Bernhard Kleeberg
University of Erfurt, Chair for the History of Science, Faculty Member
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Telos
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The title of this issue of Science in Context – “Believing Nature, Knowing God” – is intended to suggest the moral, emotional, and cognitive conditions in which the historical alliance of “nature” and “God” operated, and to make a more... more
The title of this issue of Science in Context – “Believing Nature, Knowing God” – is intended to suggest the moral, emotional, and cognitive conditions in which the historical alliance of “nature” and “God” operated, and to make a more general point about knowing and believing. The production of scientific knowledge includes mechanisms for bringing about acceptance that such knowledge is true, and thus for generating a psychological state of belief. To claim to have knowledge of nature involves an attitude of belief in certain epistemic values, in the procedures associated with them, and in the results to which they lead. “Nature,” both as a totality to be known, and as the sum of the results of research directed towards it, turns out to be an object of belief.
Research Interests: Psychology and Philosophy
This chapter intends to map out the boundary disputes between Protestant German theology and Darwinism. It discusses positions ranging from monistic-idealistic approaches that totally converged with Darwinism to orthodox approaches that... more
This chapter intends to map out the boundary disputes between Protestant German theology and Darwinism. It discusses positions ranging from monistic-idealistic approaches that totally converged with Darwinism to orthodox approaches that claimed the absolute incompatibility of science and religion, as well as various attempts at stressing their epistemological complementarity or independence. Darwin?s originality, according to Ernst Haeckel, merely consisted in having introduced natural selection as a second mechanism alongside Lamarck?s inheritance of characters acquired through the use and disuse of organs. Provoked by the polemical position of Haeckel and his followers, many theologians did not follow David Friedrich Strauss?s Speculative Christology, but openly denied the possibility of reconciling Darwinism and Christianity. The teleological interpretation of evolutionism becomes even more evident in Albrecht Ritschl?s disciple Rudolf Otto, professor of systematic theology in Gottingen. Keywords: Albrecht Ritschl; Christianity; Darwinism; David Friedrich Strauss; Ernst Haeckel; Protestant German theology
Research Interests: Philosophy and Brill
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When the German translation of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1860, it intensified a conflict that German theologians had been fighting since the early 19th century. Arguments against the secular relativising or even... more
When the German translation of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1860, it intensified a conflict that German theologians had been fighting since the early 19th century. Arguments against the secular relativising or even thorough dismissal of the scientific, philosophical and social importance of the bible now had to be supplemented with arguments against the anti-teleological consequences of Darwin’s theory. But though they all agreed in rejecting these consequences, German theologians considerably differed in respect to the epistemological status they granted to Darwinian and biblical accounts of man and nature. Whether they considered the truths of science and religion as corresponding, complementary, independent, or incompatible depended on their judgments on the relation between (scientific) facts, theories, and (cultural) convictions. These judgments were shaped in a specific way: Darwinism in Germany was mainly associated with Ernst Haeckel’s monistic evolutio...
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Page 1. Bernhard Kleeberg THEOPHVSIS Ernst Haeckels Philosophie des Naturganzen bohlau Page 2. Page 3. Bernhard Kleeberg Theophysis Page 4. Page 5. Bernhard Kleeberg THEOPHYSIS Ernst Haeckels Philosophie ...
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Our truth culture has changed. Yet we are not living in a post-truth era but in a truth era – an observation of the ongoing debates shows a proliferation of invocations of truth. This paper argues that in order to grasp this transition,... more
Our truth culture has changed. Yet we are not living in a post-truth era but in a truth era – an observation of the ongoing debates shows a proliferation of invocations of truth. This paper argues that in order to grasp this transition, we should not refer to classical truth theories or common oppositions such as knowledge and belief, objectivity and subjectivity. Instead, we should focus on concrete practices in concrete situations: on “doing truth.” This paper introduces the concept of a “praxeology of truth,” which sets out to analyse truth by means of two parameters: “truth scenes” and “truth figures.” In suggesting that to ask about truth is to pose the question of power, it follows Michel Foucault, but it regards the invocation of truth as a technique of identity politics and truth as a social operator.
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When in 1867 botanists Carl Nageli and Simon Schwendener published their work on the microscope and its usage, they warned that using this optical device would never lead to a thorough comprehension of the observed the microscope could... more
When in 1867 botanists Carl Nageli and Simon Schwendener published their work on the microscope and its usage, they warned that using this optical device would never lead to a thorough comprehension of the observed the microscope could only present a corrupted picture of the object. Since the knowledge gained could never transcend the "received impression" of the beholder, there was "no truth fimher advanced than a relative natural truth.'" Niigeli and Schwendener held that the same standards of perception were valid for all kinds of observation of nature, and the glance through the lens of the microscope in the end only complicated the question of subjective perception. The visual device introduced additional problems of aberration from true perception, since besides the general virtues of the naturalist, correct judgment and full scientific comprehension of the object, technical connoisseurship was needed. Drawing the observed objects provided further diffi...
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When the German translation of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1860, it intensified a conflict that German theologians had been fighting since the early 19th century. Arguments against the secular relativising or even... more
When the German translation of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1860, it intensified a conflict that German theologians had been fighting since the early 19th century. Arguments against the secular relativising or even thorough dismissal of the scientific, philosophical and social importance of the bible now had to be supplemented with arguments against the anti-teleological consequences of Darwin’s theory. But though they all agreed in rejecting these consequences, German theologians considerably differed in respect to the epistemological status they granted to Darwinian and biblical accounts of man and nature. Whether they considered the truths of science and religion as corresponding, complementary, independent, or incompatible depended on their judgments on the relation between (scientific) facts, theories, and (cultural) convictions. These judgments were shaped in a specific way: Darwinism in Germany was mainly associated with Ernst Haeckel’s monistic evolutio...
