Iring Fetscher (1922–2014) was a German

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and researcher on Hegel and

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

. Fetscher was born on 4 March 1922 at

Marbach am Neckar Marbach am Neckar is a town about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. It belongs to the district of Ludwigsburg, the Stuttgart region and the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart. Marbach is known as the birthplace of Friedrich Schiller, to ...

, and was brought up in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. After the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

he studied at Tübingen and Paris, receiving a doctorate in 1950. He belatedly published his thesis ''Hegels Lehre vom Menschen'' in 1970. He habilitated in 1959 with a dissertation on the political philosophy of

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

. From 1963 to 1988 Fetscher was Professor of Political Science and Social Philosophy at the Goethe University Frankfurt. He is identified with the "second generation" of the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...

, along with Jürgen Habermas and Alfred Schmidt.

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, '' Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976 ...

, while taking Fetscher to be a distinguished historian of Marxism with a critical but positive attitude, did not see him as of the Frankfurt School more than notionally. In 1993, Iring Fetscher was honored with induction into the French Order of Academic Palms (''Ordre des Palmes Académiques''). Fetscher died on 19 July 2014.

Major works

* '' Von Marx zur Sowjetideologie.'' Wiesbaden 1956. (22 editions until 1987.) * '' Rousseaus politische Philosophie. Zur Geschichte des demokratischen Freiheitsbegriffs.'' Neuwied, Berlin 1960. * '' Der Marxismus. Seine Geschichte in Dokumenten'', 3 vols., München 1963–1965. * '' Marx and Marxism''. New York: Herder & Herder, 1971. (Translation of '' Karl Marx und der Marxismus'', 1967.) * '' Die Geiß und die sieben Wölflein'' Weinheim 1976. * '' Neugier und Furcht. Versuch, mein Leben zu verstehen.'' Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1995, . (Autobiography)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fetscher, Iring 1922 births 2014 deaths German political scientists German sociologists Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt Chevaliers of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg German male writers German expatriates in France Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism

Major works

See also

References