Herbert Stachowiak

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Herbert Stachowiak (born May 28, 1921 in Berlin ; † June 9, 2004 in Berlin) was a German philosopher . From 1973 to 1986 he taught as a full professor at the University of Paderborn .

Life

After completing commercial training in the aircraft industry, Stachowiak graduated from secondary school in 1941. He continued to work in industry and as a teacher at an evening school before he was drafted into military service in 1944. From 1946 he studied mathematics, physics and philosophy in Berlin, first at what is now the Humboldt University and later at the Free University, which was re-established in 1948 because of the political conditions in the west of the city. In 1956 he received his doctorate. phil. with a dissertation on the basics of mathematics. From 1949 to 1973 he was the owner and director of a private evening high school in Berlin. In 1949 he was one of the founders of the RIAS Radio University and gave regular lectures on scientific, philosophical and cultural-political topics.

After teaching assignments and a substitute chair, he was appointed adjunct professor at the Free University of Berlin in 1971. In 1973, he was appointed to Paderborn for scientific and planning theory. From 1973 to 1977 he was on leave and at the same time director of the North Rhine-Westphalian Research and Development Center for Objectified Teaching and Learning Processes (FEoLL), where he a. a. worked with Helmar Frank and Miloš Lánský . Since 1973 he was married to Brigitte Stachowiak-Prästel, who also participated in his scientific work.

Herbert Stachowiak died in Berlin in 2004 at the age of 83. His grave is in the forest cemetery in Zehlendorf .

plant

At the age of 26, stud. math. nat. Herbert Stachowiak gave a speech at the 1st Dies Academicus of the Student Council of the University of Berlin in 1947 on "The Scientific Ideal of Academic Youth". With this speech he predetermined the main features of his scientific life. Science has to face the tension between the purposeless search for truth and the ethical obligation to humane living conditions. Science must also consider value problems, and it must not allow itself to be drawn into service by flat utility interests and inhuman claims to power. Science strives for truth, but in critical reflection it must consider “that truth only ever exists from a model perspective”.

Since the 1950s, the model perspective has received a strong boost from the new knowledge program of cybernetics ( Norbert Wiener ) and systems theory ( Ludwig von Bertalanffy ), which can be characterized as a model scientific approach. Logically, Stachowiak's first monograph is called “Thinking and recognizing in the cybernetic model” (1965). He generalized and systematized the model concept in the standard work “General Model Theory” (1973). All knowledge is therefore knowledge in models. Models are images of “reality” that necessarily shorten what is depicted. How the models are formed depends on the model designer, their historical and social situation, and their knowledge or design interests. In addition to the depiction and the abbreviation feature, it is especially the pragmatic feature that determines how models are used. That is why Stachowiak undertakes a broad, critical inventory of pragmatic philosophy and conceives a "systematic neopragmatism". This is reflected in the impressive collection of "Pragmatik" (5 volumes, 1986–1995), which, annotated by the editor and classified in the overall concept, includes around one hundred well-known authors (including Paul Feyerabend, Jürgen Habermas, Peter Janich, Hans Lenk, Jürgen Mittelstraß, Anatol Rapoport) gives the floor.

Herbert Stachowiak was an independent thinker and has no academic "picture book career" to show. In essence, committed to a rational and critical philosophy, he himself did not form a “school” and was not included by any of the relevant “schools”. In his basic undogmatic attitude, he tried to integrate parts of these school opinions into his mindset, but did not always meet with approval from colleagues. So, despite its impressive breadth, coherence and modernity, its philosophy has so far been received only very inadequately.

Publications

In addition to more than 200 articles in magazines and edited volumes, Stachowiak u. a. published the following books:

  • Thinking and recognizing in the cybernetic model, Vienna / New York: Springer 1965
  • Rationalism in the Origin, Vienna / New York: Springer 1971
  • General model theory, Vienna / New York: Springer 1973
  • Needs, values ​​and norms in change (Ed. M. Th. Ellwein, Th. Herrmann and K. Stapf), 2 volumes, Munich: Fink 1982 a. Paderborn: Schöningh 1982
  • Problem-solving operator social science, application-oriented models of social and planning sciences in their effectiveness problems (Ed. With Norbert Müller), 2 volumes, Stuttgart: Enke 1987
  • Pragmatik: Handbuch Pragmatischen Denkens (Ed.), 5 volumes, Hamburg: Meiner 1986–1995; Licensed edition Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1997

Herbert Stachowiak's academic legacy has been part of the manuscript collection and estate department of the Berlin State Library since 2010.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary of the University of Paderborn
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 640.
  3. ↑ Cf. the report by Ekkehard Höxtermann: On the scientific ideal of Mr. stud. math. nat. Herbert Stachowiak, [1] Edition 1. Retrieved June 19, 2012. Speech manuscript in Nachlass 506 (Herbert Stachowiak), Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
personal data
SURNAME Stachowiak, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 2004
Place of death Berlin