author

August Büttner

Best known today for a single surviving work, this little-known German writer explored the mechanics of thought in a book with an unusually modern-sounding title. His obscurity only adds to the curiosity of the text.

1 Audiobook

About the author

Very little confirmed biographical information about August Büttner appears to be readily available in major reference sources. Project Gutenberg lists him as the author of Zweierlei Denken: Ein Beitrag zur Physiologie des Denkens, and that book seems to be the main work currently associated with his name.

Because reliable biographical details are scarce, it is safest to describe him simply as a little-documented German author whose surviving reputation rests on that work. The title suggests an interest in psychology, cognition, or the physiology of thinking, which gives his writing a thoughtful, scholarly character even if the man himself remains largely in the background.

In cases like this, the mystery becomes part of the appeal: Büttner is one of those authors known more through a book than through a well-preserved life story. For listeners who enjoy forgotten intellectual history, that can make his work especially intriguing.