German literary critic and aesthetician known for his efforts to create a theoretical basis for literary realism.

Vischer's theories of aesthetics, based on ideas of G.W.F. Hegel, began to develop while he was teaching at the University of Tübingen, where he had studied. He became a professor at Tübingen in 1844 but was suspended for two years because of an outspokenly liberal inaugural address. His work was finally published in six volumes as Ästhetik, oder Wissenschaft des Schönen (1846–57; “Aesthetics, or Fine Arts”). In 1855 he became professor at Zürich, but he returned to Tübingen in 1866.

Vischer's other works include Kritische Gänge, 2 vol. (1844; “Critical Path”), a collection of essays, and Altes und Neues (1881; “Old and New”). He also wrote a whimsical popular novel, Auch Einer, 2 vol. (1879; The Humour of Germany).