Josef Schächter (September 16, 1901 in Kundrynce, Galicia – March 27, 1994

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

) was an Austrian

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, philosopher and member of the Vienna Circle from 1925 to 1936.

Life

Schächter was the son of Shoel Schächter and Sarah, ''née'' Distenfield. He trained as a rabbi and was ordained in 1926. He worked as a

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

teacher from 1922 to 1929 at the Hebraic school in

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

and from 1935 to 1938 at the Bible Rambam Institute. At the same time, he studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, primarily with Moritz Schlick and completed his studies in 1931 with a dissertation under Schlick with the title “Critical Account of N. Hartmann’s ‘Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis’” (''„Kritische Darstellung von N. Hartmanns ‚Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis‘“''). From 1925 to 1936 Schächter attended the meetings of the Vienna Circle. His work ''Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik'' (''Prolegomena to a Critical Grammar'') was published with a preface by Schlick in the Circle’s book series ''Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung'' (''Monographs on the Scientific World-Conception'') in 1935. This work was influenced by Schlick,

Friedrich Waismann Friedrich Waismann (; 21 March 18964 November 1959) was an Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He is best known for being a member of the Vienna Circle and one of the key theorists in logical positivism. Biography Born to a Jewis ...

, and

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...

. After Schlick’s murder, Schächter intermittently substituted Friedrich Waismann in running philosophical seminars. In 1938 Schächter emigrated to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. He taught at secondary schools, first in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

until 1940 and then in Haifa until 1950. In 1943 he married the teacher Netti Dlugacz. From 1951 to 1952 he was superintendent of schools in the Israeli school system. Later he worked as a lecturer for Bible and

Aggadah Aggadah ( he, ''ʾAggāḏā'' or ''Haggāḏā''; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַגָּדְתָא ''ʾAggāḏəṯāʾ''; "tales, fairytale, lore") is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, ...

at the teacher’s seminar in Haifa. At the beginning of the 1950s a group of his students founded the Kibbuz "Yodefat" in

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...

in order to put Schächter’s ideas into practice. Schächter published numerous works on classical

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, on language, meaning, and belief in the context of science and religion.Stadler 2001, 720.

Selected works

* "Kritische Darstellung von N. Hartmanns 'Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis'", Diss., Vienna 1931. * ''Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik'' (= ''Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung'', 10), Vienna 1935. – Reedited as ''Prolegomena to a Critical Grammar'', Preface by J. F. Staal. Reidel, Dordrecht-Boston 1973. * ''Mavo Kazar L'Logistikah'' (A brief outline of logistics ebr. with a preface by Hugo Bermann, Vienna 1937. * "Der Sinn pessimistischer Sätze", in: ''Synthese'' 3, 1938, 223-233. * "Über das Verstehen", in: ''Synthese'' 8, 1950/51, 367-384. * "The Task of the Modern Intellectual", in: ''An Anthology of Hebrew Essays II'', 1966, 299-310. * (Together with Heinrich Melzer), „Über den Physikalismus“, in: B. McGuinness (Hrsg.), ''Zurück zu Schlick. Eine Neubewertung von Werk und Wirkung'', Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Wien 1985, 92-103.

Bibliography

* Stadler, Friedrich. ''The Vienna Circle. Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism.'' New York: Springer, 2001. – 2nd Edition: Dordrecht: Springer, 2015. – Biobibliographical presentation of Schächter: 720-721. * Moritz Schlick: „Geleitwort“ n: Josef Schächter, Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik in: ''Moritz Schlick Gesamtausgabe,'' Abteilung I, Band 6, ''Die Wiener Zeit'', ed. by Johannes Friedl, Heiner Rutte, 635-642. (German) * Friedrich Waismann, Josef Schächter und Moritz Schlick: ''Ethics and the Will. Essays'', ed. and with an introduction by

Brian McGuinness Brian McGuinness (22 October 1927 – 23 December 2019) was a Wittgenstein scholar best known for his translation, with David Pears, of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, ''Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus''. He was christened with the forenames ...

and Joachim Schulte, Kluwer, Dordrecht-Boston-London 1994. * J. S. Diamond: "Josef Schächter: An Approach to ›Jewish Consciousness‹," in: ''Reconstructionist'', Annual Israel Issue 30, 1964, S. 17-24. * Volker Thurm (ed.): ''Wien und der Wiener Kreis: Orte einer unvollendeten Moderne; ein Begleitbuch'', in collaboration with Elisabeth Nemeth, Schriftenreihe Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung und Kunst; Sonderbd., WUV, Vienna 2003, , 348 f. (German)

External links

Publications of Schächter on WorldCat

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schachter, Josef 20th-century Austrian rabbis Austrian philosophers Jewish philosophers Vienna Circle Logical positivism