Arnold Gehlen - Wikipedia Arnold Gehlen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search German philosopher, sociologist and anthropologist This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Arnold Gehlen" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Part of a series on Conservatism Variants Cultural Fiscal Green Liberal Libertarian National Neo New Right One-nation Paleo Paternalistic Progressive Reactionary Social Traditionalist Concepts Familism Family values Private property Rule of law Communitarianism Civil Society Solidarity People Edmund Burke Joseph de Maistre Louis de Bonald François-René de Chateaubriand Samuel Taylor Coleridge Klemens von Metternich Adam Müller Benjamin Disraeli Michael Oakeshott Russell Kirk William F. Buckley George Will Roger Scruton Organizations Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe European People's Party International Democrat Union Religious conservatism Christian Democracy (in Europe) Christian right Christian fundamentalism Jewish right Islamic fundamentalism Traditionalist Catholic National variants Australia Canada China Colombia Germany Conservative Revolution State Socialism Hong Kong India New Zealand Pakistan Serbia South Korea Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States Related topics Aristocracy Capitalism Centre-right politics Corporatism Counter-revolutionary Fascism Liberalism Monarchism Neoliberalism Old Right (United States) Radical centrism Radical right Europe United States Reactionary Right-wing politics Toryism  Conservatism portal  Politics portal v t e Arnold Gehlen (29 January 1904 in Leipzig, German Empire – 30 January 1976 in Hamburg, West Germany) was an influential conservative German philosopher, sociologist, and anthropologist.[1] Contents 1 Biography 2 Main ideas 2.1 Post-histoire 3 Selected writings 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Biography[edit] Gehlen's major influences while studying philosophy were Hans Driesch, Nicolai Hartmann and especially Max Scheler. Furthermore, he was heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and US-American pragmatism: Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and especially George Herbert Mead. In 1933 Gehlen signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State. Although he joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and made a career as a member of the 'Leipzig School' under Hans Freyer, he was not a Nazi, but rather a political opportunist: his main work Der Mensch appeared in 1940 and was published in English translation in 1987 as Man. His Nature and Place in the World. In contrast to philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, it contains not a single passage which can be classified as Nazi ideology. Unlike Heidegger, who was a convinced anti-democrat until his death in 1976, Gehlen, although clearly a conservative thinker, never published any anti-democratic writings. He was a modernist conservative who accepted the cultural changes brought about by the industrial revolution and by mass society (see his Man in the age of technology, Chapter V). Gehlen succeeded Paul Tillich, who emigrated to the U.S., at the University of Frankfurt. In 1938 he accepted a teaching position at the University of Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad) and then taught at the University of Vienna in 1940 until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943. After his deserved and properly executed denazification he taught at the administrative college in Speyer. He went on to teach at the Aachen University of Technology between 1962 and 1969. Gehlen became a sharp critic of the protest movements that developed in the late 1960s. Main ideas[edit] Gehlen's core idea in Der Mensch is that humans have unique properties which distinguish them from all other species: world-openness (de:Weltoffenheit), a concept originally coined by Max Scheler, which describes the ability of humans to adapt to various environments as contrasted with animals, which can only survive in environments which match their evolutionary specialisation. This world-openness gives us the ability to shape our environment according to our intentions, and it comprises a view of language as a way of acting (Gehlen was one of the first proponents of speech act theory), an excess of impulses and the ability of self-control. These properties allow us—in contrast to all other animals—to create our own (for example cultural) environments, though this is also at the risk of a certain self-destabilisation. Gehlen's philosophy has influenced many contemporary German thinkers in a range of disciplines, including Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann and Niklas Luhmann in sociology, and Hans Blumenberg in philosophy. Since the mid-2010s, there has