Max Müller (Catholic intellectual)

Max Müller (6 September 1906 in Offenburg, Baden - 18 October 1994 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German philosopher and influential post-World War II Catholic intellectual. Müller was Professor at the University of Freiburg and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Life

After his graduation in 1930 with the philosopher Martin Honecker, he established himself in 1937 with a work on Thomas Aquinas ("Reality and Rationality"'). At this time was active in the Catholic Youth Movement who were inflenced by their study with Martin Heidegger, generating their own thinking in engagement with his philosophy. During the Third Reich they were opponents of Nazism. Falling foul of Nazi educational policies, Müller was dismissed by Heidegger from research positions.

He became active as a lecturer at the Catholic Collegium Borromaeum in Freiburg. After the war he succeeded the late Martin Honecker in his academic positions at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg.

In addition to his activity at the university Müller was active in addressing social problems in Freiburg. In 1960 he moved to Ludwig Maximilians university in Munich. After his retirement he returned to Freiburg for research activity in philosophy and theology.

Müller's main influences were Honecker, Edmund Husserl and Heidegger. He was also influenced by the historian Friedrich Meinecke, the theologian Romano Guardini.

Müller's philosophy

Müller linked classical metaphysics with phenomenology of Husserl and the existentialism of Heidegger. He developed from it a theory of “metahistory” as a philosophy of historical liberty. For Müller, the sense of history is distinctive in each epoch. The "transcendental experience" of humans is created in personal engagement through communal achievement in the world as work. Politics, religion, art and science, along with the personal relationships between people, carry material and symbolic means to attempt answers and achieve effective representations.

References

• Ramón Eduardo Ruiz-Pesce: Metaphysik als Metahistorik oder Hermeneutik des unreinen Denkens: die Philosophie Max Müllers. Freiburg: Alber, 1987. (Symposion; 79) ISBN 3-495-47606-7
• Wilhelm Vossenkuhl: Max Müller. In: Christliche Philosophie im katholischen Denken des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Bd. 3. Hgg. v. E. Coreth, W. Neidl, G. Pfligersdorffer, Graz/Wien/Köln 1990, 318-327.
• Albert Raffelt: Müller, Max. In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche. 3. Aufl. Bd. 7 [Maximilian bis Pazzi]. Freiburg: Herder 1998, Sp. 518-519.
• Kai-Uwe Socha: Person-sein: Freiheit und Geschichtlichkeit als Grundkonstanten des Menschen im Denken von Max Müller (1906 - 1994). Frankfurt am Main; Berlin: Lang 1999. (Europäische Hochschulschriften. Reihe 20; Band 593) ISBN 3-631-34419-8
• Veronica Fabricius: Von der Metaphysik zur Metahistorik. Freiheit als Geschichte nach Max Müller. Freiburg: Alber 2004. (Alber Thesen, Philosophie; Bd. 23) ISBN 3-495-48110-9

See also

• Heidegger and Nazism

Persondata
Name	Muller, Max
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 September 1906
Place of birth
Date of death	18 October 1994
Place of death