Helmuth Plessner

Helmuth Plessner (born Sept. 4, 1892, Wiesbaden, Ger.—died June 12, 1985, Göttingen, W.Ger.) was a German philosopher credited with establishing European philosophical anthropology, the study of the nature of individuals through their experiences. In his theory of existence based on a balance between an “inner” and an “outer” self, he differentiated humans from animals. When individuals transcend their outer self and realize their inner life, he believed, they are open to perceptions, experiences, and expressions that have a greater sociological and historical significance.

Educated in medicine, zoology, and philosophy at the universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Berlin, he acquired a doctorate in philosophy from Erlangen (1916). He was a professor at Cologne from 1926 to 1934, when the Nazi political climate compelled his move to Groningen, Neth., where he became professor of sociology (1934–42). Ousted by the Nazis during the occupation, he taught again at Groningen (1946–51), as professor of philosophy, before returning to the University of Göttingen (1951), where he became professor emeritus in 1962. His principal works include Die wissenschaftliche Idee (1913; “The Scholarly Idea”), Die Einheit der Sinne (1923; “The Unity of Senses”), Macht und menschliche Natur (1931; “Might and Human Nature”), Das Schicksal deutschen Geistes im Ausgang seiner bürgerlichen Epoche (1935; “The Destiny of the German Spirit at the End of Its Bourgeois Epoch”), Lachen und Wienen (1941; Laughing and Crying), Zwischen Philosophie und Gesellschaft (1953; “Between Philosophy and Society”), and Grenzen der Gemeinschaft: Eine Kritik des sozialen Radikalismus (1972; “Limits of Society: A Critique of Social Radicalism”).