Josef Schächter (September 16, 1901, in Kundrynce, Galicia – March 27, 1994, in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

) was an Austrian

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, philosopher and member of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle () of logical empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Sc ...

from 1925 to 1936.

Life

Schächter was the son of Shoel Schächter and Sarah, ''née'' Distenfield. He trained as a rabbi and was ordained in 1926. He worked as a

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

teacher from 1922 to 1929 at the Hebraic school in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and from 1935 to 1938 at the Bible Rambam Institute. At the same time, he studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, primarily with

Moritz Schlick Friedrich Albert Moritz Schlick (; ; 14 April 1882 – 22 June 1936) was a German philosopher, physicist, and the founding father of logical positivism and the Vienna Circle. He was murdered by a former student, Johann Nelböck, in 1936. Early ...

and completed his studies in 1931 with a dissertation under Schlick with the title “Critical Account of N. Hartmann’s ‘Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis’” (''„Kritische Darstellung von N. Hartmanns‚ Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis‘“''). From 1925 to 1936 Schächter attended the meetings of the

. His work ''Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik'' (''Prolegomena to a Critical Grammar'') was published with a preface by Schlick in the Circle’s book series ''Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung'' (''Monographs on the Scientific World-Conception'') in 1935. This work was influenced by Schlick,

Friedrich Waismann Friedrich Waismann (; ; 21 March 18964 November 1959) was an Austrian mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He is best known for being a member of the Vienna Circle and one of the key theorists in logical positivism. Biography Born to a ...

, and

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

. After Schlick’s murder, Schächter intermittently substituted Friedrich Waismann in running philosophical seminars. In 1938 Schächter emigrated to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. He taught at secondary schools, first in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

until 1940 and then in Haifa until 1950. In 1943 he married the teacher Netti Dlugacz. From 1951 to 1952 he was

superintendent Superintendent may refer to: *Building superintendent, a manager, maintenance or repair person, custodian or janitor, especially in the United States; sometimes shortened to "super" *Prison warden or superintendent, a prison administrator *Soprin ...

of schools in the Israeli school system. Later he worked as a lecturer for Bible and

Aggadah Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorporat ...

at the teacher’s seminar in Haifa. At the beginning of the 1950s a group of his students founded the Kibbuz "Yodefat" in

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

in order to put Schächter’s ideas into practice. Schächter published numerous works on classical

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

, on language, meaning, and belief in the context of science and religion.Stadler 2001, 720.

Selected works

* "Kritische Darstellung von N. Hartmanns 'Grundzüge einer Metaphysik der Erkenntnis'", Diss., Vienna 1931. * ''Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik'' (= ''Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung'', 10), Vienna 1935. – Reedited as ''Prolegomena to a Critical Grammar'', Preface by J. F. Staal. Reidel, Dordrecht-Boston 1973. * ''Mavo Kazar L'Logistikah'' (A brief outline of logistics ebr. with a preface by Hugo Bermann, Vienna 1937. * "Der Sinn pessimistischer Sätze", in: ''Synthese'' 3, 1938, 223-233. * "Über das Verstehen", in: ''Synthese'' 8, 1950/51, 367-384. * "The Task of the Modern Intellectual", in: ''An Anthology of Hebrew Essays II'', 1966, 299-310. * (Together with Heinrich Melzer), „Über den Physikalismus“, in: B. McGuinness (Hrsg.), ''Zurück zu Schlick. Eine Neubewertung von Werk und Wirkung'', Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Wien 1985, 92-103.

Bibliography

* Stadler, Friedrich. ''The Vienna Circle. Studies in the Origins, Development, and Influence of Logical Empiricism.'' New York: Springer, 2001. – 2nd Edition: Dordrecht: Springer, 2015. – Biobibliographical presentation of Schächter: 720-721. *

: „Geleitwort“ n: Josef Schächter, Prolegomena zu einer kritischen Grammatik in: ''Moritz Schlick Gesamtausgabe,'' Abteilung I, Band 6, ''Die Wiener Zeit'', ed. by Johannes Friedl, Heiner Rutte, 635-642. (German) * Friedrich Waismann, Josef Schächter und Moritz Schlick: ''Ethics and the Will. Essays'', ed. and with an introduction by

Brian McGuinness Brian McGuinness (22 October 1927 – 23 December 2019) was a Wittgenstein scholar best known for his translation, with David Pears, of the ''Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus'', and for his biography of the first half of Wittgenstein's life. He w ...

and

Joachim Schulte Joachim was, according to Sacred tradition, the husband of Saint Anne, the father of Mary (mother of Jesus), and the maternal grandfather of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James, part of the New Testament apoc ...

, Kluwer, Dordrecht-Boston-London 1994. * J. S. Diamond: "Josef Schächter: An Approach to ›Jewish Consciousness‹," in: ''Reconstructionist'', Annual Israel Issue 30, 1964, S. 17-24. * Volker Thurm (ed.): ''Wien und der Wiener Kreis: Orte einer unvollendeten Moderne; ein Begleitbuch'', in collaboration with Elisabeth Nemeth, Schriftenreihe Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung und Kunst; Sonderbd., WUV, Vienna 2003, , 348 f. (German)

External links

Publications of Schächter on WorldCat

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schachter, Josef 20th-century Austrian rabbis 20th-century Austrian philosophers Jewish philosophers Vienna Circle Logical positivism 1901 births 1994 deaths