Wilhelm Jerusalem

Wilhelm Jerusalem (October 11, 1854, Drenitz/Drenic (Dřenice u Chrudimi), Bohemia - July 15, 1923, Vienna) was an Austrian Jewish philosopher and pedagogue.

He studied classical philosophy at the University of Prague and did a doctorate about the theme "The Inscription of Sestos and Polybios". Till 1887 he was a teacher at grammar schools in Prague and Nikolsburg. In 1888 he became a member of the staff of teachers at the grammar school "k.k. Staatsgymnasium im VIII.Bezirk" in Vienna. 1891 he an outside lecturer at the University of Vienna. One of his interest was education and he demanded a change of the educational system in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Another field of his interest was the education of minorities. He wrote a monography about the education of deafblind. In 1890 he published a psychological study about the deafblind Laura Bridgman. He was in correspondence with the deafblind writer Helen Keller. During her visit to Vienna in 1918 he met her personally. From the scientific work about the deafblind he developed the Austrian direction of the philosophical method of "Pragmatism". In 1907 he translated "Pragmatism" of William James in German language. After World War I he became a Professor associate at the University of Vienna for philosophy and educational theory. In 1919 he became one of the teachers of the "Schönbrunner Kreis". The Vice Mayor of Vienna Max Winter got some rooms in the Viennese castle of Schönbrunn for the education of young women and men, who became later themselves teacher. So Wilhelm Jerusalem got the possibility to realize practical educational reforms together with Alfred Adler, Max Adler, Marianne Pollak, Josef Luitpold Stern and Otto Felix Kanitz. In 1923 he became a Professor of the University of Vienna.

Wilhelm Jerusalem died from a heart attack on 15th of July in Vienna.

Among his students were the writer Stephan Hock, the politician Karl Renner, the composer Viktor Ullmann and the poet Anton Wildgans.

Literary works

* In German language:
* "Laura Bridman, Erziehung einer Taubblinden", Vienna 1890
* "Die Urtheilsfunction", Vienna-Leipzig 1895
* "Kants Bedeutung für die Gegenwart", Vienna-Leipzig 1904
* "Wege und Ziele der Ästhetik", Vienna 1906
* "Der Pragmatismus, Vorwort zur Übersetzung des Werkes von William James", Leipzig 1907
* "Die Aufgaben des Lehrers an Höheren Schulen", Vienna-Leipzig 1912
* "Der Krieg im Lichte der Gesellschaftslehre", Stuttgart 1915
* "Zu dem Menschen redet eben die Geschichte" in "Friedenspflichten des Einzelnen", Gotha 1917
* "Moralische Richtlinien nach dem Kriege", Vienna 1918
* "Einleitung in die Philosophie" siebte bis zehnte Auflage, Vienna 1919-1923
* "Meine Wege und Ziele" in "Die Philosophie der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen" Band III herausgegeben von Raymond Schmidt, Leipzig 1992
* "Einführung in die Soziologie", Vienna-Leiozig 1926

References

* Vladimir I. Lenin "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" 1908-1909
* Bertrand Russell "Pragmatism" 1909
* Max Adler (Editor) "Festschrift for Wilhelm Jerusalem to his 60th Birthday" including essays of Max Adler, Rudolf Eisler, Sigmund Feilbogen, Rudolf Goldscheid, Stefan Hock, Helen Keller, Josef Kraus, Anton Lampa, Ernst Mach, Rosa Mayreder, Julius Ofner, Josef Popper, Otto Simon, Christine Touaillon and Anton Wildgans 1915
* Moritz Schlick "To the Memory of Wilhelm Jerusalem" Typoscript 1928 (Noord-Hollands Archief Harlem/NL - 017/A.63)
* William James "Pragmatism" edited by Klaus Oehler, 1994
* Heinz Weiss "The Teachers of the 'Schönbrunner Kreis'" 2007
* Herbert Gantschacher "Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse" ARBOS 2007

External links

* [http://www.philos-website.de/index_g.htm?autoren/jerusalem_wilhelm_g.htm~main2 Philos Website ] at www.philos-website.de (German)
* http://www.phil.muni.cz/fil/scf/komplet/jerusa.html (Czech)