Hans Heinz Holz (26 February 1927 – 11 December 2011) was a German Marxist philosopher. Born in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, he was professor of philosophy at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

(from 1971 to 1979) and from 1979 to 1993 at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

. He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of philosophy on one hand and for his openly expressed

ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...

viewpoints on the other. Influenced by

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of math ...

monadology The ''Monadology'' (french: La Monadologie, 1714) is one of Gottfried Leibniz's best known works of his later philosophy. It is a short text which presents, in some 90 paragraphs, a metaphysics of simple substances, or '' monads''. Text Dur ...

, he regards ''Widerspiegelung'' (reflection) not only as an epistemological but also as an

ontological In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

category. Some critics spot here a hazard of deviating from materialism. Though Holz saw himself as in footsteps of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

, his vision is disputed among the leftist circles. He has contributed to far-left publications like ''Marxistische Blätter'' and ''Weißenseer Blätter''. He joined the

German Communist Party The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party. His ...

in 1994.

Works

* Dialektik und Widerspiegelung, Köln: Pahl Rugenstein 1983 * Dialectische constructie van de totaliteit, Groningen: Uitgeverij Konstapel 1983 (co-authors Jeroen Bartels, Detlev Pätzold and Jos Lensink) * Dialectiek als open systeem, Groningen: Uitgeverij Konstapel 1985 (co-authors Jeroen Bartels, Detlev Pätzold and Jos Lensink) * De actualiteit van de metafysica, Kampen: Kok-Agora 1991 * Niederlage und Zukunft des Sozialismus, Essen: Neue Impulse Verlag 1991 * Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Eine Einführung, Frankfurt/M. / New York: Campus 1992 * Philosophische Theorie der bildenden Künste ** Band I, Der ästhetische Gegenstand. Die Präsenz des Wirklichen, Bielefeld: Aiesthesis Verlag 1996, ** Band II, Strukturen der Darstellung. Über Konstanten der ästhetischen Konfigurationen, Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag 1997 ** Band III, Der Zerfall der Bedeutungen. Zur Funktion des ästhetischen Gegenstandes im Spätkapitalismus, Bielefeld: Aiesthesis Verlag 1997 * Einheit und Widerspruch. Problemgeschichte der Dialektik in der Neuzeit ** Band I: Die Signatur der Neuzeit, Stuttgart/Weimar: J. B. Metzler 1997 ** Band II: Pluralität und Einheit, Stuttgart/Weimar: J. B. Metzler 1997 ** Band III: Die Ausarbeitung der Dialektik, Stuttgart/Weimar: J. B. Metzler 1997 * Gesammelte Aufsätze aus 50 Jahren ** Band I: Der Kampf um Demokratie und Frieden, Essen: Neue Impulse Verlag 2003 ** Band II: Deutsche Ideologie nach 1945, Essen: Neue Impulse Verlag 2003 * Weltentwurf und Reflexion. Versuch einer Grundlegung der Dialektik. Stuttgart/Weimar: J. B. Metzler 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holz, Hans Heinz 1927 births 2011 deaths 20th-century German philosophers Marxist theorists German male writers 21st-century German philosophers