Adolf Reinach | |
|---|---|
| Born | Adolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach 23 December 1883 |
| Died | 16 November 1917 (aged 33) Diksmuide, Belgium |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Munich University of Göttingen University of Tübingen |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Munich phenomenology |
| Institutions | University of Göttingen |
| Main interests | Phenomenology Legal theory |
| Notable ideas | Theory of negative judgement[1] (Theorie des negativen Urteils) Negativestates of affairs[2] |
Adolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach (/ˈraɪnɑːx/;German:[ˈʁaɪnax]; 23 December 1883 – 16 November 1917) was a German philosopher, phenomenologist from theMunich phenomenology school and law theorist.
Adolf Reinach was born into a prominentJewish family inMainz,[3] Germany, on 23 December 1883.[4]
Adolf Reinach studied at theOstergymnasium in Mainz (where he became at first interested in Plato) and later entered theUniversity of Munich in 1901 where he studied mainlypsychology andphilosophy underTheodor Lipps. In the circle of Lipps' students he came in contact withMoritz Geiger,Otto Selz,Aloys Fischer and above allJohannes Daubert. From onward 1903/4 he was increasingly busy with the works ofEdmund Husserl, especially hisLogische Untersuchungen (Logical Investigations).
In 1904, Reinach obtained his doctorate in philosophy under Lipps with his workÜber den Ursachenbegriff im geltenden Strafrecht (On the concept of cause in penal law). In 1905, he still intended to continue his studies in Munich (where in the meanwhile he had also befriendedAlexander Pfänder), to obtain a degree in law, but then decided to go to study with Husserl at theUniversity of Göttingen. In that period more students of Lipps (captained by Daubert) had decided to abandon Munich and to head for Göttingen, inspired by Husserl's works (which is referred to as theMunich invasion of Göttingen).
Later in 1905 Reinach returned to Munich to complete his studies in law and then continued in 1906–07 at theUniversity of Tübingen. He attended several lectures and seminars on penal law by the legal theoristErnst Beling, by which he was quite impressed and to which he owes a great deal of inspiration of his later works. In the summer of 1907 he took the First State Examination in Law, but also went later to Göttingen to attend discussion circles with Husserl.
With the support of Husserl, Reinach was able to obtain habilitation for university teaching at Göttingen in 1909. From his lectures and research, we can see that at the time he was influenced also byAnton Marty andJohannes Daubert, besides obviously and greatly by Husserl. On his turn Reinach appears to have inspired several young phenomenologists (likeWilhelm Schapp,Dietrich von Hildebrand,Alexandre Koyré andEdith Stein) with his lectures. Besides giving an introduction to phenomenology, he lectured i.a. onPlato andImmanuel Kant.
In this period, Husserl embarked on a thorough revision of his main work, theLogical Investigations, and asked Reinach’s assistance in this endeavour. Moreover, in 1912 Reinach, together withMoritz Geiger andAlexander Pfänder founded the famousJahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, withHusserl as main editor.
Besides his work in the area of phenomenology and philosophy in general, Reinach is credited for the development of a forerunner to the theory ofspeech acts byAustin andSearle:Die apriorischen Grundlagen des bürgerlichen Rechtes (The A Priori Foundations of Civil Law) is a systematic treatment of social acts asperformative utterances anda priori foundations of civil law. Reinach's work was based mostly on Husserl's analysis of meaning in theLogical Investigations, but also on Daubert's criticism of it.Alexander Pfänder (1870–1941) had also been doing research on commands, promises and the like in the same period.
After Husserl's publication of theIdeen (Ideas) in 1913, many phenomenologists took a critical stance towards his new theories and the current ofMunich phenomenology came effectively into being, as Reinach, Daubert and others chose to remain closer to Husserl's earlier work, theLogical investigations. Instead of following Husserl into idealism and transcendental phenomenology, the Munich group remained a realist current.
Reinach was converted toLutheranism along with his wife.[5][6]
At the outbreak ofWorld War I Reinach volunteered to join the army. After many battles and having received theIron Cross, Reinach fell outside Diksmuide in Flanders on 16 November 1917.
After his death,Edith Stein was given the task of arranging his manuscript writings. Reinach had said shortly before his death that he would only teach philosophy in the future as a means of leading men to God, and this may have been reflected in these writings. But Edith Stein was impressed by the resignation and faith of his widow.[5] She wrote, "This was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it ... it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me – Christ in the mystery of the Cross."[6] Several years later she became a Christian and a Carmelite nun.
His collected works:Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Ausgabe mit Kommentar (in two volumes) München: Philosophia Verlag 1989. Eds. K. Schuhmann & B. Smith. Some on-line texts and translations of works by Reinach are availablehere.
