Dieter Henrich (5 January 1927 – 17 December 2022) was a German philosopher. A contemporary thinker in the tradition of German idealism, Henrich is considered "one of the most respected and frequently cited philosophers in Germany today", whose "extensive and highly innovative studies of German Idealism and his systematic analyses of subjectivity have significantly impacted on advanced German philosophical and theological debates."[2]
Dieter Henrich | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 January 1927 Marburg, Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, Weimar Republic |
| Died | 17 December 2022 (aged 95) Munich, Bavaria, Germany |
| Education | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Revival of German idealism[1] |
| Institutions |
|
| Thesis | Die Einheit der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers (The Unity of Max Weber's Epistemology) (1950) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans-Georg Gadamer |
Main interests | Philosophy of subjectivity, history of philosophy, aesthetics |
Notable ideas | |
| Signature | |
 | |
Education and career
editHenrich was born in Marburg,[3] on 5 January 1927,[4] the son of Hans Harry Henrich, who worked in survey services, and his wife Frieda née Blum. Because his three siblings died at early ages, he grew up a single child; his father died when he was eleven.[4] Henrich earned his Abitur from the humanistic Gymnasium Philippinum in Marburg in 1946.[4]
Henrich studied philosophy, history and sociology between 1946 and 1950 at Marburg, Frankfurt and Heidelberg.[4] He completed his PhD dissertation at Heidelberg in 1950 under the supervision of Hans-Georg Gadamer.[5] The thesis was Die Einheit der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers (The unity of Max Weber's epistemology). He wrote his habilitation in 1956, titled Selbstbewusstsein und Sittlichkeit.[4] Henrich was professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 1960 to 1965, at the University of Heidelberg from 1965 to 1981, and at the University of Munich from 1981 to 1994, instructing generations of philosophers in standards of interpreting classical texts.[3] He was also a visiting professor at universities in the United States, such as Harvard and Columbia.[6]
Philosophical work
editDieter Henrich's 1973 lecture course on German Idealism introduced contemporary currents in German philosophy to American audiences. Since then his lectures have been published as Between Kant and Hegel, which show the continuity between German idealism and contemporary philosophical attitudes.[6] Henrich introduced the idea that I-thoughts (what he also called "the epistemic self-relation" [Das wissende Selbstverhältnis]) imply a belief in the existence of a world of objects.[2]
He introduced the term Fichte's original insight[7] (Fichtes ursprüngliche Einsicht) to describe Johann Gottlieb Fichte's idea that the self must already have some prior acquaintance with itself, independent of the act of self-reflection. Henrich noted that Fichte saw the transcendental subject as a primordial selfhood[8] and identified its activity as prior to self-reflection. He also introduced the term Kantian fallacy to describe Immanuel Kant's attempt to ground the self in pure self-reflection, positing the moment of self-reflection as the original source of self-consciousness[9] (see also pre-reflective self-consciousness). His thinking was focused on the mystery of self-consciousness. He pointed out that the evidence of self-consciousness was not really self-evident, but rather obscure, possibly the manifestation of a reason concealed in the clarity of self-consciousness and eluding thought ("die offenkundige Manifestation eines Grundes, der sich in der Klarheit des Selbstbewußtseins gleichsam verbirgt und dem Denken entzieht").[10]
Awards
edit- 1995: Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, University of Tübingen[12]
- 1999: Honorary doctorate in theology of the University of Münster[13]
- 2003: Hegel Prize of the City of Stuttgart[14]
- 2002: Honorary doctorate in theology of the University of Marburg[15]
- 2004: Internationaler Kant-Preis, ZEIT-Stiftung[16]
- 2005: Honorary doctorate in philosophy of the University of Jena[17]
- 2006: Deutscher Sprachpreis[18]
- 2006: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art[19]
- 2008: Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Preis, University of Tübingen[15][20]
- 2008: Kuno-Fischer-Preis, University of Heidelberg[16]
Major works
edit- Henrich, Dieter (1952). Die Einheit der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers (dissertation) (in German). Tübingen: NN. doi:10.11588/DIGLIT.52825. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- Hegel im Kontext. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971. ISBN 978-3-518-29538-0 OCLC 521501603
- Der Grund im Bewußtsein. Untersuchungen zu Hölderlins Denken (1794/95). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1992. ISBN 3-608-91613-X (2. erw. Aufl. 2004)
- The Unity of Reason: Essays on Kant's Philosophy, Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-674-92905-5
- Versuch über Kunst und Leben. Subjektivität – Weltverstehen – Kunst. München: Carl Hanser, 2001. ISBN 3-446-19857-1
- Fixpunkte. Abhandlungen und Essays zur Theorie der Kunst. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2003. ISBN 3-518-29210-2
- (with David S. Pacini) Between Kant and Hegel: Lectures on German Idealism. Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-674-00773-5
- Grundlegung aus dem Ich. Untersuchungen zur Vorgeschichte des Idealismus. Tübingen – Jena 1790–1794. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2004. ISBN 3-518-58384-0
- Die Philosophie im Prozeß der Kultur. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2006. ISBN 978-3-518-29412-3
- Endlichkeit und Sammlung des Lebens, Mohr Siebeck, 2009 ISBN 978-3-16-149948-7
- Furcht ist nicht in der Liebe. Philosophische Betrachtungen zu einem Satz des Evangelisten Johannes. Verlag Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt, 2022[11]
References
edit- ^ Redding, Paul: "German Philosophy" Archived 17 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine (Monash University).
