Wolfgang Cramer (philosopher)

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Wolfgang Cramer (born October 18, 1901 in Hamburg , † April 2, 1974 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German philosopher and mathematician .

Life

Early years

Cramer, the son of a government architect, spent his school days in Wroclaw . After graduating from a secondary school, he studied philosophy at the University of Breslau for three semesters with Richard Hönigswald and Siegfried Marck from 1920 . A friend from this time was Moritz Löwi . He studied philosophy for another semester at the University of Heidelberg with Karl Jaspers . He then did an apprenticeship at the Silesian Landscape Bank in Breslau and from November 1922 worked as a bank clerk. In the winter semester of 1924/25 he began studying again and studied mathematics and physics at the University of Breslau. The doctorate in the field of number theory on the subject of the reciprocity formula for Gaussian sums in real square number fields was carried out in 1931 by Hans Rademacher .

National Socialism

Cramer became a member of the NSDAP and the National Socialist Teachers' Association on May 1, 1932 . After Rademacher was removed from service in the course of the synchronization, Cramer became an assistant at Werner Schmeidler's Mathematical Institute . However, as early as April 1933, Cramer was “horrified by the demonstrations of barbarism” so that he wanted to leave the party again in 1934 at the latest. Moritz Löwi , Cramer's Jewish friend and teacher, persuaded him to remain a member of the party so that he could act as an unsuspecting person. In this way Cramer was significantly involved in Löwi's emigration via Czechoslovakia in 1938 . In 1957, Cramer dedicated the book “Foundation of a Theory of Mind” to him.

Cramer's habilitation thesis “The Problem of Pure Intuition. An epistemological study of the principles of mathematics ”was already available in 1933, but the process was initially suspended for unknown reasons. Cramer first had to attend lecturer camp and academy before he received his habilitation in 1935. The reasons for this unusually long duration of the proceedings cannot be exactly reconstructed, but Cramer soon did not show himself to be an ideal party member. After his habilitation in Breslau, Cramer worked as a private lecturer in philosophy of the exact sciences.

The impending conflict erupted after August Faust came to Breslau in the winter semester of 1936/37. He did not give in to Faust's pressure to give up contact with Richard Hönigswald and his group of students or to help remove his Catholic colleague Bernhard Rosenmöller , for which Faust finally retaliated in 1942 with a devastating report. Faust particularly criticizes that “Dr. Cramer makes so little use of his National Socialist worldview ”, which concerns both his“ characterless [...] behavior towards the Jew Hönigswald ”and his restriction to“ subtle special questions ”. In fact, during the Nazi regime, Cramer did not appear politically, nor did he contribute anything to a National Socialist philosophy. This expert opinion prevented Cramer's appointment as an extraordinary professor and would probably have meant the end of his career if the Nazi regime had continued.

After the war

After the end of the war, he received a position as a private lecturer in Frankfurt am Main in 1949. In 1953 he was appointed adjunct professor. Finally, in 1962, he received the post of associate professor. Cramer died in Frankfurt in 1974.

Cramer's pupils, who later became professors, included the Hegel researcher Hans-Friedrich Fulda and Reiner Wiehl , an expert on Whitehead, among others. Because of Cramer's low academic position, they did not complete their career work with him, but with Hans-Georg Gadamer in Heidelberg.

Wolfgang Cramer is the father of the philosopher Konrad Cramer (1933–2013).

philosophy

Philosophically, Cramer v. a. shaped by the neo-Kantian Richard Hönigswald. So his systematic starting point was always the critical examination of the transcendental idealism of Kant and the monadology of Leibniz , with the help of which he tried to design a transcendental ontology. The central idea is that the transcendental philosophy as an analysis of subjectivity cannot fulfill its task if it does not consider the subject in its being (especially in its temporality). The "subject [...] is an existence in the sense that pre-Kantian metaphysics meant existence or existence". In this way the Kantian limitation of knowledge to appearances is exceeded.

In this sense, Hans Wagner characterizes him :

"Cramer is not committed to any pre-critical philosophy, he neither ignores Kant's critique of reason used transcendently, nor does he fall behind the critical question - and yet he tries a doctrine of the transcendent."

