Karl Acham

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Karl Acham (born November 15, 1939 in Leoben , Styria ) is an Austrian sociologist , philosopher and science historian .

biography

After attending the Bundesrealgymnasium Leoben , Acham studied philosophy, history and German studies at the University of Graz , received his doctorate here in 1964 in philosophy ( on the problem of historicism with Wilhelm Dilthey and Martin Heidegger ) and completed his habilitation in philosophy in 1971 (on basic problems in social sciences ). After visiting professorships and visiting professorships in Hamburg and Bern as well as a first place on the list for a full professorship in philosophy at the University of Bern , he was full professor and head of the department for sociological theory , the history of ideas and science from December 1974 , and from 2005 until his Retired in September 2008 as spokesman for the research area “History and Theory of Sociology” at the Institute for Sociology at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz . Another call to a full professorship for philosophy of science at the University of Bochum in 1977 he did not obey. From 1983 to 1985 he was Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences and from 2004 to 2008 he was a member of the Academic Senate of the Karl-Franzens University in Graz.

Acham has held visiting professorships abroad on several occasions, especially at the University of Waterloo , Ontario (1987 and 1991), at Wuhan University (1991), at the University of São Paulo (1992), and at the Tsinghua University in Beijing (1997 ), at Kyōto University (2004), at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing (2005), at Mumbai University (2019), and in 1995 he was a lecturer and Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the Women's University Nara , worked at the Keiō University in Tokyo as well as at the Universities of Kyoto and Kobe. He has given numerous lectures abroad, including on extensive lecture tours as a guest of the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico in Brazil and India.

Acham was among other things from 1974 to 1987 member of the study group "Theory of History" of the Werner Reimers Foundation in Bad Homburg , from 1984 to 1990 member of the board of the General Society for Philosophy in Germany , from 1998 to 2007 member of the board of trustees of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for the Historical Institute at the Austrian Cultural Institute in Rome, 1990 expert in the working group "Economic and Social Sciences" of the German Science Council in Cologne, from 1990 to 1992 there expert in the working group "Humanities", from 1991 to 1998 member of the board of the European Forum Alpbach , from 2001 to 2005 member of the bioethics commission at the Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria and from 2006 to 2010 member of the project group and jury ( review panel ) of the HERA Joint Research Program Humanities as a Source of Creativity and Innovation . Acham has been a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 1992 and a real member since 1994.

Focus of work

  • History of ideas in philosophy and sociology
  • History of science in the human sciences
  • Philosophy of history
  • Historical sociology
  • Methodology of the humanities and social sciences
  • Sociological theory
  • Epistemology and Sociology of Knowledge
  • Sociological Anthropology
  • Ethics and social philosophy
  • Cultural philosophy and cultural sociology

Karl Acham is a philosopher , sociologist , but also a science historian and "methodologist of historical knowledge", according to the historian Jürgen Osterhammel . In this respect, he is a crossover between traditional and new thinking in philosophy and science . Acham has made a name for himself internationally as a critic of a certain variant of scientism, but also of postmodernism - in his own words: both a “hyperrationalism remote from history” and “an anti-order fetishization of the arbitrary”. Regarding the given, Acham says: “The opinion that one can fall back on the so-called facts as objective and indubitable things, on something originally 'given', does not hold up.” Hence one arrives at the “insight that it is a historian who is independent of a location, a historian without any perspective, not there. From this it follows that the attempt to specify a single perspective as the only 'objective' one is to be regarded as a failure. ”In his endeavor to establish a fruitful interrelation between the theory of history of the 19th century and the social theory and analytical philosophy of the subsequent period , he connects on various occasions with similar efforts by Max Weber, Heinrich Gomperz and Ernst Topitsch. Despite changing priorities in his extensive scientific work, Acham remains connected as a scientific theorist to a critical enlightenment. In this sense, he once remarked on the emergence of crises: "That the pathological relationship between normative and inductive expectation, between utopia and empiricism, is to be seen as constitutive for numerous crises, including those in basic scientific research."

