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Alfred Kastil

Summary

Alfred Kastil (German: [ˈka:stil]; 12 May 1874, Graz – 20 July 1950, Schönbühel, Lower Austria) was an Austrian philosopher and Brentano scholar.

Alfred Kastil
Born12 May 1874
Graz, Austria-Hungary
Died20 July 1950 (aged 76)
Schönbühel an der Donau, Lower Austria, Republic of Austria
Academic background
Alma materGerman Charles-Ferdinand University, Prague
ThesisPrinzipien der Aristotelischen Ethik (1898)
Doctoral advisorAnton Marty
Academic work
DisciplinePhilosopher, Brentano scholar
InstitutionsUniversity of Innsbruck

Life and work edit

Alfred Kastil was born in Graz, Austria on 12 May 1874.[1][2]

He attended secomary school in Brno.[1][3] The son of a bank clerk, Alois Kastil, in 1892, the year of his leaving school, Kastil came to Prague due to the transfer of his father.[3] (Both Brno and Prague then being Austrian territories within the Austro-Hungarian empire).

There, he attended the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, where he initially studied law,. But he was soon drawn to philosophy. And he studied the same under Anton Marty (1847–1914), a follower, and former student of, Franz Brentano.[1] Kastil was, along with Oskar Kraus and Hugo Bergmann, amongst those of his Prague students that Marty converted to Brentano's philosophy.[4]

Kastil earned his doctorate in 1898 with the thesis Prinzipien der Aristotelischen Ethik (Principles of Aristotelian Ethics) under the supervision of Marty. He habilitated in 1901 with the thesis Zur Lehre von der Willensfreiheit in der nikomachischen Ethik (On the Doctrine of Free Will in Nicomachean Ethics).[5]

 
Brentano (1898)

He taught as a professor at the Innsbruck University from 1912.[6]

After Brentano's death in 1917, Kastil, with Oskar Kraus, worked on Brentano's Nachlass, transferring much of it to Innsbruck.[7] With the support of the first President of Czechoslovakia Tomas Masaryk (himself a former student of Brentano) Kastil and Kraus helped to found a Brentano archive in Prague in 1932.[8][7] The political upheavals of the time however soon brought this project to an end.[7][9]

Kastil and Kraus succeeded in beginning the editing and posthumous publication of the many drafts, lecture notes and letters left by Brentano.[7] Wolfgang Huemer comments that both "tried to present Brentano's work as best as they could, putting together various texts to what they thought were rounded, convincing works" but that they sometimes did so with a "questionable editorial criteria".[7] And that their work would be "continued by other, more careful editors".[7]

 
Anton Marty

Reviewing Susan F. Krantz's 1989 English edition, Linda Lopez McAlister (who had edited and helped translate another volume by Brentano)[10] notes that, 'as was his editorial practice', in Vom Dasein Gottes (1929), Kastil "altered the text of some of the earlier lectures so they would conform to Brentano's later views."[11] McAlister regarded this as "an unfortunate scholarly practice because it effaces the traces of the development of Brentano's thought,"[11] (Kastil "identifies in the notes which passages have been changed" but "does not give the original text".)[11]

Still, though the editions by Kastil and Kraus "were not done according to the standards of critical editing", as Robin Rollinger and Hynek Janousek note, "they served for a long time to keep Brentano's thought alive."[4]

Rush Rhees studied the work of Brentano with Kastil at Innsbruck (1932–1933) and continued visiting Kastil in Vienna up to 1937.[12]

Sources differ on whether it was (late) 1933 or (eary) 1934, but at (or near) the end of the winter semester 1933/34, Kastil retired early from Innsbruck for 'political reasons.'[6] As Wilhelm Baumgartner notes, Kastil "opposed the Nazi system and faced serious trouble as a result" whilst others there "were at least close to the Nazi ideology."[13] Peter Gollerm talks of Kastil as being, along with fellow philosopher Theodor Erismann, amongst the very few openly democratically minded opponents of the emerging right-wing authoritarianism and, from around 1929, of Nazism, within the secular Innsbruck faculty of the 1920s onwards.[14] Gollerm (and Urmann) also speak of Kastil giving up his teaching position in protest against the "braune Flut" ('brown tide' i.e. tide of Nazism)[15] at the university.[14][16]

Kastil moved to Schönbühel near Melk, where he lived in what had been Brentano's summer house (this being made possible by Brentano's son Giovanni, who Kastil had tutored several years prior).[17] There, his main concern was the editing of further writings by Brentano, though he also lectured at the University of Vienna for two semesters (over 1937–1938), latterly on Brentano's philosophy.[17] (And delivered lectures to the Philosophical Society at the University of Vienna in 1935 and 1936.)[17][18]

At the age of 76, Kastil died suddenly, without prior illness, on 20 July 1950, in Schönbühel an der Dona[1][2] (now part of Schönbühel-Aggsbach).

