Alexander Pfänder facts for kids

Alexander Pfänder (born February 7, 1870, in Iserlohn – died March 18, 1941, in Munich) was an important German philosopher. He was part of a group of thinkers known as the Munich phenomenological school.

Life and Work

Alexander Pfänder was born in a town called Iserlohn. He spent his whole career studying and teaching in Munich, Germany. He was a student of Theodor Lipps and helped start the Munich group of phenomenologists. These were philosophers who studied how we experience things directly, rather than just thinking about them.

As a professor, Pfänder helped share a different way of thinking about phenomenology. This was different from the ideas of another famous philosopher, Edmund Husserl. Pfänder's early work, which looked at how we make choices and have a "will," actually came out before Husserl's big ideas in phenomenology.

Even though Pfänder was a talented writer and teacher, he didn't become as famous as some other philosophers like Heidegger. Because of this, his detailed studies on things like "willing" (making choices) and "attitudes" have sometimes been overlooked. He also developed an idea called "understanding psychology," which also deserves more attention.

Main Books

Here are some of Alexander Pfänder's most important books:

• Phänomenologie des Wollens: Eine psychologische Analyse (1900)
  • This book explored the idea of "willing" or making choices, looking at it from a psychological point of view.
• Logik (1921)
  • This book was about Logic, which is the study of correct reasoning. It was later translated into English.
• Die Seele des Menschen (1933)
  • The title of this book means The Soul of Man. In it, Pfänder discussed his ideas about "understanding psychology."

See also

In Spanish: Alexander Pfänder para niños