Paul Hugo Wilhelm Hensel (17 May 1860, Groß-Barthen,

Province of Prussia The Province of Prussia (; ; ; ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1824 to 1878. The province was established in 1824 from the provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia, and was dissolved in 1878 when the merger was reversed. König ...

– 11 November 1930,

Erlangen Erlangen (; , ) is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative district Erlangen), and with 119,810 inhabitants (as of 30 September 2024), it is the smalle ...

) was a German

philosopher 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 ...

Biography

Hensel was born in Groß-Barten (now in

Gvardeysky District Gvardeysky District () is an administrative district (raion), one of the fifteen in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in the center of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the town of Gvardeysk.Resolution ...

) in the

. He was the son of the landowner and entrepreneur

Sebastian Hensel Sebastian Ludwig Felix Hensel (June 16, 1830 – January 13, 1898) was a German landowner, entrepreneur and author. Life Sebastian Hensel was born on June 16, 1830, the son of the pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847) and painter ...

, brother of the mathematician

Kurt Hensel Kurt Wilhelm Sebastian Hensel (29 December 1861 – 1 June 1941) was a German mathematician born in Königsberg. Life and career Hensel was born in Königsberg, Province of Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the son of Julia (née von Adelson ...

, and grandson of the composer

Fanny Mendelssohn Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was known as Fanny Hensel after her marriage. Her compositions include a string quartet, a piano trio, a piano quartet, an or ...

and the painter

Wilhelm Hensel Wilhelm Hensel (6 July 1794 – 26 November 1861) was a German painter, brother of Luise Hensel, husband to Fanny Mendelssohn, and brother-in-law to Felix Mendelssohn. Life and career Wilhelm Hensel was born on 6 July 1794 in the German tow ...

. Fanny was the sister of

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonie ...

, daughter of

Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy Abraham Ernst Mendelssohn Bartholdy (born Abraham Mendelssohn; 10 December 1776 – 19 November 1835) was a German Jewish banker and philanthropist. He was the father of Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Rebecka Mendelssohn, and Paul Mendels ...

, and granddaughter of philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or 'J ...

and entrepreneur

Daniel Itzig Daniel Itzig (also known as Daniel Yoffe; 18 March 1723 in Berlin – 17 May 1799 in Potsdam) was a court Jew of Kings Frederick II and Frederick William II of Prussia. Biography Itzig was born in Berlin. His family was mercantile. Itzig wa ...

. Both of Hensel's paternal grandmothers and his mother were from Jewish families that had converted to Christianity. Hensel became a professor of philosophy at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

, where he taught until 1928. At Erlangen, Hensel was the supervisor of

Hans Reichenbach Hans Reichenbach (; ; September 26, 1891 – April 9, 1953) was a leading philosopher of science, educator, and proponent of logical empiricism. He was influential in the areas of science, education, and of logical empiricism. He founded the ''G ...

PhD dissertation A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

on the

theory of probability Probability theory or probability calculus is the branch of mathematics concerned with probability. Although there are several different probability interpretations, probability theory treats the concept in a rigorous mathematical manner by expre ...

. Paul Hensel's first marriage was to Käthe Rosenhayn (1861–1910) in 1896. The marriage produced their son Bruno Hensel (1899–1945). In 1917, Paul Hensel remarried to Elisabeth Nelson, née Schemmann (1884–1954), who also had a son in her first marriage and so brought him into her new marriage. She had two daughters with Paul Hensel: the pianist and music teacher Fanny Kistner-Hensel (1918–2006) and the historian Cécile Lowenthal-Hensel (1923–2012).

Works

* ''Über die Beziehung des reinen Ich bei Fichte zur Einheit der Apperception bei Kant'' 'On the relationship between Fichte's pure I and Kant's unity of apperception'' 1885 (

doctoral thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

under

Alois Riehl Alois Adolf Riehl (; 27 April 1844 – 21 November 1924) was an Austrian neo-Kantian philosopher. He was born in Bozen (Bolzano) in the Austrian Empire (now in Italy). He was the brother of the Austrian engineer and building contractor . Biograp ...

)Availabl
online at archive.org
/ref> * ''Ethisches Wissen und ethisches Handeln'', 1889 * ''Hauptprobleme der Ethik'', 1903 * ''

Kleine Schriften ' is a German phrase ("short writings" or "minor works"; ) often used as a title for a collection of articles and essays written by a single scholar over the course of a career. "Collected Papers" is an English equivalent. These shorter works we ...

und Vorträge'', 1930

References

External links

* * *
Probleme/Projekte/Prozesse: Hochzeit im Hause Mendelssohn
at www.luise-berlin.de
AIM25: Thesaurus-assisted Personal Name search
at www.aim25.ac.uk 1860 births 1930 deaths People from Gvardeysky District People from the Province of Prussia

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

German people of Jewish descent 20th-century German people 19th-century German philosophers 20th-century German philosophers {{Germany-philosopher-stub