Joseph Redlhamer was a professor at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

.

He joined the Jesuits at age 18 and earned a doctorate in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

, after which he taught ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

, philosophy and theology in Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

, Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. He was a contemporary of Johann Baptiste Horvath

Johann Baptiste Horvath

Johann Baptiste Horvath was a Hungarian-born Jesuit Professor of Physics and Philosophy at the University of Trnava in modern-day Slovakia, which was then part of the Kingdom of Hungary...

, Andreas Jaszlinszky

Andreas Jaszlinszky

Andreas Jaszlinszky was the Slovakian-born author of the early physics textbooks Institutiones physicae pars prima, seu physica generalis and Institutiones physicae pars altera, seu physica particularis .- Biography :Jaszlinszky...

 and Leopold Biwald

Leopold Biwald

Leopold Gottlieb Biwald was a professor at the University of Graz.At the age of sixteen Biwald joined the Jesuits. He became teacher of rhetoric at a secondary school in Laibach and graduated as Dr. theol. in 1761. He became professor of logic and soon afterwards of physics at the University of Graz...

.

Among his published works is Philosophia naturalis seu physica generalis et particularis (Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, 1755), in two parts, for which a scanned copy of the first part (Physica Generalis) is available online. Physica Generalis deals primarily with mechanics

Classical mechanics

In physics, classical mechanics is one of the two major sub-fields of mechanics, which is concerned with the set of physical laws describing the motion of bodies under the action of a system of forces...

, including fluid mechanics

Fluid mechanics

Fluid mechanics is the study of fluids and the forces on them. Fluid mechanics can be divided into fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest; fluid kinematics, the study of fluids in motion; and fluid dynamics, the study of the effect of forces on fluid motion...

 and gravity.

He was also a noted Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

theologian and philosopher who published several other books.