Philosophy in Switzerland

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Philosophy has existed in Switzerland since the Middle Ages . In the early modern period , Basel was an intellectual center. At the time of the Enlightenment , bilingual Swiss scholars played a mediating role.

The question of a Swiss philosophy was raised in 1945 and has always been denied since then: there is no Swiss philosophy in the sense of an independent trend or school. The philosophy practiced in Switzerland can be seen as part of the European or as part of the German-speaking and French-speaking philosophy.

history

middle Ages

The Benedictine monk Notker Labeo worked in the Prince Abbey of St. Gallen in the 10th and 11th centuries . He is the first Aristotle commentator of the Middle Ages. His translations into Old High German shape the philosophical terminology in German-speaking countries. The Engelberg Abbey School was active in the 12th and 13th centuries . The abbot Frowin , inspired by Pierre Abelard , dealt with the problem of free will .

Erasmus of Rotterdam painted by Hans Holbein the Younger (1523)

Renaissance and Humanism

In the early modern period, i.e. H. in the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Renaissance , Basel was an intellectual center. In 1460 the University of Basel is founded with four faculties (artist faculty, law, medical and theological faculty). The humanists Erasmus von Rotterdam , Sebastian Münster and Simon Grynaeus , and the doctor and mystic Paracelsus from Einsiedeln teach here .

Modern times

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, pastel by Maurice Quentin de La Tour , 1753
Julie Bondeli

Swiss scholars played a mediating role in the Enlightenment. For example Beat Ludwig von Muralt from Bern with his "Lettres sur les Anglais et les Français et sur les Voyages" (1725), Johann Jakob Scheuchzer with his correspondence and Johann Heinrich Meister with his collaboration with the " Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique " contributed to the European exchange of ideas.

Epistemology : Johann Heinrich Lambert , philosopher and mathematician of Mulhouse , the one time facing site was the Confederation, developed in confrontation with Locke and Wolff a rationalist epistemology and thus influenced Kant, with whom he was a lively correspondence. Lambert is known for proving the irrationality of the number pi .

Social philosophy and pedagogy : Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who was born in Geneva, shaped pedagogy with his educational novel Émile and, with the social contract, shaped political philosophy as well as political development. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1848) from Zurich took up his thoughts on education and developed them further. The Berner Philipp Albert Stapfer (1766-1840) was interested in the ideas of Pestalozzi, was from 1792 Professor of Philology in Bern and took part in discussions with Maine de Biran part in Paris. In Bern, an intellectual group was formed around the Salonière Julie Bondeli (1732–1778), which among other things devoted itself to reading and discussing the works of Voltaire , Rousseau, Montesquieu and other enlighteners.

Natural philosophy : Charles Bonnet (1720–1793) initially devoted himself to biological research - the Charles Bonnet syndrome is named after him - but when an eye disease made further microscopic observations impossible for him, he began to devote himself to speculative research and was particularly concerned with Christianity. He wrote a treatise on survival after death ( Idées sur l'état futur des êtres vivants, ou Palingénésie philosophique , Geneva 1769) by Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) under the title "Philosophical investigation" of the evidence for the Christianity (Zurich 1771) partially translated into German. Thereupon a much-noticed letter dispute arose between Lavater and Moses Mendelssohn , which however did not lead to an agreement.

19th century

In the 19th century universities were established in Bern , Geneva , Lausanne , Neuchâtel , Friborg and Zurich. Philosophical thinking continued to be strongly influenced by spiritual directions in Germany and France. In the Catholic parts of the country, stimulated by a circular from Leo XIII. from 1879 on Catholic middle schools and theological faculties, neo-Scholastic (Thomistic) philosophy.

Natural philosophy : Ignaz Paul Vitalis Troxler (1780–1866) was a student of Schelling and Hegel . Chased away from the University of Basel by the people, he came to Bern in 1834 and became the first professor of philosophy at the newly founded University of Bern . Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881), also a student of Schelling, was professor of philosophy in Geneva from 1854 until his death.

