Hedwig Conrad-Martius

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Hedwig Conrad-Martius (born February 27, 1888 in Berlin , † February 15, 1966 in Starnberg ) was a German philosopher .

Life

Hedwig Conrad-Martius was the daughter of the medical professor Friedrich Martius and his wife Martha. Her father headed the Rostock University Hospital and was the founder of modern constitution research . After graduating from high school with Helene Lange , who had set up secondary school courses for girls in Berlin , Hedwig Martius was one of the first women in Germany to begin university studies.

First she studied literature and history in Rostock and Freiburg, then from 1909/10 philosophy in Munich with Moritz Geiger . In the winter semester of 1911/12, she moved to the University of Göttingen, where she was accepted into the Husserl student group. She was later followed by Edith Stein and Gerda Walther in Freiburg .

After a short time she took over the management of the newly founded “Philosophical Society Göttingen”. This group, later called the “ Munich-Göttinger Phenomenological School ”, included Theodor Conrad, the founder of the Philosophical Society and nephew of Theodor Lipps , among others Winthrop Bell , Jean Hering , Fritz Kaufmann , Alexandre Koyré , Hans Lipps , Edith Stein , Dietrich von Hildebrand and Alfred von Sybel . She won a competition from the Philosophical Faculty in Göttingen. Because of her high school diploma without Greek, she was not allowed to do her doctorate with the successful contribution in Göttingen, so she moved to Munich to work with Alexander Pfänder . A habilitation was still impossible.

After completing her doctorate in 1912, she married Theodor Conrad and moved with him to his home town of Bergzabern , where they ran an orchard together. During the First World War, a smaller group was formed around the couple of the Conrads, the content of which was based on Adolf Reinach and which met regularly in the Conrads' house until the end of the 1920s (hence the “ Bergzaberner Kreis ”). Husserl himself thought little of their achievements. The couple only moved to Munich in 1937.

Scientific work was at times made very difficult by a partial publication ban imposed by the National Socialists because of a Jewish grandparent (Martha Leonhard).

After the Second World War, Hedwig Conrad-Martius was able to devote himself to philosophy again and became a lecturer in natural philosophy in 1949 and honorary professor in Munich in 1955.

In 1958 she was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit.

plant

Realontology

Hedwig Conrad-Martius was of the opinion that the later transcendental-idealistic phenomenology of Husserl did not do justice to the phenomenon of the real, and developed her own theory, which she called "ontological phenomenology".

The realontology she developed is also the foundation of her later research on natural philosophy , her cosmology and her investigations into time and space. The basic point of view of their ontological phenomenology: in perceiving the things that are shown (φαινόμενον - something that shows itself - phenomenon) we recognize them. Hedwig Conrad-Martius deals with the problem of being in her work “Das Sein” as well as in her “Realontologie”.

space and time

Conrad-Martius develops her representation of nature by examining the natural sciences of her time, especially physics, and here by incorporating the results of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics . She writes: " The curved space is finite, but unlimited " and determines this based on the analogy of three-dimensional space and the two-dimensional spherical surface, which is not limited but finite. However, this means that the three-dimensional space must also be thought of as being expanded by one dimension. (after Alexandra E. Pfeiffer, Hedwig Conrad-Martius , p. 117).

According to Conrad-Martius, there are three possible relationships between time and the world:

  1. An infinite time within which the world began and with which the world can also be thought of as infinite and without a beginning - this corresponds to the view of the classical natural sciences
  2. A world within whose existence time has begun - this, in their view, is the opinion of Plato in the Timaeus (37 CE).
  3. A “finite” space-time that stands and falls with a “finite” world - this is the conception of the general theory of relativity . The four-dimensional space-time union of Einstein's world is also represented in the model of a cylindrical world.

Conclusions

Conrad-Martius concludes that time can only become finite if it is seen as cyclically connected with itself, since a "straight line" time runs into infinity. As a cyclic time, it turns into a finite but unlimited time.

In contrast to space, however, time moves, its essence is based on movement that finds existence - if it moves cyclically, it can continue to run in an infinite cycle.

Fonts

  • The epistemological foundations of positivism. Bergzabern 1920.
  • Metaphysical Conversations. Hall 1921.
  • Realontology. In: Yearbook for Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 6, 1923, pp. 159-333.
  • On the ontology and theory of appearance of the real outside world. Associated with a critique of positivist theories. In: Yearbook for Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 3, 1916.
  • The “soul” of the plant. Biological-ontological considerations. Wroclaw 1934.
  • Physics and metaphysics. In: highlands. 37, 1940, pp. 231-243.
  • Descent. Munich 1949 (Originally published under the title "Origin and Structure of the Living Cosmos", Kosmos 1938).
  • The self-construction of nature. Entelechies and Energies. Hamburg 1944.
  • Bios and psyche. Hamburg 1949.
  • The living, the finitude of the world, man. Three disputes, Munich 1951.
  • The time. Munich 1954.
  • Utopias of human discipline. Social Darwinism and its consequences. Munich 1955.
  • The existence. Munich 1957.
  • The space. Munich 1958.
  • The spirit soul of man. Munich 1960.
  • Writings on philosophy. 3 volumes. Edited by Eberhard Avé-Lallemant with the consent of the author. Munich 1963–1965.

Footnotes and individual references

  1. ↑ However, Hedwig Conrad-Martius cannot be proven in the relevant files of the University of Rostock either as a matriculated student or as a listener.
  2. ^ Martius family history
  3. ^ The bequests of the Munich phenomenologists ... Volume 10, Part 1, p. 194 ( Google books ).

literature

  • Avé-Lallemant, Eberhard: Hedwig Conrad-Martius (1888-1966) - bibliography . In: Journal for Philosophical Research 31: 2, 1977, p. 301
  • Falk, Georg: Hedwig Conrad-Martius . In: Journal of the Association Historisches Museum der Pfalz (Historical Association of the Palatinate), the Palatinate Association for Natural History Pollichia [u. a.]. - Kaiserslautern, J. 37, 1986, pp. 87-89
  • Festschrift for Hedwig Conrad-Martius. Philosophical yearbook of the Görres Society. Edited by A. Wenzel [u. a.], Freiburg-Munich: Karl Alber, 1958
  • Gottschalk, Rudolph: Hedwig Conrad-Martius: Derivation (Book Review). In: German Journal for Philosophy 3: 3, 1954, p. 732
  • Hader, Alois: Hedwig Conrad-Martius: Writings on Philosophy Vol. I and II (Book Review). In: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 73: 2, 1966, p. 403
  • Hering, Jean: The problem of being with Hedwig Conrad-Martius . In: Journal for Philosophical Research 13, 1959, p. 463
  • Pfeiffer, Alexandra Elisabeth: Hedwig Conrad-Martius. A phenomenological view of nature and the world , Würzburg 2005, Verlag Königshausen und Neumann
  • Prufer, Thomas: Hedwig Conrad-Martius, The Spiritual Soul of Man . In: Philosophische Rundschau 11, 1963, p. 149
  • Vetter, Helmuth: Dictionary of phenomenological terms , Hamburg 2005, Verlag Felix Meiner

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Conrad-Martius, Hedwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher and phenomenologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1966
Place of death Starnberg