In his last year Kastil undertook the writing of a comprehensive exposition of Brentano's philosophy. Franziska Mayer-Hillebrand, a former student, brought the work to publication the year after his death.[19][20]

Kastil had also begun the preparation of Brentano's Grundlegung und Aufbau der Efhik, and, under her own editorship, Mayer-Hillebrand completed this work in 1952.[21][22] Mayer-Hillebrand, continued, Kastil's work, with Brentano's Religion und Philosophie (1954) and Lehre vom richtigen Urteil (1956) soon following.[20] She also continued, as, Jan Srzednicki noted, with Kastil's aim, justified by their understanding of Brentano's own requests, that "his work should be continued, rather than reverently edited",[23]

Works edit

Authored edit

Edited edit

Works by Franz Brentano edit

  • (1922) Die Lehre Jesu und ihre bleibende Bedeutung, Leipzig: Meiner
    • translated as The Teaching of Jesus and its Enduring Significance, by Richard Schaefer 2021
  • (1925) Versuch über die Erkenntnis, (Inquiry Into the Nature of Knowledge) Leipzig: Meiner
    • 2nd edition, 1970, exanded, and with a new introduction, by Franziska Mayer-Hillebrand
  • (1929) Vom Dasein Gottes, (On the Existence of God) Leipzig: Meiner
    • translated by Susan Krantz, Dordrecht: Nijhoff, 1987[29]
  • (1933) Kategorienlehre,[30] Leipzig: Meiner (with introduction and notes by Kastil)

Works by Anton Marty edit

(with Josef Eisenmeierand & Oskar Kraus)

Gesammelte Schriften ('Collected Writings')

