Hans Albert
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
philosopher. Born in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, he lives in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
.
His fields of research are Social Sciences and General Studies of Methods. He is a critical rationalist, giving special attention to rational heuristics. He is a strong critic of the continental
Continental philosophy
Continental philosophy, in contemporary usage, refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe. This sense of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and...
hermeneutic tradition coming from Heidegger and Gadamer.
Albert's critical rationalism
Albert held the chair of 'Social Sciences and General Studies of Methods' at the University of MannheimUniversity of Mannheim
The University of Mannheim is one of the younger German universities. It offers Bachelor, Master, and PhD degrees.The University is mainly located in Mannheim’s palace the largest baroque palace in Germany. The whole city center of Mannheim is aligned symmetrically to the palace.About 800 scholars...
. He is also a much-cited philosopher. Most importantly, he gave Popper's critical rationalism a concise, broad-ranging formulation, even as a way of life.
He gave evidence for his thesis that there is no field of human activities where one should not be critical. Thus he applied critical rationalism to the social sciences, especially to economics, politics, jurisprudence, and religion.
In his view the attitude of criticism is one of the oldest European traditions (going back to the pre-Socratics) in comparison with other less critical traditions.
Before his many books were published Hans Albert was already known to a broader audience for his contributions to the positivism dispute
Positivism dispute
Positivismusstreit is the German word for debate about positivism and refers to a well known philosophical dispute between Critical rationalism and the Frankfurt School in 1961, about the methodology of the social sciences...
answering his opponents of the so called Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
(school of Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
and Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer was a German-Jewish philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. His most important works include The Eclipse of Reason and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment...
at Frankfurt's Institute of Sociology). His contributions were to:
- differentiate critical rationalismCritical rationalismCritical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper. Popper wrote about critical rationalism in his works, The Open Society and its Enemies Volume 2, and Conjectures and Refutations.- Criticism, not support :...
and positivismPositivismPositivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
; - argue against some strains of sociology opposing the application of methods used in natural sciences;
- suggest that the role of values and the scientific handling of values has to be given new thought;
- interpret Max WeberMax WeberKarl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
not as supporting value-free science but as demonstrating that scientists can 'be free of any value judgement', even for research in the fields of values.
New insights are not easy to be spread or proliferate. There is often an ideological obstacle, for which Albert coined the phrase 'immunity against criticism'.
Albert's well known Münchhausen Trilemma is ironically named after Baron Münchhausen
Baron Munchhausen
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen , usually known as Baron Münchhausen in English, was a German nobleman born in Bodenwerder and a famous recounter of tall tales....
, who allegedly pulled himself out of a swamp seizing himself by his shock of hair. This trilemma rounds off the classical problem of justification in the theory of knowledge
Theory of justification
Theory of justification is a part of epistemology that attempts to understand the justification of propositions and beliefs. Epistemologists are concerned with various epistemic features of belief, which include the ideas of justification, warrant, rationality, and probability...
. All attempts to get a certain justification must fail. The verdict concerns not only deductive justifications as many of his critics believe, but also inductive, causal, transcendental, and all otherwise structured justifications. They all will be in vain:
- (1) All justification in pursuit of certain knowledge has also to justify the means of justification and therefore there can be no end.
- (2) One can stop at self-evidence or common sense or fundamental principles or anything else, but in doing so the intention to install certain justification is abandoned.
- (3) The third horn of the trilemma is the application of a circular argument.
Albert stressed repeatedly that there is no limitation of the Münchhausen Trilemma to deductive conclusions. Therefore certain justification is impossible at all. Once having given up the classical idea of certain knowing one can stop the process of justification where one wants to stop. This, however, presupposes that one is ready to start critical thinking at this point anew if necessary. Thus:
- Don't look backwards to the solid basis of your thinking, but look always forward to the consequences.
- In this way no problem arises to justify this non-justificationalism.
To observe and criticize the endeavors made to escape from the quagmire of certain justification became an instructive part of Hans Albert's philosophy. For example his discussion of the ideas of Karl-Otto Apel
Karl-Otto Apel
Karl-Otto Apel is a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Apel worked in ethics, the philosophy of language and human sciences. He wrote extensively in these fields, publishing mostly in German...
, one of Germany's leading philosophers (see Albert's Transzendentale Träumereien... meaning Transcendental Reveries. Karl-Otto Apels Language Games and His Hermeneutical God, which is not yet translated).
Still, Albert argues that critical rationalists have to accept that those attempts of rigorous justification (like Apel's) are not senseless, since only as long as alternative methods are without success can critical rationalism be called successful.
