Hans Vaihinger

Hans Vaihingen ( born September 25, 1852 in Nehren in Tübingen, † December 18, 1933 in Halle, Saale ) was a German philosopher Kant and researchers.

Life and work

Vaihingen was the son of a Lutheran pastor. After visiting the Stuttgart High School, he studied theology, but later switched to philosophy. Study locations were Tübingen, where he joined the Corps Borussia Tübingen, then Leipzig and Berlin. In 1877, he was with " Logical Investigations Part 1. : The doctrine of scientific fiction" at Ernst Laas ( 1837-1885 ), a representative of positivism, his habilitation in Strasbourg. In Strasbourg Vaihingen in 1883 appointed extraordinary professor. In 1884 he followed a call to Halle, where he was appointed full professor in 1894. Vaihingen suffered from an eye disease that led to complete blindness; for her sake he was emeritus in 1906.

The focus of his work was the head of research. Vaihingen wrote a comment on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1881 /92). He also presented the research at a safe Kant organizational ground by firstly, the Kant-Studien ( 1897 ), founded on the other, the Kant Society, the latter in 1904, the centenary year of death of Kant. Together with his student Raymund Schmidt, he was from 1919 to 1930, the annals of philosophy and from 1922 to 1932 the building blocks to a philosophy of 'as if' out.

Vaihingen was also one of the first academic philosopher, which dealt with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. He was since its inception until his death a board member of the Foundation Nietzsche Archive.

Philosophy of As If

Despite all efforts to the German idealism can be found not only in its 1876-1878 incurred, but in 1911 published independent major work, the philosophy of looking as if ', trends, practical life.

The initial question his philosophy of as-if is: " Why do we often reach Correct with deliberately false assumptions? " Vaihingen writes:

" The human imagination entity in the world is a vast fabric of fictions full of logical contradictions, that is, of scientific inventions for practical purposes or of inadequate, subjective, visual presentation methods, whose encounter with reality is excluded from the outset. "

The end of knowledge Vaihingen sees it, not being able to reduce the unknown to the known. To know is in Vaihingen to compare the unknown with the familiar.

Atom, God and the soul explains Vaihingen as useful fictions. They are significant, "as if" they were true, even if they contradict the design conscious thought. Useful fictions derive their legitimacy through the live practical purpose, so that they are indispensable for many areas.

On the detour of the as-if you reach the given, is so long until a shorter route found by a new model of reality. Largely compatible is the philosophy of 'as if with constructivism, which rises not entitled to " the" truth.

Effective history

The eight hundred -page magnum opus Vaihinger was in twelve languages ​​, including into Japanese translated, and appeared on German and 1938 in 10 runs, including two abridged popular editions and Culture Minister Adolf Grimme led in the ways school edition for Prussian schools.

Writings

" Philosophy of As If "

• The Philosophy of As If. System of the theoretical, practical and religious fictions of mankind on the basis of an idealistic positivism. With an appendix on Kant and Nietzsche, 1911.
• Second Edition: 1913.
• Third Edition: 1918.
• Fourth Edition: 1920.
• Fifth and Sixth edition: 1920.
• Seventh and Eighth edition: 1922.
• Ninth and Tenth Edition: 1927 (of which reprint: 1986).
• Popular Edition [ based on the " Ninth and Tenth Edition " ]: 1923 ( Second Edition: 1924).
• Engl edition under the title The Philosophy of " As If ." A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind. Translation of the sixth German edition by CK Ogden: 1924 ( thereof: Fourth Edition: 1965).
• Italian edition under the title: La filosofia del " come se ." Sistema delle finzioni Scientifiche, Etico - Pratiche e religious del genere umano. Trad. F. Voltaggio 1967.
• " The Philosophy of As If. " Messages via under this title has just been published new work. From the Publisher H. Vaihingen, in: Kant-Studien, Vol 16 (1911 ), 108-115.
• Declaration Betr. my authorship of the " Philosophy of As If ", in: Kant-Studien. Vol 16 (1911 ), 522f ..

Other works

• The newer theories of consciousness. Diss Tübingen 1874 ( not appeared in print ).
• Goethe as the ideal of universal education. Speech, held at the first meeting of the Community " United scientific associations " of the University of Leipzig, 1875.
• Hartmann, Dühring and Lange. On the history of German philosophy in the nineteenth. Century. A critical essay, 1876.
• The three phases of Czolbeschen naturalism, in: Philosophical Monatshefte, Vol XII, 1876.
• The concept of the absolute ( with respect to H. Spencer ), in: Quarterly magazine for Scientific Philosophy 2 (1878), 188-221.
• The law of development of ideas about the real, in: Quarterly magazine for Scientific Philosophy 2 (1878), 298-313. 415-448.
• Commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. For the 100th anniversary of the same issued. Vol I: 1881 / Vol 2: 1892 ( Second Edition, Volume 1, 2 and Supplementary Volume, edited by Raymund Schmidt, 1922; reprint of the second edition: .. 1970).
• Kant's refutation of idealism, in: Strasbourg treatises on philosophy. Eduard Zeller on his 70th birthday, 1884, 85-164.
• Releases of the Kantian legacy, in: Journal of Philosophy and Philosophical criticism NF, Vol 96 (1888), 1-26.
• Natural science and school. A rejection of the attacks Preyer on the high school from the standpoint of the theory of evolution. Lecture, 1889.
• Queen Louise as an educator. A commemorative speech, 1894.
• For the introduction [ of Kant studies ], in: Kant-Studien, Vol 1 (1897 ), 1-8.
• Seventy text-critical marginal notes for the analysis [ Kant ], in: Kant-Studien, Vol 4 (1900), 452-463.
• Kant - a metaphysician, in: Philosophical essays? . Christoph Sigwart dedicated to his 70th birthday by a number of professional colleagues, 1900, 133-158.
• Nietzsche as a philosopher, 1902 ( Second edition 1902, Third Edition 1905, Fourth Edition 1916, Fifth Edition 1930 = Blocks to a Philosophy of As If NFH 1. ).
• Annals of philosophy. [ with Raymund Schmidt ] Leipzig, Felix Meiner, 1919 ff; Vols I-VIII.

Autobiographical writings

• As the Philosopohie of As If arose, in: The Philosophy of German presence in self-presentations. Edited by Raymund Schmidt, Vol 2, Leipzig 1921 ( 2nd ed. 1923), 175-203.
• My resume in five stages, in: Berlin Stock Exchange newspaper. Edition of 8 August 1924 ( reprint: . Contemplation Illustrated Monthly Journal for German Cultural 1 (1925 ), 89-92 ).