gymnasium
(grammar school) at Dessau when he was six years old. In 1835, at the age of twelve, he was sent to live in the house of
Carl Gustav Carus
and attended the
Nikolaischule
at
Leipzig
, where he continued his studies of music and classics.
It was during his time in Leipzig that he frequently met
Felix Mendelssohn
In need of a scholarship to attend
Leipzig University
, Müller successfully sat his
abitur
examination at
Zerbst
. While preparing, he found that the syllabus differed from what he had been taught, requiring him to rapidly learn mathematics, modern languages and science.
He entered Leipzig University in 1841 to study philology, leaving behind his early interest in music and poetry. Müller received his
Ph.D. degree
in September 1843.
His final dissertation was on
Spinoza
's
Ethics
10
He had an aptitude for classical languages, learning
Greek
Latin
Arabic
Persian
and
Sanskrit
Sanskrit studies
edit
In 1844, Müller studied in
Berlin
with
Friedrich Schelling
. He began to translate the
Upanishads
for Schelling, and continued to research Sanskrit under
Franz Bopp
, the first systematic scholar of the
Indo-European languages
(IE). Schelling led Müller to relate the history of language to the history of religion. At this time, Müller published his first book, a German translation of the
Hitopadesa
, a collection of Indian
fables
11
In 1845, Müller moved to Paris to study Sanskrit under
Eugène Burnouf
. Burnouf encouraged him to publish the complete
Rigveda
, making use of the manuscripts available in England. He moved to England in 1846 to study
Sanskrit
texts in the collection of the
East India Company
. He supported himself at first with creative writing, his novel
German Love
being popular in its day.
Müller's connections with the East India Company and with Sanskritists based at
Oxford University
led to a career in Britain, where he eventually became the leading intellectual commentator on the
culture of India
. At the time, Britain controlled this territory as part of its Empire. This led to complex exchanges between Indian and British intellectual culture, especially through Müller's links with the
Brahmo Samaj
Müller's Sanskrit studies came at a time when scholars had started to see language development in relation to cultural development. The recent discovery of the Indo-European language group had started to lead to much speculation about the relationship between
Greco-Roman
cultures and those of more ancient peoples. In particular the
Vedic
culture of India was thought to have been the ancestor of European Classical cultures. Scholars sought to compare the genetically related European and Asian languages to reconstruct the earliest form of the root-language. The Vedic language,
Sanskrit
, was thought to be the oldest of the IE languages.
Müller devoted himself to the study of this language, becoming one of the major Sanskrit scholars of his day. He believed that the earliest documents of Vedic culture should be studied to provide the key to the development of
pagan
European religions, and of religious belief in general. To this end, Müller sought to understand the most ancient of Vedic scriptures, the
Rig-Veda
Müller translated the
Rigveda Samhita
book written by the 14th century Sanskrit scholar
Sayanacharya
from Sanskrit to English. Müller was greatly impressed by
Ramakrishna Paramhansa
, his contemporary and proponent of
Vedantic
philosophy, and wrote several essays and books about him.
12
Portrait of the elderly Max Muller by
George Frederic Watts
, 1894–1895
For Müller, the study of the language had to relate to the study of the culture in which it had been used. He came to the view that the development of languages should be tied to that of belief-systems. At that time the Vedic scriptures were little-known in the West, though there was increasing interest in the philosophy of the
Upanishads
. Müller believed that the sophisticated Upanishadic philosophy could be linked to the primitive
henotheism
of early Vedic Brahmanism from which it evolved. He had to travel to London to look at documents held in the collection of the
British East India Company
. While there he persuaded the company to allow him to undertake a critical edition of the Rig-Veda, a task he pursued over many years (1849–1874).
13
For Müller, the culture of the Vedic peoples represented a form of
nature worship
, an idea clearly influenced by Romanticism. Müller shared many of the ideas associated with
Romanticism
, which coloured his account of ancient religions, in particular his emphasis on the formative influence on early religion of emotional communion with natural forces.
14
He saw the gods of the Rig-Veda as active forces of nature, only partly personified as imagined
supernatural
persons. From this claim Müller derived his theory that mythology is "a disease of language".
15
By this he meant that myth transforms concepts into beings and stories. In Müller's view, "gods" began as words constructed to express abstract ideas, but were transformed into imagined personalities. Thus the Indo-European father-god appears under various names:
Zeus
Jupiter
Dyaus Pita
. For Müller all these names can be traced to the word
"Dyaus",
which he understood to imply "shining" or "radiance". This leads to the terms "deva", "deus", "theos" as generic terms for a god, and to the names "Zeus" and "Jupiter" (derived from deus-pater). In this way a metaphor becomes personified and fixed.
