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system of philosophy he called the "philosophy of 'as if' ". In it he offered a system of thought in which God and reality might best be represented as paradigms. This was not to say that either God or reality was any less certain than anything else in the realm of man’s awareness, but only that all matters confronting man might best be regarded in hypothetical ways".
346:'." However, the two types "are not sharply divided from one another but are connected by transitions. Thought begins with slight initial deviations from reality (half-fictions), and, becoming bolder and bolder, ends by operating with constructs that are not only opposed to the facts but are self-contradictory."
378:(1967) was an early mention of Vaihinger as a useful methodologist of narrativity. He says that "literary fictions belong to Vaihinger’s category of 'the consciously false.' They are not subject, like hypotheses, to proof or disconfirmation, only, if they come to lose their operational effectiveness, to neglect."
288:, Vaihinger argued that human beings can never really know the underlying reality of the world, and that as a result people construct systems of thought and then assume that these match reality: they behave "as if" the world matches their models. In particular, he used examples from the physical sciences, such as
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333:: "An idea whose theoretical untruth or incorrectness, and therewith its falsity, is admitted, is not for that reason practically valueless and useless; for such an idea, in spite of its theoretical nullity may have great practical importance." Moreover, Vaihinger denied that his philosophy was a form of
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is based. Kelly credited
Vaihinger with influencing his theory, especially the idea that our constructions are better viewed as useful hypotheses rather than representations of objective reality. Kelly wrote: "Vaihinger's 'as if' philosophy has value for psychology (...) Vaihinger began to develop a
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After his death, and the intellectual sea change that followed the Second World War, Vaihinger's work received little attention from philosophers. It was left to psychologists such as Kelly and writers such as
Kermode to draw upon his central ideas. However, the interest of literary scholars has
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concluded that
Vaihinger was actually the "preeminent twentieth-century philosopher of modeling". Vaihinger's influence has since markedly increased, and the currently booming fictionalism movement in the philosophy of science takes his contributions as its main historical lead and inspiration.
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Fictions in this sense, however, Vaihinger considers to be only "half-fictions or semi-fictions". Rather, "real fictions" are those that "are not only in contradiction with reality but self-contradictory in themselves; the concept of the atom, for example, or the
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Ogden comments: "There is no doubt that Hans
Vaihinger reached his conclusions independently of Bentham ... The chief defect of Vaihinger's monumental work was its failure to lay stress on the linguistic factor in the creation of fictions." (p.
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By 1900 Vaihinger’s health had deteriorated. His health, especially his failing eyesight, forced
Vaihinger to step down from his professorship. In 1926 Vaihinger suffered complete blindness. Vaihinger died on December 18 1933.
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because skepticism implies a doubting, whereas in his 'as if' philosophy the acceptance of patently false fictions is justified as a pragmatic non-rational solution to problems that have no rational answers.
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353:, the founder of Individual Psychology, was profoundly influenced by Vaihinger's theory of useful fictions, incorporating the idea of psychological fictions into his personality construct of a
300:. None of these phenomena has been observed directly, but science assumes and pretends that they exist, and uses observations made on these assumptions to create new and better constructs.
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by A. Spir ), which I started immediately to study diligently. The book produced immediately a great impression.", March 8th, 1930, in a memorial on an article of the
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in which he makes one of his more accessible cases for identifying the tendency to literalize, rather than "see through our meanings", with neurosis and madness.
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This philosophy, though, is wider than just science. One can never be sure that the world will still exist tomorrow, but one usually assumes that it will.
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was scathing in his criticism of the book, which he dismissed as an unimportant "foot-note to all existing systems". Vaihinger was also criticised by the
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continued modestly with the publication of some recent "Vaihinger-inflected critical literature". A reappraisal of
Vaihinger by the American philosopher
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During his own lifetime
Vaihinger's works were generally well received both in Germany and abroad, especially in America. When, in 1924, his
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was published in
English, the original 1911 book was already in its sixth edition. However, the American journalist
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developed both
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The
Philosophy of 'As if': a System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind
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The Philosophy of 'As if': A System of the Theoretical, Practical and Religious Fictions of Mankind
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until, at the very end of his life, it was brought to his attention by his translator,
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Detailed German-language chronology of Vaihinger's life, works, and works about him
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609:(6 ed.). Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG. 2006.
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Kelly, George A. "The Language of Hypothesis: Man's Psychological Instrument".
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The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction with a New Epilogue
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Philosophie in der Staatsprüfung. Winke für Examinatoren und Examinanden.
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Hans Vaihinger' s Ghostly Presence in Contemporary Literary Studies
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Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
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Vaihinger became a tutor and later a philosophy professor at the
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Vaihinger acknowledged several precursors, especially Kant, and
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The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods
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