Philosophical Literature : Germany

Philosophy in postwar Germany was no less marked by a sharp break and persistent uncertainty than fiction and poetry. One of the most influential German philosophers of this century, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), who with “Being and Time” (192 7) had presented one of the fundamental works of Existentialism, became one of the most Controversial scholars of the postwar period as a consequence of his occasionally demonstrative affinity for the National Socialist “Fiihrer” state. Nevertheless, Heidegger’s Existentialist approach continued to profoundly influence a broad-based movement in philosophy and all the humanities even after the war.

Philosophers such as Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Karl Lowith or Jean-Paul Sartre in France developed their theories in elaboration of the philosophy of Existentialism.Other important philosophical currents such as Neo-Kantianism or Edmund Husserl’s Phenomenology also continued to have an impact in Germany from time to time after the war.Another philosophical current associated with the names Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rudolf Carnap and Karl Popper - all divergence of their thought notwithstanding -picked up the thread of Positivism. It continued to develop especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries, where it profoundly influenced the Analytic and Linguistic philosophy which became dominant there. Wolfgang Stegmuller was the most influential exponent of these currents in Germany.