Wolfgang Fischer (pedagogue)

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Wolfgang Fischer (born January 5, 1928 in Leipzig ; † June 12, 1998 in Sprockhövel ) was a German educator . He was a student of Alfred Petzelt and a supporter of transcendental- critical pedagogy. In the 1960s, however, he turned away from the principle-based orientation of this approach and founded the skeptical-transcendental-critical pedagogy. As a philosopher and educator, he was influenced by Petzelt and Immanuel Kant as well as Gerhard Funke , Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jean-François Lyotardand especially Socrates .

Life

Wolfgang Fischer was born on January 5, 1928 in Leipzig, together with his twin brother Kurt-Gerhard Fischer, as the son of a worker and an authorized signatory. After graduating from high school in 1946, he first studied Protestant theology , but in 1949 switched to majoring in psychology , pedagogy and philosophy. At that time he was working alongside his studies as a religion teacher at the Thomas Gymnasium in Leipzig.

After his academic teacher and later doctoral supervisor Alfred Petzelt was able to leave the GDR in 1949 after a publication ban , Fischer traveled to Münster after him in 1951. The decisive factor for his flight to the West was a failed leaflet campaign by his " Combat Group Against Inhumanity " at the Leipzig Spring Fair . By fleeing, he escaped an absentee charge of treason. Fischer studied for a while with Marian Heitger in Münster , where he received his doctorate on February 24, 1953 with a thesis on "Problems of literary expression in adolescence". He then worked for four years as a religion teacher, vocational school teacher and as a lecturer in home manager courses of the Evangelical Heimstatthilfe, before he got his first academic position in 1957 at the "Study Office for Youth Issues" in Bonn. In 1958 he was appointed to a lectureship in general pedagogy at the Pädagogische Akademie Wuppertal and was appointed professor there in 1962. In 1964 he was appointed to the Pedagogical University of Erlangen / Nuremberg. In Nuremberg he was a member of the PH's board of directors for two years. Part-time he was director of the Victor Gollancz Academy for Youth Welfare in Erlangen. After teaching positions at the universities of Erlangen and Mainz, appointments to the universities of Klagenfurt and Trier followed. On May 23, 1972, Fischer accepted a professorship for general pedagogy at the newly founded comprehensive university and later Gerhard Mercator University in Duisburg, which he interpreted primarily as a philosophy of education. The simultaneous appointment of his Nuremberg assistant Jörg Ruhloff to a lectureship in Duisburg favored the continuation of a lifelong collaboration.

From 1972 until the end of his life, Fischer headed his Colloquium Paedagogicum , a working and discussion meeting which was also attended by external educators and which was presented in 1994 with an anniversary publication on fundamental pedagogical and scientific topics. During his time in Duisburg he held the offices of vice dean and dean. Here he was also a permanent member of the working group on pedagogy, educator and parent training and, until his death, a member of the research group on didactics of philosophy. On February 28, 1993, he was released from his teaching duties in Duisburg, but continued to teach regularly as an emeritus until December 1997 . His work was recognized by students and colleagues in 1988 with a commemorative publication for his 61st birthday. Wolfgang Fischer died on June 12, 1998 of complications from cancer.

plant

Wolfgang Fischer became known above all through the skeptical turn he initiated in transcendental-philosophical pedagogy.

