Dieter Henrich (born 5 January 1927) is 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	(1927-01-05) 5 January 1927 (age 95) Marburg, Germany
Alma mater	University of Marburg University of Frankfurt University of Heidelberg
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Revival of German idealism[1]
Institutions	University of Munich University of Berlin University of Heidelberg Harvard University Columbia University
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	The epistemic self-relation · Fichte's original insight · Kantian fallacy
Influences Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Gadamer
Influenced Manfred Frank, Lorenz Bruno Puntel, Panagiotis Kondylis, Richard Velkley, Robert Pippin
Signature

Education and career

Henrich studied philosophy between 1946 and 1950 at Marburg, Frankfurt and Heidelberg. He completed his PhD dissertation at Heidelberg in 1950 under the supervision of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The title of his thesis was Die Einheit der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers (The Unity of Max Weber's Epistemology). A professor at the universities of Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg, he has also been a visiting professor to universities in the United States, such as Harvard and Columbia.

Philosophical work

Dieter Henrich's 1973 lecture course on German Idealism introduced to American audience the contemporary currents in German philosophy. His lectures were since then published as Between Kant and Hegel that showed the continuity between German idealism and contemporary philosophical attitudes.[3] 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.[4]

He introduced the term "Fichte's original insight"[5] 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[6] 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[7] (see also pre-reflective self-consciousness).

Honors

• 1995: Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis, University of Tübingen
• 1999: Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree in theology, University of Münster
• 2003: Hegel Prize of the City of Stuttgart
• 2002: Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree in theology, University of Marburg
• 2004: Internationaler Kant-Preis, ZEIT-Stiftung
• 2005: Doctor of Humane Letters, honorary degree in philosophy, University of Jena
• 2006: Deutscher Sprachpreis
• 2006: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
• 2008: Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Preis, University of Tübingen[8]
• 2008: Kuno-Fischer-Preis, University of Heidelberg

Major works

• Die Situation der Historie und Max Webers Methodenlehre aus: Archiv für Philosophie 1949 3; 400–409.
• Die Einheit der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers. Tübingen (J.C.B. Mohr). 1952.
• Hegel im Kontext. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971.
• 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

Notes

References

• 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

• Website of Henrich with bibliography (German)