Munich School of Philosophy (German: ''Hochschule für Philosophie München'') is a small Jesuit higher education college in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

founded in 1925.

History

Founded as a seminary at

Pullach Pullach, officially Pullach i. Isartal, is a municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the Isar Valley Railway and is served by the S 7 line of the Munich S-Bahn, at the Großhesselohe Isartalbahnhof, Pullach and ...

in 1925 by

Augustin Bea Augustin Bea, S.J. (28 May 1881 – 16 November 1968), was a German Jesuit priest, cardinal, and scholar at the Pontifical Gregorian University, specialising in biblical studies and biblical archaeology. He also served as the personal confessor ...

, first named the Berchmanskolleg, it obtained the ability to issue a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in 1932. In 1971 the school moved to central

and opened to non-Jesuit students. The majority of students are not members of the Jesuit Order, and now include women and international students. It is accredited by the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts (in German: ''Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst''). Since 2009, the Munich School of Philosophy hosts the yearly ''Rahner Lecture'' in memory of the German Jesuit and theologian

Karl Rahner Karl Rahner (5 March 1904 – 30 March 1984) was a German Jesuit priest and theologian who, alongside Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar, is considered to be one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of ...

Philosophical tradition

Most faculty members are

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

. The school has long stood in the tradition of

Neo-Scholasticism Neo-scholasticism (also known as neo-scholastic Thomism Accessed 27 March 2013 or neo-Thomism because of the great influence of the writings of Thomas Aquinas on the movement) is a revival and development of medieval scholasticism in Catholic the ...

. Only since the 1970s, when the school opened to non-Jesuit students, contemporary philosophy such as

marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

and analytic philosophy have gained more prominence in the undergraduate and postgraduate education. To date, the undergraduate curriculum at the Munich School of Philosophy places much emphasis on the history of philosophy and issues pertaining to the study of

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. As a Jesuit school, its objectives and purpose must be in accord with the apostolic constitution ''Sapientia Christiana'', Art. 79 and 80 in research and teaching: # to promote the study of philosophy and its history; # to reflect systematically on fundamental issues of religious faith and to elucidate the affiliation between philosophy and theology; # to analyze and develop the contributions of other sciences towards philosophy; # to apply the insights gained from these theoretical endeavors to practical concerns of human and social life.

Notable alumni and faculty members

Faculty

Harald Lesch Harald Lesch (born 28 July 1960) is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and professor of natural philosophy at the Munich Un ...

is a German physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, author, television presenter, and professor of physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and lecturer of

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient wo ...

at the Munich School of Philosophy.

Alumni

Notable alumni include former

minister-president A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

Erwin Teufel Erwin Teufel (born 4 September 1939, in Zimmern ob Rottweil) is a German politician of the CDU. Political career Teufel was the leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg from 1978 to 1991. Teufel was Ministe ...

and German politician and CDU party member

Heiner Geißler Heiner Geißler (3 March 1930 – 12 September 2017) was a German politician with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party and a federal minister from 1982 to 1985. Career Born Heinrichjosef Georg Geißler in Gleisweiler, he studied law a ...

Research centers

The Munich School of Philosophy has six distinctive research centers: * Institute for Social and Development Studies (''German: Institut für Gesellschaftspolitik/IGP'') * Institute for Communications and Media Research (''German: Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Erwachsenenpädagogik/IKE'') * Institute for Philosophy of Religion (''German: Institut für Religionsphilosophie/IRP'') * Institute for Scientific Issues related to Philosophy and Theology (''German: Institut für naturwissenschaftliche Grenzfragen zur Philosophie und Theologie/ING'') * Institute for Philosophy and Leadership (''German: Institut für Philosophie und Leadership'') * Rottendorf Project (''German: Rottendorf Projekt)

Rankings

The Munich School of Philosophy is currently not ranked in any major university web rankings due to its specialization in philosophy. It frequently cooperates with faculty members of two Munich universities, the

Technical University An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

and the

Ludwig Maximilian University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

which are both consistently ranked among Germany's foremost universities.

External links

Official website in German

Official website in English
{{Authority control Universities and colleges in Munich Jesuit universities and colleges Catholic universities and colleges in Germany Seminaries and theological colleges in Germany Philosophy academics German philosophy Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in Germany