Fischer's origins in transcendental-philosophical pedagogy

In his early days, Fischer followed the view that pedagogical theory should serve pedagogical practice. Theory is supposed to penetrate practical questions in an argumentative for and against and thus provide answers to insightful pedagogical principles. With Herbart , he understood a theory-less practice as a mere slouch. Alfred Petzel's transcendental- philosophical pedagogy provided the background for his understanding of pedagogy as a science . Transcendental-philosophical pedagogy was formulated following Kant's transcendental philosophy, among others, by the Neo-Kantians Paul Natorp , Richard Hönigswald and Jonas Cohn . Like Kant's critical philosophy, pedagogical science is supposed to bring apodictic, that is, irrevocably certain, knowledge to light. Such certainty cannot come from sensory or empirical judgments, because these can only say how something is made, but not why it necessarily has to be made that way. Apodictic certainty, if they are not to be purely analytical- tautological , only provide synthetic a priori knowledge , that is, knowledge that comes purely and necessarily from intellectual activity alone. These cognitions are therefore thinking reflections on thinking; the intellectual activity examines itself. Kant calls this preoccupation or cognition "with our kind of cognition of objects" transcendental. For Kant, transcendental criticism is a necessary preparation for a science as a system. Transcendental-philosophical or principles-based pedagogy tries to create a thinking system out of the concept of pedagogy. At this first creative period, Fischer determined "asking" as the basic structure of the human ego . The respective questioning attitude of the human being correlates with the individual phases of the development to the adult human. In doing so, he follows Alfred Petzelt's theory of development and, on the basis of personal testimonies, researches the questions posed by early and late adolescents. More than Petzelt, he accentuates the basic pedagogical trait of human development in contrast to a purely psychological development theory. Each of the so-called development phases means for the developing person to unfold a certain question dimension and task attitude for independent fulfillment. The form and quality of the fulfillment are dependent on and dependent on dialogic-pedagogical stimulation and guidance.

The skeptical turn

Fischer's Nuremberg Inaugural Lecture Renewed, history-taking discussion of the question of whether education is or is a science (1966) ushers in his second creative period and with it the skeptical turning point in transcendental-philosophical education. At this time, he gave pedagogy two more options to do justice to it. Under certain conditions, on the one hand, pedagogy can be pursued as a theoretical science . On the other hand - and this path should become decisive for Fischer in the following - pedagogy as a philosophical science could also be "critical-reflexive discovery and resolution of those dogmatic-metaphysical basic decisions". The aim of this science is to examine the connections between philosophical-pedagogical dogmas and the resulting consequences in theory. For pedagogical practice this science does nothing directly constructive, the practice should rather be left to the “charismatics”, who are not forbidden to “make exact knowledge material available” .

With his essay Transcendental Critical Pedagogy (1979), he turns away from any conception of scientific-pedagogical theory that instructs constructive tasks and opts for the critical-reflective path. With Kant he determined a kind of motto for his transcendental-critical pedagogy.

“The greatest and perhaps only benefit of all philosophy [...] is probably only negative; because it does not, as an organon, serve to expand [our knowledge], but, as a discipline, to define limits and, instead of discovering truth, only has the quiet merit of preventing errors ” .

The transcendental-critical pedagogy remains true to neo-Kantian pedagogy insofar as it examines the legitimacy of each pedagogy as science and practice. Transcendental-critical pedagogy itself is no longer defined as metaphysics or the teaching of principles, but precisely as its clarification and criticism. The task of such a science is to examine ultimate legitimacy claims, not to reject them in general terms, but to expose them as deceptions through immanent criticism. Methodologically, the two terms criticism and skepticism play an important role in this science.

criticism

In his essay On the Critical in a "transcendental Critical Pedagogy" (1983), Fischer defines three functions of criticism: First, it negates timeless and temporal ultimate claims in pedagogical theories; it acts as " catharsis of the soul" insofar as it inquires when arguments are implausible Thirdly, it reveals the inadequate solution capacities of the existing knowledge. Criticism cannot be positional, but only immanent . This means that Fischer's skeptical criticism takes the yardstick from what is criticized in order to examine it and refute it in his ultimate justification claim.

