He was born at Stavanger, Norway. At the age of fourteen he went with his parents to Copenhagen, where he studied theology and natural science. In 1796 he lectured at the University of Kiel, and a year later went to Jena to study the natural philosophy of Friedrich Schelling. He went to Freiburg in 1800, and there came under the influence of Werner.
After two years he returned to Copenhagen, but his lectures were so controversial that he took a professorship at the University of Halle in 1804. During the War of Liberation he served as a volunteer in the cause of freedom, and was present at the capture of Paris. From 1811 he was professor of physics at Breslau until 1832, when he accepted an invitation to Berlin.
Steffens was one of the so-called "Philosophers of Nature", a friend and adherent of Schelling and of Friedrich Schleiermacher. More than either of these two thinkers he was acquainted with the discoveries of modern science, and was thus able to correct or modify the highly imaginative speculations of Schelling. He held that, throughout the scheme of nature and intellectual life, the main principle is Individualization. As organisms rise higher in the scale of development, the sharper and more distinct become their outlines, the more definite their individualities. This principle he endeavoured to deduce from his knowledge of geology, in contrast to Lorenz Oken, who developed the same theory on biological grounds.
His influence was considerable. Schelling and Schleiermacher modified their theories in deference to his scientific deductions. His lectures in Copenhagen in 1802 were attended by many leading Danish thinkers, such as Adam Oehlenschlager and Grundtvig. Schleiermacher was so much struck by their excellence that he endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to obtain for Steffens a chair in the new Berlin University in 1804, in order that his own ethical teachings should be supported in the scientific department.
His chief scientific and philosophical works are:
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