- ^ a b Freundlieb, Dieter (2003). Dieter Henrich and Contemporary Philosophy: The Return to Subjectivity. Routledge. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-7546-1344-2.
- ^ a b c Kaube, Jürgen (18 December 2022). "Zum Tod von Dieter Henrich : Schachmeister des Denkens". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 21 December 2022.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d e "Dieter Henrich / deutscher Philosoph; Prof. em.; Dr. phil". Munzinger-Archiv. 21 October 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ a b Stosiek, Tobias (19 December 2022). ""Bürgerlicher Philosoph": Zum Tod von Dieter Henrich". Bayerischer Rundfunk (in German). Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Between Kant and Hegel – Dieter Henrich, David S. Pacini". Harvard University. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- ^ Dieter Henrich. "Fichte's Original Insight", Contemporary German Philosophy 1 (1982), 15–52 (translation of Henrich, Dieter (1966), "Fichtes ursprüngliche Einsicht", in: Subjektivität und Metaphysik. Festschrift für Wolfgang Cramer edited by D. Henrich und H. Wagner, Frankfurt/M., pp. 188–232).
- ^ Norman, Judith Rebecca (1995). The Idea of Intellectual Intuition from Kant to Hegel. University of Wisconsin—Madison. p. 95 – via Google Books.
- ^ Michael Ferber (ed.), A Companion to European Romanticism, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, p. 108.
- ^ a b Hutter, Axel (21 December 2022). "Abschied von Prof. Dr. Dieter Henrich" (in German). University of Munich. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ a b Allert, Tilman (19 December 2022). "Die Liebe macht uns zu dem, was wir sein können: Der Philosoph Dieter Henrich ist gestorben – in seinem letzten Buch hat er nach dem Geheimnis des Liebens gesucht". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis" (in German). Tübingen. 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ Hanke, Thomas (December 2022). "Nachruf auf Dieter Henrich (1927–2022)" (in German). University of Münster. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Hegel‐Preis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart" (in German). Stuttgart: Hegel Prize. 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Preisträger des Jahres 2008: Dieter Henrich, München". innovations-report.de (in German). 2008. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Dieter Henrich: Grundlegung aus dem Ich". wbg-wissenverbindet.de (in German). 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Ehrendoktoren und Ehrendoktorinnen der Fakultäten der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena seit 1990" (in German). University of Jena. 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ ""Deutscher Sprachpreis" 2006 für Dieter Henrich". presseportal.de (in German). 28 April 2008. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ "Dieter Henrich". badw.de (in German). 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- ^ Henrich, Dieter (2009). Endlichkeit und Sammlung des Lebens. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. p. 149. ISBN 978-3-16-149948-7.
Further reading
edit- Dieter Freundlieb, Dieter Henrich and Contemporary Philosophy: The Return to Subjectivity, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, p. 137.
- Brad Prager, Aesthetic Vision and German Romanticism, Camden House, 2007, p. 8.
- Paul Redding, Hegel's Hermeneutics, Cornell University Press, 1996, p. 54.
- Jerrold Seigel, The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 366.
External links
edit- Dieter Henrich at University of Munich (in German)