16
Academic career
edit
In 1850 Müller was appointed deputy
Taylorian
professor of modern European languages at
Oxford University
In the following year, at the suggestion of
Thomas Gaisford
, he was made an honorary M.A. and a member of the college of
Christ Church, Oxford
. On succeeding to the full professorship in 1854, he received the full degree of
M.A.
by a decree of
Convocation
. In 1858 he was elected to a life fellowship at
All Souls' College
17
He was defeated in the
1860 election for the position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit
, which was a "keen disappointment" to him.
18
Müller was far better qualified for the post than the other candidate,
Monier Monier-Williams
, but Müller's theological views, Lutheranism, German birth, and lack of practical first-hand knowledge of India spoke against him. After the election he wrote to his mother, "all the best people voted for me, the Professors almost unanimously, but the
vulgus profanum
made the majority".
19
Later in 1868, Müller became Oxford's first
professor of comparative philology
a position founded on his behalf. He held this chair until his death, although he retired from its active duties in 1875.
20
Scholarly and literary works
edit
Gifford Lectures
edit
1875
Vanity Fair
caricature of Müller confirming that, at the age of fifty-one, with numerous honours, he was one of the truly notable "Men of the Day".
In 1888, Müller was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the
University of Glasgow
. These
Gifford Lectures
were the first in an annual series, given at several Scottish universities, that has continued to the present day. Over the next four years, Müller gave four series of lectures.
10
The titles and order of the lectures were as follows:
21
Natural Religion
. This first course of lectures was intended as purely introductory, and had for its object a definition of Natural Religion in its widest sense.
Physical Religion
. This second course of lectures was intended to show how different nations had arrived at a belief in something infinite behind the finite, in something invisible behind the visible, in many unseen agents or gods of nature, until they reached a belief in one god above all those gods. In short, a history of the discovery of the infinite in nature.
Anthropological Religion
. This third course was intended to show how different nations arrived at a belief in a
soul
, how they named its various faculties, and what they imagined about its fate after death.
Theosophy or Psychological Religion
. The fourth and last course of lectures was intended to examine the relation between God and the soul ("these two Infinites"), including the ideas that some of the principal nations of the world have formed concerning this relation. Real religion, Müller asserted, is founded on a true perception of the
relation
of the soul to God and of God to the soul; Müller wanted to prove that this was true, not only as a postulate, but as an historical fact. The original title of the lectures was 'Psychological Religion' but Müller felt compelled to add 'Theosophy' to it. Müller's final Gifford Lecture is significant in interpreting his work broadly, as he situates his philological and historical research within a
Hermetic
and
mystical
theological project.
22
As translator
edit
In 1881, he published a translation of the first edition of
Kant
's
Critique of Pure Reason
. He agreed with
Schopenhauer
that this edition was the most direct and honest expression of Kant's thought. His translation corrected several errors that were committed by previous translators.
23
In his Translator's Preface, Müller wrote:
The bridge of thoughts and sighs that spans the whole history of the Aryan world has its first arch in the Veda, its last in Kant's Critique. ... While in the Veda we may study the childhood, we may study in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason the perfect manhood of the Aryan mind. ... The materials are now accessible, and the English-speaking race, the race of the future, will have in Kant's Critique another Aryan heirloom, as precious as the Veda—a work that may be criticised, but can never be ignored.
quote needs citation
Müller continued to be influenced by the Kantian
Transcendentalist
model of spirituality,
24
and was opposed to Darwinian ideas of human development.
25
He argued that "language forms an impassable barrier between man and beast."
26
Views on India
edit
Early career
edit
On 25 August 1866, Müller wrote to Chevalier Bunsen:
India is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece were at the time of St. Paul. The rotten tree has for some time had artificial supports, because its fall would have been inconvenient for the government. But if the Englishman comes to see that the tree must fall, sooner or later, then the thing is done... I should like to lay down my life, or at least to lend my hand to bring about this struggle... I do not at all like to go to India as a missionary, that makes one dependent on the parsons... I should like to live for ten years quite quietly and learn the language, try to make friends, and see whether I was fit to take part in a work, by means of which the old mischief of Indian priestcraft could be overthrown and the way opened for the entrance of simple Christian teaching...