Albert's style of writing and criticizing
Albert's plea is for critical rationalismCritical rationalism
Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper. Popper wrote about critical rationalism in his works, The Open Society and its Enemies Volume 2, and Conjectures and Refutations.- Criticism, not support :...
. He avoids solemn preaching in favor of serious, serene discussion with people of different faith and thinking. While Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
always warned not to follow one's opponent into the mire, Albert follows them into their favored field of thinking on their own terms. So he criticized Heidegger's
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
"being in the abyss" ("Sein im Ab-Grund"), Gadamer's
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 magnum opus, Truth and Method .-Life:...
"horizons melting together", Habermas's
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
"consensual theoretical truth in the ideal discourse", Karl-Otto Apel's
Karl-Otto Apel
Karl-Otto Apel is a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Apel worked in ethics, the philosophy of language and human sciences. He wrote extensively in these fields, publishing mostly in German...
transcendental arguments, the theologian Hans Küng's
Hans Küng
Hans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...
"absolute-relative, this-life-and-hereafter, transcendental-immanent, allconcerning-allcontrolling most real reality in the very heart of things". Hans Albert meticulously follows their arguments to uncover:
- undiscovered premises
- new and often fatal consequences
- new and often better alternatives.
Underlying suppositions and injunctions of Albert's method are:
- Only if all alternatives to critical rationalism are untenable may one live with critical rationalism.
- There is value in keeping an open mind and learning from discussion. Other people may be right; thus give credit to their thinking.
- One should keep away from solemn gravity.
- One should avoid the moralising know-it-all but not conceal one's preferred way of life.
The intellectual life of Hans Albert
In 1950 Hans Albert earned his first degree as a 'Diplom-Kaufmann', followed by an Academic degree of a Dr. rer.pol. 1952. In the years 1952–1958 he worked as an assistant at the 'Forschungsinstitut für Sozial- und Verwaltungswissenschaften' of the University of Cologne. In 1957 he got the degree of a 'Dr. habil. for Social Politics' at the University of Cologne. As a lecturer he read logic, theory of science and economics of the welfare state. Since 1958 he has been participating the Alpbacher Hochschulwochen (a famous summer conference in the beautiful Austrian alpine village of AlpbachAlpbach
Alpbach is a village in Western Austria in the state of Tyrol. Its geographical location is , at 975 m above sea level. Alpbach had a population of 2,549 in 2003....
). It was there he made the acquaintance of Karl Popper
Popper
Popper may refer to:* Jalapeño popper, a type of food* Poppers, the family of drugs that are a subset of a class of chemicals known as alkyl nitrites* Poppers, a brand of frozen food owned by Heinz...
after having studied Popper's philosophy and having mostly accepted it long ago. After 1955 he had exciting discussions with Paul Feyerabend
Paul Feyerabend
Paul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades . He lived a peripatetic life, living at various times in England, the United States, New Zealand,...
, who in those times was a critical rationalist and an admirer of Karl Popper. Their letters later were published. In 1963 Albert finally got the chair of 'Social Sciences and General Studies of Methods' (later dubbed 'Sociology and Studies of Economics') at the Wirtschaftshochschule Mannheim (later University of Mannheim).
1961–1969 was the time of the so called 'Positivismusstreit' (positivism dispute
Positivism dispute
Positivismusstreit is the German word for debate about positivism and refers to a well known philosophical dispute between Critical rationalism and the Frankfurt School in 1961, about the methodology of the social sciences...
), i.e. the debate between Karl Popper and Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
concerning positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
within German sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
during the 1960s. Albert participated at this meanwhile famous Conference of the German Society of Sociology ('Tagung der deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie') 1961 in Tübingen. In the beginning there was no dispute on positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
, because Adorno as well as Popper were opposed to positivism. The debate was more about the differences between social sciences and natural sciences and the status of values in the social sciences. 1963 The debate was continued by Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
in the Festschrift für Adorno. 1964 On the Soziologentag (conference on sociology) in Heidelberg the debate grew up into an excited discussion between Habermas and Albert. The famous dispute culminated in a collection of essays published in 1969, translated into several languages, also into English (1976, see booklist below). This dispute gained a broad audience.
In 1989 Hans Albert was discharged from active service as Professor Emeritus but continued writing books and giving lectures at many universities, such as the 1990 lectures at the University of Graz on Critical Rationalism, the 1995 'Walter Adolf Lectures' at the Hochschule St. Gallen, and the 1998 Wittgenstein-Lectures at the University of Bayreuth (with Prof. Rainer Hegselmann) about Critical Rationalism.
