Nicolai hartmann biography of albert einstein

German philosopher; b. Riga, Feb. 20, 1882; d.

Nicolai hartmann biography of albert einstein

Göttingen, Oct. 9, 1950. The principal features of his philosophy include a "critical ontology," an ethics of material values, and a study of man as creative spirit (demiurge) with Godlike prerogatives. Hartmann moved from the methodological formalism of the Marburg School to a concern, similar to that of phenomenology, with "things themselves." Unlike the phenomenologists, however, he recognized that man's natural consciousness, which he "critically" verified through its experience of opposition, was fixed on the real world.

Yet, influenced by E. husserl and M. scheler, he retained an ideal world and regarded man as a mediator between the spheres of the real and the ideal.

Critical Ontology. In his "critical ontology," Hartmann held that knowledge does not engender the object but is the comprehension of being-in-itself (Ansichseienden ).

Real being (nature) is beyond consciousness in the in-itself (An-sic