Norbert Hoerster

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Norbert Hoerster (born March 15, 1937 in Lingen ) is a German lawyer and philosopher who deals in particular with questions of legal philosophy , ethics and the philosophy of religion . From 1974 to 1998 he taught legal and social philosophy at the University of Mainz .

Study and job

Hoerster studied law and philosophy at various German and foreign universities . In 1960 he passed the first state examination at the Hamm Higher Regional Court , and in 1963 he graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of Arts degree in philosophy .

1964 doctorate he attended the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster for Dr. jur. , 1967 at the Ruhr University Bochum for Dr. phil. In 1967 and 1968 he was a lecturer at the University of Michigan and was able to undertake a research stay at the University of Oxford . After his habilitation at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in 1972, he received a chair for legal and social philosophy at the University of Mainz in 1974 .

In the area of ​​active and passive euthanasia , when dealing with embryos and severely damaged newborns as well as embryo research, Hoerster took positions similar to those of the Australian ethicist Peter Singer , some of which are highly controversial in Germany. As a result, he was confronted with increasing hostility, which came to a head in 1997 that his events were disrupted and in some cases even had to be placed under police protection. In response to protests against his theses on bioethics , Hoerster took early retirement in 1998.

Positions

Hoerster rejects the concept of human dignity as a criterion of ethics, since this concept is an empty formula with which any values ​​can be connected. Instead, he advocates an ethic of interests , according to which not dignity but the elementary interests of humans (and to a certain extent animals) are to be protected.

Hoerster does not see an interest in survival of not yet born children as given. Therefore, in his opinion, the human right to life basically begins with birth. Accordingly, he rejects the sanctioning of abortions , pre- implantation diagnostics and embryo research .

Hoerster calls for active euthanasia to be permitted if an incurably ill person wishes it on the basis of mature, judicious and enlightened consideration . But he also considers euthanasia to be justified in the case of severely damaged newborns; he justifies this with the fact that such euthanasia is in the well-understood interests of these newborns.

Norbert Hoerster's legal philosophy is committed to H.LA Hart's legal positivism and analytical philosophy . In the German-speaking world, he is currently the most prominent supporter of the positivist neutrality thesis , according to which the concept of law must be defined in such a way that it remains neutral towards moral postulates. For Hoerster, the neutrality thesis follows from the requirement of conceptual clarity, which is at the center of analytical philosophy. According to the neutrality thesis, he rejects the so-called Radbruch formula , according to which extremely unjust laws can no longer be called law.

Hoerster is therefore in an argumentative contrast to Robert Alexy , who, according to Hoerster, is the most prominent supporter of Radbruch's formula and the nonpositivist connection thesis within the current German-language legal philosophical discussion . According to Hoerster, a distinction must be made between the neutrality thesis and the compliance thesis, according to which every existing legal norm deserves to be followed without further ado. In this context, Hoerster considers Hans Kelsen's thesis incorrect , according to which substantive requirements for the law cannot be objectively justified.

In his religious philosophy, Hoerster, following David Hume , tends to take a skeptical position. Like John Leslie Mackie or Richard Swinburne , he is of the opinion that the question of the existence of a monotheistic God can be discussed in a rational way. However, he did not believe that the existing moral and natural evils of the world could be reconciled with the existence of an all-good and all-powerful God. In addition, the arguments usually used for the existence of God - from the so-called proofs of God to the religious experiences of some people - are inadequate.

Functions

Hoerster is co-editor of the journal Enlightenment and Criticism of the Society for Critical Philosophy Nuremberg as well as a member of the scientific advisory board of the Humanist Academy of Bavaria and from 2004 to 2011 of the advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation .

In 2008 he was awarded the Ludwig Feuerbach Prize for his criticism of the Church , which is awarded by the Bund für Geistes Freiheits (Augsburg).

Fonts (in selection)

  • Failure to observe the obstacles to marital adultery of foreign rights under German IPR with regard to the inapplicability of foreign criminal law. Dissertation, 1964.
  • The argument of generalization. Dissertation, 1967.
  • Utilitarian Ethics and Generalization. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1971, ISBN 3-495-47217-7 .
  • Texts on ethics. DTV, Munich 1975 (Ed., Together with Dieter Birnbacher ).
  • Law and morality. Texts on legal philosophy. Reclam, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-15-008389-3 .
  • Abortion in the secular state. 1991.
  • Newborns and the Right to Life. 1995.
  • Euthanasia in the secular state. 1998, ISBN 3-518-28977-2 .
  • Classical texts on the philosophy of the state. DTV, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-30147-3 .
  • Ethics of embryo protection. A legal philosophical essay. Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-018186-0 .
  • Ethics and interest. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018278-6 .
  • Do animals have dignity? Basic questions of animal ethics. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51088-4 .
  • The question of God. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-56859-6 .
  • What is right Basic questions of legal philosophy. Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54147-X .
  • What is morality A philosophical introduction. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-018575-9 .
  • What can we know Basic philosophical questions. Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60094-4 .
  • Must be punishment? Positions of Philosophy. Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-62991-4 .
  • What is a just society? A philosophical foundation. Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65293-6 .
  • How worthy of protection is the embryo? On abortion, PGD and embryo research. Velbrück, Weilerswist 2013, ISBN 978-3-942393-62-1 .
  • How can morality be established? Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66786-2 .
  • Good God and evil. A philosophical problem. Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-70567-0 .

See also

literature

  • August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who ?: The German Who's Who. Volume 40, Schmidt-Römhild, 2001, ISBN 3-7950-2032-8 , p. 608.
  • Alexander Lohner : Personality and Human Dignity. A theological examination of the theses of the “new bioethicists”. Regensburg 2000, ISBN 978-3-7917-1702-9 .

Web links

Wikibooks: Study Guide Norbert Hoerster  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Humanist Academy of Bavaria: About Us ( Memento from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Hoerster, Norbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal philosopher and social philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Lingen (Ems)