Abstract
Reichenbach lays often a strong emphasis on free choice in nearly all chapters of his philosophy. In the philosophy of geometry he claims that the choice of the metric of space is completely free. His theory of induction is based on wagers. In his epistemology he talks about “volitional decisions” between different language systems.
These claims represent a common tendency which could be called “volitionism”. Reichenbach throughout his life held that the human will is free, and that the cause of this freedom lies in the structure of physical laws. He disagreed with the Vienna Circle, who considered the question of freedom of the will to be metaphysical and thus philosophically uninteresting.
Freedom of choice was also important for Reichenbach in ethics and education. The picture he had of men, though, is very important for his philosophy. It is so to speak the ideological basis of his philosophy of science and epistemology, which was laid very early in his life during his student days, when he was influenced by the Jugendbewegung (“youth movement”) and by the German educationist Gustav Wyneken. To shed some light on Reichenbach’s thought under this perspective will be the main subject of the present chapter.
During all his live, Reichenbach never published a detailed defence of his standpoint concerning the will. When he died, he left a long manuscript “The Freedom of the Will,” which his wife, Maria Reichenbach, published posthumously.
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Notes
- 1.
am indepted to Wendy Wilutzky and Lothar Ern for checking my English grammar and style.
- 2.
For a Biography of Hans Reichenbach see (Gerner 1997).
- 3.
See Kamlah (1979), Comments to GW vol. 3, 466.
- 4.
The song, however, with the text by Hans Riedel and Hermann Löns was composed by Robert Götz much later in 1920. So it is not really an authentic source about the Wandervogel. But it reflects well what the teenagers of the Wandervogel felt. The original Text is:
Aus grauer Städte Mauern
Der Wald ist unsre Liebe,
Ein Heil dem deutschen Walde,
Die Sommervögel ziehen
ziehn wir durch Wald und Feld,
der Himmel unser Zelt.
zu dem wir uns gesellt.
schon über Wald und Feld.
wer bleibt, der mag versauern,
Ob heiter oder trübe,
Hell klingt's durch Berg und Halde:
Da heißt es Abschied nehmen,
wir fahren in die Welt
wir fahren in die Welt.
wir fahren in die Welt.
wir fahren in die Welt.
Halli, hallo, wir fahren,
Halli, hallo, wir fahren,
Halli, hallo, wir fahren,
Halli, hallo wir fahren,
wir fahren in die Welt.
wir fahren in die Welt.
wir fahren in die Welt.
wir fahren in die Welt.
- 5.
Carl Landauer, a former friend and a member of the inner circle of Freistudenten, writes in his memory of Hans Reichenbach (SW vol. 1, 26): “Hans, I think, had been in the Wandervogel while in highschool.” Hans Ulrich Wipf writes: “Hans Reichenbach is considered an eminent exponent of the generation of students which was shaped by the Wandervogel” (Wipf 1994, 167).
- 6.
A character of Grimm’s fairy tale, known in English culture as “Mother Holle,” or “Mother Hulda”.
- 7.
For Reichenbach see 1913e, for Carnap see (Dahms 2004, 70). Carnap was a member of the Sera-Kreis in Jena, which, like many other groups, supported the initiative of having a meeting of all groups of the Jugendbewegung at Hoher Meißner. Carnap, however, writes in his autobiography that he met Reichenbach for the first time in Erlangen in 1923; see Carnap (1963, 14).
- 8.
From Erich Weniger (1980): 1–8, quotation 3: “The Meißnerfest is the unforgettable peak [highlight; Höhepunkt] of the movement.”
- 9.
- 10.
Engl. translation of excerpts from quotations in Kamlah (1994).
- 11.
See Section 3 on Freistudenten.
- 12.
Kant (1785), 17, Engl. transl. Kant 1993, 30.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
1925a; SW vol. 2, 86–87.
- 16.
Reichenbach’s letter to Schlick from 20.03.1926 [HR-016-18-12].
- 17.
Cf. Schlick (1931, 162).
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Hans Reichenbach’s works are quoted
according to his “Collected Works” as published in German and in English:
GW. Gesammelte Werke, in 9 Bänden. Maria Reichenbach and Andreas Kamlah (eds.). Braunschweig/Wiesbaden: Vieweg, 1977–1999 (vol. 1–7 have been published).
SW. Selected Writings: 1909–1953, M. Reichenbach and R. S. Cohen (eds.). 2 vols. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Reidel. 1978.
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Kamlah, A. (2013). Everybody Has the Right to Do What He Wants: Hans Reichenbach’s Volitionism and Its Historical Roots. In: Milkov, N., Peckhaus, V. (eds) The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical Empiricism. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 273. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5485-0_7
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