Josef Mitterer

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Josef Mitterer (* 1948 in Westendorf ) is an Austrian philosopher and retired associate professor at the Institute for Philosophy at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt .

He studied psychology and sociology in Innsbruck and Linz as well as philosophy in Graz with "trips" to the London School of Economics, to Heidelberg and to Dubrovnik. In 1976 Mitterer stayed with Paul Feyerabend in Berkeley, where he developed the "non-dualizing speech". In 1978 he did his doctorate at the University of Graz under Rudolf Haller. Mitterer then worked in tourism as a tour guide in Europe, the USA and Asia, his experiences later flowed into the essay The Reality of Travel . Mitterer has been teaching philosophy at the University of Klagenfurt since 1990, and has held visiting lectureships in Innsbruck and Laibach. Most important publications: The Beyond Philosophy (³2000); The escape from arbitrariness (²2001); The direction of thinking (in preparation).

Mitterer's main work Das Jenseits der Philosophie was written between 1973 and 1978, but was not published until 1992 in the “Edition Passagen”.

In this book, based on his dissertation, Mitterer develops a non-dualistic epistemology that dispenses with the categorical distinction between language and language-different reality. In Escape from Arbitrariness (2001), his habilitation thesis, he critically examines the goal of knowledge of truth.

The effect: In Austria, the Salzburg media scientist Stefan Weber has been studying Mitterer's philosophy for several years (habilitation thesis Non-dualistic Media Theory , University of Vienna, 2005 as well as numerous other publications on the subject). Mitterer's philosophy is also a topic in the more recent distinction-theoretic constructivism of Siegfried J. Schmidt (University of Münster). At the University of Toruń (Poland), Krzysztof Abriszewski and Ewa Binczyk deal with the “non-dualizing way of speaking”.

Non-dualism

The non-dualism or the so-called "non-dualizing speech" is an alternative to three commonalities of thinking that, according to Josef Mitterer, can be found in all essential scientific traditions of thought. These three basic consensus are:

  1. A categorical distinction between language and language-different reality, between descriptions and objects with different descriptions, between talking about the world and the world itself, etc. - regardless of whether language depicts or constructs reality, whether the relationship between sign and referent is arbitrary or not etc.
  2. The orientation of our cognitive efforts on a correspondence between these two elements: between language and reality, between description and object, between speech and world - regardless of whether the successful correspondence is referred to as "true knowledge" or merely a viability of the knowledge in the constructed reality is spoken.
  3. The direction of our cognitive endeavors towards the object of knowledge, towards the world: philosophers think about the world; refer to objects, things or items; they talk about reality.

(For details on points 1 to 3, see Mitterer 2001, p. 16 ff.)

According to Mitterer, these three similarities can be found at least as “residual quantities” or minimal ontologies in post-structuralist, relativistic or (radical) constructivist theories of knowledge. The following scheme is thus the lowest common denominator of both realistic and constructivist theory building:

Categorical distinction in dualism:

  • LANGUAGE : Reference as an illustration or construction to ...
  • REALITY : Agreement of both members as truth or viability.

Josef Mitterer has in the hereafter philosophy developed a mindset alternative, which dispenses with the categorical distinction between language and reality and our descriptions are not in the objects relate , but objects out . The objects (i.e. the reality or the world) are only defined as the sum of the descriptions that have been made so far , as descriptions so far . A new description of an object ( i.e. a description from now on ) changes the object of the description (i.e. the sum of the basic consensual descriptions so far ) by the same description. Descriptions so far do not fail because of objects (or because of an unrecognizable but resistant reality), but because of new descriptions from now on . A recourse to the object to check a description in question is therefore not possible. Our conventional logic is thus reversed "by 180 degrees":

Unity of descriptions & objects in non-dualism:

  • OBJECTS : Sum of the descriptions so far becomes the starting point / basic consensus for ...
  • DESCRIPTIONS :… new descriptions from now on

In non-dualism, asserting the priority of an object before specifying the object is only possible after specifying the object. If the dualistic philosophy claims that the object is given before the object is specified, the object is specified with it. Mitterer claims that this infinite regress has hardly been noticed in previous philosophy , because the language-different object was assumed in almost all philosophical currents.

Works

  • The beyond of philosophy . Against the dualistic principle of knowledge. Passagen-Verlag, Vienna 1992. ISBN 3-85165-016-6 .
  • The escape from arbitrariness . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag No. 14929, Frankfurt / M. 2001. ISBN 3-596-14929-0 .
  • Theo Hug / Michael Schorner / Josef Mitterer (eds.): Ernst von Glasersfeld Archive . Opening - inauguration. innsbruck university press, Innsbruck 2013. ISBN 978-3-902936-17-2 .

literature

  • Weber, Stefan (2005): Non-dualistic media theory. A philosophical foundation . Constance: UVK.
  • Riegler, Alexander & Weber, Stefan (eds.) (2008): The Non-dualizing Philosophy of Josef Mitterer . Special Issue of Constructivist Foundations 3 (3) [1] .
  • Riegler, Alexander & Weber, Stefan (ed.) (2010): The Third Philosophy. Critical contributions to Josef Mitterer's non-dualism . Weilerswist: Velbrück Science.
  • Riegler, Alexander & Weber, Stefan (eds.) (2013): Non-dualism: A Conceptual Revision? Special Issue of Constructivist Foundations 8 (2) [2] .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mitterer, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Westendorf