Benjamin Constant

State theory : Benjamin Constant (1767–1830) wrote writings on the theory of the state and thus became a co-founder of liberalism . One of the earliest critics of capitalism was Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842).

Historicism : The Basel humanist and cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) represented historicism . From 1869 to 1879 Friedrich Nietzsche was Professor of Classical Philology in Basel .

Theory of Science : From 1870 to 1872 Friedrich Albert Lange , the founder of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism , taught at the University of Zurich. The founder and representative of empirical criticism was the German philosopher Richard Avenarius (1843–1896), who taught at the University of Zurich from 1877. August Stadler (1850-1910) was a neo-Kantian epistemological and scientific theorist at the ETH Zurich .

Linguistics and philosophy of language : The work of the Geneva linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) was of fundamental importance for the development of structuralism . Anton Marty (1847–1914) became ecclesiastical professor of philosophy at the Schwyz College in 1869 , in 1872 he left Switzerland and in 1875 became professor at the newly founded University of Chernivtsi . In 1880 he came to the Charles University in Prague . His studies on language functions had a great influence on Karl Bühler and Edmund Husserl .

Philosophy and theology : The interest in the question of the relationship between philosophy and theology led to the establishment of two journals: in 1868 the Revue de théologie et de philosophie founded by French-speaking Swiss philosophers and theologians, and in 1886 the yearbook for speculative theology , which was published in 1914 the name Divus Thomas and in 1954 the current name of the Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie .

20th century

The first female professor : The Russian-Swiss philosopher Anna Tumarkin (1875–1951) became honorary professor in 1906 and an associate professor at the University of Bern in 1908. She was the first female professor in Europe who had the right to examine doctoral and post-doctoral candidates.

Existential philosophy and anthropology : Paul Häberlin (1878–1960) from Basel is regarded as a representative of existential philosophy. Häberlin was a professor in Bern from 1912 to 1922 - his successor was Carlo Sganzini (professor from 1923 to 1943) - and from 1922 to 1948 professor in Basel. Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) succeeded him and was professor from 1948 to 1961. His student, Jeanne Hersch, was professor of philosophy in Geneva from 1962 to 1977. Jaspers's personal assistant from 1962 to 1969 was Hans Saner from Bern (1934–2017 ). Saner managed Jasper's estate. Another existential philosopher at the University of Basel was Heinrich Barth , the brother of the well-known theologian Karl Barth . Adolf Portmann (1897–1982), professor of zoology in Basel from 1931, published works on philosophical anthropology.

Bust of Jean Piaget in the Park des Bastions in Geneva

Developmental Psychology : Jean Piaget (1896–1980) from Geneva is considered one of the pioneers of modern developmental psychology . From 1929 to 1954 he was professor of psychology at the University of Geneva and founded the Center International d'Epistemologie. His epistemological approach differed from the behaviorism that was prevalent at the time .

Logic and analytical philosophy : Ferdinand Gonseth (1890–1975) from Bern was a mathematician and philosopher and from 1929 to 1960 at the ETH Zurich. In 1947 he founded the journal Dialectica together with Gaston Bachelard and Paul Bernays . The logician Joseph Maria Bocheński (1902–1995) was professor for the history of philosophy in the 20th century at the University of Freiburg from 1945 to 1972. Bochenski is the founder of the Eastern Europe Institute in Freiburg. Other Swiss logicians are: Guido Küng, Evandro Agazzi, Henri Wermus, Jean-Blais Grize, Denis Miéville, Marie-Jeanne Borel.

Ethics and political philosophy : Denis de Rougemont (1906–1985). Arnold Künzli (1919–2008) was Professor of Political Philosophy in Basel from 1972–1984 . The German philosopher Otfried Höffe (* 1943) taught in Freiburg from 1978. From 1981 to 2001, the German philosopher Annemarie Pieper (* 1941), a representative of existential philosophy , was a professor in Basel. Further representatives: Hermann Lübbe , Georg Kohler , Urs Marti .

