Horace Kallen

Horace Meyer Kallen (born August 11, 1882 in Bernstadt, Silesia (now Bierutów ), † February 16, 1974 in Palm Beach , Florida ) was a Jewish - American philosopher .

Son of an Orthodox rabbi , Kallen came to the United States as a child in 1887. He received his BA in 1903 and Ph.D. in 1908, both from Harvard University . He taught philosophy there until 1911, then until 1918 at the University of Wisconsin . In 1919 he became a professor at the newly founded New School for Social Research in New York .

As a pluralist, Kallen was critical of all extreme simplifications of philosophical and social problems. In his opinion, rejection of the complex and difficult leads to reinforcement rather than resolution, just as rejection of a terrible reality creates terrible things.

With others, he argued that cultural diversity and national pride do not contradict each other. Hence, ethnic diversity and respect for other races and peoples would strengthen the United States. The formation of the expression "cultural pluralism" is ascribed to him.

At the end of the 1940s, Kallen was a co-initiator of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., JCR, which, after preparatory work since August 1944, was given the task by virtue of occupation law from 1947 to sell ownerless and heirless Jewish cultural assets in Germany (especially the American occupation zone ), in particular To track down and secure books, entire libraries and ritual objects in their storage locations. The initiator of this action was Salo W. Baron , other well-known employees, also in the actual seizure, were Hannah Arendt , Gershom Scholem , Judah Magnes and Max Weinreich .

Selected Works

Some of his works:

• Decline and rise of the consumer. 1936.
• Art and Freedom. 1942.
• Modernity and Liberty. 1947.
• The Liberal Spirit. 1948.
• Ideals and Experience. 1948.
• The Education of Free Men. 1950.
• Patterns of Progress . 1950.
• Cultural Pluralism and the American Idea. 1956.
• Utopians at Bay. 1958.
• Liberty, Laughter, and Tears. 1968.

swell

• John F. Oppenheimer (Red.) And a .: Lexicon of Judaism. 2nd Edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh u. a. 1971, ISBN 3-570-05964-2 , col. 361.
• Sarah Ann Schmidt: Horace M. Kallen. Prophet of American Zionism. Brooklyn NY 1995.
• Milton R. Konvitz, ed .: The Legacy of Horace M. Kallen. Cranbury 1987.

notes

1. ^ Elisabeth Gallas : Cultural Heritage and Legal Recognition. The JCR after World War II, in Stefanie Schüler-Springorum , Ed .: Yearbook for Research on Antisemitism , 22. Metropol, Berlin 2013 ISBN 3863311558 pp. 34–56. Readable in online retail.