Herbert Hörz

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Hörz at a meeting of the Leibniz Society (2014)

Herbert Hörz (born August 12, 1933 in Stuttgart ) is a German Marxist philosopher and science historian . Hörz has dealt particularly with the relationship between philosophy and modern physics .

Life

Hörz spent his childhood with aunt and uncle in the family of a master locksmith in Echterdingen on the outskirts of Stuttgart, as his mother was initially a single parent. He started school here in 1940. After his mother's marriage, they moved to Erfurt , and from 1941, despite the turmoil of the war, he continued his school attendance here continuously in an elementary school , secondary school, elementary school, a grammar school and finally from 1948 to 1952 in the Lessing high school (today Lessing school as a secondary school ), where he passed his Abitur with good success after 12 years of schooling. He was characterized by a great hunger for reading, which has not left him throughout his life. In the last years of his high school years he was also interested in philosophical writings, especially on dialectical materialism , from which his desire to study developed.

Hörz became a member of the SED in 1949 and studied philosophy and physics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena from 1952 . When his professor Georg Klaus was reassigned to the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1953 and took over the management of the Institute of Philosophy, he also moved there. He passed his exam in 1956 after four years of study “with distinction”. In 1960 he did his doctorate with Klaus Zweiling at the Humboldt University of Berlin (HUB) with "summa cum laude" with the text On the philosophical meaning of Heisenberg's indeterminacy relations. He passed the oral examination for a doctorate in the subjects of philosophy and physics. In 1962 he completed his habilitation at the HUB with a thesis on philosophy and quantum mechanics.

At the same time, he held the relevant positions at the university: from 1956 he was initially an assistant, 1957 an aspirant , and in 1959 he was appointed senior assistant. After his habilitation , Hörz was appointed university lecturer in 1962 and professor with a teaching assignment for philosophical problems in the natural sciences at Humboldt University in 1965 . In 1968 he was appointed full professor .

Hörz was instrumental in the establishment and development of the chair “Philosophical Problems in Natural Sciences” at the Philosophical Institute of the HUB, which was founded in 1959 and was headed by Hermann Ley , whose deputy was Hörz. When Ley took over the office of director of the institute, he was also its deputy. He was also a member of the management of the philosophy section at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and was responsible for coordinating research work on philosophical questions in the sciences. After 1972 this task was taken over by the Problem Council “Philosophy-Sciences” in the “Council for Marxist-Leninist Philosophy”, which it founded and which it headed until 1990.

Hörz also held several positions in the science administration of the Humboldt University: among other things, he was Vice Dean in 1966 and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in 1967/68, and from 1968 to 1972 he was the founding director of the Philosophy Section.

In 1972 Hörz moved to the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW) and was there until 1989 as head of the department of philosophical questions in scientific development at the Central Institute for Philosophy (Director: Manfred Buhr ). In 1990 he was elected Vice President for Plenary and Classes of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . After the dissolution of the learned society of the AdW at the end of 1992, he continued the work with academy members as "members and friends of the Leibniz Academy". In 1993 the private law association Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin was founded. Hörz was elected president from 1998 to 2006 and has been honorary president since 2009 .

After the turning point and the peaceful revolution in the GDR , Hörz worked at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences between 1993 and 1995, where he was responsible for the edition of Hermann von Helmholtz's writings.

Hörz has been married to the philosopher Helga E. Hörz since 1954 ; the couple have three grown children and seven grandchildren.

To life's work

Herbert Hörz has summarized his most important work results for a certain period in book form, so that his life's work - broken down according to work items - is relatively clear and complete.

What is important for Hörz is the inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary approach to the problems, which he himself practices through many contacts with representatives of very different scientific disciplines and with different experience carriers.

The philosopher

Hörz has in his philosophy of science and history of science involved working with the relationship between science, ideology and philosophy in the historical and current context and this in his book "Truth, faith and hope. Philosophy as a bridge between science and worldview ”. For the present, he states a situational and theoretical utopian deficit that can be overcome, whereby regressive, stagnative and progressive solutions also exist for global problems, to which he dedicated many of his analyzes, which he also published in book form.

For Hörz, philosophy is at the same time an explanation of the world, a heuristic and ideological help in life; He further developed these views in 2015 in keeping with the times. It has a dual character: As a science , it uses scientific methods that are grouped around the cornerstones of the mathematical-logical, the experimental and the historical method. As a world view , it answers questions about the origin and development of the world, about the position of people in the world, about the meaning of life and the character of social development. He values Marxism because of its critical methodology and its humane vision and sees it as the heir and keeper of progressive ideas of the past and present, but at the same time deals with it critically. He advocates an alliance of all humanists , regardless of worldview, religion, ethnicity and gender.