- H. Wagner : Is the metaphysics of the transcendent possible? In: Dieter Henrich, Hans Wagner (Ed.): Subjectivity and Metaphysics. Festschrift for Wolfgang Cramer. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1966, pp. 290f.

It should be noted that Cramer has taken up the theme of old metaphysics again, but by no means has designed a complete ontology of the old type. Rather, he is always concerned with minimal determinations, i.e. necessary conditions for finite subjectivity. The question of such conditions finally leads him further into speculative philosophy , to the question of the absolute . For, according to Cramer, the spirit, the thinking, has essentially to do with general determinations, with universals . In this way, his subject philosophy leads consistently into ontology, category theory and finally to the absolute.

The examination of the question of the absolute takes place in particular in the examination of Spinoza , Kant's refutation of the evidence of God and thinkers of German idealism . Cramer's aim was to shed light on how the absolute, on the one hand, can be thought of as determining everything and, on the other hand, the contingent other is possible in relative freedom. In particular, this should be done without recourse to contingent existence, because otherwise the absolute would be subject to the conditions of the contingent. The latter is particularly pursued in the later “absolute reflection” project.

Fonts

Books
  • The problem of pure intuition . Mohr, Tübingen 1937.
  • The monad. The philosophical problem of the origin . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1954.
  • Foundation of a theory of mind . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1957. (4th edition. 1999. (Philosophical treatises; 14), ISBN 3-465-03002-8 )
  • The absolute and the contingent . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1959. (2nd edition. 1976. (Philosophical treatises; 17))
  • Spinoza's philosophy of the absolute . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1966. (WC: The absolute reflection; 1)
  • Evidence of God and its criticism. Examination of their evidential value . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1967. (WC: Die absolute Reflexion; 2) (2nd edition. 2010. (Klostermann Rote Reihe; 33), ISBN 978-3-465-04097-2 )
  • The absolute reflection. Writings from the estate . Edited by Konrad Cramer. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-465-03753-8
Essays
  • About the concept of the infinite. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. Volume 11, 1938, pp. 272-284.
  • The aporias of Zeno and the unity of space. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. Volume 12, 1939, pp. 347-364.
  • Philosophy and its history. In: Leaves for German Philosophy. Volume 14, 1941, pp. 343-355.
  • The basic problem of philosophy. In: Discus. Frankfurt student newspaper. Volume 4, 1954, No. 2, supplement, pp. 57-60.
  • Hans Wagner: Philosophy and Reflection. Munich / Basel 1959. Ernst Reinhard Verlag. In: Philosophische Rundschau Volume 11, 1963, pp. 68–90.
  • Space, time and transcendental appearance. In: Journal for Philosophical Research. Volume 13, 1959, pp. 568-582.
  • From transcendental to absolute idealism. In: Kant studies. Volume 52, 1960/61, pp. 3-32.
  • Tasks and methods of a category theory. In: Kant studies. Volume 52, 1960/61, pp. 351-368.
  • Individual and category. In: Insights. Gerhard Krüger on his 60th birthday . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1962, pp. 39-70.
  • About the foundations of Gottlob Frege's concept of the logical. In: Hermeneutik und Dialektik Festschrift for Hans-Georg Gadamer . Volume 2. Mohr, Tübingen 1970, pp. 55-76.
  • Causality and freedom. In: Philosophical Perspectives. Volume 5, 1973, pp. 9-28.
  • The absolute. In: Hermann Krings and others (eds.): Handbuch philosophischer Grundbegriffe , Munich 1973.
  • The me and the good. A foundation of philosophy. In: New Issues for Philosophy. Volume 27/28, 1988, pp. 1-55.