He was honored with the 'Vits prize' 1976 and with the 'Arthur Burckhard prize' 1984. He was decorated with the Austrian 'Ehrenkreuz für Kunst und Wissenschaft der Republik Österreich' (1994) and got honorary doctorates of the universities of Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
/Austria (1995), Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
/Greece (1997), Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
/Germany (2000), Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
/Austria (2006), and Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
/Austria (2007).
Publications
Albert published around 30 books. Some of them are translated into different languagesEnglish books
- 1976 with Adorno, Dahrendorf, Habermas, Pilot und Popper: The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, Heinemann London 1976 and Harper Torchbook 1976
- 1985 Treatise on Critical Reason, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
- 1999 Between Social Science, Religion, and Politics. Essays on Critical Rationalism, Amsterdam-Atlanta (Rodopi) 1999.
English papers
- Social Science and Moral Philosophy. A Critical Approach to the Value Problem in the Social Sciences, in: Mario Bunge (eds.), The Critical Approach to Science and Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Karl Popper, Glencoe/Illinois.
- Law and State, Vol. 13, Tübingen 1976.
- Science and the Search for Truth. Critical Rationalism and the Methodology of Science, in: G. Radnitzky/G. Andersson (eds.), Progress and Rationality in Science, Dordrecht/ Holland 1978, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, R.S. Cohen/M. Wartofsky (eds.), Vol LVIII.
- The Economic Tradition. Economics as a Research Programme for Theoretical Social Science, in: Karl Brunner (ed.), Economics and Social Institutions, Insights from the Conferences on Analysis and Ideology, Boston/The Hague/London 1979.
- Transcendental Realism and Rational Heuristics: Critical Rationalism and the Problem of Method, in Gunnar Anderson (ed.), Rationality in Science and Politics, Reidel, Dordrecht 1984.
- On Using Leibniz in Economics. Comment on Peter Koslowski, in: Peter Koslowski (ed.), Economics in Philosophy, Mohr, Tübingen 1985, p. 68–78.
- Law as an Instrument of Rational Practice, in: Terence Daintith/ Günther Teubner (ed.), Contract and Organization. Legal Analysis in the Light of Economic and Social Theory, Berlin/New York 1986, de Gruyter, p. 25–51.
- Is Socialism inevitable? Historical prophecy and the possibilities of reason in: Svetozar Pejovich (ed.), Socialism: institutional, philosophical and economical issues, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster 1987.
- Critical Rationalism. The Problem of Method in Social Sciences and Law, Ratio Juris Volume 1, Number 1, March 1988, p. 1–19.
- Hermeneutics and Economics. A Criticism of Hermeneutical Thinking in the Social Sciences, Kyklos, Volume 41, Fasc. 4, 1988, pages 573–602.
- Reply to Lord Alford, Newsletter (Editor Fred Eidlin), Vol 3 (No 3 & 4), pages 13–14, July 1988.
- Some remarks on reasons in explaining human action, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 7 No.1, 1993, pp. 25–27.
- Religion, Science, and the Myth of the Framework, in: I.C.Jarvie/ N.Laor (eds), Critical Rationalism, Metaphysics and Science. Essays for Joseph Agassi, Vol.I, Kluwer Acad.Publishers, pp. 41–58.
- Commentary on Bernholz, in: Gerard Radnitzky/ Hardy Bouillon (eds), Values and the Social Order, Vol. I: Values and society, pages 251–254, Avebury, Aldershot/ Brookfield USA/ Hong Kong/ Singapore/ Sidney.
- The Ideal of Liberty and the Problem of the Social Order, in: Dino Fiorot (ed.), Ordino, Conflitto e Libertà nei Grandi Mutamenti del Nostro Tempo, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, pp. 1–30.
- The Conflict of Science and Religion: Religious Metaphysics and the Scientific World View as Alternatives, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Vol.153 (1), 1997, pp. 216–234.
- Hans Albert, Critical Rationalism and Universal Hermeneutics, in Jeff Malpas, Ulrich Arnswald, Jens Kertscher (ed.), Gadamer's Century. Essays in Honor of Hans-Georg Gadamer (MIT Press, March 2002), pp. 15–24.
- Historiography as a Hypothetical-Deductive Science: A Criticism of Methodological Historism, in: Colin Cheyne/John Worrall (eds), Rationality and Reality. Conversations with Alan Musgrave, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 263–272.
German books
- 1967 Marktsoziologie und Entscheidungslogik. Ökonomische Probleme in soziologischer Perspektive.
- 1968 Traktat über kritische Vernunft Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck), many later editions.
- 1971 Plädoyer für kritischen Rationalismus, Piper Verlag, München 1971.