For Hörz, humanism means a program to free people from need, oppression and exploitation with the aim of an association of free individuals with social justice and ecologically compatible behavior, and thus at the same time a requirement strategy and evaluation criterion for the humane future, also for science and technology as well as at the level European scenarios. For this he formulates human criteria and humane offers . At the same time, he sees this as a basis for a contemporary ethics of neo-modernism , the basic features of which he formulated together with his wife Helga E. Hörz in an extensive book (459 pages).

In philosophy, Hörz differentiates between basic statements in response to the above-mentioned ideological questions. In doing so, he recognizes the development processes in these questions and reacts to them with his current answers. They are axioms set for an “ism”, which are based on evidence, experience or belief and in their generality cannot be proven or refuted. More precise philosophical conceptions with the knowledge of a time are to be corrected in his opinion, if they prove to be outdated. With the establishment of philosophical hypotheses as possible future contributions of the sciences to the specification of philosophical statements and as an indication of problems to be solved with suggestions for their solution, philosophy does justice to its heuristic role as a thought provocation.

Hörz sees materialistic dialectics as a current thinking tool for shaping the future and has therefore dedicated a contemporary book to it. As a partial theory, he worked out dialectical determinism with the statistical conception of law, specified the philosophical development theory and examined macro, meso and micro cycles. He had fruitful debates with the father of chronobiology, Franz Halberg, about his associated philosophy of time as the cycle theory .

The science historian

As a science historian , Hörz has proven himself above all with his work on physicists of the 20th century, such as Werner Heisenberg , with whom he had a personal correspondence, and his Helmholtz studies, for which he has presented three corresponding volumes since 1994. He sees the edition of previously unknown letters by Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) with physiologists, humanities scholars and artists as a bridge between the two cultures. Natural philosophy as a heuristic is proven by him through the collaboration between Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin. From Ruprecht von Siemens , great-grandson of Helmholtz, he received his Abitur essay on Lessing's Nathan the Wise , in order to evaluate it journalistically.

His dialectical theory of the development of science encompasses the change in science types from the development of science to the type of guilding and self-sufficient agriculture and that of the industrial revolution to the dialectical negation of negation in the type of scientific-technical revolution. In many works this change is specifically characterized and the challenges to philosophy, science and society are determined. Science as a rational appropriation of reality develops its functions as productive, cultural and human force and has a process character, to which he particularly pointed out.

Extent of the work

Hörz has given numerous lectures at scientific events in Germany and abroad, some of which he initiated and helped to organize himself.

His scientific publications also reflect his teamwork and comprise more than 700 works, more than 80 of which are in book form, including more than 20 monographs with up to 5 editions.

He has prepared scientific reports for over 75 dissertations and habilitation theses, including many for his own doctoral students. Many students emerged from his academic environment, including the following professors: Gerhard Banse , John Erpenbeck , Evelyn Dölling, Bernd Eichler, Nina Hager , Siegfried Paul and Ulrich Röseberg.

Visiting professorships and trips abroad

Hörz was visiting professor in Moscow in 1972 and in Graz in 1995, 2001 and 2006. Invitations to lectures have taken him to the USA, China, Japan and countries in Eastern and Western Europe.

Scientific offices

  • Member of the Editorial Board of Philosophy and Biology (Canada, until 1995)
  • Member of the advisory board of the journal for science research, Graz
  • from 1979 to 1991 member of the international preparatory committee for the annual meetings of European science researchers in Deutschlandsberg (Austria).

Awards, honors and memberships

Fonts (selection)

