Difference between revisions of "Max Bense"

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==Articles==
 
==Articles==
 
* Elisabeth Walther, "Max Bense's Informational and Semiotical Aesthetics" 2000 [http://www.stuttgarter-schule.de/bense.html]
 
* Elisabeth Walther, "Max Bense's Informational and Semiotical Aesthetics" 2000 [http://www.stuttgarter-schule.de/bense.html]
 +
* more: [http://www.bense-und-die-kuenste.de/links_e.html]
  
 
==More==
 
==More==

Revision as of 19:04, 7 September 2010

Born 1910 in Strasbourg. Died 1990 in Stuttgart. German philosopher, writer, and publicist, known for his work in philosophy of science, logic, aesthetics, and semiotics. His thoughts combine natural sciences, art, and philosophy under a collective perspective and follow a definition of reality, which – under the term existential rationalism – is able to remove the separation between humanities and natural sciences.

In 1918 his family was deported from Alsace-Lorraine as a consequence of WWI. After 1930 he studied physics, chemistry, mathematics, geology, and philosophy at the University of Bonn. 1937 he doctor's degree (Quantum Mechanics and Relativity of Dasein) - used the term Relativity of Dasein (adopted from Max Scheler) for explaining that novel theories do not have to contradict classical science. As declared opponent of national socialism knowingly opposed the Deutsche Physik of the Nazi regime, which rejected the theory of relativity due to Einstein's Jewish origin. Therefore he did not receive his postdoctoral qualification. 1938 worked as a physicist at the Bayer AG in Leverkusen. Then soldier in WWII, firstly as a meteorologist, then as a medical technician in Berlin and Georgenthal, where he was mayor for a short time after the end of the war. In 1945 the University of Jena appointed him to curator (Chancellor of the University) and offered him the possibility of habilitation at the Social-Pedagogic Faculty. 1948 fled from the political development of the Soviet occupation zone to Boppard; 1949 appointed as a guest professor in philosophy and theory of science by University of Stuttgart; 1950 as associate professor. Raised a controversy concerning mythologizing tendencies of German postwar culture. Thereupon he became the target of public polemics, resulting in a postponement of his appointment to full professor until 1963. 1953-58 also worked at the adult education centre and at the College of Design in Ulm; 1958-60 and 1966/67 also guest professor at the Hamburg College for Visual Arts.

Mathematics in art and language

In his first publication, "Raum und Ich" ("Space and Ego"; 1934) combined theoretical philosophy with mathematics, semiotics, and aesthetics; phrased a rational aesthetics, which defines the components of language – words, syllables, phonemes – as a statistical language repertoire, and which opposes literature that is based upon meaning. Conversely, Bense studied the concept of style, which he applied to mathematics – following Leibniz' Mathesis Universalis, designing a universal markup language. "Die Mathematik in der Kunst" ("Mathematics in Art"; 1949) was his starting point for investigating mathematical principles of form in the history of art. From this, Bense developed a perspective to see the mathematical spirit in works of literary art, especially in metrics and rhythm. Considered the aesthetic and the semantic information to be generally separated and not to be defined until they are used.

Technology and ethics

Bense thought about the technical counterparts of human existence; unlike many of his contemporaries he considered machines as pure products of human intelligence, having algorithms as a basis, but soon he posed ethical questions, which were not discussed in ethics of technology until decades later.

Structural analysis of language

Inspired by neuroscience, informatics, and the occupation with electronic calculating machines, but also by Wittgenstein's concept of the language-game, Bense tried to put into perspective or to extend the traditional view of literature. In that, he was one of the first philosophers of culture who integrated the technical possibilities of the computer into their thoughts and investigated them across disciplinary boundaries. He statistically and topologically analysed linguistic phenomena, subjected them to questions of semiotic, information theory, and communication theory using structuralistic approaches. Thus Bense became the first theoretician of concrete poetry, which was started by Eugen Gomringer in 1953, and encouraged e.g. Helmut Heißenbüttel, Claus Bremer, Reinhard Döhl, Ludwig Haring, and Franz Mon to perform further experiments, and also had influence on Ernst Jandl's language deconstruction.

Understanding of science

As a theoretician of science, Bense represented the synthetic intellectual concept, where classical humanism and modern technology constructively complement one another. From this concept of science, he hoped for progressive knowledge, which must always be ethically scrutinized, and at the same time, for the prevention of regression. Because of that, Bense argued for enlightenment and put himself into that tradition.
After 1984 Max Bense applied his theories of visual art to screen media. Because of that, early thoughts of media studies concerning the internet, especially the concept of digital poetry, can be traced back to Bense.

Selected writings

  • Raum und Ich. Eine Philosophie über den Raum. Luken & Luken, Berlin 1934
  • Aesthetica (II). Aesthetische Information. Agis, Baden-Baden 1956
  • Aesthetica (IV). Programmierung des Schönen. Allgemeine Texttheorie und Textästhetik. Agis, Krefeld/Baden-Baden 1960
  • theorie der texte. Eine Einführung in neuere Auffassungen und Methoden. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1962
  • Aesthetica. Einführung in die neue Aesthetik. Agis, Baden-Baden 1965
  • complete bibliography: [1]

Articles

  • Elisabeth Walther, "Max Bense's Informational and Semiotical Aesthetics" 2000 [2]
  • more: [3]

More

  • Bense und die Kuenste. Eine Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag des Philosophen Max Bense. 7. Februar – 11. April 2010, ZKM. [4]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Bense
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Bense