27
— The Life And Letters Of The Right Honourable Friedrich Max Müller Vol. I, Chapter X
In his career, Müller several times expressed the view that a "reformation" within Hinduism needed to occur, comparable to the Christian Reformation.
28
In his view, "if there is one thing which a comparative study of religions places in the clearest light, it is the inevitable decay to which every religion is exposed... Whenever we can trace back a religion to its first beginnings, we find it free from many blemishes that affected it in its later states".
29
He used his links with the
Brahmo Samaj
to encourage such a reformation on the lines pioneered by
Ram Mohan Roy
. Müller believed that the Brahmos would engender an Indian form of Christianity and that they were in practice "Christians, without being Roman Catholics, Anglicans or Lutherans". In the Lutheran tradition, he hoped that the "superstition" and idolatry, which he considered to be characteristic of modern popular Hinduism, would disappear.
30
Müller wrote:
The translation of the
Veda
will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India, and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3,000 years... one ought to be up and doing what may be God's work.
31
32
Müller hoped that increased funding for education in India would promote a new form of literature combining Western and Indian traditions. In 1868 he wrote to
George Campbell
, the newly appointed
Secretary of State for India
India has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again, and that second conquest should be a conquest by education. Much has been done for education of late, but if the funds were tripled and quadrupled, that would hardly be enough (...) By encouraging a study of their own ancient literature, as part of their education, a national feeling of pride and self-respect will be reawakened among those who influence the large masses of the people. A new national literature may spring up, impregnated with Western ideas, yet retaining its native spirit and character (...) A new national literature will bring with it a new national life, and new moral vigour. As to religion, that will take care of itself. The missionaries have done far more than they themselves seem to be aware of, nay, much of the work which is theirs they would probably disclaim. The Christianity of our nineteenth century will hardly be the Christianity of India. But the ancient religion of India is doomed—and if Christianity does not step in, whose fault will it be?
33
— Max Müller (1868)
Late career
edit
In uniform, 1890s
In his sixties and seventies, Müller gave a series of lectures, which reflected a more nuanced view in favour of Hinduism and the ancient literature from India. In his "What can India teach us?" lecture at University of Cambridge, he championed ancient Sanskrit literature and India as follows:
If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty that nature can bestow—in some parts a very paradise on earth—I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most full developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant—I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal life—again I should point to India.
34
— Max Müller (1883)
Müller conjectured that the introduction of Islam in India in the 11th century had a deep effect on the psyche and behaviour of Hindus in another lecture, "Truthful Character of the Hindus":
The other epic poem too, the
Mahabharata
, is full of episodes showing a profound regard for truth. (...) Were I to quote from all the law-books, and from still later works, everywhere you would hear the same key-note of truthfulness vibrating through them all. (...) I say once more that I do not wish to represent the people of India as two hundred and fifty-three millions of angels, but I do wish it to be understood and to be accepted as a fact, that the damaging charge of untruthfulness brought against that people is utterly unfounded with regard to ancient times. It is not only not true, but the very opposite of the truth. As to modern times, and I date them from about 1000 after Christ (AD), I can only say that, after reading the accounts of the terrors and horrors of Mohammedan rule, my wonder is that so much of native virtue and truthfulness should have survived. You might as well expect a mouse to speak the truth before a cat, as a Hindu before a Mohammedan judge.
35
— Max Müller (1884)
Swami Vivekananda
, who was the foremost disciple of
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
, met Müller over a lunch on 28 May 1896. Regarding Müller and his wife, the Swami later wrote:
The visit was really a revelation to me. That little white house, its setting in a beautiful garden, the silver-haired sage, with a face calm and benign, and forehead smooth as a child's in spite of seventy winters, and every line in that face speaking of a deep-seated mine of spirituality somewhere behind; that noble wife, the helpmate of his life through his long and arduous task of exciting interest, overriding opposition and contempt, and at last creating a respect for the thoughts of the sages of ancient India—the trees, the flowers, the calmness, and the clear sky—all these sent me back in imagination to the glorious days of ancient India, the days of our brahmarshis and rajarshis, the days of the great vanaprasthas, the days of Arundhatis and Vasishthas. It was neither the philologist nor the scholar that I saw, but a soul that is every day realizing its oneness with the universe.
36
Controversies
edit
Studio Portrait of Max Müller,
c.