occurred a Gehlen revival based in part on the predictions in his book Moral und Hypermoral as concerns the development of German (and Western) politics from 1969. Post-histoire[edit] As early as 1952 Gehlen adopted the expression post-histoire[2] from the writings of Paul de Man's uncle, Hendrik de Man, a Belgian socialist thinker who later became a Nazi collaborator. He first used the term to designate an epoch characterized by a state of stability and rigidity, devoid of utopian ideas, change, or development. In 1961, in an article appropriately entitled Über kulturelle Kristallisation[3] (lit. "On Cultural Crystallization"), Gehlen wrote: "I am predicting that the history of ideas has come to an end and that we have arrived at the epoch of post-histoire, so that now the advice Gottfried Benn gave the individual, 'Make do with what you have,' is valid for humanity as a whole".[4][5] Selected writings[edit] Der Mensch. Seine Natur und seine Stellung in der Welt. (1940) (Translated as Man. His Nature and Place in the World, Columbia University Press, 1987) Urmensch und Spätkultur. Philosophische Ergebnisse und Aussagen. (1956) Die Seele im technischen Zeitalter. (1957) (Translated as "Man in the age of technology") Moral und Hypermoral. Eine pluralistische Ethik. (1969) Zeit-Bilder. Zur Soziologie und Ästhetik der modernen Malerei. (1960) See also[edit] Philosophical anthropology Postmodernism References[edit] ^ Berger, Peter L., and Hansfried Kellner (1965) ^ Niethammer, Lutz; van Laak, Dirk (1994) [1992]. Posthistoire. Has History Come to an End?. Translated by Patrick Camiller. London, New York City: Verso. p. 13. ISBN 0-86091697-9. ^ (in German) Gehlen, Arnold (1961). Über kulturelle Kristallisation. Angelsachsen-Verlag. Text at Maja Wicki Archive. ^ Kaes, Anton (1989). From Hitler to Heimat. The Return of History as Film. Harvard University Press. p. 48. ISBN 0-67432456-0. ^ Kaes, Anton (1992). "13. Holocaust and the End of History: Postmodern Historiography in Cinema (pp. 206ff.)". In Friedländer, Saul (ed.). Probing the Limits of Representation. Nazism and the "final Solution". Harvard University Press. p. 218. ISBN 0-67470766-4. Further reading[edit] Berger, Peter L., and Hansfried Kellner. "Arnold Gehlen and the theory of institutions." Social Research (1965): 110–115. in JSTOR Weiß, Johannes: Weltverlust und Subjektivität. Zur Kritik der Institutionenlehre Arnold Gehlens, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1973 Greiffenhagen, Martin. "The Dilemma of Conservatism in Germany." Journal of Contemporary History (1979): 611–625. in JSTOR Magerski, Christine. "Arnold Gehlen: Modern art as symbol of modern society." ´´Thesis Eleven. Critical Theory and Historical Sociology´´ (8/2012): 81–96. Magerski, Christine, "Arnold Gehlen (1904-1976)." ´´The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology´´, Ed. George Ritzer. External links[edit] "Gehlen, Arnold (1904–1976)". Encyclopedia.com. 7 June 2020. Schirmacher, Wolfgang, ed. (2003). German 20th Century Philosophical Writings. London: A & C Black. p. 259. ISBN 0-82641358-7. Brown, Stuart; Collinson, Diane; Wilkinson, Robert, eds. (2012) [1996]. Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. p. 269. ISBN 978-1-13492796-8. Niethammer, Lutz; Templer, Bill (Spring–Summer 1989). "Afterthoughts on Posthistoire". History & Memory. Indiana University Press. 1 (1): 27–53. JSTOR 25618572. Arnold Gehlen discography at Discogs Authority control BNE: XX840903 BNF: cb12024612g (data) GND: 11853808X ISNI: 0000 0001 2118 5460 LCCN: n79133811 NDL: 00440683 NKC: jn19990009780 NLI: 000267066 NLK: KAC199633984 NTA: 068357605 PLWABN: 9810570965005606 SELIBR: 188073 SUDOC: 028404548 Trove: 831338 VIAF: 4943955 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n79133811 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arnold_Gehlen&oldid=992705940" Categories: 1904 births 1976 deaths Writers from Leipzig People from the Kingdom of Saxony Nazi Party members German anthropologists German philosophers German sociologists German male writers German military personnel of World War II Leipzig University alumni Goethe University Frankfurt faculty University of Königsberg faculty University of Vienna faculty RWTH Aachen University faculty 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century philosophers Hidden categories: Articles with German-language sources (de) Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles needing additional references from June 2020 All articles needing additional references Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages Čeština Deutsch Español Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano Қазақша Latina مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 6 December 2020, at 18:02 (UTC). 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