Ernst Hoffmann (Philosophy Historian)

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Ernst Hoffmann (born January 13, 1880 in Berlin , † January 28, 1952 in Heidelberg ) was a German historian of philosophy .

biography

Ernst Hoffmann attended the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Berlin and from 1899 studied philology (with Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff , Hermann Diels ) and theology (with Adolf von Harnack ) in Berlin, philosophy in Heidelberg (decisive support from Kuno Fischer and Paul Hensel ) and Göttingen. He also heard lectures from Dilthey , Simmel and Paulsen in Berlin .

After the teaching examination in classical languages ​​and in philosophical propaedeutics, he received his doctorate in 1905 under Diels with a thesis on the book H of the physics of Aristotle . From 1907 Hoffmann taught at the Charlottenburg Mommsen-Gymnasium . In his scientific work he focused on Plato . In 1922 he was appointed full professor of philosophy at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (it was Kuno Fischer's chair). He turned down a simultaneous appointment to Hamburg.

In Heidelberg, his work focused on the one hand on the Platonic and Aristotelian legacy in the history of philosophy, on the other hand on the edition and interpretation of the writings of Nikolaus von Kues . In 1927 he took over the management of the Cusanus Commission of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

Hoffmann was friends with Ernst Cassirer . At first he was one of his Berlin students. Later he became a close friendship and working group with the philosopher, whom he also visited several times during his exile in Sweden. At the end of the preface to Volume I of the “Philosophy of Symbolic Forms” (1923), Cassirer describes Hoffmann's contribution to the elaboration of the work.

Paul Oskar Kristeller (1905–1999) was his student in Charlottenburg and Heidelberg, and Hoffmann was Kristeller's doctoral supervisor in 1928. Hoffmann's student Raymond Klibansky (1905-2005) worked on the Cusanus edition from 1929 onwards with a grant from the Notgemeinschaft.

In the winter of 1916/17 Hoffmann was a front soldier in an artillery regiment for a few months as a gunner. He became a member of the DDP in 1923 , was active in educational policy and sat a. a. against the denominational elementary school . He also warned against too many students at the expense of academic education.

According to the anti-Semitic National Socialist legislation, Hoffmann was considered a “Jewish half-race”. On November 1, 1935, he was given leave of absence at his own request.

Hoffmann was a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and co-editor of the Heidelberg treatises on philosophy and its history .

Works

Monographs

  • De Aristotelis Physicorum libri septimi origine et auctoritate pars prior . Berlin dissertation 1905. [About the book Η the physics of Aristotle] archive.org
  • Greek philosophy from Thales to Plato . 1921
  • The universe of Nicholas of Cues . 1930
  • The freedom of research and teaching . Heidelberg, 1931
  • Platonism and mysticism in antiquity (session reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences). Winter, Heidelberg 1935
  • Life and Death in Stoic Philosophy . FH Kerle, Heidelberg 1946
  • Nicholas of Cues. Two lectures . FH Kerle, Heidelberg 1947 (therein: Nikolaus von Cues and his time and Nikolaus von Cues and German philosophy. )
  • About Plato's Symposium . Heidelberg 1947
  • Plato . Zurich 1950 [reprint supplemented with editorial comments in the rde series 1961; see below].

Articles and other texts (selection)

  • Platonism in France. In: International monthly for science, art and technology. 7, 1913. pp. 1140-1147
  • The new 'philosophy of freedom' in France. In: International monthly for science, art and technology , 7, pp. 242–250.
  • The spirit of the fighting peoples. In: The Humanist Gymnasium. 4-5, 1915, pp. 105-123.
  • About Plato's doctrine of the world soul . Annual reports of the Philological Society of Berlin , Volume 41, Berlin, 1915, pp. 187–211, supplement to Socrates. Journal for High Schools , N. F. 3 (Complete Series, Volume 69)
  • Methexis and Metaxy at Plato . Annual Reports of the Philological Association in Berlin , Volume 45, Berlin, 1919, Socrates NF 7, pp 48-70.
  • The current state of research on Plato. Appendix to: Eduard Zeller : The philosophy of the Greeks in their historical development . T. II, Abt. I, 5th edition 1922
  • Plato. In: Handbuch der Staatswissenschaften. Volume 6, pp. 877-883.
  • The ancient philosophy from Aristotle to the end of antiquity. In: Textbook of Philosophy. Volume I, Max Dessoir , ed., 1925
  • The language and the archaic logic . (= Heidelberg treatises on philosophy and its history , Volume 3), Tübingen 1925
  • Platonism and the Middle Ages. Lectures of the Warburg Library 1923–24 , Volume III, Leipzig 1926
  • Heinrich Rickert on his 70th birthday. In: Frankfurter Zeitung , May 24, 1933
  • Platonism and Mysticism in Antiquity , Series: Session reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Winter, Heidelberg 1935
  • Nicholas of Cues. In: The Great Germans. Volume 1, Propylaea, Berlin 1935
  • Julius Stenzel. (Obituary). In: The Humanist Gymnasium. Volume 47, 1936, p. 41 f.
  • Platonism in Augustine's Philosophy of History. In: R. Klibansky, HJ (Herbert James) Paton (Ed.): Philosophy and History: The Ernst Cassirer Festschrift . Oxford 1936, pp. 173-190.
  • Review of Philosophers' Lexicon. In: The Humanist Gymnasium. Volume 48, 1937, p. 111.
  • Review by C. Ritter 1934. In: Gnomon. Volume 15, 1937, p. 465.
  • The prehistory of the Cusan Coincidentia oppositorum. In: Nikolaus von Cues: About the beryl. Edited by Karl Fleischmann, Leipzig: Meiner 1938
  • Nikolaus von Cues and German Philosophy. In: Heidelberger Jahrbücher. N. F, pp. 37-58.

Posthumous publications

  • Educational humanism . Artemis, Zurich 1955. Collection of published articles.
  • Platonism and Christian Philosophy . Zurich 1960.
  • Plato. An introduction to his philosophizing . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1961.

As editor (with R. Klibansky)

  • Cusanus texts , I. Sermons , Dies Sanctificatus v. J. 1439, lat. U. German, 1929
  • Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia , Volume I: De docta ignorantia . Leipzig [Lipsiae] 1932

literature

  • Toni Cassirer: My life with Ernst Cassirer. Hildesheim 1981, pp. 111-113 (and more often).
Obituaries
  • F. Medicus. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. No. 315, dated February 13, 1952.
  • Anna Forbes Liddell: Communication: A Personal Tribute to Ernst Hoffmann (1880–1952). In: Journal of Philosophy. Volume 49, Number 15, 1952, pp. 505f.
  • Paul Wilpert: Ernst Hoffmann †. In: Journal for Philosophical Research. Volume 7, Number 2, 1953, pp. 265-275 (with bibliography).
Lexicons

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Heidelberg University Library: Ernst Cassirer - role model and friend.
personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Ernestus; Hoffmann, Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1952
Place of death Heidelberg