1880
Alleged anti-Christianity
edit
During the course of his
Gifford Lectures
on the subject of
natural religion
, Müller was severely criticised for being anti-Christian. In 1891, at a meeting of the Established
Presbytery of Glasgow
, Mr. Thomson (Minister of Ladywell) moved a motion that Müller's teaching was "subversive of the Christian faith, and fitted to spread pantheistic and infidel views amongst the students and others" and questioned Müller's appointment as lecturer.
37
An even stronger attack on Müller was made by Monsignor Alexander Munro in
St Andrew's Cathedral
. Munro, an officer of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland (and Provost of the Catholic Cathedral of Glasgow from 1884 to 1892), declared that Müller's lectures "were nothing less than a crusade against Divine revelation, against Jesus Christ, and against Christianity". The blasphemous lectures were, he continued, "the proclamation of atheism under the guise of pantheism" and "uprooted our idea of God, for it repudiated the idea of a personal God".
38
Similar accusations had already led to Müller's exclusion from the Boden chair in Sanskrit in favour of the conservative
Monier Monier-Williams
. By the 1880s Müller was being courted by
Charles Godfrey Leland
, Theosophist
Helena Blavatsky
, and other writers who were seeking to assert the merits of
pagan
religious traditions over Christianity. The designer
Mary Fraser Tytler
stated that Müller's book
Chips from a German Workshop
(a collection of his essays) was her "Bible", which helped her to create a multi-cultural sacred imagery.
citation needed
Müller distanced himself from these developments, and remained within the
Lutheran
faith in which he had been brought up. According to G. Beckerlegge, "Müller's background as a Lutheran German and his identification with the Broad Church party" led to "suspicion by those opposed to the political and religious positions that they felt Müller represented", particularly his
latitudinarianism
39
Although Müller took a strong religious and academic interest in
Hinduism
and other non-Christian religions, and often compared Christianity to religions that many traditional Protestants would have regarded as primitive or false, he grounded his
Perennialism
in a belief that Christianity possessed the fullest truth of all living religions.
40
Twenty-first century scholars of religion, far from accusing Müller of being anti-Christian, have critically examined Müller's theological project as evidence for a bias towards Christian conceptions of God in early academic
religious studies
41
42
Darwin disagreement
edit
Müller attempted to formulate a philosophy of religion that addressed the crisis of faith engendered by the historical and critical study of religion by German scholars on the one hand, and by the
Darwinian revolution
on the other. He was wary of Darwin's work on human evolution, and attacked his view of the development of human faculties. His work was taken up by cultural commentators such as his friend
John Ruskin
, who saw it as a productive response to the crisis of the age. He analyzed mythologies as rationalisations of natural phenomena, primitive beginnings that we might denominate "
protoscience
" within a cultural evolution.
citation needed
Müller proposed an early, mystical interpretation of
theistic evolution
, using Darwinism as a critique of
mechanical philosophy
43
In 1870 Müller gave a short course of three lectures for the British Institution on language as the barrier between man and beast, which he called "On Darwin's Philosophy of Language".
44
Müller specifically disagreed with Darwin's theories on the origin of language and that the language of man could have developed from the language of animals. In 1873, he sent a copy of his lectures to Darwin reassuring him that, though he differed from some of Darwin's conclusions, he was one of his "diligent readers and sincere admirers".
45
Opposition to Aryanism
edit
Further information:
Aryanism
Müller's work contributed to the developing interest in
Aryan
culture, which often set Indo-European ("Aryan") traditions in opposition to
Semitic
religions. He "was deeply saddened by the fact that these classifications later came to be expressed in
racist
terms", as this was far from his intention.
46
For Müller, the discovery of common Indian and European ancestry was a powerful argument against racism, arguing that "an
ethnologist
who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a
dolichocephalic
dictionary or a
brachycephalic
grammar" and that "the blackest Hindus represent an earlier stage of Aryan speech and thought than the fairest
Scandinavians
".
47
48
Turanian
edit
Müller put forward and promoted the theory of a "
Turanian
" family of languages or speech, comprising the
Finnic
Samoyedic
, "Tataric" (
Turkic
),
Mongolic
and
Tungusic
languages.
49
According to Müller, these five languages were those "spoken in Asia or Europe not included under the Arian [sic] and Semitic families, with the exception perhaps of the Chinese and its dialects". In addition, they were "nomadic languages," in contrast to the other two families (Aryan and Semitic), which he called State or political languages.
50
The idea of a Turanian family of languages was not accepted by everyone at the time.
