Paul Gerhard Natorp (24 January 1854 – 17 August 1924) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
philosopher and
educationalist
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
, considered one of the co-founders of the
Marburg school
In late modern philosophy, late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly hi ...
of
neo-Kantianism
In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thin ...
. He was known as an authority on
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
.
Biography
Paul Natorp was born in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
, the son of the
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
minister Adelbert Natorp and his wife Emilie Keller. From 1871 he studied music, history, classical philology and philosophy in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
and
Strasbourg. He completed his doctoral dissertation in 1876 at the
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers.
The French university traces its history to the ea ...
under the supervision of the philosopher
Ernst Laas and in 1881 completed his ''
Habilitation'' under the neo-Kantian
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen (4 July 1842 – 4 April 1918) was a German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century ...
. In 1885 he became extraordinary professor and in 1893 became ordinary professor in philosophy and
pedagogy
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...
at
Marburg University, a position he retained until his retirement in 1922. In the winter semester of 1923–24 Natorp conducted an intensive exchange of ideas with
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 ce ...
, who had been called to Marburg and whose work on
Duns Scotus
John Duns Scotus ( – 8 November 1308), commonly called Duns Scotus ( ; ; "Duns the Scot"), was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher, and theologian. He is one of the four most important ...
Natorp had read very early on.
In 1887 he married his cousin Helene Natorp; they had five children. Natorp was an ambitious
composer, who wrote chiefly
chamber music (including a
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...
sonata, a
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
sonata, and a
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
trio). He also wrote some 100 songs and two choral works. He conducted a correspondence with
Johannes Brahms, who dissuaded him from becoming a professional composer.
He was an influence on the early work of
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 ...
and had a profound effect upon the thought of
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 ...
, the "father" of
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 ...
. His students included the philosopher and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
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.
A ...
, the
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
Karl Barth and the author of ''
Doctor Zhivago
''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations.
Description
The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago
Yuri Andreievich Zhivago is the ...
'',
Boris Pasternak.
Works
* ''Descartes' Erkenntnistheorie. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des Kriticismus.'' 1882; 2014,
* ''Sozialpädagogik'' (1899)
* ''Logik in Leitsätzen'' (1904)
* ''Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Sozialpädagogik'' (3 volumes, 1907)
* ''Pestalozzi. Leben und Lehre'' (1909)
* ''Die logischen Grundlagen der exakten Wissenschaften'' (1910)
* ''Philosophie; ihr Problem und ihre Probleme'' (1911), new edition: Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008 (ed. and introduction by Karl-Heinz Lembeck),
* ''Sozialidealismus'' (1920)
* ''Beethoven und wir'' (1920)
* ''Platos Ideenlehre'' (1921); transl. 2004, ''Platos's Theory of Ideas: An Introduction to Idealism.'', Academia Verlag
* ''Allgemeine Logik'' (in: Flach und Holzhey, ''Erkenntnistheorie und Logik im Neukantianismus'', 1979)
Notes
References
* Judy Deane Saltzmann ''Paul Natorp's Philosophy of Religion within the Marburg Neo-Kantian Tradition'' (1980)
* Alexis Philonenko ''L'École de Marbourg : Cohen, Natorp, Cassirer'' (1989)
* Karl-Heinz Lembeck ''Platon in Marburg: Platon-Rezeption Und Philosophiegeschichtsphilosophie Bei Cohen Und Natorp'' (1994)
* Julien Servois ''Paul Natorp et la Théorie Platonicienne des Idées'' (2004)
* Norbert Jegelka ''Paul Natorp'' (1992)
External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page by Alan Kim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Natorp, Paul Gerhard
1854 births
1924 deaths
19th-century essayists
19th-century German composers
19th-century German educators
19th-century German historians
19th-century German male writers
19th-century German philosophers
20th-century essayists
20th-century German composers
20th-century German educators
20th-century German historians
20th-century German male writers
20th-century German philosophers
Commentators on Plato
Continental philosophers
Cultural critics
Descartes scholars
German composers
German educators
German logicians
German male essayists
German male non-fiction writers
German music historians
Historians of philosophy
Kant scholars
Kantian philosophers
Philosophers of art
Philosophers of culture
Philosophers of education
Philosophers of logic
Philosophers of religion
Philosophers of social science
Philosophy academics
Philosophy teachers
Philosophy writers
Social critics
Social philosophers
University of Marburg faculty
University of Strasbourg alumni
Writers from Düsseldorf