Karl-Otto Apel (born March 15, 1922 in
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...
) is a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
philosopher and Professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Apel worked in ethics, the philosophy of language and human sciences. He wrote extensively in these fields, and published widely in German and foreign languages, although much of his work is not translated into English. The reach, however, of his philosophy is preponderant, for its influence is felt in many academic circles, not only in Europe and North America, but also in South America and Asia.
Karl-Otto Apel earned his Doctor of Philosophy in 1950, from the University of Bonn. In 1961 Karl-Otto was made a lecturer at the University of Mainz; from 1962-1969, he was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel; from 1969 until 1972, he was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Saarbrucken; from 1972 until 1990, he was a full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main; in 1990 he was made a Professor Emeritus at Frankfurt am Main. Professor Emeritus Apel has received many awards and honours, most notably: Membre titulaire de l'Institut International de Philosophie, Paris, France (1972); Member of the Nordland-Academy for Arts and Sciences, Melbu/Vesteralen, Norway (1988); Member of the Academia Europea, London, U.K. (1989); Full Member of the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea, Salzburg (1993); Doctor honoris causa, The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (1993); Professor Principal honoris causa, Universidad Nacional de San Augustan, Arequipa, Peru (1994); Doctor honoris causa, The Free University, Berlin, Germany (2000); Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2001). Professor Emeritus Apel has held many Visiting and Guest Professorships, as well as a Visiting Fellowship, at numerous universities around the world; and he delivered the Ernst Cassirer Lectures at Yale University in March 1977.
Work
Apel's work brings together the Analytical and
ContinentalContinental philosophy, in contemporary usage, refers to a set of traditions of 19th and 20th century philosophy from mainland Europe. This sense of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who found it useful for referring to a range of...
philosophical traditions, especially
pragmatismPragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected. Pragmatism began in...
and the
critical theoryCritical theory is the examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism...
of the
Frankfurt SchoolThe Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist sociology and philosophy in the tradition of critical theory, which was associated with the early Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
.
In
Understanding and Explanation: A Transcendental-Pragmatic Perspective, Apel reformulated the difference between understanding (
VerstehenVerstehen is a German word which does not directly translate into English but is loosely synonymous with "understanding" or "interpretation". In the social sciences it refers to a kind of non-empirical, empathic, or participatory examination of social phenomena...
) and explanation (
Erklärung), which originated in the
hermeneuticsHermeneutics is the study of interpretation theory, and can be defined as either the art of interpretation, or the theory and practice of interpretation. Traditional hermeneutics - which includes Biblical hermeneutics - refers to the study of the interpretation of written texts, especially texts in...
of
Wilhelm DiltheyWilhelm Dilthey was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, student of hermeneutics, and philosopher...
and interpretive sociology of
Max WeberMaximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German lawyer, politician, historian, sociologist and political economist, who profoundly influenced social theory and the remit of sociology itself. His major works dealt with the rationalization, bureaucratization, and 'disenchantment' he associated with the...
, on the basis of a Peircean-inspired transcendental-pragmatic account of language. This account of the "
lifeworldLifeworld may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given, a world that subjects may experience together. For Husserl, the lifeworld is the fundament for all epistemological enquiries...
" would become an element of the theory of communicative action and
discourse ethicsDiscourse ethics, sometimes called argumentation ethics, refers to a type of argument that attempts to establish normative or ethical truths by examining the presuppositions of discourse.-Habermas and Apel:...
, which Apel co-developed with his friend, colleague, and collaborator
Jürgen HabermasJürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and American pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his work on the concept of the public sphere, the topic of his first book entitled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere...
. While sympathetic to Habermas's
Theory of Communicative Action, Apel has been critical of aspects of Habermas's approach. Apel has proposed that a theory of communication should be grounded in the transcendental-pragmatic conditions of communication. After taking his point of departure from Apel, Habermas has moved towards a "weak transcendentalism" that is more closely tied to empirical social inquiry.
Apel has also written works on Peirce and is a past-president of the C.S. Peirce society.
An early German-speaking adversary of so-called critical rationalism, Karl-Otto Apel elaborated a comprehensive refutation of the philosophy of Karl Raimund Popper: In
Transformation der philosophie (1973), Apel charged Popper with being guilty of, amongst other things, a pragmatic contradiction.
Other works:
Analytic Philosophy of Language and the Geisteswissenschaften (1967),
Hermeneutik und Ideologiekritik (1971),
Sprache, Brucke und Hindernis (1972),
Dialog als Methode (1972),
Transformation der philosophie: Sprachanalytik, Semiotik, Hermeneutik (1973),
Transformation der philosophie: Das Apriori der Kommunikationsgemeinschaft (1976),
Sprachpragmatik und philosophie (1976),
Neue Versuche uber Erklaren und Verstehen (1978),
Die Erklaren: Verstehen-Kontroverse in Transzendentalpragmatischer Sicht (1979),
Towards a Transformation of Philosophy (1980 & 1998),
Charles S. Peirce: From Pragmatism to Pragmaticism (1981),
Understanding and Explanation: A Transcendental-Pragmatic Perspective (1984),
La communicazione umana (1985),
Diskurs und Verantwortung: Das Problem des Ubergangs zur Postkonventionellen Moral (1988),
Towards a Transcendental Semiotics: Selected Essays (1994),
Ethics and the Theory of Rationality: Selected Essays (1996),
Filosofia analitica e filosofia continentale (1997),
From a Transcendental-Semiotic Point of View (1998)
Mercier Lectures: The Response of Discourse Ethics to the Moral Challenge of the Human Situation As Such, Especially Today (2001),
Funf Vorlesungen uber Transzendental Semiotik als Erste Philosophie und Diskursethik (2002),
Diskursethik und Diskursanthropologie (2002)
See also
- Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist sociology and philosophy in the tradition of critical theory, which was associated with the early Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of sign processes , or signification and communication, signs and symbols, into three branches:...
- Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected. Pragmatism began in...