51
Although the term "Turanian" quickly became an archaism
52
(unlike "Aryan"), it did not disappear completely. The idea was absorbed later into nationalist ideologies in
Hungary
and
Turkey
53
Honours and distinctions
edit
Müller on a 1974 stamp of India
Müller
c.
1898
, wearing his
Habit vert
costume with the insignia of the order
Pour le Mérite
and the
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
In 1869, Müller was elected to the French
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
as a foreign correspondent (
associé étranger
).
In June 1874, Müller was awarded the
Pour le Mérite
(civil class), much to his surprise. Soon after, when he was commanded to dine at
Windsor
, he wrote to
Prince Leopold
to ask if he
might
wear his Order, and the wire came back, "Not
may
, but
must
."
54
In 1875, Müller was awarded the
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
. The award is given to acknowledge excellent and outstanding achievements in the field of science and art. In a letter to his mother dated 19 December, Müller wrote that the award was more showy than the
Pour le Mérite
, "but that is the best".
55
In 1896, Müller was appointed a member of the
Privy Council
56
Personal life
edit
Müller became a naturalised British citizen in 1855, at the age of 32. He married Georgina Adelaide Grenfell on 3 August 1859 after overcoming the opposition from her family. The couple had four children, including
William Grenfell
. Two of their children predeceased them.
57
Death and legacy
edit
Müller's health began deteriorating in 1898 and he died at his home in Oxford on 28 October 1900. He was interred at
Holywell Cemetery
on 1 November 1900.
10
After his death a memorial fund, the Max Müller Memorial Fund, was opened at Oxford for "the promotion of learning and research in all matters relating to the history and archaeology, the languages, literatures, and religions of ancient India".
58
Harry Smith
stated of his own film
Heaven and Earth Magic
: "The first part depicts the heroine's toothache consequent to the loss of a valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land in terms of Israel, Montreal and the second part depicts the return to earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day
Edward the Seventh
dedicated the Great Sewer of London."
59
The
Goethe Institutes
in India are named
Max Müller Bhavan
in his honour, as is a street (Max Mueller Marg) in
New Delhi
60
Müller's biographies include
Van den Bosch (2002)
Stone (2002)
and
Chaudhuri (1974)
Nirad C. Chaudhuri
's
Scholar Extraordinary
was awarded the
Sahitya Akademi Award for English
by
Sahitya Akademi
, India's National Academy of Letters.
citation needed
In addition,
Stephen G. Alter
's 2005 book
William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language
contains a chapter on Müller's rivalry with the American linguist
William Dwight Whitney
61
Swami Vivekananda
praised Mueller, and remarked, "Max Müller is a Vedantist of Vedantists. He has, indeed, caught the real soul of the melody of the Vedanta, in the midst of all its settings of harmonies and discords — the one light that lightens the sects and creeds of the world, the Vedanta, the one principle of which all religions are only applications."
62
Other Indian figures such as
Nirad C. Chaudhuri
Sri Aurobindo
and others were also influenced by Mueller.
63
64
Publications
edit
Müller's scholarly works, published separately as well as an 18-volume
Collected Works
, include:
Nārāyana; Müller, Max (ed. & tr.) (1844).
Hitopadesa: eine alte indische Fabelsammlung
(in German). Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
OCLC
6679332
Müller, Max, ed. (1858).
The German classics from the fourth to the nineteenth century
. London: Longmans.
OCLC
793718181
Müller, Max (1859).
A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature
. London: Williams and Norgate.
OCLC
2994706
Müller, Max (1866).
Lectures on the Science of Language
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
1070792446
Müller, Max; Bunsen, C. K. J. (1868–1875).
Chips from a German Workshop
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
700979941
5 vols.
Müller, Max (1870).
Introduction to the Science of Religion
. London: Spottiswoode.
OCLC
58972203
Müller, Max (1878).
Lectures on the origin and growth of religion
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
221232055
Müller, Max (tr.) (1879–1884).
The Upanishads
. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
OCLC
1416388926
Kant, Immanuel
(1881).
Critique of Pure Reason
Kritik der reinen Vernunft
]. Translated by F. Max Müller. London: Macmillan.
OCLC
1106845795
– via
Internet Archive
Müller, Max (1883).
India: what Can it Teach Us?
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
458768544
Müller, Max (1884).
Biographical Essays
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
251576949
Müller, Max;
Macdonell, Arthur Anthony
(1886).
A Sanskrit grammar for beginners
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
156080873
Müller, Max (1887).
The Science of Thought
OCLC
1086677282
2 vols.
