Aphorism

An aphorism is a single thought, which may be self-employed in just one sentence or a few sentences. He often formulated a special insight rhetorically artistically as a general maxim ( maxim, maxim Aperçu, quip ). In contrast Winged words and pointed quotes apply scientific literature not as aphorisms.

Properties

Only since the early 20th century the aphorism is recognized as a distinct genus prose and researched. He is regarded as contradictory text form with the following core features:

  • The tendency rather nichtfiktional, assign it to both the literature as well as philosophy.
  • Its most common design principle is the antithesis, for example: Life is short, art is long ( Hippocrates ), which is often also pointedly polemical.
  • Especially when a figure of speech is taken up and extended figuratively, the antithetical turn often leads to paradox, for example, with the band, which should bind their hearts, they have their peace strangled (Lichtenberg ).
  • Brilliant use images and phrases aspect is often also a feature of the essay, the "big brother " of the aphorism. The transition between the two is fluid, a limit on the length is rejected by the majority of the literature.

Term origin

The word " aphorism " comes from ancient Greek. aphorismόs can have the following meanings:

  • Delineation, definition
  • Medical dogma
  • Sentence as a proverb
  • Their concise style.

The associated verb ἀφορίζειν, aph orίzein, " determine exactly define " can be ὅρος the word Horos, " limit condition" derived, of which the German word comes horizon.

Historical Development

The first Aphorist was Heraclitus of Ephesus. Even Plato, Heraclitus credited to the Aphoristikern. The first work, which consisted in large part of aphorisms, were the writings of Hippocrates, but which come from many different authors. Here medical theorems are established in aphoristic form. The literary- philosophical genre did not develop until later. Their masters are mainly the French moralists of the 17th and 18th centuries, including François de La Rochefoucauld, Jean de La Bruyère, Joseph Joubert, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues and the Spaniard Baltasar Gracian.

Has a long tradition of aphorism in Germany. In Georg Christoph Lichtenberg ( Sudelbücher ) in the 18th century, among other things follow Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jean Paul, Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Kraus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Theodor W. Adorno, Elias Canetti, Emil Cioran and Elazar Benyoëtz, Franz Kafka.

In Poland are: Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Karol Irzykowski, Adolf Nowaczyński, Henryk Elzenberg and Wojciech Wiercioch.

Other well-known aphorisms are Lao Tzu, Confucius, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Paul Valéry.

Aphorisms about aphorisms

  • Marie von Ebner- Eschenbach (1830-1916): An aphorism is the last ring of a long chain of thought. ( opens the band aphorisms, 1880. )
  • Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914): aphorism, m. Predigested wisdom. ( Original: " Predigested wisdom", from The Devil's Dictionary, 1911. )
  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): An aphorism, righteous marked and poured out, is the fact that he has read, not yet " deciphered "; Rather, now has to begin its interpretation, and which requires an art of interpretation. ( from the preface to The Genealogy of Morals, 1887. )
  • Robert Musil (1880-1942): aphorism: the smallest possible whole.
  • Theodor Fontane (1819-1898): A good aphorism is the wisdom of a whole book in a single sentence.
  • Hans Kudszus (1901-1977): Each aphorism is the Amen of an experience. ( opens the band Jaworte, Neinworte. aphorisms. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1970. )
  • Karlheinz Deschner (* 1924): An aphorism is an attempt already output the sound as a concert. ( Ärgernisse. aphorisms. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1994. )
  • Elias Canetti (1905-1994): The great writer of aphorisms read as if they had known each other well. (Records from 1942 to 1948. Hanser, Munich 1965. )
  • Helmut Arntzen (* 1931): In the aphorism is the thought not at home, but on the go. ( Short process. Nymphenburg, Munich 1966. )
  • Elazar Benyoëtz ( * 1937 ): A Aphorist says as much as can be imagined, and not more than you can imagine. ( The man is on a case by case basis. Reclam, Leipzig 2002, p 82 )
  • Klaus von Welser (* 1942): The systematists leads from his thoughts, the aphorisms leads them home. ( More recent studies on the aphoristic and essay writing. Edited by G. Cantarutti. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p 31 )
  • Jacques Wirion (* 1944 ): Only the aphorism is apparently contrary to those who have no time. ( Sporen. Esch / Sauer, Op der Lay 2005, p 54 )
  • Alfred Grünewald (1884-1942): When I realized that the people one can prescribe without instructions not good, I decided for the aphorism. (Alfred Grünewald, results, Hürth near Cologne, Ed. Memoria, 1996, p.38. )
  • Karl Kraus (1874-1936): An aphorism need not be true, but it should outperform the truth. He must also come with a set of them. (Karl Kraus, Works, Vol 3, ed H. Fischer, S. 326 )
  • Karl Kraus: The aphorism never coincides with the truth; it is either a half-truth or a half. (Proverbs and contradictions. Kraus, Torch 270/271 32 )
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one can not speak thereof one must be silent. ( Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and logical- philosophical treatise. Ludwig Wittgenstein, London 1922, in the preface. )
  • Elazar Benyoëtz: aphorism - a word in meaning submerged. (Meeting point crossroads. Elazar Benyoëtz. )
  • Hermann Junghans: aphorisms are a fine invention: do you have for the one who puts them into the world without having to have a high claim to recognition of his intellect, even a modicum of responsibility. When in doubt, they were just just an idea. ( Hermann Junghans. Thought -provoking aphorisms about life, epubli 2012, p 6 )

Aphoristikertreffen

Since 2004 in Hattingen Ruhr every two years, a German-language, since international Aphoristikertreffen instead, last on 3 and 4 November 2012. Organizers of this forum are of the Friends of German aphorism archive Hattingen eV ( DAphA ) and the city museum Hattingen.

Aphoristic style means

  • Paradox, for example, " The story teaches you how to forge them. " Or " Before I get upset, I do not care do not care. "
  • Alogismus, such as " Are naked women intelligent? "
  • Ambiguity, such as " illiterate must dictate. "
  • Ambiguity, irony, such as " bacteria? Little thing! "
  • Play on words

All sample aphorisms come from Stanisław Jerzy Lec.

Famous aphorisms

→ Main article: List of aphorisms

Anthologies

  • Karl Dedecius: Think before you think. 2222 aphorisms, maxims and aphorisms of the last hundred years. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1984. ISBN 3-518-38920-3 ( Polish Aphorist )
  • Gerhard Fieguth: German aphorisms. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1994 ( revised and by bibliographic expanded edition ). ISBN 3-15-059889-3
  • Harald Fricke; Urs Meyer: Torn ideas. German aphorisms of the 18th century. C. H. Beck, Munich 1998. ISBN 3-406-43669-2
  • Tobias Grüterich; Alexander splitter; Eva Annabelle Blume: New German aphorisms. An Anthology. Edition Azur, Dresden, 2010. ISBN 978-3-9812804-4-9
  • Ulrich Horstmann: English Aphorisms. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1993. ISBN 3-15-009296-5 ( English original texts, with translation notes )
  • Fritz Schalk: French moralists. Diogenes, Zurich et al 1995. ISBN 3-257-22791-4
  • Friedemann Spicker: aphorisms of world literature. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1999. ISBN 3-15-058017- X
  • Klaus von Welser: German aphorisms. Piper, Munich, 1988. ISBN 3-492-10815-6
  • Friedemann Spicker: There lives a man as long as he is mistaken. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2010. ISBN 978-3-15-010741-6
Sententiae Maxim (philosophy) One-line joke Punch line Literary genre Waste book Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Karl Kraus (writer) History Woman Word play
72335
de