skepticism

In order to define the concept of skepticism in more detail, Fischer sets it apart from the usual doubt and positional pedagogical skepticism in his essay On the Lack of Skepticism in Education (1990/91). By ordinary doubt, Fischer understands everyday skepticism or doubt. This type of skepticism arises from the fact that people experience that an error cannot or even never can be excluded. This experience leads to a skeptical caution not to take everything as true without suspicion. Ordinary doubt neither excludes something in principle, nor does it accept an assertion without examination. Just like this doubt, the second type of skepticism, called positional pedagogical skepticism, does not extend to any underlying belief system. The positional skepticism - in contrast to the usual doubt - judges from a position. Such a position may be a contrary doctrine or a basic attitude saturated with experience. In contrast to the first type of skepticism, this leads to a verdict, so the judgment about an object does not remain pending. Separating these two types of skepticism, Fischer defines radical pedagogical skepticism as more far-reaching. Only radical skepticism examines the basic knowledge of an assertion, which is always involved. The radical skepticism therefore does not decide between two points of contention, but tries to uncover possible deceptions. Radical skepticism does not judge from an external perspective like positional pedagogical skepticism, but rather analyzes the subject from within. She spies, ponders, examines and ponders the underlying. For his understanding of skepticism, Fischer refers in particular to Socrates, as he is portrayed in Plato's early dialogues .

literature

Primary literature

• Renewed discussion, taking into account the history of pedagogy, of the question of whether pedagogy is or is a science. In: Heitger, Marian (Hrsg.) / Ipfling, Heinz-Jürgen: Basic pedagogical problems in a transcendental critical perspective. Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinkhard, 1969 [1966]. Pp. 106-121.
• Transcendental Critical Education (1979). In: Fischer, Wolfgang: On the way to a skeptical-transcendental-critical pedagogy. Selected articles 1979–1988. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag Richarz, 1989.
• On the Critical in a Transcendental Critical Pedagogy (1983). In: Ders .: On the way to a skeptical-transcendental-critical pedagogy. Selected articles 1979–1988. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag Richarz, 1989.
• About the lack of skepticism in education (1990/91). In: Fischer, Wolfgang / Ruhloff, Jörg: Skepticism and Controversy. New contributions to the skeptical-transcendental-critical pedagogy. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 1993.
• Socrates educational (2004). Edited by Jörg Ruhloff and Christian Schönherr. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2004.

Secondary literature

• Educational skepticism. Wolfgang Fischer on his sixty-first birthday (1988). Edited by Dieter-Jürger Löwisch, Jörg Ruhloff, Peter Vogel. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag Richarz, 1988.
• Colloqium Paedagogicum (1994). Studies on the past and present of transcendental critical and skeptical pedagogy. Edited by Wolfgang Fischer. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 1994.
• Ruhloff, Jörg (1999): Skeptical use in education. On the scientific work of Wolfgang Fischer. In: Our Duisburg University. Journal of the Duisburger Universitätsgesellschaft, 51st year, issue 1 a. 2, 1999, pp. 38-46.
• Dangl, Oskar (2002): The Origin of Skeptical Pedagogy. Frankfurt / Main: Peter Lang - European publishing house of the sciences.
• Ruhloff, Jörg (2003): From principles-based pedagogy to pedagogical skepticism. In: Meder, Norbert (ed.): Between indifference and certainty. Origins and ways of educational skepticism. Contributions to the work of Wolfgang Fischer. Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, 2003.
• Schönherr, Christian (2003): Skepticism as Education? Skeptical-transcendental-critical pedagogy and the question of its "constructiveness". Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen & Neumann.
• Westermann, Henrik (2005): Principle and Skepticism as Basic Concepts in Education. Frankfurt / Main: Peter Lang.
• Rau, Reiner Franz (2011): Introduction to the question of pedagogical legitimacy in theory and practice. Transcendental Critical Ways with M. Heitger and W. Fischer. Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Eberhard 1999, 24
2. ↑ cf. Ruhloff 2003, 20ff
3. ^ KrV 63
4. ↑ cf. Fischer 1958
5. ↑ cf. Fischer 1966, 120
6. ↑ Fischer 1966, 112
7. ↑ ibid., 119
8. ↑ ibid.
9. ↑ Kant quoted from Fischer 1979, 35; Original omissions and additions
10. ↑ cf. Fischer 1983, 71
11. ↑ Fischer 1983, 76