Müller, Max (1888).
Studies in Buddhism
OCLC
844556126
Müller, Max (1888).
Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
876089311
Müller, Max (1888).
Natural Religion
Gifford Lectures
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
21342863
Müller, F. Max (1890–1892).
Rig-Veda-Samhita: The Sacred Hymns of the Brahmans
(2nd ed.). London: Henry Frowde.
4 vols.
Müller, Max (1891).
Physical Religion
. Gifford Lectures. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
1068602567
Müller, Max (1892).
Anthropological Religion
. Gifford Lectures. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
470344671
Müller, Max (1893).
Memories
. London: A.C. McClurg & Co.
OCLC
679733299
Müller, Max (1893).
Theosophy, or Psychological Religion
. Gifford Lectures. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
427662759
Müller, Max (1897).
Contributions to the Science of Mythology
. Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Müller, Max (1898).
Auld Lang Syne
. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
934825847
2 vols.
Müller, Max (1899).
The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy
. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
458768755
Müller, Max (1901).
My Autobiography: A Fragment
. London and Bombay: Longmans, Green & Co.
OCLC
606296937
References
edit
Citations
edit
John C. Wells (2008),
Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
(3rd ed.), Longman,
ISBN
978-1-4058-8118-0
"Duden | Max | Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition"
Duden
(in German)
. Retrieved
20 October
2018
Mạx
"1871 English Census - FamilySearch.org"
www.familysearch.org
. Retrieved
13 July
2024
"1851 English Census - FamilySearch.org"
www.familysearch.org
. Retrieved
13 July
2024
R. C. C. Fynes (May 2007),
Müller, Friedrich Max (1823–1900)
, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn,
[1]
, accessed 17 March 2013]
(subscription,
Wikipedia Library
access or
UK public library membership
required)
Académiciens depuis 1663
Archived
10 June 2015 at the
Wayback Machine
. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Charles Johnston (1900)
An Estimate of Max Müller (1823–1900)
The American Monthly Review of Reviews
, Vol XXII, July–December. The Review of Reviews Company: New York, pp.703–706.
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max) (16 October 2009).
My Autobiography: A Fragment
. p. 97
. Retrieved
19 September
2022
– via Project Gutenberg.
Macdonell, Arthur Anthony
(1901).
"Max Müller, Friedrich"
Dictionary of National Biography
(1st supplement)
. Vol. 3. pp.
151–
157.
Abraham, Sara; Hancock, Brannon.
"Friedrich Max Müller"
Gifford Lectures
. Archived from
the original
on 5 January 2016.
Margaret Thomas (2011).
Fifty Key Thinkers on Language and Linguistics
. Routledge. p. 109.
ISBN
978-0-415-37302-9
"Vedanta Society of New York: Ramakrishna"
. Archived from
the original
on 16 September 2016
. Retrieved
25 August
2016
B. R. Modak (1995).
Sayana, Volume 203
. Sahitya Akademi. p. 33.
ISBN
978-81-7201-940-2
Mittal, Sushil; Thursby, Gene (10 September 2007).
Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods
. Taylor & Francis.
ISBN
978-0-203-93973-4
. Retrieved
25 August
2016
– via Google Books.
"The Science of Language"
. Retrieved
9 September
2023
Müller 1897
, pp. 497–503.
Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement
Müller (1902)
, pp. 241–242.
Müller (1902)
, p. 244.
George Sandeman (1907).
The Harmsworth Encyclopaedia: Everybody's Book of Reference : containing 50,000 articles, profusely illustrated, Volume 6
. The Amalgamated Press. p. 4042.
Müller, F. Max (1895),
Theosophy or Psychological Religion.
London: Longmans, Green and Co., pp.89–90.
Josephson-Storm (2017)
, pp. 108–110.
The Athenaeum
. J. Lection. 1882. p. 629.
At times Prof. Müller has succeeded in correcting an error and in coming closer to his original or has modified the harshness of Mr. Meiklejohn's style; but in other passages we prefer the latter, and of certain general changes made by Prof. Max Müller.
Original from
Princeton University
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
, Last Essays by the Right Hon. Professor F. Max Müller ... First Series: Essays on Language, Folklore and Other Subjects; pub. by Longmans, Green and Company, 1901.
The Twentieth Century, Volume 23
. p. 745.
according to Mr. Max Müller, Kant established against Darwin by proving that there is transcendentalist side to human knowledge which affords.
