Heinz Heimsoeth

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Heinz Heimsoeth (born August 12, 1886 in Cologne ; † September 10, 1975 there ) was a German philosopher who was best known for his work on the history of philosophy and as a Kant researcher .

Life

Heimsoeth, the son of a doctor, great-nephew of the philologist Friedrich Heimsoeth and great-grandson of the former Prussian Prime Minister Ludolf Camphausen , attended the Apostel-Gymnasium in Cologne . While still at school he heard Benno Erdmann's lectures at the Cologne Commercial College. He began studying philosophy with the minor subjects mathematics and art history in Heidelberg in 1905 . After just one semester, he moved to Berlin , where he spent three semesters studying with Wilhelm Dilthey , Alois Riehl and Ernst Cassirer . In connection with a thesis on Kant , he moved to Marburg in 1907 . Here he continued his studies with Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp . In Marburg he met Nicolai Hartmann , with whom he remained a lifelong friend and exchanged extensive letters. His doctorate took place in 1911 on " Descartes' method of clear and distinct knowledge". After a year of study in Paris with Henri Bergson and the psychologist Pierre Janet , he completed his habilitation in 1913 in Marburg with Natorp on “ Leibniz's method of formal justification”. His trial lecture was on "The concept of freedom in Boutroux and Bergson". During the First World War , Heimsoeth was used as a translator for French prisoners in a camp near Ludwigsburg . His anti-Semitic stance, which was already problematic at this time, is expressed in a letter to Hartmann, in which he commented on the dispute over an essay by Bruno Bauch in the Kant studies with the remark that “the Kant studies are finally Jewish “, Although he also opposed excessive nationalism. After an extraordinary professorship in Marburg in 1921, where he held a lectureship in aesthetics , he became a full professor in Königsberg from 1923 . In 1931 Heimsoeth moved to a chair in Cologne.

Like Hartmann, Heimsoeth left the idealistic position of neo-Kantianism philosophically . In his fundamental study of the basic questions of metaphysics , he emphasized the break between the philosophy of antiquity and the philosophy of the Middle Ages . On the other hand, he saw the foundations for thinking in the Renaissance laid as early as the late Middle Ages , which stretched through rationalism , Kant and German idealism to Nietzsche . Like Friedrich Paulsen , Erich Adickes or Max Wundt, Kant interpreted Heimsoeth as metaphysicians.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists and joining the NSDAP (membership number 2.092.609), he was dean of the faculty in 1933 . He held this office again in 1943/44. On June 1, 1934, he became a member of the NSLB (No. 290.843; resigned on May 13, 1939). He also belonged to the NSDDB . Heimsoeth was a board member of the ethnic-conservative German Philosophical Society and chairman of the Cologne branch. Under Bruno Bauch in 1934 he took over the editing of the "Blätter für deutsche Philosophie".

Heimsoeth supported National Socialism politically, but he kept his distance from National Socialist philosophy. In 1934 he was attacked in a leaflet of the National Socialist Student Union because he refused to recognize the use of the term “race” as a philosophical term, and was also viewed critically by Alfred Baeumler . In October 1942, the strictly National Socialist Breslau philosopher August Faust wrote to the main science office of the Rosenberg office : “I would consider it extremely questionable to commission such a man to give lectures abroad. He is in no way a representative of German philosophy as it is demanded by the National Socialist worldview. His books could just as well have been written twenty years ago. ”On the other hand, Ferdinand Weinhandl , also a philosopher close to the regime , commented on Heimsoeth's work as editor of the Blätter für Deutsche Philosophie:“ I have to admit that as editor Heimsoeth, whether out of conviction or out of wisdom, is quite generous, and the overall picture of the magazine is by no means that of a rallying point of the reaction. The problem of race and philosophy is discussed again and again. "

After the war, Heimsoeth confessed that he saw the National Socialist movement as an opportunity to renew society:

“In the first stages of the revolutionary event I also believed that we would all be able to save our spiritual world only if many of our professional circles accepted party membership and an active appearance for our things and brought our own to the fore within the fermenting movement would. "

Heimsoeth's way of philosophizing characterized Friedrich Kaulbach :

“He pursues a central subject of metaphysics across wide-ranging contexts and at the same time differentiates it into clearly differentiated, sometimes diverging, sometimes criss-crossing problem lines: the gaze of an old master of the history of problems and concepts finds out the points in the development on which the thought process is based concentrated and from which the further process proceeds with the need for a historical movement of thought. "

Heimsoeth himself described in retrospect as key elements of his philosophy "the person as existence", the "originality of freedom" and the "stepping out of the self-discovery and self-determination taught by Kant from the shadow of the prevailing conception of Kant". He also pointed to the early influence Nietzsche , on which he had published several essays in the 1930s:

“I was first affected by philosophy as a spiritual, life-determining power when I encountered the legacy volumes of the first major Nietzsche edition, which appeared successively after the turn of the century. From then on, the ethos of the personality that sustained itself in unheard-of tensions until its ruin and the infinitely full chaos of the ways in which inquiries were made, thoughtful retrospectives and preliminary drafts, remained a constellation for seriousness and efforts of intellectual attempting to understand what is there, even in times of departure and what you are. "
Grave in the Melaten cemetery

Heimsoeth became a member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz in 1949 . In 1954 he retired. In 1966 he received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne .

His grave is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 12 (G)).

