Friedrich Paulsen

Friedrich Paulsen (* July 16, 1846 in Long Horn at Niebüll (North Friesland ); † August 14, 1908 in Berlin Steglitz b. ) Was a German educator and philosopher.

Life and work

Friedrich Paulsen was the son of small farmers Frerck Paul Paulsen and his wife Christine Ketelsen. He attended from the age of five, the village school and moved in 1859 in the School of Teacher Sönke Brodersen. This promoted Paulsen for all forces and so this was from 1863, visit the Secunda of Christianeums in Altona. Three years later, Paulsen ended successfully with the Abitur school life.

That same year, Paulsen began at the University of Erlangen to study theology and became a member of the fraternity of the boys Reuther. After three semesters, he transferred to philosophy at Berlin's Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität. This He finished his studies in 1871 with his dissertation successfully in Friedrich Adolf Trendelenburg on the form and method of Aristotle's Ethics ( Symbolae ad systemata philosophiae moralis historicae et criticae ). In 1875, he was with a thesis on the epistemology of Immanuel Kant habilitation ( attempt at a history of development of Kantian epistemology ).

In 1877 he married Emilie Ferchel in Berlin, a foster daughter of the politician Justus Gruner. With her he had two daughters and two sons; a son, Rudolf, was also later philosopher. After Paulsen's wife died in 1883, he married his brother's wife Laura Ferchel 1892, which had led him since the death of her sister's household.

In his first marriage he was entrusted, as the first professor in Germany, as a lecturer in Education, which was expanded the following year to a professorship of philosophy and pedagogy. 1894 he was appointed professor of philosophy in Berlin and pedagogy. Here Paulsen became in the years to become one of the most influential professors of his time. In the following years, Paulsen refused repeatedly calls to the universities of Breslau, Würzburg, Munich, Kiel and Leipzig from, as well as an invitation to a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale and Cornell (1905 ). His students have included Jonas Cohn, Kurt Eisner, Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, Paul Hinneberg, Edmund Husserl, Theodor Litt, George Herbert Mead, Herman Nohl, Berthold Otto, Albert Schweitzer, Eduard Spranger, William Stern, George Santayana and - him soon life-long friends - Ferdinand Tönnies, the founder of sociology in Germany.

Paulsen, whose works have been translated into several languages ​​of the world, is considered a representative of the neo-idealism. It is rumored that even Mao Zedong had made himself Paulsen's socially critical views on the part of our own. Paulsen himself led Baruch Spinoza, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant as his roots. He was a proponent of progressive education and turned among others in favor of the " German essay " successful against the " Latin essay" as a high school performance (see humanism ). His story of the learned class ( 1885) reached a status as a classic.

Paulsen can be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern school, in the modern languages ​​and natural sciences are facing equally ancient languages ​​.

With many writings, especially system of ethics and introduction to philosophy, Paulsen aimed by General intelligibility width effect, which earned him extraordinarily long runs, but also criticism from colleagues.

" [ He ] gave a closed system of philosophy, but real life help that could be understood by ordinary people in their social reality. "

At the age of 62 years Friedrich Paulsen died on 14 August 1908 in Steglitz. His grave at the old St. Matthew's cemetery is maintained. 1908 Real Gymnasium in Steglitz in Berlin was named after him (now: Paulsen -Gymnasium ). This school sought the implementation of its educational reform ideas, as well as the established in 1925 Friedrich Paulsen School in Niebüll. In 1931 the school was named in his native Long Horn after him. 1911 " Park at the Spruce Mountain" was commissioned by the "German schoolmaster " in (Today Ruth Andreas -Friedrich- Park ) in Steglitz erected a monument to Paulsen. The lost original bust was in 1959 replaced by a bust Paulsen from the hand of the sculptor Magdalena Müller- Martin. In Long Horn remember since 2012, " Friedrich Paulsen Square " at the church and a monument to the son of the village. The local bust comes from the sculptor Ferdinand Seeboeck and was donated to the Nordfriisk Instituut in Bredstedt by the descendants Paulsen.

Reception

Especially in the U.S. found Paulsen's works widespread, while widely in Germany fell into oblivion. Paulsen left behind an extensive manuscript with his memoirs, from which the Diederichs Verlag in Jena 1909, the Chapter brought out, in which Paulsen had described his childhood and youth. The wider part of his academic work remained unpublished in Germany. Paulsen student Theodor Lorenz, who had emigrated to the United States, recognized the importance of the text and translated the entire autobiography, but with many cuts into English; In 1938, she appeared in New York. Therefore, the memories, 70 years quoted in English, but not in the original German version. To Paulsen's 100th anniversary of his memoirs were first published in full in 2008.

Quotes

" I do not begrudge the much -plagued mankind every dream of future happiness of heart. But it seems to me that this is not entirely without risk: it would create a too unreasonable resentment against real life as it offers the present, and he would, if mankind, met the head of those images aufbräche, the dreamland to search, leading to a too painful awakening. I doubt if heaven on earth will ever come; " Friedrich Paulsen: system of ethics with an outline of the political and social theory, Berlin, 1889, p 723

Works

• Symbolae ad systemata philosophiae moralis historicae et criticae. Too bad, Berlin, 1871.
• Attempt at a history of development of Kantian epistemology. Fues, Leipzig 1875.
• History of scholarly teaching at German schools and universities by the end of the Middle Ages to the present. With special reference to the classical teaching. 2 vols, Veit / Metzger & Wittig, Leipzig 1885.
• System of ethics. With an outline of the state and social teaching. Hertz, Berlin, 1889.
• Introduction to Philosophy. Ferdinand Tönnies devoted. Hertz, Berlin 1892; later more than 40 editions.
• Immanuel Kant, his life and his teachings. Stuttgart 1898.
• Philosophia militant. Against clericalism and naturalism. Berlin 1901
• The German universities and university studies. Asher, Berlin 1902.
• The German education system in its historical development. Teubner, Leipzig, 1906.

Posthumously first published:

• From my life. Childhood memories. Diederichs, Jena 1909 ( online at zeno.org ).
• From my life. Complete edition. Edited by Dieter Lohmeier and Thomas Steno. Publisher Nordfriisk Instituut, Bräist / Bredstedt 2008. ISBN 978-3-88007-346-3
• Pedagogy. Cotta, Stuttgart 1911.
• Ferdinand Tönnies / Friedrich Paulsen: correspondence 1876-1908. Eds. Olaf Klose / Eduard Georg Jacoby / Irma fisherman, shepherd, Kiel 1961.
• An autobiography. Translated u ed. by Theodor Lorenz. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1938.

Influential Translations:

• A System of Ethics. New York and Chicago. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899 ( translation of the third German edition into English by Frank Thilly ).
• 伦理学 原理Rinrigaku taikei. Tokyo: Hakubunkan, Meiji 37 ( = 1904). (Partial translation of " system of ethics " from German into Japanese by蟹 江 义 丸Kanie Yoshimaru etc.).
• 伦理学 原理lunli xue yuanli. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1909 (Partial translation of " system of ethics " from the Japanese and German editions into Chinese by蔡元培Cai Yuanpei ). .