  • The dialectical determinism in nature and society. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1962, 2nd edition 1966, 3rd edition 1969, 4th edition 1971, 5th edition 1974.
  • Atoms, causality, quantum leaps. German Science Publishing House, Berlin 1964.
  • Werner Heisenberg and philosophy. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1966, 2nd edition 1968.
  • Physics and worldview. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1968, 2nd edition 1971; Licensed edition FRG: Verlag Hubert Freistühler, Schwerte / Ruhr 1971; Czech: Fyzika a Svêtový Názor, Horizont Verlag, Prague 1973, 3rd edition 1975.
  • Matter structure. German Science Publishers, Berlin 1971.
  • Marxist philosophy and science. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974, 2nd edition 1976; Russian: Progress Verlag, Moscow 1982; Parallel edition: Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7609-0089-5 .
  • Man versus matter? Viewpoints of dialectical materialism on the importance of scientific knowledge for humans. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Weltanschauung heute, Vol. 10, Berlin 1976.
  • Coincidence - A Philosophical Inquiry. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1980.
  • What can philosophy do? Thoughts on their effectiveness. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-320-00699-1 .
  • Science as a process. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-05-000600-5 .
  • Philosophy of time. Understanding of time in the past and present. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1989, 2nd edition 1990, ISBN 3-326-00465-6 .
  • Self-organization of social systems - a behavioral model to gain freedom. LIT-Verlag, Münster; Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89473-972-X .
  • Physiology and culture in the second half of the 19th century. Letters to Hermann von Helmholtz. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-925347-30-5 .
  • Building bridges between two cultures. Helmholtz in correspondence with humanities scholars and artists. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1997, ISBN 3-925347-44-5 .
  • The modern Faust in the field of tension between nature and culture. Does the civilization crisis necessarily lead to war? In: Social relationship to nature and the question of war and peace. Contributions from the 3rd Dresden Symposium “For a Global Peace Order” on November 21, 1998. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers , Dresden 1999, issue 45, pp. 5–25.
  • Natural philosophy as a heuristic? Correspondence between Hermann von Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin (William Thomson). Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-925347-56-9 .
  • Clash of cultures? Notes on Samuel P. Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations". In: Analyzing and Thinking for Peace and Human Rights. Ernst Woit on his 70th birthday. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 2002, issue 62, pp. 39–45.
  • Life turns. About the becoming and work of a philosopher before, in and after the GDR. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89626-313-7 .
  • Truth, Faith and Hope. Philosophy as a bridge between science and worldview. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-696-5 .
  • Materialistic dialectic. Current thinking tool for shaping the future. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89626-931-7 .
  • Are Wars Legal? Viewpoints, hopes, action orientations. Research institute of the International Scientific Association for World Economy and World Politics, series: European Integration. Basic questions in theory and politics, No. 23, Berlin 2010.
  • Problem Council Philosophy-Sciences. Experience in coordinating research on the philosophy of science in the GDR. In: Herbert Hörz, Hubert Laitko (Hrsg.): Academy and University from a historical and current perspective. Division of labor, competition, cooperation. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2013, pp. 159–209, ISBN 978-3-86464-005-6 .
  • with Helga E. Hörz : Is egoism immoral? Basics of a neo-modern ethic. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86464-038-4 .
  • with Helga E. Hörz: Transhumanism. Is the future human an avatar ? In: Welf Schröter (ed.): Identity in the virtuality. Insights into new working environments and » Industry 4.0 « - articles on the 60th birthday of a networker. Talheimer Verlag, Mössingen 2014, pp. 242–285.
  • Are brains replacing homo faber on nutrient solutions? - Visions for a future information society. In: Frank Fuchs-Kittowski ; Werner Kriesel (Ed.): Computer science and society. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski . Peter Lang International Science Publishers, PL Academic Research, Frankfurt a. M .; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Warszawa; Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-631-66719-4 (print), E- ISBN 978-3-653-06277-9 (e-book).
  • Is Marxism Still Up to Date? - Experiences, analyzes, points of view. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86464-106-0 .
  • with Werner Krause and Erdmute Sommerfeld (eds.): Simplicity as a principle of action, knowledge and design. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society of Sciences, Volume 125/126. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86464-094-0 .
  • Ecology, climate change and sustainability. Challenges in the struggle for survival of mankind. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86464-186-2 .
  • with Gerhard Banse , Dieter B. Herrmann (eds.): 25 years of Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin. Speeches by the presidents at the Leibniz Days 1993-2017. Papers of the Leibniz Society of Sciences, Volume 50. trafo Verlagsgruppe Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86464-161-9 .

