Hans Vaihinger was an important and fascinating figure in German philosophy in the early twentieth century, founding the well-known journal Kant-studien. Yet he was overshadowed by the burgeoning movements of phenomenology and analytical philosophy, as well as hostility towards his work because of his defense of Jewish scholars in a Germany controlled by Nazism. However, it is widely acknowledged today that The Philosophy of 'As If' is a philosophical masterwork. Vaihinger argues that in the face of an overwhelmingly complex world, (...) we produce a simpler set of ideas, or idealizations, that help us negotiate it. When cast as fictions, such ideas provide an easier and more useful way to think about certain subjects, from mathematics and physics to law and morality, than would the truth in all its complexity. Even in science, he wrote, we must proceed "as if " a material world exists independently of perceiving subjects; in behaviour, we must act "as if " ethical certainty were possible; in religion, we must believe "as if" there were a God. He also explores the role of fictions in the history of philosophy, going back to the ancient Greeks and the work of Leibniz, Adam Smith and Bentham. The Philosophy of 'As If' was a powerful influence on the emerging philosophical movement of pragmatism and was ground-breaking in its anticipation of the central role that model-building and simulation would come to play in the human sciences. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Michael Rosenthal, which provides a fascinating and important background to Vaihinger's life and the legacy of The Philosophy of 'As If'. (shrink)

Vaihinger... shows that thought is primarily a biological function turned into a conscious art. It is an art of adjustment, whose chief instrument is the construction of fictions by which men may manage to live. Thought is to be tested not by correspondence to an objective reality (that fiction is neatly disposed of) nor by its mirroring in consciousness an objective external world. Thought is to be tested by its fruits. The constructions of thought are not copies of or transcripts (...) of reality; they are programs, guess-work plans; possible programs for operation. Their validity is to be measured not by verisimilitude but by value. The fruits of thought are not "true," but especially where they are false, it may be important to act as if they were true... Vaihinger's chief originality consists in his defining of fictions and his distinction of fictions from hypotheses on the one hand, and from dogmatisms on the other. An hypothesis is a tentative discovery about the universe; a fiction is a deliberate, often clearly false and internally contradictory invention of thought... Evolution is the hypothesis that man is descended from the lower animals. We assume that we can indirectly turn to the remote facts which would justify that hypothesis. But the concept of infinity in the calculus, the atom and the ether in physics, the economic man in Adam Smith, are deliberate self-contradictory fictions, and fictions at variance with all experience. But though they are not only imaginary, false to the reality they allegedly represent and logically incoherent, they nevertheless facilitate thought and proper action. They are vital lies, human conveniences. They are the faiths, the palpably false faiths, the clearly useful falsities by which we live... The discovery that fictions were fictions has led, in the past, says Vaihinger, to an abandonment of them, and a turning to other fictions believed to be truer. Pathetic and foolish adventure! What the race needs is more faith in its own effective imaginations. The myths that it has told itself, the world pictures that it has made, are not to be dismissed because they are found to be creations of the imagination. They tally with no world and they carry the canker of logical inconsistency within them. The important thing is their utility; their human scope and mortal relevance. If we ceased making fictions, we should cease altogether to be. Let us beware to plunge from fruitful fictions to less fruitful ones that masquerade as truths and are really dogmatisms. (Review of As If by Irwin Edman, Saturday Review of Literature, 10 January, 1925) This is a well-formatted version of C.K. Ogden's translation of Philosophie des Als Ob, originally published in 1925 by Kegan Paul. (shrink)

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts We have not used OCR, as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Dies ist eine Neuauflage des Klassikers von 1924. Es handelt sich um die Volksausgabe, also die populäre Fassung, die nach zehn erfolgreichen Auflagen der "großen Ausgabe" nach den Anweisungen Vaihingers von 800 auf 365 Seiten gekürzt wurde. »Es fehlen in dieser Ausgabe nur eine Anzahl historisch-literarischer Ergänzungen, Einschaltungen, Fußnoten, dazu eine Reihe von Kapiteln und Kapitelteilen, die sich mit ferner liegenden fachwissenschaftlichen Details beschäftigen....So ist das Werk einem größeren Leserkreis stofflich und ökonomisch zugänglicher geworden.«Aus dem Vorwort von 1922 Der Text (...) wurde vollständig neu formatiert und mit einem Index versehen, der in der Originalausgabe fehlte. Der Anhang liefert interessante Details zum Lebenslauf des Autors und zur ungewöhnlichen Entstehungs- geschichte des Buches. Ein Porträtfoto Vaihingers sowie einige Abbildungen von Originalseiten vermitteln einen Eindruck des Originals. Wer die Ursprünge des Konstruktivismus aus erster Hand erfahren will, der findet in "Die Philosophie des Als ob" wertvolle Einblicke in die Geschichte der Philosophie, Religion, Natur- und Rechtswissenschaften. (shrink)

Excerpt from Hartmann, Duhring und Lange: Zur Geschichte der Deutschen Philosophie im XIX. Jahrhundert; Ein Kritischer Essay Zu dem Bedeutendfien nun, was auf diefem Gebiet feit einem Decennium zu Tage gefordert worden ift, gehoren die Werke von Hartmann, Duhring und Im Folgenden werde ich Hartmann und Duhring, die beiden fyftematifehen Dogma tiker, gegenuberf'cellen, um fie fo gegenfeitig in moglichfl fcharfes Licht zu bringen und fie als Extreme aufzuweifen, zwifchen denen Lange wahrhaft vermittelnd, nicht charakterlos lavirend, als Kri ticift und Relativift (...) und gleichfam als Correctiv mitten innen fieht; er verzichtet darauf, mit einem neuen Syflem die Welt zu beglucken und fieht den Fortfchritt der Wiffenfchaften weniger in voreiligen Lofungsverfuchen, als in immer exacterer F ormuli rung der Probleme im Anfchlufs an Kant, deffen Syfiem nicht veraltet if'c, weil man es jetzt erft ganz und voll verficht. Alle drei erheben den gewichtigen Anfpruch, auf der vollen Hohe der Gegenwart zu ftehen; und insbefondere glaubt jeder, dafs die fo heifs und feit langer Zeit erfehnte Vermahlung von Philo fophie und Naturwiffenfchaft in feinem Syf'tem gefeiert fei. Dies ift ihre gemeinfame Tendenz, dies ihr gemeinfames Pro gramm, das freilich dann jeder auf feine eigenthumliche Weife' zu erfullen fucht. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)