Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in

Article Talk Read Edit View history Search Wikipedia

Leonard Nelson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main page Not to be confused with Lennart Nilsson.

Contents
Leonard Nelson (/ˈlɛnərd ˈnɛlsən/; German: [ˈnɛlzɔn]; 11 July 1882 – 29 October 1927), sometimes spelt Leonhard, was a German mathematician, critical
Current events Leonard Nelson
Random article
philosopher, and socialist. He was part of the neo-Friesian school (named after post-Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries) of neo-Kantianism and a
About Wikipedia friend of the mathematician David Hilbert. He devised the Grelling–Nelson paradox in 1908 and the related idea of autological words with Kurt Grelling.[2]
Contact us
Neo-Friesian subsequently became an influencer in fields of both philosophy and mathematics, as Nelson's close contacts with scientists and
Donate
mathematicians influenced their ideas. Despite dying earlier than many of his friends and assistants, his ISK organization lived on after his death, even after
Contribute being banned by the Nazi Regime in 1933. It is even claimed that Albert Einstein supported it.[3] He's also credited with popularizing the Socratic method in
Help his book Die sokratische Methode (The Socratic Method).[4]
Learn to edit
Community portal
Contents [hide]
Recent changes 1 Life
Upload file 1.1 Early life and education
1.2 Critical philosophy
Tools
1.3 Animal rights
What links here
1.4 Career
Related changes
Special pages 1.5 Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK)
Permanent link 2 Personal life
Page information 3 Death Nelson in 1922
Cite this page 4 Bibliography Born 11 July 1882
Wikidata item 4.1 Gesammelte Schriften in neun Bänden Berlin, Brandenburg, Prussia,
4.2 Published works German Empire
Print/export
5 References Died 29 October 1927 (aged 45)
Download as PDF
Göttingen, Weimar Republic
Printable version 6 External links
Nationality German
In other projects Education Französisches Gymnasium
Wikimedia Commons Life [ edit ] Berlin
Heidelberg University
Humboldt University of Berlin
Languages Early life and education [ edit ]
University of Göttingen (PhD,
‫اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ‬
In Nelson's early years, he studied in Französisches Gymnasium Berlin where mathematics and science weren't notable in that school. He was therefore 1904; Dr. phil. hab., 1909)
Deutsch
privately tutored by mathematician Gerhard Hessenberg (1874–1925), and began reading the works of philosophers Immanuel Kant, Jakob Friedrich Fries, Spouse Elisabeth Schemmann[1]
‫ﻓﺎر‬
and Ernst Friedrich Apelts, which began to spark his interest in philosophy. (m. 1907; div. 1912)
Français
Italiano Partner Minna Specht (since 1915)
In 1901, Nelson studied mathematics and philosophy in Heidelberg University for a short period of time, before going to the Humboldt University of Berlin
Polski Era 20th-century philosophy
from March 1901 – 1903. From 1903 to 1904, he worked with mathematicians and philosophers in the University of Göttingen, such as; his doctoral advisor
Русский
Julius Baumann, David Hilbert, Felix Klein, Carl Runge, and his later rival Edmund Husserl. Region Western philosophy
Svenska
School Neo-Friesian
Українська
Critical philosophy [ edit ] Institutions University of Göttingen
6 more Thesis Jakob Friedrich Fries und seine
Nelson's work as a philosopher was most concerned with critical philosophy, attributed to Kant. It sets out to find a "critique" on science and metaphysics,
Edit links jüngsten Kritiker (1904)
similar to empiricism,[5] as things can only be true based on the perceptions and limitations on human minds. Kant's 1781 book Critique of Pure Reason
Doctoral Julius Baumann
(Kritik der reinen Vernunft) inspired Nelson to go down the path of critical philosophy, and later followed the works of post-Kantian philosopher Fries who had advisor
also followed Kant's work.[6]
Notable Paul Bernays, Gustav
Although his 1904 dissertation Jakob Fries and his Youngest Critics (Jakob Friedrich Fries und seine jüngsten Kritiker) was successful, he had trouble in his students Heckmann, Gerhard Weisser,
Fritz Eberhard, Alfred Kubel,
early academic years. One such failed dissertation was his Die kritische Methode und das Verhältnis der Psychologie zur Philosophie (The Critical Method
Willi Eichler
and the Relationship of Psychology to Philosophy). Nelson continued defending Fries' philosophy and ideas by publishing a neue Folge (new series) of
Main Critical philosophy, philosophy of
Abhandlungen der Fries'schen Schule (1904) with Gerhard Hessenberg and mathematician Karl Kaiser. It was here that Nelson and these same friends interests science, logic
created the Jakob-Friedrich-Fries-Gesellschaft (Jakob Friedrich Fries Society) to promote critical philosophy.[6] Notable Grelling–Nelson paradox, revival
ideas of the Socratic method
In 1922, Nelson founded the Philosophisch-Politische Akademie (Philosophical-Political Academy or PPA) as a "Platonic Academy" and non-profit
association, which was abandoned soon after the Nazis banned it, but re-established in 1949. It still stands today for political discussions between Influences [show]

philosophers and politicians,[7] and was supported financially by the Gesellschaft der Freunde der Philosophisch-Politischen Akademie (Society of Friends of Influenced [show]

the Philosophical-Political Academy or GFA).[8] They started working with an education center called Landerziehungsheim Walkemühle, founded in 1921 by a
support of Nelson, progressive teacher Ludwig Wunder (1878–1949). Although Wunder left it shortly after in 1924, educator and co-worker of Nelson, Minna Specht, took over,[9] with the help of journalist
and author Mary Saran.

Animal rights [ edit ]

Nelson was an early advocate of animal rights and a vegetarian.[10][11] His lecture "Duties to Animals" was published posthumously in Germany in 1932 and included in his book A System of Ethics
(translated in 1956) and reprinted in the book Animals, Men and Morals in 1972.[12]

Career [ edit ]

Ready to form new ideas, Nelson founded the Neo-Friesian School in 1903, with some well-known members, such as:

Rudolf Otto, philosopher (1869–1937)

Gerhard Hessenberg, mathematician (1874–1925)
Otto Meyerhof, biochemist (1884–1951)

Other notable people, such as philosopher Kurt Grelling and mathematician Richard Courant (student of Hilbert), joined after its foundation. A larger list of ISK members and similar can be seen in the list
of Germans who resisted Nazism. In 1909 he habilitated at the University of Göttingen and became Privatdozent there. He later worked there as a professor from June 1919 until his death on 29 October
1927.[6][13][14]

Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK) [ edit ]

The Internationaler Jugendbund (International Youth Federation or IJB) was founded in 1917 by Nelson and Minna Specht. In 1918, Nelson became a brief member of the Independent Social Democratic
Party (USPD) before becoming a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1923–1925, when he was ultimately excluded. As a result, together with Minna Specht, he founded the
Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund (ISK; "International Socialist Militant League") in 1925, merging it with the IJB by taking over its publishing label, Öffentliches Leben.[13]

The socialist journalist Willi Eichler succeeded Nelson as president of the ISK after his death. Eichler and Specht would both sign the 1932 "Urgent Call for Unity" (Dringender Appell für die Einheit) in the
ISK's official newspaper, Der Funke. It called for Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Communist Party (KPD) to create a left-wing united front in order to thwart the Nazis.[15] After the Nazi's
defeat in 1945, the ISK was merged with the SPD with the agreement met on 10 December 1945, between the chairman of the ISK (Will Eichler) and chairman of the SPD (Kurt Schumacher). However,
the ISK continued to be active in the resistance against Nazism. A British affiliate of the ISK was created (lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s) in the United Kingdom called the Socialist Vanguard Group.

Among Leonard Nelson's students and political companions in the International Socialist Kampfbund were:[16]

SPD politician Willi Eichler (1896–1971)

Prime Minister Alfred Kubel (1909–1999)
Journalist Fritz Eberhard (1896–1982), later member of the Parlamentarischer Rat

Personal life [ edit ]

See also: Mendelssohn family

Leonard Nelson was the son of lawyer Heinrich Nelson (1854–1929) and artist Elisabeth Lejeune Dirichlet (1860–1920),[17] granddaughter of mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and
descendant of Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Nelson married his wife, Elisabeth Schemmann (1884–1954), in 1907, but divorced in 1912 after she baptised their son Gerhard David Wilhelm
Nelson (1909–1944) in the Lutheran Church.[18] Nelson's wife is notable for marrying Paul Hensel in 1917.[19] His granddaughter, Maria Nelson, and Maria's daughter, Rachel Urban, both visited his grave
in the summer of 1997.[20]

Although Nelson was baptised as a Protestant at the age of five on 13 June 1887,[21] his refusal to baptise his son and divorce was a big change based on his Jewish ancestry. He even resigned from the
Evangelical Church in 1919.[22]

Death [ edit ]

He was an insomniac and died at a young age from pneumonia, and was buried at a Jewish cemetery in Melsungen alongside his father Heinrich.[20] Nelson's ideas continued to have an impact upon
German socialism and communism in Nazi Germany as the ISK's members became active in the left-wing resistance to Nazism.

Bibliography [ edit ]

Nelson published numerous books and papers, often with the help of other philosophers and mathematicians. He was later critical of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in his work Progress and Regress in
Philosophy (Fortschritte und Rückschritte der Philosophie). He is also known for defending the idea of animal rights in his work System of Philosophical Ethics and Pedagogy (System der philosophischen
Ethik und Pädagogik) published in 1932, with the help of his assistant Grete Hermann (also part of the ISK) and Minna Specht.[23]

Some of his works are already mentioned above, but some others, available in the Internet Archive (and other websites, if not available there), include:

1908 – Ist metaphysikfreie Naturwissenschaft möglich? Sonderdruck aus den Abhandlungen der Fries’schen Schule, II. Bd., 3. Heft. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1908 Internet Archive
1908 – Über das sogenannte Erkenntnisproblem. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1908 Internet Archive
1908 – Über wissenschaftliche und ästhetische Naturbetrachtung. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1908 Internet Archive
1915 – Ethische Methodenlehre, by Veit & Comp., Leipzig 1915 Internet Archive
1917 – Vorlesungen über die Grundlagen der Ethik. Veit & Comp., Leipzig
Bd. 1: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. 1917 Internet Archive
1917 – Die Rechtswissenschaft ohne Recht: kritische Betrachtungen über die Grundlagen des Staats- und Völkerrechts insbesondere über die Lehre von der Souveränität. Veit & Comp, Leipzig 1917
Internet Archive
1919 – Demokratie und Führerschaft, Public life, Berlin 1932. Internet Archive
1920 – System der philosophischen Rechtslehre. Verlag der Neue Geist / Reinhold, Leipzig 1920 Internet Archive
1922 – Die Reformation der Gesinnung: durch Erziehung zum Selbstvertrauen. The New Publishes, Leipzig 1922 Internet Archive
1922 – Die sokratische Methode, Lecture, held on December 11, 1922 in the Pedagogical Society in Göttingen. In: Treatises of the Friesian school. New episode. edited by Otto Meyerhof, Franz
Oppenheimer, Minna Specht. 5th volume, Göttingen 1929, pp. 21–78. Internet Archive
2011 – Typische Denkfehler in der Philosophie. Felix Meiner Verlag. April 2011. ISBN 978-3787321490., a series of lectures, delivered from April to July 1921 that was omitted from his collected works.
English translation A Theory of Philosophical Fallacies. Translated by Leal, Fernando; Carus, David. Springer. 2016. ISBN 978-3-319-20782-7.

Gesammelte Schriften in neun Bänden [ edit ]

English translation: "Collected Writings in Nine Volumes". It was published by Paul Bernays and Felix Meiner Verlag (a German scientific publishing house in philosophy), in Hamburg 1970-1977;[24]

Volume I: Die Schule der kritischen Philosophie und ihre Methode

Volume II: Geschichte und Kritik der Erkenntnistheorie
Volume III: Die kritische Methode in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wissenschaft
Volume IV: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft
Volume V: System der philosophischen Ethik und Pädagogik
Volume VI: System der philosophischen Rechtslehre und Politik
Volume VII: Fortschritte und Rückschritte der Philosophie von Hume und Kant bis Hegel und Fries
Volume VIII: Sittlichkeit und Bildung
Volume IX: Recht und Staat

Published works [ edit ]

Ethische Methodenlehre. by Veit & Comp., Leipzig 1915

Die Rechtswissenschaft ohne Recht. von Veit & Comp., Leipzig 1917.
Die sokratische Methode. Vortrag, gehalten am 11. Dezember 1922 in der Pädagogischen Gesellschaft in Göttingen. In: Abhandlungen der Fries’schen Schule. Neue Folge.Hrsg. v. Otto Meyerhof,
Franz Oppenheimer, Minna Specht. 5. Band, H. 1. Öffentliches Leben, Göttingen 1929, S. 21–78.
Demokratie und Führerschaft. Öffentliches Leben, Berlin 1932.
Ausgewählte Schriften. Studienausgabe. Hrsg. und eingeleitet von Heinz-Joachim Heydorn. Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt 1974.
Vom Selbstvertrauen der Vernunft: Schriften zur krit. Philosophie und ihrer Ethik. Hrsg. von Grete Henry-Hermann (Philosophische Bibliothek. Band 288). Meiner, Hamburg 1975.

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Biographie, Deutsche. "Nelson, Leonard - Deutsche
Biographie" . www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German).
Retrieved 2019-08-29.
2. ^ Grelling, K.; Nelson, L. (1908). "Bemerkungen zu den
Paradoxien von Russell und Burali-Forti". Abhandlungen der
Fries'schen Schule II. Göttingen. pp. 301–334. Also in: Nelson,
Leonard (1974). Gesammelte Schriften III. Die kritische Methode
in ihrer Bedeutung für die Wissenschaften. Hamburg: Felix Meiner
Verlag. pp. 95–127. ISBN 3787302220.
3. ^ "Fate and work of a Jewish psychiatrist and psychotherapist"
www.sgipt.org. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
4. ^ Nelson, Leonard (1931). Die sokratische Methode
Göttingen.
5. ^ "IV SECOND ATTITUDE OF THOUGHT TO OBJECTIVITY"
www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2019-09-01.
6. ^ a b c "Nelson, Leonard (1882–1927) | Encyclopedia.com"
www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
7. ^ "Philosophisch-Politische Akademie (PPA)" . 14. ^ "tier-im-fokus.ch » Leonard Nelson, vergessener Tierrechtler"
www.philosophisch-politische-akademie.de. Retrieved
2019-09-01.
8. ^ Exile and Gender II: Politics, Education and the Arts . BRILL. 15. ^ "Dringender Appell für die Einheit" (PDF) Der Funke, No. 147
2017-05-30. ISBN 9789004343528. A, Berlin (June 25, 1932). Retrieved July 6, 2010 (in German)
9. ^ "Philosophisch-Politische Akademie (PPA)" . 16. ^ Horster, Detlef (1994). The Socratic Conversation in theory and
www.philosophisch-politische-akademie.de. Retrieved practice. Opladen: Leske + Budrich. p. 30.
2019-09-01. 17. ^ "Leonard Nelson, Prof. Dr" . geni_family_tree. Retrieved
10. ^ Milkov, Nikolay; Peckhaus, Volker. (2013). The Berlin Group and 2019-08-30.
the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism. pp. 13-14. 18. ^ "Leonard Nelson 1882–1927 – Stammbaum Moses
ISBN 9789400754850 Mendelssohn" . www.epischel.de. Retrieved 2019-08-30.
11. ^ "Leonard Nelson (1882-1927)" . Friesian.com. Retrieved 12 19. ^ Franke, Holger (1991). Leonard Nelson. Ammersbek near
. December 2021. Hamburg: Verlag an der Lottbek. p. 93.
12. ^ Lengauer, Erwin (2020). "Tom Regan's Philosophy of Animal 20. ^ a b "Ereignisse – wiki.landerziehungsheim-walkemuehle.de" .
(PDF). Rights: Subjects-of-a-Life in the Context of Discussions of Intrinsic www.landerziehungsheim-walkemuehle.de. Retrieved
and Inherent Worth" . Problemos. 97: 87–98. 2019-09-01.
. doi:10.15388/Problemos.97.7 . S2CID 219087415 . 21. ^ Franke, S. 53.
13. ^ a b Biographie, Deutsche. "Nelson, Leonard - Deutsche 22. ^ Franke S. 153, F. 868.
. Biographie" . www.deutsche-biographie.de (in German). 23. ^ Nelson, Leonard, System of Ethics, Yale University Press, New
Retrieved 2019-08-30. Haven, 1956, p. 142.
. 24. ^ " "Leonard Nelson, Gesammelte Schriften in neun Bänden" –
www.tier-im-fokus.ch. Retrieved 2019-08-30. Bücher gebraucht, antiquarisch & neu kaufen" .
www.booklooker.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-09-01.

External links [ edit ]

Leonard Nelson at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

Biography from the SFCP site
A Theory of Philosophical Fallacies by Andrew Aberdein (in-depth review)
worldcat.org , Nelson, Leonard (1882-1927)
Der Funke newspaper, 12 July 1932 – Leonard Nelson's 50th anniversary (in German)
Newspaper by Judith Féaux de Lacroix, Melsunger edition of the Hessisch-Niedersächsische Allgemeine (28 November 2017) (in German)
"Walkemuehle -Schule des ISK" . www.allerart.de (in German)

· · Animal rights [hide]

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases) [show]

Advocates (academics, writers, activists) [hide]

Carol J. Adams · Aysha Akhtar · Kristin Andrews · Tom Beauchamp · Marc Bekoff · Steven Best · Paola Cavalieri · Stephen R. L. Clark · Alasdair Cochrane · J. M. Coetzee · Alice Crary ·
David DeGrazia · Daniel Dombrowski · Sue Donaldson · Josephine Donovan · Mylan Engel · Catia Faria · Lawrence Finsen · Gary L. Francione · Robert Garner · Valéry Giroux · John Hadley
Contemporary · Oscar Horta · Dale Jamieson · Kyle Johannsen · Melanie Joy · Hilda Kean · Will Kymlicka · Renan Larue · Thomas Lepeltier · Andrew Linzey · Clair Linzey · Dan Lyons · David Nibert ·
Martha Nussbaum · Siobhan O'Sullivan · Clare Palmer · David Pearce · Evelyn Pluhar · Mark Rowlands · Richard D. Ryder · Steve F. Sapontzis · Jeff Sebo · Jérôme Segal · Peter Singer ·
Academics Gary Steiner · Cass Sunstein · David Sztybel · Michael Tye · Tatjana Višak · Paul Waldau · Steven M. Wise · Corey Lee Wrenn
and writers Jeremy Bentham · David Renaud Boullier · Brigid Brophy · Peter Buchan · Mona Caird · Priscilla Cohn · Henry Crowe · Herman Daggett · Richard Dean · Wilhelm Dietler ·
William Hamilton Drummond · Edward Payson Evans · Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster · John Galsworthy · Thomas G. Gentry · Arthur Helps · John Hildrop · John Zephaniah Holwell ·
Historical Soame Jenyns · Karl Christian Friedrich Krause · John Lawrence · Charles R. Magel · Mary Midgley · J. Howard Moore · José Ferrater Mora · Leonard Nelson · Edward Nicholson ·
Rod Preece · Humphrey Primatt · James Rachels · Tom Regan · Nathaniel Peabody Rogers · Bernard Rollin · Henry Stephens Salt · Arthur Schopenhauer · Laurids Smith · John Styles ·
Thomas Tryon · Johann Friedrich Ludwig Volckmann · Mary Anne Warren · Adam Gottlieb Weigen · Johann Heinrich Winckler · Jon Wynne-Tyson
Massinissa Akandouch · James Aspey · Greg Avery · Matt Ball · Martin Balluch · Carole Baskin · Barbi Twins · Brigitte Bardot · Bob Barker · Gene Baur · Yves Bonnardel · Joey Carbstrong ·
Jake Conroy · Rod Coronado · Karen Davis · Karen Dawn · Chris DeRose · John Feldmann · Bruce Friedrich · Juliet Gellatley · Tal Gilboa · Antoine Goetschel · Mark Gold · Brigitte Gothière ·
Contemporary Wayne Hsiung · Ronnie Lee · Howard Lyman · Evanna Lynch · Bill Maher · Keith Mann · Jim Mason · Dan Mathews · Jo-Anne McArthur · Luísa Mell · Ingrid Newkirk · Heather Nicholson ·
Activists Jack Norris · David Olivier · Alex Pacheco · Craig Rosebraugh · Nathan Runkle · Jasmin Singer · Kim Stallwood · Marianne Thieme · Darren Thurston · Wendy Turner-Webster · Jerry Vlasak
· Louise Wallis · Gary Yourofsky · That Vegan Teacher
Cleveland Amory · Henry B. Amos · Ernest Bell · Frances Power Cobbe · Royal Dixon · Robert Enke · Emarel Freshel · André Géraud · Lewis Gompertz · James Granger · Barry Horne ·
Historical
Marie Huot · Lizzy Lind af Hageby · Norm Phelps · Jill Phipps · Hans Ruesch · Catherine Smithies · Henry Spira · Andrew Tyler

Movement (groups, parties) [show]

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums) [show]

Category ( 139 )

Authority control [show]

Categories: 1882 births 1927 deaths 19th-century German Jews 20th-century German mathematicians German animal rights scholars German socialists Jewish philosophers
Jewish socialists Kantian philosophers University of Göttingen alumni Writers from Berlin Deaths from pneumonia in Germany Französisches Gymnasium Berlin alumni
20th-century German philosophers

This page was last edited on 19 November 2022, at 20:44 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement