Peter Munz

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Peter Munz (born May 12, 1921 in Chemnitz , † October 14, 2006 in Wellington ) was a German-New Zealand historian .

Peter Munz emigrated to Italy in 1933 and to New Zealand in 1939. Munz was one of the few people who studied both with Karl Popper in Christchurch and with Ludwig Wittgenstein in Cambridge, where he earned his Ph.D. 1948. Munz began his academic career at Victoria University of Wellington . In 1949 he became a senior lecturer there and in 1964 an associate professor. In 1968 he became a full professor and in 1986 he retired.

In addition, Munz was an eyewitness to the only meeting between Popper and Wittgenstein, when Wittgenstein appeared in Cambridge on October 25, 1946 for a lecture by Popper at the Moral Science Club: Both Wittgenstein and Popper were feared as implacable and impatient discussants. So it is perhaps not surprising that the meeting ended with a scandal: Wittgenstein left the room loudly after a brief argument. In his autobiography Popper had provided a version of the events in which a poker , with which Wittgenstein is said to have threatened him, played a not insignificant role. Munz takes this anecdote as a starting point in one of his books "Beyond Wittgenstein's Poker: New Light on Popper and Wittgenstein" to shed light on the philosophical similarities and contradictions of these two important thinkers.

In 2004 he made a name for himself in the Australian press for his considerations to exempt incest between two responsible adults.

Fonts

  • The Place of Hooker in the History of Thought
  • Problems of Religious Knowledge
  • The Origin of the Carolingian Empire , Blackwell, Oxford 1957, with Heinrich Fichtenau
  • Relationship and Solitude: An Inquiry into the Relationship between Myth, Metaphysics and Ethics
  • Life in the Age of Charlemagne
  • Frederick Barbarossa: A Study in Medieval Politics; When the Golden Bough Breaks: Structuralism or Typology? , Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1969, Cornell University Press, Ithaca / London 1969
  • The Shapes of Time: A New Look at the Philosophy of History
  • Our Knowledge of the Growth of Knowledge: Popper or Wittgenstein?
  • Philosophical Darwinism: On the Origin of Knowledge by Means of Natural Selection
  • Beyond Wittgenstein's Poker: New Light on Popper and Wittgenstein

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Goodenough : culture - 'Legalize Incest' Suggestion Shocks Lawmakers . CNS News , May 21, 2004, archived from the original October 13, 2004 ; accessed on September 4, 2014 (English, original website no longer available).
personal data
SURNAME Munz, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-New Zealand historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2006
Place of death Wellington , New Zealand