Hans Albert
Between Social Science, Religion, And Politics
- Essays in Critical Rationalism
Amsterdam-Atlanta (Rodopi) 1999
Hans Albert
is the leading critical rationalist in the German-speaking world and the main
critic of the hermeneutic tradition. He is well-known for applying the idea of
critical reason to various kinds of human practice, including economics,
politics, and law. But he has also improved on Popper's methodology by
introducing the idea of rational heuristics. This collection of essays presents
the core of his work on epistemology, philosophy of social sciences, philosophy
of religion, and philosophy of law. Most of Albert's works have not yet been
available in English. It is enormously useful to have these articles collected
in a single volume.
Cover text of Edition Rodopi
Cited from the PREFACE:
"The essays
collected in this volume have been published between 1964 and 1996 in various
places. They are connected by coming from a philosophical view, which is
influenced above all by Karl Popper's Critical Rationalism.
…
This is the
second book of mine presenting my views to readers in the English speaking
countries. The first book of this kind has been my Treatise on Critical Reason, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
New Jersey 1985, translated by Mary Varner Rorty from my Traktat aber kritische Vernulift, Verlag Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen
1968 (fifth enlarged edition 1991). In my preface to the American edition of
this book I have stated that this book arose out of a particular problem
situation which has been portrayed only onesidedly in America and that the
further discussions to which it led are virtually unknown there. This seems to
be true to this day.
The reader
who does not understand German might be totally misguided, for instance, by the
report about my views by XXXXX, in his book Modern German Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
1981, where he has managed to distort some of my views to the point where they
are incompatible with my often stated arguments. And people who read XXXXXX's long essay: The Problem of
Philosophical Foundations in Light of a Transcendental Pragmatics of Language, in:
Kelineth Baynes/James Bohmann/Thomas Mebarthy (eds.), After Philosophy ‑ End or Transformation? Cambridge,
Mass./London 1988, in which XXXXXX criticizes my views, will find that he only
refers to my above mentioned book, in spite of the fact that I have countered
his criticism in my book: Transzendentale
Träumereien, Hamburg 1975, in chapter IV, Münchhausen oder der Zauber der Reflexion, of my book: Die Wissenschaft und die Fehlbarkeit der Vernunft,
Verlag Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1982, and in other places, and have shown
that his own conception is completely untenable. And he will find that XXXXXX in one of his books is supporting
XXXXXX's criticism without any
argument and with no reference to my criticism.
The essays of this book are related to problems which are discussed above all in Germany. But most of my criticisms of the views of Heidegger, XXXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX and other German philosophers are only available in German, partly in books of mine which are mentioned in the footnotes of these essays. I would have preferred to make the reader acquainted with more than these fragments of my views. But the publishers of the Anglosaxon countries seem to prefer to translate the works of German thinkers which in their opinion are more representative of the German tradition. Only one of my American friends Walter Kaufmann who died more than fifteen years ago has been successful in convincing an American publisher to publish a book of mine in his country. And now I have to thank my friend Kurt Salamun for taking this book into his series on Critical Rationalism. Heidelberg, January 1999. Hans Albert"
(The blackening XXXXXX is only here to keep lawers away. H.J.Niemann, Jan 2005)