Eduard May

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eduard May (born June 14, 1905 in Mainz , † July 10, 1956 in Berlin ) was a German biologist , scientific theorist and natural philosopher .

biography

Eduard May's youth is known to have attended a secondary school in Frankfurt am Main . This was followed by studying zoology at the University of Frankfurt . There he received his doctorate in 1929 under Otto zur Strassen with a dissertation on shipworms . He then worked on dragonflies at the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt.

At the same time May worked as a specialist in pest control and crop protection in the chemical industry (Gebrüder Borchers, Goslar). According to his own information, he has been granted several patents. In 1941 he moved to Munich and later to Starnberg . In 1942 he completed his habilitation at the University of Munich with the essay Am Abgrund des Relativismus as a 'Dinglerianer' for the subjects of natural philosophy, history and methodology of the natural sciences. His habilitation thesis had been awarded a prize five years earlier by the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin; Eduard Spranger and Nicolai Hartmann were the judges. May belonged to the close circle of friends of the philosopher Hugo Dingler .

May was classified as unfit for military service in 1941 because of a chronic ear condition and was therefore not drafted into the Wehrmacht during World War II . From 1942 he was appointed head of the entomological department at the research center for military scientific research into the SS ancestral heritage , based in the Dachau concentration camp . In 1943 he received a research assignment (highest level of urgency (level “SS”) of the Reich Research Council) with the aim of developing new antidotes to combat the transmission of mosquitoes and malaria mosquitoes. In 1943 he was used to fight rats in the Auschwitz concentration camp. May participated in biological warfare projects such as the dropping of infected malaria mosquitoes.

May's latter activity led to his imprisonment by the American occupation forces after the end of the war in 1945. However, he was released in the same year because, according to his testimony, his scientific work focused solely on insect control and, according to his superior Wolfram Sievers, he refused to carry out experiments on humans. He could also assert that he had never been a member of the NSDAP or any of its organizations. However, he lost his teaching position at the University of Munich. On April 14, 1947, May appeared as a witness at the Nuremberg trials .

In 1948 May founded the philosophical journal Philosophia naturalis , the first volume of which was published in 1950. May taught at the Free University of Berlin from 1950 to 1956 . After initially being appointed to an extraordinary position, he succeeded Hans Leisegang as Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philosophical Seminar there in 1951 .

In the following year, a serious illness developed, to which Eduard May succumbed four years later, on July 10, 1956.

Works (books, articles)

  • Dragonflies or water maidens (Odonata). In: Maria Dahl , Hans Bischoff (Hrsg.): The animal world of Germany and the adjacent parts of the sea according to their characteristics and according to their way of life. 27th part. Jena 1933.
  • The consequences of modern quantum theory in its scientific-logical structure and in its relationship to epistemological questions. in: Grete Hermann, Eduard May, Thilo Vogel: The importance of modern physics for the theory of knowledge - three works awarded the Richard Avenarius Prize. Leipzig 1937, pp. 118–154.
  • On the question of overcoming vitalism. In: Journal for the whole of natural science. Number II, 1937/1938, pp. 375-399.
  • The idea of ​​the mechanical explanation of nature and its meaning for physical science. In: Journal for the whole of natural science. Number 5, 1939, pp. 2-23.
  • Dingler and overcoming relativism. In: Journal for the whole of natural science. Number 7, 1941, p. 137 ff.
  • At the abyss of relativism. Berlin 1941. 2nd improved edition 1942.
  • The subject of natural philosophy. In: Kant studies. Number 42, 1942/1943, pp. 146-175.
  • Small outline of the natural philosophy. Meisenheim 1949.
  • Schopenhauer's doctrine of the self-division of the will. 33. Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch, 1949/1950, pp. 1-9.
  • The problem of vitalism and the explanation of the phenomena of life. In: Philosophia naturalis . Volume 2, 1952, pp. 251-257.
  • Filosofia natural. In: Breviarios del Fondo del Cultura Economica Mexico. Number 88: Filosofia. Translation of Eugenio Imas. Mexico 1953. 2nd edition 1966.
  • The causal problem in biology. In: Zoologischer Anzeiger. Suppl. 18, 1954, pp. 388-407.
  • From the spirit of science. In: Veritas, Justitia, Libertas. Festschrift of the Free University of Berlin for the 200th anniversary of Columbia University New York, 1954.
  • Schopenhauer and today's natural philosophy. In: 36th Schopenhauer yearbook. 1955, pp. 10-24.
  • Healing and thinking. With a medical introduction by Freiherr von Kress. (= Hans Haferkamp (Ed.): Doctor and Medicine. Volume 1). Berlin 1956.
  • My three encounters with Schopenhauer. In: Journal for Philosophical Research. Number XIII, 1959, pp. 134-138 (published posthumously).

literature

  • W. Kloppe: "Eduard May's concepts of natural philosophy and their connections with medicine". 1959, in: Medical weekly. Number 14, Issue 2, 34–41.
  • Ulrich Hoyer : “Eduard May (1905–1956). For the hundredth birthday of the natural philosopher ”. 2005, in: Existentia. Number XV, pp. 141-156.
  • Otto Schwerdtfeger, treatise on Eduard May: Am Abgrund des Relativismus , Kiel 1942 (45 pages).
  • Klaus Reinhardt: The contribution of Eduard May (1905-1956) to dragonfly science (Odonata). 2008, in: Libellula. Number 27, pp. 89-110.
  • Michael H. Kater: The “Ahnenerbe” of the SS 1935–1945. A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich . 4th edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57950-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ May reported to the Ahnenerbe about the Auschwitz concentration camp: “An almost unimaginable scrap of neglected Poles, Jews, Gypsies.” Ernst Klee: Personenlexikon. 2nd ed. P. 397.
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: Personal Lexicon. 2nd ed. P. 397.
personal data
SURNAME May, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist, scientific theorist and natural philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1956
Place of death Berlin