Munich phenomenology
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Munich phenomenology (also Munich phenomenological school) is the philosophical orientation of a group of philosophers and
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 ...
s that studied and worked in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
at the turn of the twentieth century. Their views are grouped under the names realist (also realistic) phenomenology or phenomenology of essences. Munich phenomenology represents one branch of what is referred to as the
early phenomenology Early phenomenology refers to the early phase of the phenomenological movement, from the 1890s until the Second World War. The figures associated with the early phenomenology are Edmund Husserl and his followers and students, particularly the membe ...
. One of their contributions was the theory that there are different kinds of intentionality.


History

In 1895, a number of students working with the psychologist
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 ...
at the University of Munich founded the ''Psychologische Verein'' ("Psychological Association"). An account stated that this association emerged from a reading group, which was occupied by the works of the School of Brentano. Out of this development emerged the notion that
Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...
became the successor to
Franz Brentano Franz Clemens Honoratus Hermann Josef Brentano (; ; 16 January 1838 – 17 March 1917) was an influential German philosopher, psychologist, and former Catholic priest (withdrawn in 1873 due to the definition of papal infallibility in matters of F ...
's
Austrian philosophy German philosophy, here taken to mean either (1) philosophy in the German language or (2) philosophy by Germans, has been extremely diverse, and central to both the analytic and continental traditions in philosophy for centuries, from Gottfried Wi ...
. It is said that the Austrian phenomenology had been distinct from everything within the phenomenological movement such as the German and French strands but it had identifiable historical ties with the Munich phenomenological school. This relationship is also partly attributed to Husserl and
Hans Cornelius Johannes Wilhelm Cornelius (September 27, 1863 – August 23, 1947) was a German neo-Kantian philosopher and psychologist. Biography Born in Munich, he originally studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry, graduating with a Ph.D. in 1886, before ...
. A number of the participants in the student association, notably ,
Moritz Geiger Moritz Geiger (26 June 1880 – 9 September 1937) was a German philosopher and a disciple of Edmund Husserl. He was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Beside phenomenology, he dedicated himself to psychology, epistemology and aesthet ...
,
Alexander Pfänder Alexander Pfänder (7 February 1870, in Iserlohn18 March 1941, in Munich) was a German philosopher who was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Biography Pfänder was born in Iserlohn and spent his entire academic career in Munich, wh ...
, and Adolf Reinach, were inspired by Edmund Husserl's '' Logical Investigations'' (1900/01). The book was critical of the psychologism of their teacher (Lipps), and presented a new way of doing philosophy, known as "
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
." Choosing to align themselves with Husserl, they became the ''Munich Circle'' of phenomenologists. While Cornelius' early work was rejected by the phenomenologists, his succeeding essays were embraced for their discussions of Brentano,
Carl Stumpf Carl Stumpf (; 21 April 1848 – 25 December 1936) was a German philosopher, psychologist and musicologist. He is noted for founding the Berlin School of Experimental Psychology. He studied with Franz Brentano at the University of Würzburg bef ...
, and Alexius Meinong's works. A notable aspect to Munich phenomenology was the extension of the realist analysis of the ''a priori'' knowledge to different kinds of entities and domains such as the psychology of willing and motivation. It was Pfänder, a leding representative of the Munich Phenomenology, who wrote the 1911 essay on this subject entitled ''Motive and Motivation''. Husserl considered this an important work and it inspired him to publish a series of analyses of volitional consciousness. Husserl previously focused on "concrete" analyses founded on arithmetic and logic. He would only broaden his phenomenology later when he started addressing the ''a priori'' structures of consciousness. Around 1905, many of Lipps' students (following the lead of Daubert) temporarily abandoned Munich and headed to the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
to study with Husserl directly. This is referred to as the "
Munich invasion of Göttingen 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 ...
," and is generally considered to be the starting point of the phenomenological movement proper. The arrival of students from Munich eventually led to the establishment of a similar student group in Göttingen circa 1910, known as the " Göttingen Circle." In 1912 the ''Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung'' was founded with Husserl, Geiger, Reinach, Pfänder, and
Max Scheler Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Zachar ...
as its editors. After Husserl's publication of the ''Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch'' (''Ideas I'') in the first edition of the ''Jahrbuch'', a number of his followers took a critical stance towards Husserl's new vision of phenomenology. Many members of the Munich group distanced themselves from Husserl's idealism and his
transcendental phenomenology Phenomenology (from Greek φαινόμενον, ''phainómenon'' "that which appears" and λόγος, ''lógos'' "study") is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. As a philosophical movement it was founded i ...
, preferring the earlier realist phenomenology of the first edition of the ''Logical Investigations''.


The Munich phenomenologists

*
Theodor Conrad Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Bluege ...
* *
Moritz Geiger Moritz Geiger (26 June 1880 – 9 September 1937) was a German philosopher and a disciple of Edmund Husserl. He was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Beside phenomenology, he dedicated himself to psychology, epistemology and aesthet ...
*
Alexander Pfänder Alexander Pfänder (7 February 1870, in Iserlohn18 March 1941, in Munich) was a German philosopher who was a member of the Munich phenomenological school. Biography Pfänder was born in Iserlohn and spent his entire academic career in Munich, wh ...
* Adolf Reinach *
Max Scheler Max Ferdinand Scheler (; 22 August 1874 – 19 May 1928) was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Considered in his lifetime one of the most prominent German philosophers,Davis, Zachar ...


Other members of the Munich Circle and the Psychologische Verein

*
Ernst von Aster Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (1975- ...
* Matthias Baumgartner *
Hedwig Conrad-Martius Hedwig Conrad-Martius (Berlin, 27 February 1888 – Starnberg, 15 February 1966) was a German phenomenologist who became a Christian mystic. Life and works She initially considered a literary career, but later became interested in philosophy. ...
* Ludwig Curtis * Wolf Dohrn * August Endell * Aloys Fischer * August Gallinger * Dietrich von Hildebrand * Rudolf Hirsch * Edgar Istel *
Theodor Lessing Karl Theodor Richard Lessing (8 February 1872, Hanover – 31 August 1933, Marienbad) was a German Jewish philosopher. He is known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his classic on Jewish self-hatre ...
* Hans von Liebig *
Otto Selz Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...
*
Wilhelm Schapp Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Moun ...
* Eduard Schmidt * Alfred Schwenninger * Else Voigtländer


References

{{Reflist


Sources

*
Karl Schuhmann Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
, "Philosophy and Art in Munich around the turn of the Century," in ''Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities'', Vol. 54, 1997, pp. 35–51. * Karl Schuhmann and Barry Smith,
Adolf Reinach: An Intellectual Biography
" in ''Speech Act and Sachverhalt: Adolf Reinach and the Foundations of Realist Phenomenology'', ed. Kevin Mulligan, Springer, 1987, pp. 1–27. * Barry Smith,
Realistic Phenomenology
, in L. Embree (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Phenomenology'', Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer, 1997, 586–590. * Josef Seifert and Cheikh Mbacke Gueye (Eds.), ''Anthologie der Realistischen Phänomenologie'', Walter de Gruyter, 2009. *
Herbert Spiegelberg Herbert Spiegelberg (May 18, 1904 – September 6, 1990) was an American philosopher who played a prominent role in the advancement of phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenogical philosophy in the United States. Life Spiegelberg was born in ...
,
The Phenomenological Movement
' (The Hague/Boston/London 1982) * Helmut Kuhn, Ederhard Avé-Lallemant, R. Gladiator (Eds.), ''Die Münchener Phänomenologie'', Phaenomenologica 65, 1976


External links


Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology
Phenomenology