literature

  • Dieter Henrich, Hans Wagner (Ed.): Subjectivity and Metaphysics. Festschrift for Wolfgang Cramer. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • Rational metaphysics. The philosophy of Wolfgang Cramer.
    • Tape. 1: Hans Radermacher, Peter Reisinger (eds.), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-608-91444-7 .
    • Tape. 2. Hans Radermacher, Peter Reisinger, Jürgen Stolzenberg (eds.), Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-608-91469-2 .
  • Konrad Cramer: Thoughts on Hans-Dieter Klein's analysis of Wolfgang Cramer's “Foundation of a Theory of Mind”. In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Philosophie. 42 (2010), pp. 221-234.
  • Dieter Henrich : About the system and method of Cramer's deductive monadology. In: Philosophical Review. 6: 237-263 (1958).
  • Wolfgang Kersting : Monad and Consciousness. Wolfgang Cramer's monadological concept of subjectivity. In: Albert Heinekamp (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the impact and reception of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Steiner Wiesbaden, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-515-04350-0 , pp. 346-368. (Studia Leibnitiana: Supplementa; 26)
  • Hans-Dieter Klein : Inorganic nature and the theory of descent - two open questions in Wolfgang Cramer's monadological foundation of transcendental philosophy. In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Philosophie. 21 (1989), pp. 7-11.
  • Helmut Kuhn : Wolfgang Cramer: The Monad. The philosophical problem of the origin. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1954. In: Philosophische Rundschau. 3: 208-223 (1955).
  • Rainer Lambrecht: The Hegel criticism of Wolfgang Cramer. Being as the point of difference. In: Hegel yearbook. 1992, pp. 279-293.
  • Jochen Lechner: Wolfgang Cramer's draft of a transcendental ontology. Düsseldorf Univ., Diss. 1982. Düsseldorf 1982. (2 microfiches)
  • Rudolf Lindpointner: The transcendental subject and epistemology in the 20th century. Presentation and criticism. Neo-Kantianism, Husserl, Hönigswald, Cramer, Heidegger. Salzburg, Univ., Diss. 1981. Salzburg 1981, pp. 87-107.
  • Tobias Müller: The subject and the absolute. On the topicality of Wolfgang Cramer's philosophy. Publishing house Karl Alber, Freiburg i. B. 2020, ISBN 3-495-49113-9 .
  • Peter Reisinger: W. Cramer's attempt at mediation or the transcendental ontology. In: PR: Idealism as an image theory. Investigations for the foundation of a theory of signs . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-12-912020-3 , pp. 30-63.
  • Peter Reisinger: Wolfgang Cramer's attempt at destruction of the Hegelian dialectic. In: Dieter Henrich (Ed.): Metaphysics according to Kant? Stuttgart Hegel Congress 1987. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-608-91492-7 , pp. 343-363.
  • Rüdiger Schmelz: subjectivity and corporeality. The psychophysical unity in the philosophy of Wolfgang Cramer. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1991, ISBN 3-88479-576-7 . (Pommersfelden articles: Sonderbd .; 5)
  • Josef Schmucker: Wolfgang Cramer's refutation of Kant's criticism of God's evidence. In: Archives for the History of Philosophy. 52, pp. 287-301 (1970).
  • Jürgen Stolzenberg: Wolfgang Cramer. In: Julian Nida-Rümelin , Elif Özmen (Ed.): Philosophy of the Present in Individual Representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 423). 3rd, revised and updated edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-520-42303-0 , pp. 92-98.
  • Falk Wagner : "Reason is the condition of revelation". On the theological significance of Wolfgang Cramer's theory of the absolute. In: Dietrich Korsch (Ed.): Truth and Reconciliation. Theological and philosophical contributions to the doctrine of God. Gütersloher Verl.-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1989, pp. 98–121.
  • Hans Wagner : Is the metaphysics of the transcendent possible? (On W. Cramer's Philosophy of the Absolute). In: Dieter Henrich, Hans Wagner (Ed.): Subjectivity and Metaphysics. Festschrift for Wolfgang Cramer. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1966, pp. 290–326; again in: Hans Wagner: Critical Philosophy. Critical Philosophy Systematic and Historical Treatises . Edited by Karl Bärthlein and Werner Flach. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1980, ISBN 3-88479-019-6 , pp. 425-445.