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Truth has become a fiercely contested subject. Shaped by the experience of insecurity, the first half of the year 2020 has put the process of “truth in the making” on display in conditions of a global pandemic: quite often “In truth we... more
Truth has become a fiercely contested subject. Shaped by the experience of insecurity, the first half of the year 2020 has put the process of “truth in the making” on display in conditions of a global pandemic: quite often “In truth we trust” seems to be equated with “In science we trust” (Carolan & Bell 2003). At the same time, the truth people trust in seems to have multiplied: they do not have trust in the truth, but in a particular truth. The COVID-19 crisis, which is likely the first globally mediatised health crisis in history, allows us to observe the relations of societies and science in a condensed form. We can spot how “science in the making”1 is
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Man had emerged from the anthropoid background for one reason only: because he was a killer. Long ago, perhaps many millions of years ago, a line of killer apes branched off from the non-aggressive primate background. For reasons of... more
Man had emerged from the anthropoid background for one reason only: because he was a killer. Long ago, perhaps many millions of years ago, a line of killer apes branched off from the non-aggressive primate background. For reasons of environmental necessity, the line adopted the predatory way. For reasons of predatOIY necessity the line advanced. We learned to stand erect in the first place as a necessity of the hunting life. We learned to run in our pursuit of game across the yellowing African savannah, our hands freed for the mauling and the hauling, we had no further use for a snout, and so it retreated. And lacking fighting teeth or claws, we took recourse by necessity to the weapon. A rock, a stick, a heavy bone to our ancestral killer ape it meant the margin of survival. But the use of the weapon meant new and mUltiplying demands on the nervous system for the co-ordination of muscle and touch and sight. And so at last came the enlarged brain; so at last came man. Far from the t...
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Mit der Entschliisselung des menschlichen Genoms gewinnt die Idee der "Biologie als Leitwissenschaft" erneut an Gewicht. Damit scheint auch eine Konjunktur naturalistischer Wesensbestimmungen des Menschen einherzugehen. Vermehrt... more
Mit der Entschliisselung des menschlichen Genoms gewinnt die Idee der "Biologie als Leitwissenschaft" erneut an Gewicht. Damit scheint auch eine Konjunktur naturalistischer Wesensbestimmungen des Menschen einherzugehen. Vermehrt wird auf Genetik und Evolutionsbiologie verwiesen, die allein den Zugang zum Verstandnis des Menschen und seiner Kultur eroffneten: Nur sie lieferten ein eindeutiges und fortschreitendes Wissen iiber das If-as des Menschen und das f,f:7i'e seiner Entstehung eine Ansicht! die wir im folgenden als netlen Nattlrttiismtls bezeichnen. Aber ist dem Menschen ein VorversUindnis seiner Natur nicht immer schon und auf verschiedene Weisen gegeben? Gibt es nicht alternative Bestimmungen des Menschen in anderen Wissensgebieten? Im Rahmen des Denkstils des neuen Naturalismus werden diese Fragen verneint: Die Erforschung der conditt'o IJtlmana obJiege allein der Biologie. Ein Grund dafiir mag in der seit dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert zum Topos gewordene...
... 3_2008Buergerbefragung.pdf (1.206Mb). Findeisen, Ina; Hinz, Thomas; Szulganik, Elisa; Auspurg, Katrin (2008), Report. [more]. [less]. ... Sebastian; Kühn, Lisa; Lagumdzija, Emina; Luchsinger, Tobias; Martin, Christina; Mütz,... more
... 3_2008Buergerbefragung.pdf (1.206Mb). Findeisen, Ina; Hinz, Thomas; Szulganik, Elisa; Auspurg, Katrin (2008), Report. [more]. [less]. ... Sebastian; Kühn, Lisa; Lagumdzija, Emina; Luchsinger, Tobias; Martin, Christina; Mütz, Sebastian; Richter, Dajana; Skrypchenko, Viktoriya; Troll ...
"Bernhard Kleeberg/Andreas Langenohl: »Culturalisation, deculturalisation« This article discusses variations in the analytic category of »culture« which has recently become prominent, with respect to ideal-typical... more
"Bernhard Kleeberg/Andreas Langenohl: »Culturalisation, deculturalisation« This article discusses variations in the analytic category of »culture« which has recently become prominent, with respect to ideal-typical idiomologies of deculturalisation as well as culturalisation. They are examined against the background of the systematic differentiations that are formulated in the renewed epistemic perspective of constructivism, deconstructivism and essentialism."
The article delineates the program of a praxeology of truth that allows for studying the dynamics and variability of truth in the sense of situated doing truth. It proposes a heuristic differentiation between »truth scenes« and »truth... more
The article delineates the program of a praxeology of truth that allows for studying the dynamics and variability of truth in the sense of situated doing truth. It proposes a heuristic differentiation between »truth scenes« and »truth figures« that helps to analyze the emergence of theories of truth as well as that of specific truth cultures.
His new “scientific point of view,” he wrote in 1859, built on the study of “sensual things.” “Evidence of experimental science” would ultimately lead to a new form of “consilience” that demonstrated “objective necessity” instead of... more
His new “scientific point of view,” he wrote in 1859, built on the study of “sensual things.” “Evidence of experimental science” would ultimately lead to a new form of “consilience” that demonstrated “objective necessity” instead of “phantasmagoric ideas or arbitrary abstract reasoning.” Natural scientists, philosophers and theologians had to acknowledge that there was but one universal ontology and epistemology, and that a new approach had set out to deal with any question thus arising.
Conference at Prague/Liblice, 13-15 October 2022, organised by the research initiative Political Epistemologies of Eastern Europe (www.uni-erfurt.de/to/5HZUPwGJ1oXN3cO)