A Discourse On The Problem Domain Of The Methodology Of Erlangen Constructivism

In the spirit of Kant's critical philosophy, the Erlangen School's Theory constitutes a kind of philosophical system, which enquires into the pre-theoretical practice before the construction of any methodological languages by means of modern scientific philosophy. If the "Science" in the sense of Logics?Mathematics and Physics is reconstructed as the theoretical support for all kinds of technical practices, it is necessary to point a direction for the "Science":For what aim should we human beings make use of the technique? The Introduction examines the close relationship between the Erlanger Constructivism and the renaissance of the practical philosophy in the 20th century. On a highest level of the former problem, we need to explain to what extent people can acquire a kind of civilizable virtue and achieve a kind of attainable happiness. With reference to the frame shaped by those two problems, It will be easy to make the connection of the Erlanger methodological Construction with its Constructive Ethics and its philosophical Anthropology clear and also to clarify the problem awareness in its development. The Erlangen Constructivism, established by Paul Lorenzen and Wilhelm Kamlah, couldn't be considered as a linear theoretical or methodical model, but the convergent opinions, which focus on the final proposition:"It is in the philosophical way that we can explain what the human being is".As to the current state of the research into the Erlangen Constructivism, it is extremely difficult to make this research wide and deep, for it ranges widely, including natural science, human science and social science. Such research in China is still in its infancy. On the basis of the consideration, the thesis focuses on "the problem domain of the methodology of Erlangen Constructivism". The whole paper is organized as following:After establishing the original research point, I begin to analyze the relevant primary sources to show the fundamental purport of their problems, and highlight the differences of the perspective of this thesis from the other related thesis by the special arrangement of the whole chapters. After the consideration of the method of the thesis writing, I can put the problem of how to deal with the historical relation between literature reading and academic writing forward, which will point in the direction of realizing the identity of the readers, that is to say, making use of two expressive ways—"I/we"and "He/She/It/They"—and the analogic mode. However, This is not only a matter of finding a way to put the whole history of the Erlangen Constructivism in order, but also a matter of enquiring the methodology to construct the metaphysics, which is corresponding to the methodology of Erlangen Constructivism.Chapter 2 discusses the Erlangen Program, which was referred by Paul Lorenzen, who was an important mathematician physicist and logician. He put a kind of methodological constructive theory forward in his representative books "Methodisches Denken", "Logik und Hermeneutik" and "Aufklarung und Rationalizat" etc. The methodological Construction in the Erlangen school's sense originates from the tradition of enquiring the certainty. According to this tradition, every kind of research is based on a scientific methodical construction, which is similar to the Axiomatic method—All the true propositions should derive from the Axioms. This Axiomatic method is recognized by most of the modern philosophers since Descartes. It suggests that if there exist some propositional Axioms—hether we discover them or construct them, they are not only self-evident, but also able to be seen as the basis of all the systems of the academic knowledge and construct the knowledge with certainty. However, Paul Lorenzen continued to examine its presupposition:There exists a kind of science, which does not rely on any Axioms. As to this presupposition, Lorenzen, in his book "Methodisches Denken" analyzed the methodological problem into three parts:(1) the problem of the relationship between logics and hermeneutics; (2) Enlightenment and Rationality; (3) The Erlangen School's view on the theory of the Vienna Circle and the Frankfurt School.Chapter 3 probes into the linguistic critique from the Erlangen Constructivism. In the frame shaped by the problem "the philosophical thinking and its practice", the academics of the Erlangen schools discussed the social effects of philosophical public speech, and suggested a new way to criticize the modern techniques:the structure of knowledge and belief in our society constitutes the basic perspective to understand what the human beings are, which is concerned by the German philosophical Anthropology. Wilhelm Kamlah, who was a famous musician and historian, and Paul Lorenzen co-worked on a great book "Logische Propadeutik". In this Book, they attached importance on the "linguistic critique" and talked about the world and the language, the language and the semiotics, the truth and the realty etc. I will describe its problem domain from three points:(1) the relationship between logic and anthropology; (2) The connection of Fundamentalism, Anthropology-Ethics and the linguistic critique; (3) the hermeneutic theory of the Erlangen Constructivism in Lorenzen's view.Chapter 4 is the conclusion of this dissertation, which discusses the final problem domain, at which the Erlangen Constructivism aims:when philosophy try to stand out from natural science and other related empirical sciences and establish its legitimacy status, it has to make a positive thinking about some fundamental problems, such as the human status in the universe, the human ability to pursue the freedom and to achieve the universal agreement by the individuals. There in to the human status in the universe is a pilot and core topic——in other words, how is the specialty of human beings established in the whole community of life?whether such "uniqueness" of human beings is created as a thinker or is discovered as an enquirer?——. I will examine such frame shaped by those problems presented above by reading the classical papers written by Lorenzen and Kamlah literally.