- 1972 Konstruktion und Kritik. Aufsätze zur Philosophie des kritischen Rationalismus, Verlag Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1972.
- 1973 Theologische Holzwege. Gerhard Ebeling und der rechte Gebrauch der Vernunft, Verlag Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1973.
- 1975 Transzendentale Träumereien. Karl-Otto Apels Sprachspiele und sein hermeneutischer Gott, Verlag Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1975.
- 1976 Aufklärung und Steuerung. Aufsätze zur Sozialphilosophie und zur Wissenschaftslehre der Sozialwissenschaften, Verlag Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg * *1976 'Positivism Dispute', see English books, also in German and other languages.
- 1977 Kritische Vernunft und menschliche Praxis with autobiographical notes.
- 1978 Traktat über rationale Praxis.
- 1979 Das Elend der Theologie.
- 1982 Die Wissenschaft und die Fehlbarkeit der Vernunft.
- 1987 Kritik der reinen Erkenntnislehre. Das Erkenntnisproblem in realistischer Perspektive.
- 1993 Lectures about Rechtswissenschaft als Realwissenschaft. Das Recht als soziale Tatsache und die Aufgabe der Jurisprudenz at the University of Würzburg. – Kritik der reinen Hermeneutik – Der Antirealismus und das Problem des Verstehens, Tübingen (Mohr-Siebeck) 1994.
- 1997 Paul Feyerabend, Hans Albert, Briefwechsel (ed. Wilhelm Baum), Frankfurt/M. (Fischer) 1997.
- 2000 Kritischer Rationalismus, Tübingen Mohr-Siebeck (UTB) 2000.
- 2001 Hans Albert Lesebuch, UTB (Mohr Siebeck) Tübingen 2001.
- 2003 Kritik des transzendentalen Denkens, (Mohr Siebeck) Tübingen 2003 and in the same year: Erkenntnislehre und Sozialwissenschaft. Karl Poppers Beiträge zur Analyse sozialer Zusammenhänge, Wien (Picus) 2003.
- 2005 Hans Albert – Karl Popper – Briefwechsel 1958–1994 (Letters from and to Karl Popper); ed. Martin Morgenstern and Robert Zimmer.
- 2006 Rationalität und Existenz (Reprint of Albert's 1952 dissertation with a new foreword and a self-critical epilogue), 233 p., Tübingen (Mohr Siebeck).
- 2007 In Kontroversen verstrickt. Vom Kulturpessimismus zum kritischen Rationalismus, LIT Verlag 2007, 264 pages. (Autobiography)
Biographical literature
Hans Albert, 'Autobiographische Einleitung', in: Kritische Vernunft und menschliche Praxis, Stuttgart (Reclam) 1977, pages 5–33. Hans Albert, 'Mein Umweg in die Soziologie. Vom Kulturpessimismus zum kritischen Rationalismus', in: Christian Fleck (ed.), Wege zur Soziologie. Autobiographiche Notizen, Leske + Budrich, Opladen, pages 17–37. Eric HilgendorfEric Hilgendorf
Eric Andreas Hilgendorf is a German professor of law and legal philosopher. He currently works at the University of Würzburg, serving as Dean of the Law Faculty and the Chair of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Legal Theory, and Information and Computer Science Law.- Academic...
: Hans Albert. Zur Einführung Junius Verlag 1997. Hans Albert, In Kontroversen verstrickt. Vom Kulturpessimismus zum kritischen Rationalismus, LIT Verlag 2007, 264 p. (Hans Albert's autobiography)
Further information
As for Hans Albert's scientific articles see List of Publications maintained by Hans-Joachim NiemannHans-Joachim Niemann
Hans Joachim Niemann, born in 1941 in Kiel , is a German philosopher who has developed the methods of critical rationalism for applying them in the fields of metaphysics and ethics.-Biography:...
in http://www.hansalbert.de. See also the Hans-Joachim Niemann
Hans-Joachim Niemann
Hans Joachim Niemann, born in 1941 in Kiel , is a German philosopher who has developed the methods of critical rationalism for applying them in the fields of metaphysics and ethics.-Biography:...
(alias 'hjn') initiated German Wikibook: Studienführer Hans Albert (Study Guide Hans Albert)
http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Studienf%C3%BChrer_Hans_Albert. It contains a large publication list with many quotations of English written articles as well as articles translated into Italian, Finnish, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Serbo-Croatian language. You will find also a lot of secondary literature.
See also critical rationalism
Critical rationalism
Critical rationalism is an epistemological philosophy advanced by Karl Popper. Popper wrote about critical rationalism in his works, The Open Society and its Enemies Volume 2, and Conjectures and Refutations.- Criticism, not support :...
.