History of philosophy : Numerous philosophers deal with the history of philosophy, including Fernand Brunner (* 1920), born in Lausanne, from 1954 professor in Neuchâtel, Gerhard Huber from Basel (* 1920), from 1956 professor at ETH Zurich, André-Jean Voelke ( * 1925) from 1976 in Lausanne, Gerhard Seel (1940), professor in Neuchâtel from 1982, later in Berne until 2005, Andreas Graeser (1942–2014), professor of philosophy in Berne 1979–2007, the classical philologist Olof Gigon , who as The translator of Platonic dialogues became known, Rafael Ferber , the Lucerne Ruedi Imbach (* 1946), from 1979 to 2000 professor for philosophy of the Middle Ages in Freiburg, since 2000 in Paris. A special project is the revision of the outline of the history of philosophy founded by Friedrich Ueberweg , which is published by Helmut Holzhey .

Swiss people outside Switzerland : Several well-known Swiss philosophers are active outside Switzerland, including Peter Bieri (Berlin), Dominik Perler (Berlin), Ruedi Imbach (Paris), Walther Christoph Zimmerli (Cottbus), Andreas Urs Sommer (Freiburg).

Other : Henri Lauener , Professor of Philosophy in Bern from 1973 to 2002, made a significant contribution to the development of philosophy in Switzerland: In dealing with Quine's philosophy, he developed the "open transcendental philosophy", was editor of Dialectica and organized between 1973 and 1993 a series of congresses in Bern and Biel attended by leading philosophers from all over the world, notably Quine and Davidson .

Founding of societies and magazines : The Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie became the organ of the Société romande de Philosophie, founded in 1928 . This merged in 1940 to form the Swiss Philosophical Society . This publishes a yearbook that has been called Studia Philosophica since 1946 . In 1947 Bachelard, Gonseth and Bernays founded the internationally renowned journal Dialectica . In 1948, on the initiative of F. Fiala, S. Gagnebin and EJ Walter, the Swiss Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science was founded in Zurich.

Todays situation

research

Philosophical research takes place mainly in universities. There are approx. 40 chairs. A degree in philosophy can be completed at eight universities (Basel, Bern, Friborg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, Zurich).

Lake Geneva Region (Région lémanique)

Espace Mittelland

Northwestern Switzerland

Zurich

Central Switzerland

Ticino (Ticino)

Eastern Switzerland

Societies and magazines

The largest society is the Swiss Philosophical Society (SGP). It unites several regional philosophical societies, which continuously organize public lecture series, and the Swiss Association of Philosophy Teachers in Middle Schools . The Swiss Philosophical Society organizes a national symposium every two years. The organ of the society is the journal Studia Philosophica .

Other societies are the Swiss Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science , the Swiss Association for Legal and Social Philosophy , and the Lauener Foundation , whose purpose is to award prizes for outstanding achievements in analytical philosophy.

Other journals are: Revue de théologie et de philosophie , Freiburg journal for philosophy and theology , Dialectica (organ of the European Society for Philosophy ESAP ) and Journal of Didactics of Philosophy . From 2000 to 2010, Facta Philosophica was also published .

Philosophy classes in schools

Philosophy in Middle Schools

Engelberg Abbey School

Teaching philosophy at secondary schools has a long tradition in Switzerland. It goes back to the Middle Ages, for example in the Engelberg Abbey School or the Abbey School in Einsiedeln Abbey . The importance of philosophy varies depending on the canton. Two factors play a role, religion (Catholic or Reformed) and language (French or German). In the predominantly Catholic cantons such as Valais, Friborg, Lucerne, Nidwalden and others, the status is higher. It is also higher in the mostly French-speaking cantons such as Geneva, Vaud and Neuchâtel, which tend to be oriented towards France in terms of education. Philosophy was and is a compulsory subject in these cantons. In the predominantly Protestant and German-speaking cantons such as Zurich, Bern and Aargau, philosophy was only available as an optional subject.

With the educational reform, which led to the new Matura Recognition Regulations (MAR) of February 15, 1995, the tendency of the differences remained. Philosophy is a compulsory subject in mostly Catholic or French-speaking cantons, but not in the others. Nevertheless, there was also a big change: Philosophy was introduced as a part together with psychology / pedagogy as a main subject ( philosophy / psychology / pedagogy ) and as a supplementary subject.