literature

  • Gerhard Banse , Siegfried Wollgast (ed.): Philosophy and science in the past and present. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Herbert Hörz. Papers of the Leibniz Society, Volume 13. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89626-454-0 .
  • Philosophy of science as an interdisciplinary project; Colloquium on the 70th birthday of Herbert Hörz (on September 25, 2003). Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society, Volume 64. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2004.
  • Siegfried Wollgast: Thought fragments on sensory and material sciences. H. von Helmholtz and H. Hörz. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society, Volume 102. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2009, pp. 69–88.
  • Gerhard Banse: Science and Humanism. Approximations. Herbert Hörz on his 75th birthday. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society, Volume 102. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2009, pp. 89–110, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Jan Wielgohs:  Hörz, Herbert . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Christiane Lahusen: The end of the future. Autobiographical foundations of meaning by GDR humanities scholars after 1989 (= Histoire 52). Bielefeld 2013.
  • Honorary colloquium on the occasion of Herbert Hörz's 80th birthday on the subject of “People - Progress - Humanism”. With contributions by Gerhard Banse : Laudation: Herbert Hörz on the eightieth ; Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences ; Werner Ebeling ; John Erpenbeck ; Erdmute Sommerfeld ; Werner Naumann ; Heinz Heikenroth ; Herbert Hörz : Closing words: Philosophy as enlightenment and orientation aid. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society, Volume 118. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2014, pp. 61–131 and 239–249, ISBN 978-3-89626-988-1 .
  • Gerhard Banse and Horst Kant (eds.): Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary - Historical & Systematic. Colloquia in honor of Lutz-Günther Fleischer , Herbert Hörz , Hans-Jürgen Treder & Siegfried Wollgast . Philosophy and natural sciences - Herbert Hörz on his 85th birthday. Meeting reports of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin, Volume 139/140, year 2019. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2019, pp. 235-297, ISBN 978-3-86464-176-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Truth, Faith and Hope. Philosophy as a bridge between science and worldview. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89626-696-5 .
  2. ↑ Herbert Hörz: How can the utopia deficit in science and politics be overcome? - experiences and consequences. Reports of the International Scientific Association for World Economy and World Politics (IWVWW), Vol. 23, No. 198, January 2013, pp. 19–38.
  3. ↑ Herbert Hörz: What can philosophy do? Thoughts on their effectiveness. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-320-00699-1 . Current foreword from 2015: Philosophy as a declaration of the world, heuristics and help in life .
  4. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Is Marxism Still Up-to-Date? - Experiences, analyzes, points of view. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2016, p. 26 ff., P. 30 ff., P. 272 ​​ff., ISBN 978-3-86464-106-0 .
  5. ^ Herbert Hörz: Scenarios for a future Europe. In: Research Institute of the International Scientific Association for World Economy and World Politics (IWVWW), Reports, Volume 17, No. 176/177, 2007, pp. 94–113.
  6. ↑ Helga E. Hörz, Herbert Hörz: Is egoism immoral? Basics of a neo-modern ethic. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2013, pp. 207-214, ISBN 978-3-86464-038-4 .
  7. ^ Herbert Hörz: Marxist philosophy and natural sciences. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin; Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1974, 2nd edition 1976. Russian: Progress Verlag, Moscow 1982. Current foreword from 2016: Philosophy: Declaration of the world and heuristics of scientific knowledge.
  8. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Is Marxism Still Up-to-Date? - Experiences, analyzes, points of view. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2016, Section II.5: The dispute about isms, pp. 75–79, ISBN 978-3-86464-106-0 .
  9. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Materialistic Dialectic. Current thinking tool for shaping the future. trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89626-931-7 .
  10. ^ Herbert Hörz: The dialectical determinism in nature and society. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1962, 2nd edition 1966, 3rd edition 1969, 4th edition 1971, 5th edition 1974. Current foreword from 2012
  11. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Driving forces and tendencies of current social development. In: Research Institute of the International Scientific Association for World Economy and World Politics (IWVWW), Reports, Volume 17, No. 174/175, 2007, pp. 90–111.
  12. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Philosophy of the time. Understanding of time in the past and present. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1989, 2nd edition 1990, ISBN 3-326-00465-6 . Current foreword from 2013
  13. ^ Herbert Hörz: Physiology and culture in the second half of the 19th century. Letters to Hermann von Helmholtz. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1994, ISBN 3-925347-30-5 .
  14. ^ Herbert Hörz: Building bridges between two cultures. Helmholtz in correspondence with humanities scholars and artists. Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1997, ISBN 3-925347-44-5 .
  15. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Natural philosophy as a heuristic? Correspondence between Hermann von Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin (William Thomson). Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-925347-56-9 .
  16. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Scientific development as a cyclical type change - foundations of a dialectical theory. In: P. v. Hoyningen-Huene, G. Hirsch (ed.): Why philosophy of science? Positions and questions on the current philosophy of science. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin; New York 1988, pp. 227-251.
  17. ↑ Herbert Hörz: Is there a new type of science in the scientific-technical revolution? In: Journal for Science Research, Vienna, 3 (1986) SN 3, pp. 25–34.
  18. ^ Herbert Hörz: Science as a process. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-05-000600-5 . Current foreword from 2013
personal data
SURNAME Hörz, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Marxist philosopher and historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart