Rainer E. Zimmermann

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Rainer E. Zimmermann (2014)

Rainer Ernst Zimmermann (born November 9, 1951 in Berlin ) is a philosopher and natural scientist. His research areas are metaphysics and natural philosophy , philosophy of science (in relation to theories of quantum gravity ) and their ethical consequences. Some of his focal points are discourse theories of spaces, networks and (evolutionary) systems and their application to the concrete design of urban social spaces.

Life

After graduating from the Robert-Blum-Gymnasium in Berlin-Schöneberg in 1971, Zimmermann first studied physics and mathematics at the TU Berlin , later as a DAAD scholarship holder at Imperial College London (1973/74), where he obtained the Diploma of Imperial College ( DIC) in mathematical physics , and finally at the Free University of Berlin , where he graduated in 1975 with a physics diploma and obtained his doctorate in mathematics in 1977 . He then studied philosophy, history and literary studies at the TU Berlin and also received his doctorate in philosophy in 1988.

He was offered a professorship for philosophy at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich in 1995. In 1998 he completed his habilitation in the field of natural philosophy at the University of Kassel . From 2000 to 2005 he was head of the Kassel team as part of an INTAS cooperation with Vienna, Kiev and Moscow. In winter 1999/2000 he was visiting professor at Cambridge University . Zimmermann is still a life member of Clare Hall (Cambridge University). In 2003 he was a visiting professor at the Istituto di Studi Avanzati at the University of Bologna , in 2006 at the ICT & S at the University of Salzburg , in 2010/2011 at the CMS at the TU Berlin and in 2014 at the Department of Computer Science at the TU Vienna . Since November 2011 he has also been an elected member of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetics Sciences (Vienna) .

Zimmermann is the founder of the journal System & Struktur (New Journal for Speculative Physics) , which he himself published from 1992 to 1999, partly together with Klaus-Jürgen Grün . Since 2007 he has been the editor of the Münchener Schriften zur Design Science, Aachen, together with Professor Michael Keller . Since 2018 he has also published the yearbook “Signifikant” (xenomoi, Berlin). He is also co-founder, scientific director and chairman of the board of the non-profit Institute for Design Science Munich eV Zimmermann has been on the board of the Ernst Bloch Society and the Ernst Bloch Association several times .

He has been an elected member of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin since 2013, and was elected President of this learned society in 2019 . On July 9, 2020, the Presidium of the Leibniz Society announced Rainer E. Zimmermann's resignation from the office of President. He held this office from July 4, 2019 to July 9, 2020.

Since he retired in 2017, he has been a lecturer in Faculty 2 (Computer Science) at HTW Berlin .

Focus of work

The systematic focus of Zimmermann's work is metaphysics and natural philosophy , historically he has primarily dealt with continuities from Baruch de Spinoza to Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Ernst Bloch to Jean-Paul Sartre .

In this sense, he is considered to be the founder of his own direction, known as Transcendental Materialism , which he has worked on in detail since his Schelling book at the latest and which should be methodically reflected in the development of a stringent design science in the sense of Buckminster Fuller . His main work to date is his book System of transcendental materialism .

Transcendental materialism

For Zimmermann, the path to Transcendental Materialism took place over several periods of work: First in a working group based mainly on physics to research the phenomenon of self-organization according to Thom, Prigogine and others (Whitsun Group with Clive Kilmister) from 1981 to 1987. Another working group , Klymene - initially from 1988–1990 under the direction of Jan Robert Bloch (at IPN Kiel), then in 1994 and 1997 under the direction of Zimmermann - then deepened these results, which are summarized in self-reference and poetic practice . At the same time, Zimmermann's main publications on Sartre, Bloch and Schelling appeared.

Through his stay in Cambridge he was again stimulated to work in cosmology and the structure of black holes , where he was particularly interested in the philosophical consequences and the constitutive relationship between physics (as a fundamental individual science) and philosophy. The original self-organization topic was pursued further in the mediation context of rooms, networks and systems. Zimmermann was guided by the emergence theories of the Santa Fe school and the semiotic theories in the succession of René Thom , Ilya Prigogine , Umberto Eco and Julia Kristeva and not on the classical systems theory approaches of Niklas Luhmann .

The result of Transcendental Materialism is similar to the onto- epistemic approach of Hans-Jörg Sandkühler . While Sandkühler primarily ties in with Kantian questions, Zimmermann presents this approach as a current reinterpretation of substance metaphysics (from Spinoza to Schelling to Bloch and Sartre). In this sense, Zimmermann defines:

"Metaphysics as modern and fetched (as ultima philosophia rather than prima philosophia) thus turns out to be an approximation of what we [...] have characterized by the expression" transcendental materialism ", of which axiomatic system dialectics is the systematic and methodical core more geometrico shows. "

- Rainer E. Zimmermann : The reconstruction of space, time and matter

The explicitly regressive-progressive nature of this approach results in two different research areas that exemplify Zimmermann's system of transcendental materialism . The first part, The Physics of Logic , discusses in turn the method of regressive analysis, the reconstruction of a general reason, and progressive synthesis. The second part, The Hermeneutics of Matter , provides a complete passage through the philosophical reflection of the individual sciences, from physics to politics, which ultimately leads to a modern revival of the dual concept of kalokagathía , which was originally understood as a unity in antiquity . This unity of the beautiful and the supposedly good forms the concrete counterpart to the abstract debate of the reason in the first part.