Original from
Cornell University
Müller, F. Max. (1899)
Three Lectures on the Science of Language, etc., with a Supplement, My Predecessors
. 3rd ed. Chicago. p. 9.
Friedrich Max Müller (1902).
The Life And Letters Of The Right Honourable Friedrich Max Müller Vol.i
. pp.
191
–192.
Menant, M. D. (1907).
"Influence of Max Müller's Hibbert Lectures in India"
The American Journal of Theology
11
(2):
293
–307.
doi
10.1086/478685
JSTOR
3153715
Jacques Waardenburg (1999).
Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion: Aims, Methods, and Theories of Research, Volume 1
. Walter de Gruyter. p. 87.
ISBN
978-3-11-016328-5
Sharada Sugirtharajah (2003)
Imagining hinduism: a postcolonial perspective
. Routledge. pp. 60–61.
ISBN
81-208-4091-7
Edwin Bryant (2001).
The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate
. Oxford University Press. p.
289
ISBN
978-0-19-513777-4
Eliot Weinberger (2000).
Karmic Traces, 1993–1999
. New Directions Publishing. p. 174.
ISBN
978-0-8112-1456-8
Müller (1902)
, pp. 357–358.
Max Müller,
INDIA – LECTURE I. WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?
, A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge, Project Gutenberg
Max Müller,
INDIA – LECTURE II. Truthful Character of the Hindus
, A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University of Cambridge, Project Gutenberg
Nikhilananda, Swami (1953).
Vivekananda: A Biography
. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center. p. 106.
ISBN
978-0-911206-25-8
{{
cite book
}}
ISBN / Date incompatibility (
help
Müller (1902)
, p. 262.
Müller (1902)
, p. 263.
Beckerlegge, G. (1997) "Professor Friedrich Max Müller and the Missionary Cause". In, John Wolffe (Ed)
Religion in Victorian Britain V Culture and Empire
. Manchester University Press, p.189.
Josephson-Storm (2017)
, pp. 109–10.
Josephson-Storm (2017)
, pp. 120–2.
Russell T. McCutcheon (1997).
Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia
. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.
58–
61.
ISBN
978-0-19-535568-0
Josephson-Storm (2017)
, p. 113.
Müller, Max (May–July 1873).
"Lectures on Mr. Darwin's Philosophy of Language"
Frazer's Magazine
87
525-541
659-678
1-24
hdl
2027/chi.28360518
– via
HathiTrust
Charles Darwin.
More Letters of Charles Darwin – Volume 2
. p. 397
Esleben, Jörg; Christina Kraenzle; Sukanya Kulkarni (2008).
Mapping channels between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian cross-cultural relations
. Cambridge Scholars. p. 62.
ISBN
978-1-84718-587-7
In later years, especially before his death, he was deeply saddened by the fact that these classifications later came to be expressed in racist terms.
F. Max Müller (1888)
Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas
. Kessinger Publishing reprint, 2004, p.120
Dorothy Matilda Figueira (2002)
Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority Through Myths of Identity
, SUNY Press. p. 45.
ISBN
0-7914-5532-7
Müller, M. (1854)
The last results of the researches respecting the non-Iranian and non-Semitic languages of Asia or Europe, or the Turanian family of language
. (Letter of Professor Max Müller to Chevalier Bunsen; Oxford August 1853; on the classification of the Turanian languages). In, Christian Bunsen (1854)
Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History, Applied to Language and Religion.
In Two Volumes. Vol. 1. London: Brown, Green, and Longmans.
M. Müller (1855)
The languages of the seat of war in the East. With a survey of the three families of language, Semitic, Arian, and Turanian
. London: Williams and Norgate, p. 86.
David Waterhouse (2002).
The Origins of Himalayan Studies: Brian Houghton Hodgson in Nepal and Darjeeling
. Taylor & Francis. p. 20/232.
ISBN
978-0-203-48035-9
In 1910, a full decade after Müller's death, the
Turan Tarsasag
'Turanian Society' was founded in order to study the history and culture of the Hungarians and other 'Turanian' peoples.
T. Masuza (2005)
The Invention of World Religions, Or, How European Universalism was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism
. The University of Chicago Press, p. 229.
ISBN
0-226-50989-3
Günay Göksu Özdoğan:
The case of racism-Turanism: Turkism during single-party period, 1931–1944: a radical variant of Turkish nationalism
Müller (1902)
, p. 462.
Müller (1902)
, p. 503.
"No. 26754"
The London Gazette
. 30 June 1896. p. 3767.
