Alois Höfler (; April 6, 1853 – February 26, 1922) was an Austrian philosopher and university professor of education. He was seen by the logical positivist

Otto Neurath Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; ; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in ...

as an important link between

Bernard Bolzano Bernard Bolzano (, ; ; ; born Bernardus Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano; 5 October 1781 – 18 December 1848) was a Bohemian mathematician, logician, philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest of Italian extraction, also known for his liberal ...

's work and the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle () of logical empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Sc ...

Biography

Alois Höfler was born in Kirchdorf in Upper Austria. His father and mother died while he was in his early and middle teens. He and his two younger sisters were then raised by a second mother, Amalie Boheim. He had four sons with his wife Auguste Dornhöffer, including

Otto Höfler Otto Eduard Gottfried Ernst Höfler (10 May 1901 – 25 August 1987) was an Austrian philologist who specialized in Germanic studies. A student of Rudolf Much, Höfler was Professor and Chair of German Language and Old German Literature at the Un ...

. In the fall of 1871, Höfler entered the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

where he studied mathematics and physics with

Ludwig Boltzmann Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann ( ; ; 20 February 1844 – 5 September 1906) was an Austrian mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist. His greatest achievements were the development of statistical mechanics and the statistical ex ...

and

Josef Stefan Josef Stefan (; 24 March 1835 – 7 January 1893) was a Carinthian Slovene physicist, mathematician, and poet of the Austrian Empire. Life and work Stefan was born in the village of St. Peter (Slovene: ) on the outskirts of Klagenfurt) to A ...

. After his teaching examination in 1876 at the age of 23, he taught in the Josefstädter- gymnasium and other gymnasiums (advanced secondary schools) in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. He received his doctoral degree in 1885, under Meinong supervision in Graz, with a thesis titled ''Some Laws of Incompatibility between Judgments''. He received his habilitation in 1894 at the University of Vienna with a thesis titled "Psychic work". During the 1870s and 1880's Höfler also attended evening classes taught by Franz Brentano, Brentano and Meinong. His philosophical view was strongly influenced by Meinong. From 1881 to 1903 he taught mathematics, physics and philosophical propaedeutics at the grammar school of the Theresian Academy in Vienna. He became professor of philosophy and pedagogy in Prague in 1903 (as successor to Otto Willmann) and at the University of Vienna in 1907 (as successor to Theodor Vogt). His increasing interest in philosophy and in making it more scientific led him to study and write increasingly on logic and psychology as well. In the opinion of the ardent logical positivism, logical positivist

, through his involvement in the School of Brentano, Höfler was an important connection between the work on logic of

and the

. In 1914, he reprinted the 77 years old Bolzano's ''Theory of Science'', which was said to be almost impossible to find at the time. He also loved music, poetry, and the arts. He strongly opposed attempting to reduce their role in schools. Höfler died in Vienna.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofler, Alois 1853 births 1922 deaths Academic staff of the University of Vienna Psychologists from Austria-Hungary Philosophers from Austria-Hungary