Wilhelm K. Essler

Wilhelm K. Essler (born April 27, 1940 in Groß Glockersdorf , Opava district , German Empire ) is a German philosopher. He is emeritus for philosophy , logic and philosophy of science at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main .

Life

Wilhelm K. Essler grew up as the third child of master tailor Franz Essler and his wife Anna, b. Snorkel. He has been with Uta, born in 1964. Wieland is married and has daughters Gabriele and Ulrike with her.

From 1959 to 1963 Essler studied German language and literature , history , philosophy, logic, scientific theory and education at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1964 he received his doctorate there in philosophy with "Investigations on the foundations and requirements of inductive logic". Then he got a teaching position for logic. In 1968 Essler completed his habilitation in Munich for the subjects of logic and philosophy of science and became a private lecturer . From 1971 to 1974 he represented philosophy chairs at the universities of Tübingen , Trier and Hamburg . In 1975 Essler was appointed adjunct professor in Munich, and in 1976 his teaching license was extended to philosophy, logic and philosophy of science. After a substitute professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt a. M . from 1979 until his retirement in 2005 he was full professor of philosophy, logic and philosophy of science.

From 1969 to 1974 Essler worked for a re-establishment of the journal » Knowledge. An International Journal for Analytical Philosophy , which was headed from 1930 to 1938 in continuation of the Annals of Philosophy by Hans Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap and was then discontinued. From 1974 to 2006 Essler was initially together with Carl G. Hempel and Wolfgang Stegmüller , later with Wolfgang Spohn and Patrick Suppes the editor of the "Knowledge". He was in charge of the editorial office from 1974 to 1988.

Even after retiring, Essler continues to research and teach at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. In 1989 he became a member of the Institut International de Philosophie (IIP) in Paris, and in 2003 he became a member and president of the Lauener Foundation in Bern. Essler also gave a number of lectures on the philosophy of Buddhism : in 2005 at Stanford University in Stanford CA (USA), and in 2008 at the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Mayagüez / PR (Puerto Rico). A visiting professorship followed there in 2009. In 2014 Essler gave lectures in China at the Sun-Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and at the Macau University in Macau.

Research and Teaching

Essler's research and teaching focus on analytical philosophy, philosophy of science and logic including meta-logic; this with a firm reference to the history of philosophy. Essler has mainly dealt with Immanuel Kant , David Hume , Aristotle and Plato . From the ancient Greek philosophy the path led him to the ancient Indian philosophers , to primitive Buddhism and to the pre-Buddhist philosophies. His understanding of Buddhism also gave him a special affection for the Japanese sword art Iaidō .

Publications (selection)

• Introduction to logic. Kröner, Stuttgart 1966. 2. Erw. 1969 edition.
• Inductive logic. Basics and requirements. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 1970, ISBN 978-3-495-47196-8 .
• Theory of Science I to IV. (Philosophy College), Alber, Freiburg / Munich.
  • I: definition and reduction. 1970. 2nd arr. Edition 1982, ISBN 978-3-495-47511-9 .
  • II: theory and experience. 1971, ISBN 978-3-495-47232-3 .
  • III: probability and induction. 1973, ISBN 978-3-495-47233-0 .
  • IV: Explanation and Causality. 1979, ISBN 978-3-495-47234-7 .
• Analytical philosophy I. Methodology, philosophy of language, ontology, epistemology. Kröner, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 978-3-520-44001-3 .
• with Joachim Labude and Stefanie Ucsnay: theory and experience. An introduction to the philosophy of science. Alber, Freiburg / Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-495-47972-8 .
• Basic logic. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main.
  • Part 1. The logical reasoning. 5., rework. and exp. Edition 2001, ISBN 978-3-465-03164-2 .
  • Part 2. Classes, relations, numbers. With Elke Brendel with the participation of Joachim Labude. 4., rework. u. exp. Edition 1993, ISBN 978-3-465-02626-6 .
• with Ulrich Mamat: The Philosophy of Buddhism. Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 978-3-534-17211-5 .
• with Wolfgang Röd : The philosophy of the newest time (= history of philosophy, volume XIV). Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-406-70583-0 .
• Texts distributed electronically

Festschrift

• Elke Brendel and Rainer Trapp (eds.): Festschrift in hour of Wilhelm K. Essler on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Knowledge 2001, Vol, 54, Num 1. Dordrecht: Springer ISSN 0165-0106

Web links

• Website Wilhelm K. Essler at the Goethe University
• Literature by and about Wilhelm K. Essler in the catalog of the German National Library