VAIHINGER, HANS. — Philosopher, born at Nehren (Württemberg) on 25 September 1852, died at Halle on 12 December 1933. He taught philosophy at the University of Strasbourg (from 1884), then at the University of Halle (from 1894); in 1906, owing to an eye disease, he retired from teaching.
His doctrine, which presents evident analogies with pragmatism, is defined by V. irrationalism. At its foundation lies a radical sensualism, but various influences can be discerned in it; first and foremost, the influence of Kantian philosophy, to which V. devoted one of his most important works (Commentar zu Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1881-1892; 2nd ed. 1922), and of the neocriticism of F. A. Lange, V.’s teacher (Hartmann, Dühring und Lange, 1876). On the other hand, the accentuation of decidedly irrationalistic elements in V.’s doctrine can be traced in part to Schopenhauer, Nietzsche (Nietzsche als Philosoph, 1902; 5th ed. 1930), and Bergson. Together with R. Schmidt, he founded the journal Annalen der Philosophie (Leipzig 1919), which, later taken over by the « Vienna Circle », was given the title Erkenntnis in 1930.
V. denies that science can and should serve the purpose of objectively knowing the truth; it has only a function of utility and is an instrument that facilitates man’s adaptation to his environment. From a purely theoretical and logical point of view, science presents a series of internal contradictions, which nevertheless do not impair its functionality. All human knowledge consists of « fictions », which cannot be regarded as hypotheses capable of verification in reality. The fundamental categories (thing, property, causality, etc.) respond to the need to order the mass of perceptions, but do not possess the power to represent reality; they merely make it possible to consider experience « as if » it were composed of things endowed with properties, connected by causal relations, etc. Other general concepts, such as unity, multiplicity, and existence, on the other hand, have a purely sensory origin and are simple judgments of perception. In his principal work (Die Philosophie des « als ob ». System der theoretischen, praktischen und religiösen Fiktionen der Menschheit auf Grund eines idealistischen Positivismus, Berlin 1911; 7th and 8th eds. 1922), V. sets out to highlight, in the various sciences, concepts which, while possessing a high pragmatic value, present a logical contradiction; thus, in mathematics, the concepts of the extended atom, the infinitely small, and negative, rational, and imaginary numbers. Economics is based on the function of « Homo oeconomicus », that is, a subject concerned solely with material interests. Similarly, metaphysics and religion reveal a purely vital value. For V., the task of philosophy is to make possible the clear recognition of fictions as such and of their practical value; philosophy itself must respond to the demands of the adaptation and preservation of human nature, without claiming any theoretical validity.