Fonts

  • The method of knowledge in Descartes and Leibniz. 2 volumes. Töpelmann, Giessen 1912–1914.
  • The six great themes of occidental metaphysics and the end of the Middle Ages. Stilke, Berlin 1922. Reprint of the 3rd edition 1954: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-00076-5 .
  • Spruce. Reinhardt, Munich 1923.
  • Metaphysics of the Modern Age. Oldenbourg, Munich, Berlin 1929; 1934. Reprint: Oldenbourg, Munich 1967.
  • Philosophy of history. Bouvier, Bonn 1948.
  • Metaphysical requirements and impulses in Nietzsche's “Immoralism”. Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz (Commissioned by Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden) 1955 (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the humanities and social sciences class. 1955, no. 6).
  • as Hrsg .: Windelband, Wilhelm: Textbook of the history of philosophy. With a final chapter “Philosophy in the 20th Century” and an overview of the state of research in the history of philosophy. Moor. 15th edition: Tübingen 1957, ISBN 3-16-838032-6 .
  • Atom, soul, monad. Historical origins and background of Kant's antinomy of division. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1960 (= treatises of the humanities and social sciences class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born 1960, No. 3).
  • Studies in the history of philosophy. Kölner Universitätsverlag, Cologne 1961.
  • Astronomical and theological in Kant's understanding of the world (= treatises of the humanities and social science class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born in 1963, No. 9).
  • Hegel's philosophy of music. Bouvier, Bonn 1964 (from Hegel studies. Volume 2, 1963, pp. 162-201).
  • Transcendental Dialectic. A commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. 4 volumes. de Gruyter, Berlin 1966–1971.
  • Studies on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Bouvier, Bonn 1961. 2nd edition 1971, ISBN 3-416-00437-X .

literature

  • Ludwig J. Pongratz (Hrsg.): Philosophy in self-portrayals. Volume III. Hamburg 1975, pp. 102-132.
  • Frida Hartmann, Renate Heimsoeth (eds.): Nicolai Hartmann and Heinz Heimsoeth in correspondence. Bonn 1978.
  • Bruno Liebrucks : Philosophical friendship. On the correspondence between N. Hartmann and H. Heimsoeth. In: Kant studies. Volume 73, No. 1, 1982, pp. 82-86.
  • Friedrich Kaulbach, Joachim Ritter (Ed.): Critique and Metaphysics. Studies. Heinz Heimsoeth on his 80th birthday. de Gruyter, Berlin 1966.
  • Friedhelm Nicolin: The writings of Heinz Heimsoeth. A bibliography. In: Journal for Philosophical Research. 15, 1961, pp. 579-591.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The biographical information is largely based on: Christian Tilitzki : The German university philosophy in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Akademie, Berlin 2002, especially p. 115ff
  2. ^ Frida Hartmann and Renate Heimsoeth (eds.): Nicolai Hartmann and Heinz Heimsoeth in correspondence. Bonn 1978, p. 286
  3. ↑ Gerhard Funke: The discussion about the metaphysical interpretation of Kant. In: Kant studies. 67, 1976, pp. 409-424, 409; similar: Ingeborg Heidemann: Person and World. On the interpretation of Kant by Heinz Heimsoeth. In: Kant studies. 48, 1956, pp. 344-360; Hans Wagner : On the contemporary interpretation of Kant: Rudolf Zocher and Heinz Heimsoeth. In: Kant studies. 53, 2/1961, pp. 235-254, here 246-254; Gottfried Martin : Immanuel Kant. Ontology and philosophy of science. de Gruyter, Berlin 1969, p. 156
  4. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 239.
  5. ↑ Leo Haupts: The University of Cologne in the transition from National Socialism to the Federal Republic. Böhlau, Cologne 2007, p. 142.
  6. ^ Quoted from Christian Tilitzki: The University Philosophy in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Akademie, Berlin 2002, p. 846
  7. ^ Quoted from Christian Tilitzki: The University Philosophy in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Akademie, Berlin 2002, p. 1011
  8. ↑ Heinz Heimsoeth in a letter to the Cologne Vice Rector Veit in November 1946, quoted from Leo Haupts: The University of Cologne in the transition from National Socialism to the Federal Republic. Böhlau, Cologne 2007, p. 140
  9. ^ Friedrich Kaulbach: Atom and Individual. In: Journal for Philosophical Research. 17, 1963, pp. 3-41, 3
  10. ↑ Heinz Heimsoeth, in: Ludwig J. Pongratz (Hrsg.): Philosophy in self-portrayals. Volume III. Hamburg 1975, pp. 102-132, 119
  11. ↑ Heinz Heimsoeth, in: Ludwig J. Pongratz (Hrsg.): Philosophy in self-portrayals. Volume III. Hamburg 1975, pp. 102-132, 102, see also Heinz Heimsoeth: Power and Spirit in Nietzsches Geschichtsphilosophie, Otto Müller 1938 (speech), On the anthropology of Friedrich Nietzsches. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. 17, 1943/44; as well as: Metaphysical requirements and impulses in Nietzsche's "Immoralism". Steiner 1955 (essays published by the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature)
  12. ^ Ingeborg Heidemann: History of Metaphysics and Interpretations of Kant in the Work of Heinz Heimsoeth. Kant-Studien, 67, 1976, pp. 291-312
personal data
SURNAME Heimsoeth, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1975
Place of death Cologne