Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg

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Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg (born September 1, 1904 in Homberg / Niederrhein , † August 8, 1998 in Würzburg ) was a German philosopher .

Life

Hengstenberg studied psychology, philosophy and education in Cologne with Max Scheler , Nicolai Hartmann and Helmuth Plessner, among others . In 1928 he received his doctorate. He then lived as a freelance philosophical writer and lecturer. During this time he joined Romano Guardini and his circle and converted to the Catholic faith in 1930. After the Second World War he was offered a teaching position at the Pedagogical Academy in Oberhausen, in 1953 he moved to the Pedagogical Academy in Bonn and in 1961 to the Pedagogical College of the University of Würzburg , where he became a full professor of philosophy. After his retirement (1969), he took on a guest professorship at the University of Salzburg . In 2007 he was made an honorary member of the Max Scheler Society .

plant

ontology

Hengstenberg tries to develop the Aristotelian hylemorphism into an original doctrine of the constitution . He understands this as the inner structure and construction principle of every being, which is built up from Dasein, essence and existential principle. These three cannot be derived from one another, but are related to one another in an original sense (i.e. constituted) or they are related to one another in an active sense, as Hengstenberg puts it. Unlike Husserl , for example , he represents a realistic concept of constitution, and unlike Nicolai Hartmann , Hengstenberg also understands constitution as an active, dynamic and, in this respect, historical event. Hengstenberg emphasizes the individual being in its concrete individuality. This is what is constituted, the result of the ontological constitutional event, which Hengstenberg understands in the context of a metaphysics of creation.

anthropology

This ontology is illustrated in a special way using the example of mind and body in man, in which the mind as being is the principle expressed in the existence of the body, while the third is the "personality principle" as the existential principle in man. The spirit is the principle of objectivity that characterizes man . Only man can, by virtue of his spirit, turn to things for their own sake and do justice to them in an attitude of objectivity. In the act of the spirit, man is holistically related to the real object of his care in all of his essential powers, the intellectual, the voluntary and the emotional.

In this context, Hengstenberg develops an equally original doctrine of the preliminary decision , in which the human being in freedom, from the strength of being able to begin himself (for certain areas of being), decides for a direction that will determine his behavior in the future. Does he choose objectivity or negligence , d. H. for the recognition of things and reality in their self-being and their own conception of meaning or for the unobjective attitude, that is, for the refusal of this recognition.

The unobjective attitude mostly leads to egocentric exploitation or appropriation of things. Evil is also rooted in it. As a third attitude, Hengstenberg names the utilitarian or useful attitude , which is necessary for the human being, but which has to be (factually) related to the personal life of the human being so that it does not fall into obscurity. Objectivity is not identical to objectivity, but includes the latter; rather, it is perfected in its highest form, in love.

Theology / eschatology

Based on the philosophy, Hengstenberg finally developed his own contribution to the question of human immortality. In his work " The Body and the Last Things " he suggests starting from his principle of objectivity. The more matter-of-fact a person becomes in the whole of life, the more he obeys the meaning of life and the real as a whole and of himself and forms it through, i.e. H. thus also spiritually spiritualizes his body. Conversely, after every irrelevant decision, a piece of the person dies. In a sense, he remains in death. In this way, by virtue of his spirit, the objective person is able to gradually take the body into his immortality. If bodily death and its nearness are also accepted in its meaning form and also carried out internally, then man is able to "bless the temporal" and to anticipate death already in this life.

Works (selection)

  • Philosophical Anthropology, 4th edition, Salzburg, 1983
  • Exceeding being and creativity, Salzburg 1979
  • The body and the last things, 2nd edition Regensburg 1955
  • Autonomism and the Philosophy of Transcendence, Heidelberg 1950
  • Evolution and creation. An answer to the evolutionism of Teilhard de Chardins, Munich 1963
  • Freedom and order of being. Collected essays and lectures on general and special ontology, - 2., revised. Edition Dettelbach, 1998, Verlag JH Röll, - ISBN 3-927522-95-3
  • Contributions to ontology; ed. by Rafael Hüntelmann. - Dettelbach, 1998, Verlag JH Röll, - ISBN 3-927522-99-6
  • Man and matter: on the problem of Teilhard de Chardins - 2nd, revised. Ed., - Dettelbach, 1998, Verlag JH Röll, - ISBN 3-927522-98-8
  • Foundation of Ethics, Stuttgart 1969, 2nd edition Würzburg 1989.

literature

  • Georg Scherer : Current Perspectives in Hans Eduard Hengstenberg's Thought . In: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 99/2 (1992), pp. 380–397
  • Johannes Binkowski: Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg . In: E. Coreth / W. Neidl / G Pfligersdorffer (Ed.): Christian Philosophy in Catholic Thought of the 19th and 20th Century. Volume 3, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1990, pp. 243–248
  • Rafael Hüntelmann : Existential ontology . Dettelbach 1997 (complete presentation of Hengstenberg's ontology)
  • Rafael Hüntelmann. In Memoriam: About Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg , in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 106./1. (1999), pp. 283-285.
  • Rafael Hüntelmann. Existence, constitution and modality. On Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg's triadic constitutional theory and its consequences for ontological modal theory . In: Erwin Schadel, Uwe Voigt (ed.): Active serenity. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Heinrich Beck, Frankfurt a. M. / Bern / New York / Paris 1999, pp. 203-218.
  • Hannah Anita Schulz, Meaningful Supervision: Meaningful dimensions of supervision literature in dialogue with the understanding of meaning H.-E. Hengstenbergs. , (Diss. Univ. Oldenburg) Oldenburg July 2013. accessible online

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catholic information portal : short biography of Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg
  2. ↑ History of the Max Scheler Society

Web links

Wikiquote: Hans-Eduard Hengstenberg  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Hengstenberg, Hans-Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Homberg / Lower Rhine
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1998
Place of death Wurzburg