Alexander Pfänder (7 February 1870, in

Iserlohn Iserlohn (; Westphalian: ''Iserlaun'') is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region. Geography Iserlohn is loc ...

18 March 1941, in

Munich 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 ...

) was a German philosopher who was a member of the

Munich phenomenological school Munich phenomenology (also Munich phenomenological school) is the philosophical orientation of a group of philosophers and psychologists that studied and worked in Munich at the turn of the twentieth century. Their views are grouped under the names ...

Biography

Pfänder was born in

and spent his entire academic career in

, where he was a student of Theodor Lipps and one of the founding members of the Munich circle of phenomenologists. As a professor Pfänder was also influential in conveying and promoting a version of phenomenology that differed from

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 ...

's "

transcendental Transcendence, transcendent, or transcendental may refer to: Mathematics * Transcendental number, a number that is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients * Algebraic element or transcendental element, an element of a field exten ...

" orientation. His early phenomenological analysis of willing (1900) in fact predated Husserl's breakthrough in phenomenology (''Logical Investigations'', vol. II (1901)). In spite of his talents as a writer and a teacher, Pfänder did not come into prominence as did

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 centu ...

with ''

Being and Time ''Being and Time'' (german: Sein und Zeit) is the 1927 '' magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other ...

'' (1927) and has consequently been overshadowed by subsequent developments out of Heideggerian and Husserlian orientations. Nevertheless, his detailed analyses of various phenomena, such as willing and attitudes (''Gesinnungen''), have been undeservedly ignored. Moreover, his development of the concept of an "understanding psychology" also merits attention, which has not received its due to its treatment in a work with an unfashionable title (''The Soul of Man'' (1933)).

Works

* ''Phänomenologie des Wollens: Eine psychologische Analyse'' (1900) * ''Logik'' (1921) English translation: ''Logic'' Frankfurt, Ontos Verlag, 2009. * ''Die Seele des Menschen'' (1933).

External links

*
'Pfänder, Alexander (1871–1941)'
''Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' German philosophers 1870 births 1941 deaths People from Iserlohn German male writers Burials at the Westfriedhof (Munich) {{Germany-philosopher-stub