Erich Frauwallner (December 28, 1898 – July 5, 1974) was an Austrian professor, a pioneer in the field of Buddhist studies.
He was called up for military service in 1943 but did not serve, continuing to teach until 1945 when he lost his position due to his Nazi Party membership (dating to 1932).
[6] The general conclusion is that there are aspects of Frauwallner's history of philosophy that are untrustworthy because of his racist presuppositions, and especially his tendency to consider that thinkers may never change their minds,[7] and to see philosophical viewpoints as arising out of "soil and blood" in an essentialist manner.
Frauwallner also tended to construct historical narratives using the nineteenth-century concept of degeneration to argue that simple, original, pure forms of philosophy gradually changed into more complex, degenerate forms, identifying complexity with decadence.
[8] Such a priori interpretative schemes are no longer acceptable in the contemporary academy.