Joachim Ritter (; 3 April 1903 – 3 August 1974) was a German philosopher and founder of the so-called Ritter School (german: Ritter-Schule) of

liberal conservatism Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...

Biography

Born in

Geesthacht Geesthacht () is the largest city in the District of the Duchy of Lauenburg (Herzogtum Lauenburg) in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany, south-east of Hamburg on the right bank of the River Elbe. History A church was built in what is today ...

, Ritter studied philosophy, theology, German literature, and history in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. A disciple of

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...

and

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. Aft ...

, he obtained his doctorate at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

with a dissertation on Nicolas of Cusa in 1925, and was both Cassirer's assistant and a lecturer there. A

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he became a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

in 1937 and an officer of the German

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

in 1940. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Ritter was appointed professor of philosophy at the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over ...

. Ritter's philosophical work focuses on a theory of

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...

. In a liberal interpretation of

G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

's ''

Philosophy of Right ''Elements of the Philosophy of Right'' (german: Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts) is a work by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel published in 1820, though the book's original title page dates it to 1821. Hegel's most mature statement of his ...

'', he developed the view that "bifurcation" is the constitutive structure of the modern world and a necessary precondition for the universal realization of individual freedom. According to Ritter's theory of culture as compensation, arts and humanities have the function of balancing the disenchanted, ahistorical condition of modern society. Alongside

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family an ...

, his work on

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 ...

's ethics and political theory initiated the renewal of practical philosophy in Germany. He died in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

Legacy

Ritter is considered one of the most influential philosophers in postwar

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Among his disciples were scholars and public intellectuals like

Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (; 19 September 1930 – 24 February 2019) was a German legal scholar and a justice on Germany's Federal Constitutional Court. He was a professor at the University of Freiburg and the author of more than 20 books and 8 ...

Max Imdahl Max Imdahl (September 6, 1925 in Aachen – October 11, 1988 in Bochum) was a German art historian specialized in art historical methodology and the interpretation of modern art after World War II. Life and work Imdahl studied studio painting ...

Hermann Lübbe Hermann Lübbe (born 31 December 1926) is a German philosopher. He is considered a member of the Ritter School. Biography Lübbe was born in Aurich. From 1947 to 1951, he studied philosophy, theology and sociology in Göttingen, Münster and Fre ...

Odo Marquard Odo Marquard (26 February 1928 – 9 May 2015) was a German philosopher. He was a professor of philosophy at the University of Giessen from 1965 to 1993. In 1984 he received the Sigmund Freud Prize for Scientific Prose. Early life and education ...

, and Robert Spaemann. Together with them, Ritter started the „Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie“ and contributed to development of

conceptual history Conceptual history (also the history of concepts or, from German, ''Begriffsgeschichte'') is a branch of historical and cultural studies that deals with the historical semantics of terms. It sees the etymology and the change in meaning of terms a ...

in the field of philosophy. In the 1980s,

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...

opposed the Ritter School for being leading representatives of German

neoconservatism Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and ...

. More recent scholarship in intellectual history points out Ritter's seminal role for the modernization of German political thought and the development of a modern

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...

. Jens Hacke, ''Philosophie der Bürgerlichkeit. Die liberalkonservative Begründung der Bundesrepublik'', Göttingen: Wallstein 2006/2008. See also Jerry Z. Muller, ''German Neo-Conservatism ca. 1968–1985. Hermann Lübbe and Others'', in: Jan-Werner Müller (ed.), German Ideologies since 1945. Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic, New York 2003, p. 161-184.

Bibliography

*''Hegel and the French Revolution: Essays on the'' Philosophy of Right''.'' (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought), MIT Press 1984. *''Metaphysik und Politik. Studien zu Aristoteles und Hegel'', Suhrkamp 1969. *''Person and property in Hegel's Philosophy of Right (§§34–81)'', in: Robert B. Pippin and Otfried Höffe (eds.), Hegel on Ethics and politics, Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 101-123. *''Subjektivität. Sechs Aufsätze''. Suhrkamp 1974.

Biography

Legacy

See also

Bibliography

References

Further reading