In 2006 the Swiss Philosophy Olympiad was held for the first time as a qualifying competition for the International Philosophy Olympiad .

Philosophy in elementary school

There is no philosophy in elementary school. However, philosophy is part of the school subject ethics, religions and cultures. In the area of philosophizing with children, there are various initiatives outside of school. Eva Zoller did pioneering work here.

Publicity

Compared to Germany (including Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , Jürgen Habermas ), the USA (including Noam Chomsky ) and France (including Jean-Paul Sartre , Michel Foucault ) in Switzerland, philosophers and intellectuals in general have little media impact on socio-political issues. Exceptions are, among other things, the social criticism by Hans Saner , the contributions to animal ethics by Klaus Petrus or the political statements by Georg Kohler .

National and cantonal ethics committees have been set up in which not only philosophers but also doctors, lawyers and theologians are represented.

Philosophy has been offered in philosophical practices for several years . Detlef Staude is the best known head of such a practice in Switzerland.

Swiss television has been producing the Sternstunde Philosophie program since 1994 . It is moderated by Barbara Bleisch and Yves Bossart , among others .

There are various festivals for philosophy. The Biel Philosophy Days have been held every two years since 2001. For several years now, the long night of philosophy has been organized in various cities on UNESCO World Philosophy Day. The Zurich Philosophy Festival has been held annually since 2018 . The Basel Philosophy Days have been held every three years since 2018.

See also

literature

General

Basel

  • Wolfgang Rother : On the history of the Basel university philosophy in the 17th century . In: History of Universities 2 (1982) pp. 153-191, ISSN  0144-5138 .
  • Wolfgang Rother : German authors in Basel philosophical disputations 1600–1700 . In: Ulrich Im Hof, Suzanne Stehelin (ed.): The Empire and the Confederation 1580–1650. Cultural interactions in the denominational age . Universitätsverlag, Freiburg 1986, pp. 77-99, ISBN 3-7278-0348-7 .
  • Emil Angehrn , Wolfgang Rother (ed.): Philosophy in Basel. Prominent thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries . Schwabe, Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-7965-2602-2 .

Zurich

  • Wolfgang Rother : The Teaching of Philosophy at Seventeenth-Century Zurich . In: History of Universities 11 (1992) pp. 59-74, ISSN  0144-5138 .

To philosophy class

  • JG Senti, On Philosophy Lessons in Switzerland, Journal for Didactics of Philosophy, 1/1979, pp. 158–161.
  • Heinz Kleger / Alois Müller, What is philosophy at high school? Gymnasium Helveticum, volume 3/1984, pp. 119-132
  • Johann G. Senti / Guido Staub, La formation gymnasiale et l'enseignement de la philosophie, Gymnasium Helveticum, Sauerländer, volume 3/1984, pp. 134-138.
  • Ch. Dejung, Philosophy in Zurich Schools ?, Helveticum High School, issue 4/1991.
  • PR Bürcher, Philosophy lessons in Central Switzerland as reflected in the curriculum, Gymnasium Helveticum, issue 4/1991.
  • B. Bernardi, L'insegnamento della filosofia nei Licei del Cantone Ticino
  • B. Bleisch, “Socratic heritage on the lesson table. Difficult state of philosophy at secondary schools », in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 19, 2001, 97.
  • J. Pfister, “La philosophie dans l'enseignement secondaire en Suisse”, Côté Philo 7, 33–36. Web link
  • J. Pfister, Suisse: les Olympiades de philosophie dans l'enseignement, Diotime 41 07/2009 web link
  • J. Pfister, Philosophy Didactics. 2nd edition, Bern: Haupt, 2014, pp. 124–125.
  • N. Frieden, La situation de l'enseignement de la philosophie en Suisse et son évolution dans les dix dernières années, Diotime 62 10/2014 Weblink

Web links

Societies

Magazines

Rows

Philosophy outside the university

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Andreas Graeser - is no more. In: matte.ch. Retrieved October 8, 2014 .