Richard Avenarius

Le pagine seguenti costituiscono il frutto di un intero anno di ricerca, trascorso a Köln (Germania) tra il settembre 2011 e l'agosto 2012 grazie ai finanziamenti ricevuti dall'Unione Europea (Erasmus-Studio) e da una borsa di studio dell'Opera Universitaria di Trento.

Abstract. The topic of reine Erfahrung in the first edition of Heinrich Rickert’s Die Grenzen. Proceeding from an analysis of two paragraphs of Die Grenzen, where Rickert deals with the problem of the objectivity of historical sciences and with the connection between physical and psychic, this essay aims at clarifying  Rickert’s references to Avenarius’ thought, showing how the influence and the critical confront with the founder of empiriocriticism run through the pages of the book. Even if they disagree about the role - not the meaning - of subject and object in the gnoseology, according to Rickert Avenarius’ positions still represent an example of radical and coherent empiricism, against the natural-scientific worldview.

Les enjeux de la théorie darwinienne de l'évolution dans l'histoire des sciences (Semaine de la science 2009-Année Darwin ) Conférence tenue le mardi 17 novembre 2009, au Lycée Merleau-Ponty pour les Terminales scientifiques. Il serait possible d'aborder le darwinisme comme une solution au problème de la classification des espèces La classification consiste dans la forme la plus générale de la connaissance du vivant, c'est-à-dire nommer les êtres et les ranger dans un ordre systématique. La classification est un projet qui occupe l'humanité depuis bien longtemps, notamment depuis Aristote, jusqu'à Linné, Cuvier, et tant d'autres, avant Lamarck et Darwin. Mais toutes ces classifications se révèlent arbitraires, la théorie darwinienne offrirait une ligne directrice plus claire, en considérant l'évolution des lignées, elle donnerait une forme de nécessité à la définition de l'arbre ou plutôt du buisson phylogénétique.

I study the philosophical relationship between Avenarius and Husserl during the years where the later held the lectures The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, taking especially into account the natural concept of the world. First, I expound briefly the basic phenomenological topics of the lectures: the natural concept of the world, the phenomenological reduction and the ego’s unity. Second, I tackle the basic ideas of Avenarius’ Der menschliche Weltbegriff (Human concept of the world). Third, I discuss the coincidence between Avenarius and Husserl, paying special attention to the primordial reduction, and also the objections that Husserl made to Avenarius, making a contrast between Avenarius’ univocal approach to being and Husserl’s phenomenological account.

In this paper I investigate the relationship between the philosophies of Edmund Husserl and Richard Avenarius. Despite this topic has been almost disregarded by Husserlian scholars, it is of uttermost importance if one aims at illuminating the origins of Husserl's phenomenological thinking. My thesis is that Husserl's concept of natural attitude and
its correlate, the natural world (Umwelt) —as they emerge in various lectures during the 1910s and especially in Ideen I with respect to the phenomenological reduction— stem from an early confrontation with Avenarius’ “empiriocriticist” standpoint as laid out in his book Der menschliche Weltbegriff. In order to uphold this claim, I will discuss in my paper Husserl's gradual approach to the theories of the Swiss-German philosopher as well as his late critique of the same. Although Husserl in fact conceived of Avenarius’ standpoint as a valuable beginning, he was decisively prompted in his late reflections to call into question some of the premises of the “empirio-criticist” philosophy.

The Evolution of the “Principle of Least Effort” in Richard Avenarius’Thought from Prolegomena to Kritik der Reinen Erfahrung. Starting from some manuscripts held in Avenarius’ Nachlass, this essay aims at showing how the drafts written between 1880 and 1883 testify Avenarius’ rethinking of the principle of least effort. In these drafts, as well as in the Kritik, Avenarius separates what seem to be the two “souls” of that principle (the principle of persistence and the principle of evolution), obtaining, this way, the principle of the minimum amount of variation and the principle of the progressive elimination. At the same time, this change of mind leads Avenarius to a more dynamic conception of the human conservation, less focused on self-preservation and more oriented towards the adaptation to an environment as wide as possible.

This book reconstructs the rise and fall of Wilhelm Wundt’s fortunes, focusing for the first time on the role of Richard Avenarius as catalyst for the so-called “positivist repudiation of Wundt.” Krauss specifically looks at the progressive disavowal of Wundtian ideas in the world of scientific psychology, and especially by his former pupils.
This book provides important historical context and a critical discussion of the current state of research, in addition to a detailed consideration of Wundt’s and Avenarius’ systems of thought, as well as on their personal relationship. The author outlines the reception of Avenarius’ conceptions among Wundt’s pupils, such as Külpe, Münsterberg and Titchener, and among other psychologists of the time, such as Ward, James and Ebbinghaus. Finally, this book presents Wundt’s two-fold attempt to respond to the new trend through a criticism of the “materialistic” psychology, and a reformulation of his own ideas.

1. Una caratteristica ricorrente delle opere di Richard Avenarius è l'assenza di luoghi di confronto tra le sue idee e quelle di altri pensatori. A differenza di altre personalità dell'epoca, Avenarius è sempre stato solo un filosofo, piú che un filosofo-scienziato, e in quanto tale non si preoccupava di condurre indagini in prima persona su temi che lo interessavano, come quelli psicologici o di fisiologia delle sensazioni, preferendo appoggiarsi ai risultati forniti da altri. Per questo nella Kritik der reinen Erfahrung (1888-1890) e in Der menschliche Weltbegriff (1891) è facile incontrare i nomi dei massimi studiosi di psicologia, fisiologia e teoria della conoscenza dell'Ottocento, quali Helmholtz, Kirchoff, Wundt, etc. Vanamente però si cercherebbero dei passi in cui Avenarius discute, sia per sostenerli che per rigettarli, di quegli aspetti del pensiero di questi autori che hanno maggior rilievo filosofico, cosí come risulta difficile trovare citazioni e riferimenti diretti alle idee di suoi colleghi piú propriamente filosofi.

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A reappraisal of Empiriocriticism. The paper questions the assumptions that underlie the habit of considering Richard Avenarius and Ernst Mach as representatives of the same philosophical current: Empiriocriticism. The essay firstly retraces the different backgrounds, aims and intellectual trajectories of the two authors, and then indicates the various points of convergence of their thoughts. In so doing, it is possible to outline the defning topics of Empiriocriticism without the risk of overlapping the famous Mach and the lesser-known Avenarius.

AbstractThis essay provides a fresh account of the break between Oswald Külpe and his master Wilhelm Wundt. Kurt Danziger's reconstruction of the “repudiation” of Wundt, which has become the canon for this significant episode of history of psychology, focused on the supposed influence of Ernst Mach on this set of events, overshadowing the other exponent of Empiriocriticism: Richard Avenarius. Analyzing archival documents and examining anew the primary sources, the paper shows that Avenarius was himself a member of Wundt's circle, and that his “repudiation” of the master paved the way for Külpe. The essay points out the original anti-Wundtian aspects of Avenarius' notion of psychology, thus showing how they were then adopted by Külpe.