Paul Gerhard Natorp (24 January 1854 – 17 August 1924) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

philosopher and

educationalist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

, considered one of the co-founders of the

Marburg school In late modern philosophy, late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly hi ...

neo-Kantianism In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (german: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The Neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the "thin ...

. He was known as an authority on

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

Biography

Paul Natorp was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, the son of the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

minister Adelbert Natorp and his wife Emilie Keller. From 1871 he studied music, history, classical philology and philosophy in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and Strasbourg. He completed his doctoral dissertation in 1876 at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

under the supervision of the philosopher Ernst Laas and in 1881 completed his '' Habilitation'' under the neo-Kantian

Hermann Cohen Hermann Cohen (4 July 1842 – 4 April 1918) was a German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century ...

. In 1885 he became extraordinary professor and in 1893 became ordinary professor in philosophy and

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

at Marburg University, a position he retained until his retirement in 1922. In the winter semester of 1923–24 Natorp conducted an intensive exchange of ideas with

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...

, who had been called to Marburg and whose work on

Duns Scotus John Duns Scotus ( – 8 November 1308), commonly called Duns Scotus ( ; ; "Duns the Scot"), was a Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, university professor, philosopher, and theologian. He is one of the four most important ...

Natorp had read very early on. In 1887 he married his cousin Helene Natorp; they had five children. Natorp was an ambitious composer, who wrote chiefly chamber music (including a

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

sonata, a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

sonata, and a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

trio). He also wrote some 100 songs and two choral works. He conducted a correspondence with Johannes Brahms, who dissuaded him from becoming a professional composer. He was an influence on the early work of

Hans-Georg Gadamer Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics. Life Family ...

and had a profound effect upon the thought of

Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...

, the "father" of

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 ...

. His students included the philosopher and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science. A ...

, the

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Karl Barth and the author of ''

Doctor Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago Yuri Andreievich Zhivago is the ...

'', Boris Pasternak.

Works

* ''Descartes' Erkenntnistheorie. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des Kriticismus.'' 1882; 2014, * ''Sozialpädagogik'' (1899) * ''Logik in Leitsätzen'' (1904) * ''Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Sozialpädagogik'' (3 volumes, 1907) * ''Pestalozzi. Leben und Lehre'' (1909) * ''Die logischen Grundlagen der exakten Wissenschaften'' (1910) * ''Philosophie; ihr Problem und ihre Probleme'' (1911), new edition: Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008 (ed. and introduction by Karl-Heinz Lembeck), * ''Sozialidealismus'' (1920) * ''Beethoven und wir'' (1920) * ''Platos Ideenlehre'' (1921); transl. 2004, ''Platos's Theory of Ideas: An Introduction to Idealism.'', Academia Verlag * ''Allgemeine Logik'' (in: Flach und Holzhey, ''Erkenntnistheorie und Logik im Neukantianismus'', 1979)

Notes

References

* Judy Deane Saltzmann ''Paul Natorp's Philosophy of Religion within the Marburg Neo-Kantian Tradition'' (1980) * Alexis Philonenko ''L'École de Marbourg : Cohen, Natorp, Cassirer'' (1989) * Karl-Heinz Lembeck ''Platon in Marburg: Platon-Rezeption Und Philosophiegeschichtsphilosophie Bei Cohen Und Natorp'' (1994) * Julien Servois ''Paul Natorp et la Théorie Platonicienne des Idées'' (2004) * Norbert Jegelka ''Paul Natorp'' (1992)

External links

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page by Alan Kim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Natorp, Paul Gerhard 1854 births 1924 deaths 19th-century essayists 19th-century German composers 19th-century German educators 19th-century German historians 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German philosophers 20th-century essayists 20th-century German composers 20th-century German educators 20th-century German historians 20th-century German male writers 20th-century German philosophers Commentators on Plato Continental philosophers Cultural critics Descartes scholars German composers German educators German logicians German male essayists German male non-fiction writers German music historians Historians of philosophy Kant scholars Kantian philosophers Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture Philosophers of education Philosophers of logic Philosophers of religion Philosophers of social science Philosophy academics Philosophy teachers Philosophy writers Social critics Social philosophers University of Marburg faculty University of Strasbourg alumni Writers from Düsseldorf