Karl Joël (philosopher)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Joël (also Carl, also Joel; born March 27, 1864 in Hirschberg / Silesia ; † July 23, 1934 in Walenstadt / Switzerland) was a German philosopher .

Life

Karl Joël was born on March 27, 1864 to a rabbi family in Hirschberg (Silesia). His uncles, David and Manuel Joël , were both well-known researchers in Jewish religion and philosophy. Karl Joël attended high school in Hirschberg and received a humanistic education there. At the age of 18 he began studying philosophy in Breslau, where Wilhelm Dilthey was teaching at the time . After two semesters, Joël moved to Leipzig. There he received his doctorate in 1886 with the work on the knowledge of intellectual development and the literary motifs of Plato .

After graduation, he went to the University of Strasbourg and continued to study ancient philosophy. In 1893 he completed his habilitation at the University of Basel. He applied for a professorship in Germany five times without success. His first major work, The Real and the Xenophontic Socrates, found recognition from the Basel classical philologist Georg Ferdinand Dümmler , which may have resulted in Joël being appointed to the University of Basel in 1897 . Joël became an associate professor there in 1897 and a full professor in 1902. In 1913 he was elected rector of the University of Basel. During his time in Basel he dealt not only with ancient philosophy, but also other subjects, and his philosophical approach showed a clear inclination towards the philosophy of life . This is how his main work, Seele und Welt , came into being in 1912 , in which his approach to life philosophy is most clearly shown.

After the appearance of the soul and the world , his philosophy showed other tendencies. His work Reason in History , written in 1917, was influenced by the First World War . His later works, The History of Ancient Philosophy and Changes in Worldview, are based on the philosophy of history and received great attention at the time.

As a Jew, he was deeply affected by the rise of National Socialism . In 1934 Joël died of a stroke and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Basel . He left most of his library to the National and University Library of Jerusalem.

philosophy

In his main work, Soul and World , Joël presents his organic approach, which depicts the whole world as an organic structure. The then new discovery from the field of physics that colors or tones consist of compositions of vibrations prompted Joël to explain the whole world as an organism . He interprets perception as a composition of sensations, thinking as a composition of optical impressions. He sees the world as a dynamic process and denies both the materialistic and the idealistic approach. In this work, he often applied new insights such as evolutionary theory , experimental psychology and electrodynamics to his philosophy. The influences of Georg Simmel and Arthur Schopenhauer are clearly visible. He was closely related to the circle of the 'Tatwelt' of the Euckenbund in Jena and also wrote the memorial to Rudolf Eucken on their behalf .

Works

  • On the knowledge of the intellectual development and the literary motives of Plato , 1887.
  • The real and the xenophontic Socrates , 1892.
  • Paths of Philosophers , 1901.
  • Nietzsche and Romanticism , 1905.
  • Origin of natural philosophy from the spirit of mysticism , 1906.
  • Free will. A Development in Conversations , 1908.
  • Soul and world, attempt at an organic conception , 1912.
  • Reason in History , 1917.
  • Karl Joël. In: Schmidt, Raymond (ed.), The philosophy of the present in self-portrayals , 1921.
  • History of Ancient Philosophy , 1 volume, 1921.
  • The Ethos of Rudolf Euckens , 1927.
  • Changes in Weltanschauung , 2 vol., 1928–34.

literature

  • Steffen Dietzsch : Nietzsche and Romanticism. Karl Joël in Basel. In: Ders .: Changing times. Thought experiments. Manutius-Verlag, Heidelberg 2010, pp. 104–126.
  • Michael Landmann:  Joël, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , pp. 455 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wolfgang Rother: Karl Joël - Between Philosophical Crisis and New World Culture. In: Wolfgang Rother / Emil Angehrn (ed.): Philosophy in Basel. Prominent thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Schwabe, Basel 2011, pp. 62–85.
  • Joël, Karl. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 13: Jaco-Kerr. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-22693-4 , pp. 98-103.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Joël, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joel, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Hirschberg / Silesia
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1934
Place of death Walenstadt