Wolfgang Prince

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Wolfgang Prinz (born September 24, 1942 in Ebern , Lower Franconia ) is a German psychologist and cognitive scientist .

Career

After studying psychology , philosophy and zoology at the University of Münster , from which he graduated in 1966 with a diploma in psychology, Wolfgang Prinz worked until 1975 as a research assistant at the chair for cognitive psychology at the Psychological Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum , where he worked in 1970 Oskar Graefe and Hans Hörmann as Dr. phil. received his doctorate .

From 1975 to 1990 he worked as a full professor of psychology at Bielefeld University , where he was also the scientific director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research from 1982 to 1989 .

From 1990 to 2003 he was director at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich , which was incorporated into the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Neurosciences in Leipzig in 2004 as the psychology department ; During this time, from 1990 to 1998, he also held a chair for general psychology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, succeeding Kurt Müller . From 1997 to 2000 he was chairman of the humanities section of the Max Planck Society . From 2004 until his retirement in 2010 he was director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig.

research

Prinz's research focuses on the areas of perception , attention , will , action , self and awareness . In his opinion, free will is not a scientific fact, but a cultural construct that is shaped by the given conditions of human interaction.

In line with his self-image as a scientifically researching psychologist, he took the following view:

“In principle, the idea of ​​free human will cannot be reconciled with scientific considerations. Science assumes that everything that happens has its causes and that these causes can be found. "

However, Prinz defends himself against the misunderstanding that free will is therefore not real . It is absolutely, but precisely as a phenomenon caused by social and cultural factors.

“ We treat each other as if everyone were free to decide, and within the framework of this social practice we are actors with no will. "

It is just difficult to grasp this social and cultural reality with brain-physiological arguments.

“ When we ask ourselves why people make different decisions, a look inside their brains doesn't help much. As I said, I do n't share the premise that human behavior can be explained by brain research . Brain processes can make an interesting contribution, but nothing more. "

Awards (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • with Jochen Müsseler (Ed.): General Psychology. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8274-1128-9 .
  • Open Minds: The Social Making of Agency and Intentionality. MIT Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-30094-0 .
    • Translation by Jürgen Schröder: Even in the mirror. The social construction of subjectivity . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-58594-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Prince. Max Planck Society , 2013, accessed on November 8, 2013 .
  2. ↑ W. Prinz: Investigations into the functional analysis of visual recognition processes with multi-dimensionally varying figure material. Dissertation. Faculty of Philosophy, Education, Psychology at the Ruhr University Bochum, 1970.
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Prinz: Open Minds: The Social Making of Agency and Intentionality. MIT Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-30094-0 , pp. 175-190.
  4. ↑ Man is not free. Interview. In: The magazine. of the North Rhine-Westphalia Science Center, Volume 14, Issue 2 from 2003, pp. 18-20.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Schnabel, Thomas Assheuer: The social I-machine - our brain generates subjectivity. But it doesn't work without a counterpart. A conversation with the psychologist Wolfgang Prinz. In: The time. No. 24, June 10, 2010, p. 37.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Schnabel, Thomas Assheuer: The social I-machine - our brain generates subjectivity. But it doesn't work without a counterpart. A conversation with the psychologist Wolfgang Prinz. In: The time. No. 24, June 10, 2010, p. 37.
  7. ↑ Directory of members: Wolfgang Prinz. Academia Europaea, accessed July 14, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Member entry of Wolfgang Prinz at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.
  9. ^ British Academy Welcomes 59 New Fellows bulletin July 18, 2013, accessed July 24, 2013.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Prince, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Boars , Lower Franconia