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d Mayer-Hillebrand, Franziska (1951). "Alfred Kastil". Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung (in German). 5 (2): 272–276. ISSN 0044-3301 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ a b Anon. (1963). "Kastil, Alfred, Philosoph". Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (in German). Vol. 3. Austrian Academy of Sciences. p. 258. doi:10.1553/0x00282765. ISBN 978-3-7001-3213-4.
  3. ^ a b "Research and Documentation Center for Austrian Philosophy - Department of Philosophy". philosophie-gewi.uni-graz.at (in English and German). University of Graz. Retrieved 2024-02-20. Son of the bank clerk Alois Kastil. Secondary school in Brno. In 1892, the year of his school-leaving examination, he came to Prague due to a transfer of his father. Studied law at the German University in Prague. After passing the first state examination, he devoted himself exclusively to philosophy. K. attended lectures by Anton Marty and Emil Arleth. 1898 Doctorate with a thesis on the "Principles of Aristotelian Ethics". 1902 Habilitation ("The question of the knowledge of the good in Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas"). Temporary tutor to Giovanni Brentano, Brentano's only son, in Florence. From 1902, Kastil also worked as secretary of the "Society for the Promotion of German Science, Art and Literature in Bohemia" for material reasons. From 1909, as a colleague of Franz Hillebrand, full professor of philosophy in Innsbruck. Together with Oskar Kraus, he began work on Franz Brentano's estate in 1917. In 1920, he sided with the writer in the Innsbruck "Karl Kraus Affair" (German nationalist and Catholic students protested against a reading by Kraus). During the 1920s, the first Brentano archive was set up in Innsbruck, and K. also brought in Ernst Foradori to help manage it. In 1933, K. retired prematurely for political reasons. K. continues to work on the edition of Brentano's works, initially in Vienna and increasingly in Schönbühel after the beginning of the war.
  4. ^ a b Rollinger, Robin; Janousek, Hynek (2023), Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), "Anton Marty, 5. Marty's Legacy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2023 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-02-10, As a professor in Prague Marty managed to exercise considerable influence, though this influence in many cases amounted to winning converts to Brentano's philosophy,.. Among these converts were Oskar Kraus, Alfred Kastil, and Hugo Bergmann. The former two were of course very active in editing Brentano's writings, many of which were taken from his literary remains. Though the resulting editions were not done according to the standards of critical editing and will ultimately have to be replaced, they served for a long time to keep Brentano's thought alive.
  5. ^ "Alfred Kastil (1874–1950)". Franz Brentano Archiv Graz (in German). University of Graz. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  6. ^ a b "Department of Philosophy – Universität Innsbruck". www.uibk.ac.at. History of our Department. Retrieved 2024-02-09. The Innsbruck Brentano School was consolidated when Emil Arleth was appointed to the second chair in 1905, but he died as early as 1909, whereupon the Brentano student and editor Alfred Kastil was appointed to Innsbruck. Kastil became known outside of academic philosophy, among other things, for taking the writer's side in the Innsbruck "Karl Kraus Affair" in 1920. At the end of the winter semester 1933/34, he prematurely retired from his post for political reasons.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Huemer, Wolfgang (2019), Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), "Franz Brentano, 1. Life and Work", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-02-08
  8. ^ "Notes and News". The Journal of Philosophy. 29 (24): 672–672. 1932. ISSN 0022-362X – via JSTOR. The Brentano Society has recently been founded in Prague, Czechoslovakia, having as purpose the preservation of the philosophical remains of Franz Brentano, the encouragement of research of the contributions of Brentano, and the publication of a definitive edition of his works. .... With the help of President T. G. Masaryk, himself a former student of Brentano's, the Society has established its headquarters and the archives of Brentano's manuscripts ... Among the officers of the Society are Professor Oskar Kraus, of the German University of Prague, President, and Professor Alfred Kastil, of the University of Innsbruck, Vice-President.
  9. ^ Huemer, Wolfgang (2019), Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), "Franz Brentano, 7. The Impact of Brentano's Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2024-02-18, In 1895, when Brentano gave up his position as Privatdozent in Vienna and moved to Florence, he gave up teaching and could no longer exert a direct influence on students. In this period, the center of the Brentano school moved to Prague, where Anton Marty held regular meetings with interested students, among them Oskar Kraus and Alfred Kastil. These second-generation members of the Brentano school – who are often called "Brentanoten" or "orthodox Brentanists" – stayed very faithful to Brentano's philosophy, (in particular to his last, reistic phase that they knew first-hand). They saw it as their main task to preserve Brentano's view and to defend them against the developments introduced by Husserl and the early phenomenologists as well as those introduced by Meinong and other members of the Graz School, respectively. After Brentano's death in 1917, they tried to set up and archive for Brentano's Nachlass and publish texts from it posthumously. While in the first years they achieved considerable results, not at least due to the help of the Czech president . . . Masaryk, the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 forced them into emigration and so brought an end to the Brentano School.
  10. ^ "Booknotes". Philosophy. 49 (187): 111. 1974. ISSN 0031-8191 – via JSTOR. Brentano is another thinker whose range and power cannot be hidden by the relative plainness of his style, at least as it is represented in Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (Routledge and Kegan Paul, £7.00). The English edition is based on the posthumous German edition, edited by Oscar Kraus, which was published in 1925. The translators are the editor (Linda L. McAlister), Antos C. Rancurello and D. B. Terrell.
  11. ^ a b c McAlister, Linda Lopez (1990). "Review of On the Existence of God". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. 28 (3): 191. ISSN 0020-7047 – via JSTOR. This book is an English edition of the lectures that ... Franz Brentano ... gave on proofs for the existence of God .... from 1868 to 1891, and a supplemental essay ... from 1915. It is an excellent translation of the 1929 German edition by Brentano's student Alfred Kastil. As was his editorial practice, Kastil altered the text of some of the earlier lectures so they would conform to Brentano' s later views. This is an unfortunate scholarly practice because it effaces the traces of the development of Brentano's thought. Kastil identifies in the notes which passages have been changed but he does not give the original text.
  12. ^ Phillips, D. Z. (2006-01-01). Grayling, A.C.; Goulder, Naomi; Pyle, Andrew (eds.). The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy (1 ed.). Continuum. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199754694.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975469-4.
  13. ^ Baumgartner, Wilhelm (2017). "The Innsbruck School". In Kriegel, Uriah (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Franz Brentano and the Brentano School (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 345–346. doi:10.4324/9781315776460. ISBN 978-1-315-77646-0. When in 1934 Kastil prematurely resigned from the university for political reasons—he opposed the Nazi system and faced serious trouble as a result—his chair remained vacant. Other members of the School were at least close to the Nazi ideology.
  14. ^ a b Goller, Peter. "„Uni-Campus Innrain": 100 Jahre „Neue Universität Innsbruck" am Innrain (1923/24)" ["Innrain University Campus": 100 years of the "New University of Innsbruck" on the Innrain (1923/24).]. Universität Innsbruck (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-20. Kastil verzichtete dann 1933 vorzeitig aus Protest gegen die „braune Flut" an der Universität Innsbruck auf seine Lehrkanzel. [....] In den Innsbrucker Fakultätskollegien fanden sich nur sehr wenige offen demokratisch gesinnte Gegner des aufkommenden Rechtsautoritarismus und ab ca. 1929 des Nazismus, so die Philosophieprofessoren Alfred Kastil oder Theodor Erismann... [Kastil gave up his teaching position prematurely in 1933 in protest against the "brown tide" at the University of Innsbruck. [....] In the Innsbruck faculty there were very few openly democratically minded opponents of the emerging right-wing authoritarianism and, from around 1929, of Nazism, such as the philosophy professors Alfred Kastil and Theodor Erismann...]
  15. ^ Albrich-Falch, Sabine (2014). Jüdisches Leben in Nord- und Südtirol von Herbst 1918 bis Frühjahr 1938: Jüdisches Leben im historischen Tirol [[Jewish life in North and South Tyrol from autumn 1918 to spring 1938: Jewish life in historic Tyrol] (in German). Haymon Verlag. p. 110. ISBN 978-3-7099-7343-1. Kastil verzichtete 1933 aus Protest gegen die Nationalsozialisten vorzeitig auf seine Lehrkanzel in Innsbruck.
  16. ^ Goller, Peter; Urmann, Martin (2018-09-10), Enderle-Burcel, Gertrude; Reiter-Zatloukal, Ilse (eds.), "Antisemitismus an der Universität Innsbruck. Vom »Waidhofener Prinzip« zum »Ständestaat« (1896 bis 1938)", Antisemitismus in Österreich 1933-1938 (in German) (1 ed.), Wien: Böhlau Verlag, pp. 807–822, doi:10.7767/9783205204565.807, ISBN 978-3-205-20126-7, retrieved 2024-02-22 [Excerpt]
  17. ^ a b c Fisette, Denis (2020), Fisette, Denis; Fréchette, Guillaume; Stadler, Friedrich (eds.), "Introduction: Franz Brentano in Vienna" (PDF), Franz Brentano and Austrian Philosophy, vol. 24, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 18–21, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-40947-0_1, ISBN 978-3-030-40946-3, retrieved 2024-02-16
  18. ^ Fisette, Denis (2021-08-09), Maigné, Carole (ed.), "Robert Zimmermann and Herbartianism in Vienna: The Critical Reception of Brentano and his Followers", Herbartism in Austrian Philosophy, De Gruyter, pp. 33–62, doi:10.1515/9783110747324-003, ISBN 978-3-11-074732-4, retrieved 2024-02-21
  19. ^ Bergmann, Hugo (1952). "Review of Die Philosophie Franz Brentanos". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 13 (2): 267–268. doi:10.2307/2103892. ISSN 0031-8205 – via JSTOR. Brentano died in 1917 in his eightieth year. Though he exercised a decisive influence upon modern philosophy on the European continent, he never published a comprehensive exposition of his system. During the last decades of his life, when his thinking went through an almost revolutionary change, he practically ceased to publish. He hated (as he put it once to the present writer) the "secondary work" connected with the publishing of books and left it to his students to do it after his death. He has indeed found two devoted disciples in Oskar Kraus and Alfred Kastil, who started to publish a full edition of his works. As a beginning, eleven volumes, with very valuable annotations by the editors, were published. The rise of the Nazis put an end to the enterprise. The printed volumes were destroyed during the war. A great part of Brentano's manuscripts remained unpublished up to the present day. Under these circumstances, all students of European philosophy will be grateful to the late Alfred Kastil, who, in his last year (he died in 1950) undertook to write a comprehensive—perhaps too comprehensive—exposition of Brentano's philosophy. ... The book has been published, after the author's death, under the supervision of Professor Franziska Mayer-Hillebrand of Innsbruck.
