Ernst Christian Kapp (15 October 1808 – 30 January 1896) was a German-American philosopher of technology and geographer, and a follower of

Carl Ritter Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...

. He was prosecuted for sedition in the late 1840s for publishing a small article entitled 'Der konstituierte Despotismus und die konstitutionelle Freiheit' (1849) and was subsequently forced to leave Germany. He then emigrated to the German pioneer settlements of central Texas where he worked as a farmer, geographer and inventor. He was one of the early German

Free Thinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

Sisterdale, Texas Sisterdale is an unincorporated farming and ranching community established in 1847 and located north of Boerne in Kendall County, in the U.S. state of Texas. The community is located in the valley of Sister Creek. The elevation is . Community Si ...

. Texas State Historical Association In 1853, he was elected Texas State Historical Association the President of the Freethinker abolitionist organization Die Freie Verein (The Free Society), which called for a meeting of abolitionist

German Texan German Texan (german: Deutschtexaner) is both a term to describe immigrants who arrived in the Republic of Texas from Germany from the 1830s onward and an ethnic category that includes their descendants in today's state of Texas. The arriving Ger ...

s Texas State Historical Association in conjunction with 14 May 1854 Staats- Saengerfest (State Singing Festival) in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, Texas. The convention adopted a political, social and religious platform, The Texas State Historical Association including:

1) Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of capital punishment; 4) Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles...; 5) Free schools – including universities – supported by the state, without religious influence; and 6) Total separation of church and state.

After the Civil War he left the US for a visit to Germany, but fell ill during the voyage. Urged by his physician not to risk the return trip at his age, he re-entered the academic world. Reflecting on his frontier experience, Kapp wrote "Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik" (Elements of a Philosophy of Technology) (1877). This work, among many other things, formulates a philosophy of technology in which tools and weapons are identified as different forms of 'organ projections', although this idea may have been loosely covered as early as

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

. Furthermore, in chapters 12 & 13, it notably analyses language and the state as extensions of mental life, long before such ideas were popularised by

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

References

External links

''Handbook of Texas Online''

* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=zna1tQEACAAJ&dq=ernst+kapp&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjNj4ij5M7bAhXKtVMKHaN3DsEQ6AEITTAG ''Elements of a Philosophy of Technology'' on Google Booksbr>''Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik'' on Google Books''Grundlinien einer Philosophie der Technik'' on Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, BerlinViktor Hantzsch: ''Kapp, Ernst''. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 51, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1906, p. 31–33
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kapp, Ernst 1808 births 1896 deaths American abolitionists American geographers American male writers American people of German descent American philosophers Freethought writers German abolitionists German-American culture in Texas German emigrants to the Republic of Texas German emigrants to the United States German geographers German male writers German philosophers Philosophers of technology