Gustav Kafka (23 July 1883,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– 12 February 1953,

Veitshöchheim Veitshöchheim is a municipality in the district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Main, northwest of Würzburg. Veitshöchheim has a population just under 10,000. It includes two villages: Veitshöchheim ...

bei

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

. One of Kafka's most outstanding contributions to the realms of psychology have been his critique of fundamentals and methods, such as his criticism of behaviorism, and other articles in which he revealed new points of view based on concrete investigation. His son (4 February 1907,

München Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

17 January 1974,

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

) was a sociologist and jurist.

Early life and education

Kafka attended school in Vienna where he was born, and later joined the school that was organised by Schotten monks. He became conversant in both English and French from learning at home as a child, then entered the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

in 1902, where he studied law for one semester before shifting studies to philosophy and psychology. After a semester at G. E. Miller's laboratory in Göttingen, where he became acquainted with Geza Revesz and David Katz, Kafka enrolled at

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

where in 1904 he received the doctor's degree from Wundt for a thesis entitled ''Ueber das Ansteigen der Toner- regung''. In 1905, he went to Munich to continue his studies under

Theodor Lipps Theodor Lipps (; 28 July 1851 – 17 October 1914) was a Germans, German philosopher, famed for his theory regarding aesthetics, creating the framework for the concept of ''Einfühlung'' (empathy)'','' defined as, "projecting oneself onto the ob ...

. Later he worked there under Erich Becher and was appointed professor at Munich in 1915. Kafka participated in the First World War as an Austrian reserve soldier. Towards the end of that war, he and his friend Geza Revesz, then at the University of Budapest, were commissioned to set up a psychotechnical service for the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1923, Kafka succeeded Karl Bühler as professor of psychology, philosophy, and pedagogy at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, but in 1935 political difficulties and ill health combined to force him to resign prematurely. Just before its close, the Second World War added to his misfortunes by the destruction of his home and all his property in an air raid. The collapse of the war led not to his academic reinstatement but at first to hunger and dire distress. In 1947, however, he received an appointment as professor of philosophy and psychology at the University of Würzburg, where he continued to work until his second and final retirement in the summer of 1952. In his seventieth year, on 12 February 1953, he died in his newly acquired home in Veitshochheim near Würzburg.

Literature works

* ''Einführung in die Tierpsychologie'' * ''Aristoteles'', 1922 * ''Geschichtsphilosophie der Philosophiegeschichte'', 1933 * ''Naturgesetz, Freiheit und Wunder'', 1940 * ''Was sind Rassen'', 1949 * ''Freiheit und Anarchie'', 1949

References

External links

1883 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Austrian philosophers Austrian psychologists German philosophers German psychologists German male writers Austrian emigrants to Germany Writers from Vienna People from Würzburg (district) 20th-century psychologists {{Psychologist-stub