Wolfgang Welsch (philosopher)

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Wolfgang Welsch (born October 17, 1946 in Steinenhausen ) is a German philosopher who developed new ideas about aesthetics , postmodernism , reason , the transcultural society and the relationship between man and the world.

Life

At the age of 19, Welsch began to study philosophy, art history, archeology and psychology at the universities of Munich and Würzburg . In 1974 he finished his studies in Würzburg with a dissertation on Max Ernst's principle of frottage . Eight years later he submitted his habilitation thesis with Aisthesis .

From 1988 to 1993 he taught at the University of Bamberg . He then accepted a call to Magdeburg and stayed there until 1997. From the 1997/98 winter semester he was professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Jena . Welsch held visiting professorships in 1987 at the University of Erlangen and in 1987/88 at the Free University of Berlin . 1992–93 he taught at the Humboldt University in Berlin and 1994–95 at Stanford University . In 1998 he worked at Emory University in Atlanta , Georgia . In the academic year 2000/01 he was a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center.

In 1992 Welsch received the Max Planck Research Prize together with Gianni Vattimo . In 2016 he was awarded the Premio Internazionale d'Estetica.

His main research interests are anthropology and epistemology , philosophical aesthetics and art theory , cultural philosophy (theory of the transcultural society ) and contemporary philosophy. Since the year 2000 he has developed a consistent evolutionist understanding of man and his relationship to the world, taking into account natural and cultural evolution.

Wolfgang Welsch retired on April 1, 2012 and lives in Berlin.

research

Wolfgang Welsch first made a name for himself in the postmodern debate in the 1980s. He pleaded for postmodernism not to be understood as postmodern or anti-modern, but rather as the contemporary adequate form of modernity. A dynamic of innovation has always belonged to the modern age, at present it is characterized by those moments that are called "postmodern" ( Our postmodern modernism , 1987).

A second focus of Welsch's work and effectiveness is aesthetics . Right from the start he advocated an opening of aesthetics beyond its classic restriction to questions of art and to aesthetic phenomena of the lifeworld in the broadest sense (work, design, politics, economy, technology, science, etc.). His final lecture entitled "Aesthetics Beyond Aesthetics" at the XIII. International Congress for Aesthetics in Lahti 1995, which systematically developed this perspective, was decisive for the further work of the International Association for Aesthetics (the worldwide umbrella organization of aesthetes and aesthetic societies), as was later that of the XV. International Congress for Aesthetics in Tokyo 2001 lecture "Art transcending the human pale". In numerous publications, Welsch has given aesthetics new impulses to this day ( Aesthetic Thinking 1990, Aesthetics in Contrast 1991, The Actuality of Aesthetics 1993 , Boundaries of Aesthetics 1996, Undoing Aesthetics 1997, Estetyka poza estetyką 2005, Actualidad de la estética - estética de la actualidad 2011, Blickwechsel - New Paths of Aesthetics 2012, Aesthetics and Beyond 2014).

A third field of work concerns the concept of transculturality founded by Welsch in 1990 . According to this, today's cultures are no longer homogeneous and monolithic (like spheres), but show diverse interpenetrations and interrelationships (have network character). The identity of contemporary individuals is characterized by the fact that they combine elements of different cultural origins. Hence, today's individuals are inherently transcultural. This does not only apply to migrants, but increasingly to everyone. Transcultural identities have the advantage of being able to communicate and connect better than the older, monolithic identities, because there are usually overlaps between them that enable an initial mutual understanding that can be expanded in subsequent communication steps.

Fourth, Welsch developed the concept of transversal reason ( Vernunft. The contemporary critique of reason and the concept of transversal reason , 1995). It serves a contemporary reformulation of the classic distinction between reason and rationality . The various rationalities are each area-specific and legally independent. Economic rationality, for example, is structured quite differently and has different conditions of validity than aesthetic rationality. Reason, on the other hand, is the faculty that can pass over and mediate between the various forms of rationality. However, it does not do this on the basis of an overriding set of principles that would allow it to make decreed decisions (it is not a superordinate rationality), but it only has formal criteria (in the broadest sense of a logical nature) and has to deal with transition, comparison and consideration proven - their process mode is essentially transversal .

Since a research stay at the Stanford Humanities Center in 2000 and 2001, Welsch has developed a new overall view that is based on consistent thinking through the cosmic, biological and cultural evolution. The starting point is a criticism of the " anthropic principle " which dominates modernity, according to which everything is to be taken as a starting point and everything is attributable to people. Welsch counters this way of thinking that humans cannot be understood by themselves, but must be understood in terms of their origin and position in evolution. This conception has far-reaching consequences for anthropology, ontology and epistemology. It leads beyond the recent and modern assumption of a gap between man and the world to an insight into the cosmopolitan nature and connectedness of man ("Homo mundanus"). Welsch presented this point of view in a series of books at the end of his academic career (2011/12): Always only man? Drafts for Another Anthropology (2011), Interdisciplinary Anthropology: Continuing Evolution of Man (2011), Blickwechsel - New Paths of Aesthetics (2012), the most detailed in his opus magnum Homo mundanus - Beyond the anthropic way of thinking of modernity (2012) and in short in man and the world. An Evolutionary Perspective of Philosophy (2012).

Historically, Welsch has primarily dealt with Aristotle (most recently: The Philosopher - The Thoughts of Aristotle , 2012) and Hegel (various articles). For him, both are exemplary for gaining a position of philosophy that is not one-sidedly subjectivistic, as is usual in the various variants of modernity, but rather one that focuses on the cosmopolitan nature of man.

Works

- as an author (selection):

  • Frottage: philosophical investigations into history, phenomenal constitution and the meaning of an illustrative type. Univ. Würzburg, Diss., 1974
  • Aisthesis: Fundamentals and perspectives of the Aristotelian doctrine of the senses. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-608-91447-1 .
  • Aesthetic thinking. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, 7th, extended edition 2010 ISBN 3-15-008681-7 .
  • Boundaries of aesthetics. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-009612-X .
  • Reason. The contemporary critique of reason and the concept of transversal reason. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1996, 4th edition 2007 ISBN 3-518-28838-5 ( stw. 1238).
  • Undoing aesthetics. Sage, London 1997, ISBN 0-7619-5594-1 .
  • Our postmodern modernity. 7th edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003727-X .
  • Always only humans? Designs to Another Anthropology. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005269-4
  • Change of perspective - new ways of aesthetics. Reclam, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-15-018943-6
  • Man and the world - philosophy from an evolutionary perspective. Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63082-8
  • Homo mundanus - Beyond the modern anthropic way of thinking. Velbrück Wissenschaft, Weilerswist 2012, ISBN 978-3-942393-41-6
  • The philosopher: Aristotle's world of thought. Fink, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-770-55382-2
  • Aesthetic world experience - contemporary art between nature and culture. Fink, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3770561346 .
  • Transculturality: Reality - History - Task. new academic press, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3700320753 .
  • Aesthetics beyond aesthetics. Henan University Press, Zhengzhou 2017.
  • Perception and the world - Why our perceptions can be worldly correct. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95757-605-7 .
  • Aesthetics and the Contemporary Comprehension of the World. Shangwu, Shanghai 2018.
  • Who are we? new academic press, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-7003-2077-7 .

- as editor (selection)

  • (Ed.) The topicality of the aesthetic. Fink, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7705-2896-4 .
  • (Ed.) Media - Worlds - Realities. Fink, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7705-3255-4 .
  • (Ed.) Ways out of the modern: key texts of the postmodern discussion. 2nd, revised edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-002789-4 . Our postmodern modernity in the google book search
  • (Ed.) The interest of thinking - Hegel in today's perspective. Fink, Munich 2003; 2nd edition 2007, ISBN 3-7705-3927-3 .
  • (Ed.) Hegel's phenomenology of spirit. A cooperative commentary on a key work of modernity. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, 2nd edition 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-29476-5 .
  • (Ed.) Interdisciplinary Anthropology: Continuing Evolution of Man. Springer, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-11667-4 .