Selected Works

Books / monographs

  • Self-reference and poetic practice. For the foundation of an axiomatic system dialectic. Cuxhaven, 1991.
  • The reconstruction of space, time and matter. Modern Implications of Schelling's Natural Philosophy. Frankfurt a. M. etc., 1998.
  • The Klymene Principle. A Unified Approach to Emergent Consciousness. Kassel Philosophical Writings, Materials and Preprints, 1999.
  • Subject & existence. To the systematics of Bloch's philosophy. Berlin, 2001.
  • Critique of Intercultural Reason. Paderborn, 2002.
  • [with ER Sandvoss] Philosophical aspects of space travel. Paderborn, 2004.
  • System of transcendental materialism. Paderborn, 2004.
  • Graphism & Representation. A poetic logic of space and time. Munich, 2004.
  • [with H.-S. Park] The disturbed morning silence. Small History Philosophy of Korea. Paderborn, 2005.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre - read interculturally. Nordhausen, 2005.
  • Ernst Bloch - read interculturally. Nordhausen, 2005.
  • Ethics & Intercultural Reason. Nordhausen, 2005.
  • The extraordinary journeys of Jules Verne. On the reception of science and technology in 19th century France. Paderborn, 2006.
  • The creativity of matter. Intercultural structural history of a term. Nordhausen, 2007.
  • What does that mean and at what end do you study Design Science? (Munich Writings on Design Science, Volume 1) Aachen, 2007.
  • [with C. Fuchs] Practical Civil Virtues in Cyberspace. Towards the Utopian Identity of Civitas and Multitudo. (Munich Writings on Design Science, Volume 5) Aachen, 2009.
  • [with W. Loh and RA Mall] Intercultural Logic. Paderborn, 2009.
  • New Ethics Proved in Geometrical Order. Spinozist Reflexions on Evolutionary Systems. Litchfield Park (Az.), 2010.
  • [with P. Kasapidou] From Rebetiko to Entechno Laiko. Comments on the Greek social space with an appendix of selected song texts. (Munich Writings on Design Science, Volume 6) Aachen 2010
  • Co-editor of the Bloch dictionary , de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-025671-0
  • [with SM Wiedemann] Creativity and form. Program of a glass bead game to experiment with knowledge. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.
  • The Einsteinians. Novel. Schibri-Verlag, 2012 ISBN 978-3-86863-100-5
  • Nothingness as Ground and Nothing but Ground. xenomoi, Berlin 2014
  • Metaphysics of Emergence, part 1. xenomoi Berlin, 2015
  • Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski , Rainer E. Zimmermann (Ed.): Cybernetics, Logic, Semiotics. Philosophical points of view. Conference on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Georg Klaus . (= Treatises of the Leibniz Society of Sciences. Volume 40). trafo Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86464-095-7 .
  • Editor of "The Hope Principle" (interpreting classics), de Gruyter, Berlin, 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-036613-6
  • Munich lectures on the philosophy of art. Shaker, Aachen, 2018
Translations
  • Edgar Morin : La Méthode. 6 volumes, Volume 1: La Nature de la nature. Paris 1977


Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences
  2. ^ Organization of the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin
  3. ↑ Online newsletter of the Presidium of the Leibniz Society, July 9, 2020
  4. ^ Interview of President R. Zimmermann with the newspaper ND
  5. ^ Rainer E. Zimmermann: The reconstruction of space, time and matter. Modern Implications of Schelling's Natural Philosophy. Frankfurt a. M. etc., 1998
  6. ↑ Rainer E. Zimmermann: What does Design Science mean and at what end? Aachen, 2007
  7. ↑ a b Rainer E. Zimmermann: System of the transcendental materialism. Paderborn, 2004
  8. ↑ (Cuxhaven, 1991)
  9. ↑ Hans-Jörg Sandkühler: Article Onto-Epistemologie. In: id. (Ed.), European Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Sciences, Hamburg, 1990, III pp. 608–615
  10. ^ Rainer E. Zimmermann: The reconstruction of space, time and matter. op. cit., 33 sq. Likewise id .: Axiomatic system dialectics as difference philosophy. On the line of thought Spinoza, Schelling, Bloch., In: id. (Ed.), System and Structure, New Essays on Speculative Physics, Cuxhaven, 1992, pp. 31-64
  11. ↑ No further volumes will be translated by the end of 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Zimmermann, Rainer E.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, Rainer Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician, philosopher and scientist
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin