Hans Blumenberg

Hans Blumenberg is without doubt one of the most important German philosophers of the 20th century. He was born in Lübeck, he went to school at the Katharineum, opposite the Institute, and he continues to inspire the work of the IMGWF, sometimes explicitly and at other times more implicitly. During his lifetime, he was famous for his critical investigation of the Copernican revolution and his questioning of the legicimity of modernity. Already these writings revealed an intense preoccupation with human knowledge and the history of science. Internationally, he was regarded as an important German voice on the history of ideas and of science. Another important thread of his philosophy is a theory of non-conceptuality which received much interest, before the editions from his extensive estate revealed Blumenberg as a philosopher of technology and philosophical anthropologist. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the conference "History(s) of Knowledge" was held at the IMGWF, bringing together the history of ideas, philosophy of technology, phenomenology, history of science and anthropology: „Hans Blumenberg beobachtet: Wissenschaft, Technik und Philosophie“ (Alber, 2013). Ten years later, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, a large lecture series was to take place in Kiel, the place of his doctorate and habilitation, which unfortunately largely fell victim to the corona pandemic, but was published as a book in 2023. In Lübeck the conference „How to do History of Philosophy of Science with Hans Blumenberg“ celebrated this centenary.

Publications

Borck C (2023) Blumenbergs Wissensphilosophie. In: Christine Blättler, Ralf Söhne & Angelika Messner (Hg.): Theoretische Neugierde. Horizonte Hans Blumenbergs. Stuttgart: frommann-holzboog Verlag, 149-178.

Borck C (2020) Hans Blumenberg: The Transformation of Uexküll’s Bioepistemology into Phenomenology. In Francesca Michelini & Kristian Köchy (Hg.): Jakob von Uexküll and Philosophy: Life, Environments, Anthropology. Milton: Routledge, 188-204.

Borck C (2017) Pensar y escribir en el grupo de trabajo. La forma de trabajo de Poética y hermenéutica como constellatión (Denken und Schreiben in der Forschungsgruppe: Der Arbeitsmodus von Poetik & Hermeneutik als Konstellation). In: Faustino Oncina Coves (Hg.): Constelaciones. Valencia: Pre-Textos, 225-250.

Borck C (2015) La historia como distanciamiento. Blumenberg entra la antropología y la epistemología histórico (Geschichte als Distanzgewinn. Blumenberg zwischen Anthropologie und historischer Epistemologie). In: Faustino Oncina Coves (Hg.): Hans Blumenberg: Historia In/conceptual, antropología y modernidad. Valencia: Pre-Textos, 33-47.

Borck C (Hg.) (2013) Hans Blumenberg beobachtet. Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Technik. 2. Aufl. 2014. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber.

Borck C (2013) Philosophie als „Transzendenz nach innen“: Einleitende Bemerkungen zu Hans Blumenbergs Ortsbestimmung der Philosophie zwischen Wissenschaft und Technik. In: Cornelius Borck (Hg.): Hans Blumenberg beobachtet. Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Technik 2. Aufl. 2014. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, 9-22.

Borck C (2013) Begriffene Geschichte: Canguilhem, Blumenberg und die Wissenschaften. In: Cornelius Borck (Hg.): Hans Blumenberg beobachtet. Philosophie, Wissenschaft und Technik 2. Aufl. 2014. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, 168-195.