  20. ^ a b Brentano, J. C. M. (1966). "The Manuscripts of Franz Brentano". Revue Internationale de Philosophien. 20 (78 (4)): 477–482. ISSN 0048-8143 – via JSTOR/Internet Archive.
  21. ^ Schneewind, Elizabeth Hughes (1973). "Preface to the English Edition". The foundation and construction of ethics compiled from his lectures on practical philosophy. New York, Humanities Press. pp. vii. ISBN 978-0-391-00254-8 – via Internet Archive. Franz Brentano's Grundlegung und Aufbau der Ethik was published in 1952 ... The book is based upon the notes which Brentano used for his lectures on practical philosophy at the University of Vienna from 1876 to 1894. The preparation of the book, which was begun by Professor Alfred Kastil, was completed after Kastil's death by Professor Franziska Mayer-Hillebrand. This, the first English translation of the work, . . . is strictly a translation of the 1952 German edition
  22. ^ Mayer-Hillebrand, Franziska (1973) [1952]. "Editor's Foreword to the German Edition". The foundation and construction of ethics compiled from his lectures on practical philosophy. Translated by Schneewind, Elizabeth Hughes. New York, Humanities Press. ISBN 978-0-391-00254-8 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Srzednicki, Jan T. J. (1962). "Remarks Concerning the Interpretation of the Philosophy of Franz Brentano". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 22 (3): 308–316. doi:10.2307/2104416. ISSN 0031-8205 – via JSTOR. Most of the editors of Brentano's works and his commentators have a tendency to attempt to arrest his thought at a given moment and then to try to work out, in a systematic way, his views concerning most problems. So, for instance, Alfred Kastil (in Die Philosophie Franz Brentano's, Salzburg, 1951) ". ..attempted to represent Brentano's teaching in its final form . . ." 1 The same tendency is clearly evident in, e.g., F. Mayer- Hillebrand's edition of Die Lehre vom Richtigen Urteil (Bern, 1956). In order to attain this objective the editor used Brentano's own writings and some writings of Hillebrand, and produced a systematic whole by skillful arrangement, subtle changes and additions. The effect is one of detailed and systematic theory represented as Brentano's final views. One can see the temptation getting hold to present the master's complete theory and it is easy to have sympathy with it. What is more, justification is produced by reference to Brentano's own requests that his work should be continued, rather than reverently edited. ... that it is not of utmost importance to have his work edited in final form. In other places, and by word of mouth, Brentano also advised his followers to carry on his work in preference to undertaking a painstaking edition of his manuscripts. It is noticeable that the theory-completion tendency mentioned above and justified by reference to these statements, is stronger with Kastil and Mayer-Hillebrand than it was with Kraus.
  24. ^ "Kastil, Alfred: Die Frage nach der Erkenntnis des Guten bei Aristoteles und Thomas von Aquin, Wien, 1900". Digitale Bibliothek - Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (Digital Library - Munich Digitization Center). Retrieved 2024-02-19.
  25. ^ Liebert, Arthur (1936). "Contemporary German Philosophy". The Philosophical Review. 45 (1): 40. doi:10.2307/2179617. ISSN 0031-8108 – via JSTOR. The Brentano Society has undertaken to disseminate and develop Brentano's ideas. It has arranged for the publication of lectures and speeches delivered by its members on the occasion of the eighth international congress of philosophers at Prague, September I934; and they have recently appeared under the title Zur Philosophie der Gegenwart.21 We may mention the impressive lectures of Alfred Kastil on "The Ontological and the gnoseological Conception of Truth" ... 21Published by the Brentano-Gesellschaft itself, 1934.
  26. ^ Kastil, Alfred (1949). "Ein neuer Rettungsversuch der Evidenz der äußeren Wahrnehmung (Kritische Bemerkungen zu Stumpfs Erkenntnislehre)". Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung. 3 (2): 198–207. ISSN 0044-3301 – via JSTOR.
  27. ^ Bergmann, Hugo (1952). "Review of Die Philosophie Franz Brentanos". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 13 (2): 267–268. doi:10.2307/2103892. ISSN 0031-8205 – via JSTOR.
  28. ^ Kastil, Alfred (1958). "Brentano und der Psychologismus". Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung. 12 (3): 351–359. ISSN 0044-3301 – via JSTOR.
  29. ^ (with Kastil's Foreword and Editorial Notes as open access end matter)
  30. ^ unchanged reprint 1974

Further reading edit

On Kastil's life and work at Innsbruck;

  • Goller, P. (1989), Die Lehrkanzeln für Philosophie an der philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Innsbruck (1848 bis 1945), Innsbruck: Kommissionsverlag der Wagner'schen Kommissionsbuchhandlung, p. 123–151.
  • Oberkofler, Gerhard; Goller, Peter (1996). Geschichte der Universität Innsbruck (1669 - 1945) [The History of the University of Innsbruck (1669-1945)]. Rechts- und sozialwissenschaftliche Reihe (in German) (2., unveränd. Aufl ed.). Frankfurt am Main Berlin Bern New York Paris Wien: Lang. ISBN 978-3-631-30853-0
  • Goller, Peter; Urmann, Martin (2018), Enderle-Burcel, Gertrude; Reiter-Zatloukal, Ilse (eds.), "Antisemitismus an der Universität Innsbruck. Vom »Waidhofener Prinzip« zum »Ständestaat«(1896 bis 1938)", Antisemitismus in Österreich 1933-1938 (in German) (1 ed.), Wien: Böhlau Verlag, pp. 807–822, doi:10.7767/9783205204565.807 ISBN 978-3-205-20126-7

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