The social philosopher Acham introduces the perspective of what has not been said in the critique of ideology : “Such things are characteristic of ideologies in their negative meaning: namely the fact that ideological thinking lags behind the insight that has already become possible, ie represents a historical regress. Ideologies are inaccurate opinions and statements, the creation, dissemination and maintenance of which are linked to social interests. What is essential in such statements is not least what has not been said, what is kept secret; Therefore, in the practice of criticizing ideology, it is often more important to pay attention to what someone does not say in view of a particular question than to what he is saying. "To today's intellectuals and scientists, he means with an ideology-critical intention:" They present themselves as' Experts' or lawyers on their own behalf in the 'war on terror' or against the 'crusaders' on the side of the true believers, whereby they then - depending on their affiliation to the political and ideological camp - for example the pretended war reasons for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 or the Islamic suicide bombings or the exaggerated reaction of Israel to Palestinian actions in terms of legal theory, politological, geostrategic, religious-sociological or otherwise are not only trying to understand but also to justify. Not infrequently there is also the endeavor to restrict or channel scientific discussions through a higher moralism, through the discourse about 'good' and 'bad'. This setting of priorities is often more a matter of power than one of moral strength. "

Initially, the publications mainly concerned topics of historical, cultural and social philosophy as well as the theory of science , while in recent years findings and fundamental problems in the history of science in the human sciences have come to the fore. Often it is about dealing with certain questions initiated by historicism, sometimes aporetic in the light of recent epistemology and science: with the relationships of change and duration, history and theory, culture and nature, understanding and explanation, particularism and Universalism, Genesis and Validity. From the beginning, Acham turned his publications to the representation and analysis of social and cultural problems in contemporary society. As a specialist in the theory and history of sociology, he endeavored not to delimit these from the theories and factual discussions of philosophy and psychology, history, law and economics, for reasons of an understandable but often inadequate claim to methodical originality and accuracy . According to him, such an orientation cannot be blamed for the frequently encountered dilemma that one has to choose between precise but trivial and important but uncertain research results.

Acham understands cultural studies as a subject area that encompasses all humanities and social sciences that deal with questions of value. In the European Union, which, along with its large-scale research, is increasingly in danger of seeing itself as an “administrative agency for economic constraints”, not only the situation of cultural studies but also that of all culturally shaped areas of life and activity threatens to become precarious. "If their [the EU] representatives have become blind to the cultural foundations and the cultural deficits of the economy, it may not just be the cultural sciences that are in bad shape." As a critical European, Acham also rejects Eurocentric distortions, but without therefore to approve of the denunciation of universalisable achievements of European thought as suspicious cosmopolitanism and neocolonialism.

Publications (selection)

Acham is editor of the book series Classical Studies on Social Science Theory, Weltanschauungslehre und Wissenschaftsforschung , 10 volumes, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1982–1996, also co-editor of the book series Schriften zur Kultursoziologie , 15 volumes, Berlin 1984–1994, Studies on Modernism , Volume 3– 24, Vienna 1998–2008, as well as people and cultures. Supplements to the Saeculum yearbook for universal history , Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2005 ff. He was also co-editor of philosophical and historical-social science journals, such as B. of past and present , and has been co-editor of the journal Archiv für Kulturgeschichte since 1980 .

There are also over 250 journal articles, articles and contributions in compilations.