- Lectures and lectures on audio carriers:

  • Postmodern Topoi. - Auditorium Network 1991
  • Reality through the ages. - Auditorium Network 1997
  • Introduction to the philosophy of Aristotle. - Lecture at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, winter semester 1996/97, Auditorium Netzwerk 1997
  • Philosophy after 1945. Part I. - Lecture at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, summer semester 1998, Auditorium Netzwerk 1999, CD-Edition 2006
  • Hegel and the analytic philosophy. - Inaugural lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, June 8, 1999, Auditorium Netzwerk 1999
  • Philosophy after 1945. Part II. - Lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 1999/2000, Auditorium Netzwerk 2000, CD edition 2006
  • Anthropology. - Lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 2006/07, Auditorium Netzwerk, CD edition 2007
  • The new image of people - perspectives from different disciplines. Lecture series at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 2006/07, organized by Wolfgang Welsch, Auditorium Netzwerk, DVD edition 2007; therein: Anthropology in Transition - The New Paradigm of Emergence (lecture on November 8, 2006)
  • Anthropology. - Lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 2006/07, Auditorium Netzwerk, CD edition 2007
  • Culture philosophy. - Lecture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, summer semester 2007, Auditorium Netzwerk, CD edition 2010
  • Reason and Criticism of Reason. - Lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, summer semester 2008, Auditorium Netzwerk, CD edition 2010
  • Mensch und Welt (I) - Lecture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 2008/09, Auditorium Network, CD edition 2010
  • Mensch und Welt (II) - Lecture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, summer semester 2009, Auditorium Network, CD edition 2010
  • Man and the world (III): Man in the light of evolution - Lecture at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, summer semester 2010, Auditorium Network, CD edition 2011
  • Ontology - Lecture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, winter semester 2010/11, Auditorium Network, CD edition 2012
  • Epistemology - Lecture at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, summer semester 2011, Auditorium Netzwerk, CD edition 2014

literature

  • Wolfgang Welsch, In: Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2012 , 4 volumes. De Gruyter, Berlin (24th edition) 2011, ISBN 3-598-23607-7 , p. 3642.
  • Volker Ladenthin, The Determination of the Indefinite. Aporia of postmodern literary aesthetics in Jean-François Lyotard and Wolfgang Welsch. , In: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 39 (1991) H. 8. P. 914-926.
  • Reason and transition. On the concept of transversal reason , In: Ethics and Social Sciences - Streitforum für Erwägungskultur 11 (2000), Heft 1, 79–91.
  • Religions in Plurality - Their Role in Post-Modern Transcultural Societies: Wolfgang Welsch's Approach from a Christian and Islamic Perspective , ed. by Dirk Chr.Siedler, Alektor, Berlin 2003.
  • Wladimir Alekseevič Abaschnik, The Understanding of Reason in the Post-Metaphysical Age. With special consideration of the positions of Karen Gloy and Wolfgang Welsch , In: Karen Gloy (Hrsg.): Unser Zeitalter - ein Postmetaphysisches? Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-8260-2938-0 ( Studies on the System of Philosophy. Vol. 6), pp. 73-81 ( online ).
  • Jerome Carroll, Art at the Limits of Perception - The Aesthetic Theory of Wolfgang Welsch , Peter Lang, Bern 2006.
  • Michael Stallknecht, The world is captured in our knowledge: Wolfgang Welsch's radical philosophical new approach reconciles nature and culture - and their sciences at the same time. , In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 6, 2012, p. 14.
  • Michael Stallknecht, Towards Nature - The philosopher Wolfgang Welsch calls for a revolution in Western thought , In: Cicero , August 2013, 110 f.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Curriculum Vitae Wolfgang Welsch at the Goethe-Institut
personal data
SURNAME Welsch, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Steinenhausen