"Max Muller Papers"
. Retrieved
25 August
2016
Max Müller Memorial Fund
Archived
3 January 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
"No. 12: Heaven and Earth Magic | Film Studies Center | University of Chicago"
. Archived from
the original
on 12 June 2010.
About Max Mueller
. Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan.
Alter (2005)
Book University Journal, Volume 21
. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. 1974. p. 79.
Ranasinha, Ruvani (22 February 2007).
South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain: Culture in Translation
. Clarendon Press. p. 79.
ISBN
978-0-19-152591-9
. Retrieved
17 November
2025
Boehmer, Elleke (6 January 2005).
Empire, the National, and the Postcolonial, 1890-1920: Resistance in Interaction
. OUP Oxford. p. 52.
ISBN
978-0-19-818445-4
. Retrieved
17 November
2025
Cited sources
edit
Alter, Stephen G. (2005).
"The Battle with Max Müller"
William Dwight Whitney and the Science of Language
. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.
174–
207.
ISBN
978-0-8018-8020-9
Chaudhuri, Nirad C.
(1974).
Scholar Extraordinary: The Life of Professor the Rt. Hon. Friedrich Max Müller
Chatto & Windus
ISBN
978-0-7011-1944-7
Josephson-Storm, Jason (2017).
The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ISBN
978-0-226-40336-6
Müller, Georgina (1902).
The Life and Letters of Right Honorable Friedrich Max Müller
. Vol. 1. London: Longman.
Stone, Jon R. (2002).
The Essential Max Müller: On Language, Mythology, and Religion
. Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN
978-0-312-29309-3
Van den Bosch, Lourens (2002).
Friedrich Max Müller: A Life Devoted to Humanities
. E. J. Brill.
ISBN
978-90-04-12505-6
Further reading
edit
Arvidsson, Stefan (2006).
Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science
. University of Chicago Press.
ISBN
978-0-226-02860-6
Davis, John R.; Nicholls, Angus (2016).
"Friedrich Max Müller: The Career and Intellectual Trajectory of a German Philologist in Victorian Britain"
(PDF)
Publications of the English Goethe Society
85
2–
3):
67–
97.
doi
10.1080/09593683.2016.1224493
Davis, John R.; Nicholls, Angus, eds. (2017).
Friedrich Max Müller and the Role of Philology in Victorian Thought
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1138633841
Leopold, Joan (1970). "The Aryan Theory of Race in India 1870–1920".
The Indian Economic and Social History Review
VII
271–
97.
doi
10.1177/001946467000700204
S2CID
144438773
Leopold, Joan (1974). "British Applications of the Aryan Theory of Race to India 1850 70".
The English Historical Review
LXXXIX
578–
603.
doi
10.1093/ehr/LXXXIX.CCCLII.578
Winner of Universities Essay Prize, Royal Asiatic Society, London.
Leopold, Joan (1984). "Friedrich Max Müller and the question of the early Indo Europeans (1847–1851".
Études inter-ethniques, Annales du Centre d'études supérieures et de recherches sur les relations ethniques et le racisme
VII
. Paris:
21–
32.
Leopold, Joan (1987) [delivered at Princeton, 1984]. "Ethnic Stereotypes in Linguistics: The Case of Friedrich Max Müller (1847–1851)". In Aarsleff, H.; Kelly, L. G.; Niederehe, H. J. (eds.).
Papers in the History of Linguistics
. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins. pp.
501–
12.
Leopold, Joan, ed. (1999).
The Prix Volney: Contributions to Comparative Indo-European, African and Chinese Linguistics: Max Müller and Steinthal
. Prix Volney Essay Series. Vol. III. Dordrecht and Boston: Springer.
ISBN
978-0792325079
With full bibliography of works.
Leopold, Joan (2002). "Steinthal and Max Müller: Comparative Lives". In Wiedebach, Hartwig; Winkelmann, Annette (eds.).
Chajim H. Steinthal, Sprachwissenschaflter und Philosoph im 19. Jahrhundert. Linguist and Philosopher in the 19th Century
. Studies in European Judaism. Vol. IV. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill. pp.
31–
49.
Molendijk, Arie (2016).
Friedrich Max Müller and the Sacred Books of the East
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0198784234
Subin, Anna Della (2022).
Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine
. Henry Holt and Company.
ISBN
978-1250848994
Vivekananda, Swami
(6 June 1896).
"On Professor Max Müller"
Brahmâvadin
. London.
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