Nicolai Hartmanns Critical Ontology and the Critical Realism of the Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology

Abstract

The author exemplifies the congruency of essential foundations between the critical realism of the Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology (Gestalt theory) and Nicolai Hartmann’s Critical Ontology. For instance, this congruency manifests in the importance given to critical-realistic epistemology – purified from idealistic prejudices, not least prejudices such as production-theoretical ones – connected with an unconditional phenomenology. Altogether, it results in a shared critical distance from scholars of Brentano, such as Husserl and Meinong, as well as from Neo-Kantianism.

Keywords

• nicolai hartmann
• berlin school of gestalt psychology (gestalt theory)
• critical ontology
• critical realism
• phenomenology
• transcendental act
• production theory
• graz school of gestalt psychology