  • Common sense and commitment. Socio-philosophical investigations. Vienna 1972, ISBN 3-203-50423-5
  • Analytical philosophy of history. A critical introduction . Karl Alber Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. / Munich 1974, ISBN 3-495-47238-X
  • Philosophy of the Social Sciences . Philosophy manual. Karl Alber Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. / Munich 1983, ISBN 3-495-47476-5
  • Claim to reason and pressure of expectation. Studies in a Philosophical Sociology. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1989, ISBN 3-7728-1177-9
  • History and social theory. On the complementarity of cultural studies knowledge orientations . Karl Alber Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. / Munich 1995, ISBN 3-495-47817-5
  • On the truth claims of cultural studies. Studies on the philosophy of science and ideology analysis . Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-20257-8
  • (Ed.) Methodological problems in the social sciences. (= Paths of Research, Volume CCCCXXXV), Darmstadt 1978, ISBN 3-534-06530-1
  • (Ed.) Social processes. Contributions to historical sociology and social analysis. (= Publications from the archive of the University of Graz, Volume 13), Graz 1983, ISBN 3-201-01224-6
  • (Ed.) History of the Austrian human sciences. 6 volumes, Vienna 1999–2006
    • Volume 1: Historical context, findings from the sociology of science and methodological requirements . 1999, ISBN 3-85165-388-2
    • Volume 2: Human habitat and organism . 2001, ISBN 3-85165-403-X
    • Volume 3.1: Human behavior and social institutions: attitude, social behavior, behavioral orientation . 2001, ISBN 3-85165-404-8
    • Volume 3.2: Human behavior and social institutions: economy, politics and law . 2000, ISBN 3-85165-405-6
    • Volume 4: History and Foreign Cultures . 2002, ISBN 3-85165-471-4
    • Volume 5: Language, Literature and Art . 2003, ISBN 3-85165-527-3
    • Volume 6.1: Philosophy and religion: experience, knowledge, recognition . 2004, ISBN 3-85165-567-2
    • Volume 6.2: Philosophy and religion: God, being and ought . 2006, ISBN 3-85165-609-1
  • (Ed.) Ernst Topitsch : Verifiability and arbitrariness. The author's last two essays. With a scientific appreciation and an obituary published by K. Acham. Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-205-77278-4
  • (Ed.) Art and Science from Graz. Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2007–2011
    • Volume 1: Natural science, medicine and technology from Graz. Discoveries and inventions from five centuries: from the “Mysterium cosmographicum” to direct brain-computer communication . 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77485-3 .
    • Volume 2: Art and the humanities from Graz. Works of nationally important artists and scholars: from the 15th century to the turn of the millennium . 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-77706-9
    • Volume 3: Law, social and economic sciences from Graz. Between empirical analysis and normative instructions for action: findings from the history of science from three centuries . 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-78467-8
  • (Ed.) Sociology and its neighboring disciplines in the Habsburg Empire. A compendium of international research on cultural studies in Central Europe. Edited by Karl Acham with the collaboration of Georg Witrisal, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2020, ISBN 978-3-205-20670-5
  • (Ed.) Manual of epistemological terms. 3 volumes, Göttingen 1980, ISBN 3-525-03316-8
  • (Ed.) Part and whole. On the relationship between individual and overall analysis in history and social sciences. (= Theory of History, Volume 6) (= dtv WR 4544), Munich 1990, ISBN 3-423-04544-2
  • (Ed.) Gains of knowledge, losses of knowledge. Continuities and discontinuities in economics, law and social sciences between the 20s and 50s. Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07095-8
  • (Ed.) Continuities and breaks in the middle of Europe. Life situations and interpretations of the situation in Central Europe around 1900 and around 2000. (= Studies on Modernism, Volume 18), Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-85165-564-8
  • (Ed.) The design claim of science. Awakening and disillusionment in the law, social and economic sciences on the way from the 1960s to the 1980s. Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-08795-8

Prizes and awards (extract)

Web links

Reviews

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Acham: On some unchanged current problems of the theory of historical science. In: G. Wunberg, DA Binder, ed .: Plurality. An interdisciplinary approach. (Festschrift for M. Csáky), Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1996, pp. 9–42, here p. 26
  2. Karl Acham: Reason claim and expectation pressure. Stuttgart 1989, p. 37
  3. Karl Acham: How free is science. In: Wiener Zeitung 2006
  4. ^ Karl Acham: Why cultural studies research today? In: D. Aleksandrowicz, K. Weber, ed .: Cultural studies in the field of view of determining one's position, legitimacy and self-criticism, Berlin 2007, pp. 23–45, here pp. 27ff. u. P. 43
  5. ^ Karl Acham: Cultural, political and economic concepts of order in Europe. About the possibilities and limits of their universalization in the light of recent developments in religion, science and society. In: P. Messerli, RC Schwinges, Th. Schmid, Ed .: Development Model Europe. Origin, expansion and challenge of globalization, Zurich 2011, pp. 101–125, here especially pp. 121–123
  6. Cardinal Innitzer Prize 2019 awarded to sociologist Acham. In: Kathpress .at. November 16, 2019, archived from the original on November 16, 2019 ; accessed on November 16, 2019 .