  • Gunther Wenz : Me and the absolute. Wolfgang Cramer's philosophical theology in the context of his transcendentalontological theory of subjectivity. In the S. (Ed.): Of the truly infinite. Metaphysics and theology in Wolfhart Pannenberg (Pannenberg Studies 2), Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 3-525-56027-3 , pp. 379–442.
  • Reiner Wiehl : thought psychology and thought ontology. Richard Hönigswald and Wolfgang Cramer's Philosophies of Subjectivity. In: Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (Ed.): Recognize - Monas - Language. International Richard Hönigswald Symposium Kassel 1995. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1997, ISBN 3-8260-1311-5 , pp. 97–117. (Studies and materials on Neo-Kantianism; 9)
  • Kurt Walter Zeidler: Critical Dialectics and Transcendentalontology. The outcome of Neo-Kantianism and the post-Neo-Kantian systematics by R. Hönigswald, W. Cramers, B. Bauchs, H. Wagners, R. Reinigers and E. Heintels. Bouvier, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-416-02518-0 , pp. 139-171 u. P. 334.
  • Hermann-Josef Zoche : Absolute thinking. The ascent to the absolute based on Wolfgang Cramer's transcendental philosophy . Darmstadt 1988. Freiburg i.Br., Univ., Diss. 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The biographical information up to the doctorate result from the curriculum vitae contained in the dissertation. See: Renate Tobies : Biographical Lexicon in Mathematics for PhDs. Dr. Erwin Rauner Verlag, Augsburg 2006. (Algorism, studies on the history of mathematics and natural sciences, edited by Menso Folkerts, volume 58); further see: Christian Tilitzki: The German University Philosophy in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, pp. 661–663.
  2. ↑ This is what Dr. Franz Fink in a letter to Hans-Georg Gadamer dated February 7, 1949. Fink belonged to the Cramers Jewish Circle of Friends in Breslau. Quoted from: Konrad Cramer: Asking for a National Socialist Cramer from within. August Faust on Fichte in 1938 , in: Jürgen Stolzenberg and Oliver-Pierre Rudolph (eds.): Knowledge, freedom, history. Fichte's philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries (Fichte Studien 35), Amsterdam-New York, 2010, pp. 285–309, here p. 291, note 16.
  3. ↑ Cf. K. Cramer: Asking for a National Socialist Cramer from the inside. August Faust on Fichte in 1938 , in: Jürgen Stolzenberg and Oliver-Pierre Rudolph (eds.): Knowledge, freedom, history. Fichte's philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries (Fichte Studien 35), Amsterdam-New York, 2010, p. 291, note 16; see. C. Tilitzki, The German University Philosophy in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, p. 662
  4. ↑ Quoted from: N. Kapferer: The Nazification of Philosophy at the University of Breslau 1933-45 , Münster 2001, pp. 199f.
  5. ↑ According to Herbert Schnädelbach : Ehrendes Angedenken . Letter to the editor on Peter Moser: What distinguishes Nazi philosophers? (in: Information Philosophie. Issue 5/2001, p. 90 ff. [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ) Cramer is said to have left the NSDAP before the end of National Socialist rule. After George Leaman: Heidegger in context. Complete overview of the Nazi engagement of the university philosophers . Hamburg 1993, p. 104f., This assertion is incorrect, since Cramer was listed as a paying party member until May 1945.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.michael-funken.de  
  6. ↑ Konrad Cramer: Laudation for Hans-Friedrich Fulda at the reception of the Philosophical Seminar on October 22, 2010 on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Heidelberg University, Philosophical Seminar, 2010, p. 3. (pdf; 60 kB)
  7. ^ W. Cramer: Proofs of God and their criticism. Examination of their evidential value . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1967. 2nd edition. 2010. (Klostermann Rote Reihe; 33), p. 27.
  8. ↑ See T. Müller: The Absolute as a Principle of Determination. On Wolfgang Cramer's theory of the absolute in “The Absolute and the Contingent”. In: Theologie und Philosophie 91 (2016), pp. 46–66, here p. 65.
  9. ↑ On the transition, especially W. Cramer: From transcendental to absolute idealism. In: Kant studies. Volume 52, 1960/61, pp. 3-32.
  10. ↑ Under this title Cramer wanted to publish a five-volume series, of which only two have appeared. The material for two more can be found in the estate. See the absolute reflection. Writings from the estate . Edited by Konrad Cramer. Frankfurt a. M. 2012, pp. 9-11.
personal data
SURNAME Cramer, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH April 2nd 1974
Place of death Frankfurt am Main