Ferdinand Fellmann

Ferdinand Fellmann (14 December 1939 – 28 October 2019) was a German philosopher. After the expulsion of his family in 1946 out of Hirschberg (now Jelenia Góra, Poland), Fellmann grew up in Hamelin, Germany.

Fellmann studied at the University of Münster and the University of Pavia, promoted by the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” (German National Merit Foundation). He graduated from his studies in English and Romance Languages and Literature in 1959. From 1962 to 1965 Fellmann continued his studies in Giessen (Germany). He studied there under his most influential professors: Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Hans Robert Jauss, and Professor of Philosophy Hans Blumenberg. Due to the conflict between Jauss, a former SS-Man, and Blumenberg, who was a victim of persecution by the Nazi Regime, Fellmann sought out to find his own way of thinking. In 1967 Fellmann completed his doctorate in Bochum and in 1973 he finished his postdoctoral lecture qualification (“Habilitation”) in Münster. A representation of his relation to Blumenberg can be found in the Journal Information Philosophie (2008, Issue 3, 49–54).

Fellmann was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Münster in 1980. In 1985, he occupied the position of Guest Professor in Naples (Italy) and translated texts of Giordano Bruno, Giambattista Vico, and Benedetto Croce. Later he moved away from historicism and towards systematic themes. In opposition to the dominance of analytic philosophy at the German universities, Fellmann remained devoted to continental (“alteuropäisch”, old European) philosophical tradition. In 1994 he was appointed “Gründungsprofessor” of philosophy at Chemnitz University of Technology, where he worked on synthesizing idealistic and materialistic forms of thought. His concept of philosophy as practical orientation appears in his book entitled Orientierung Philosophie: was sie kann, was sie will [Orientation Philosophy: What It Can Do, What It is Striving to Achieve], first published in 1998. Several of Fellmann's colleagues opposed the book, calling it destructive to academic tradition. After being emeritus professor in 2005, Fellmann served as a visiting professor in Vienna (Austria) and Trento (Italy). He spent the latter years of his life mainly in Münster. As unconventional thinker, he does not belong to any particular philosophical community. In his homepage he ironically referred to himself as the Accademico di nulla accademia, “Academic of no Academy”.

Fellmann died on 28 October 2019, at the age of 79.

Fellmann's thought developed from the Philosophy of History to Philosophical Anthropology. Man is always in the focus of his interest, but the perspective is always changing from upside down from the idea of history to bottom up from the human world of life. There are four distinguished phases:

Philosophy of history

Fellmann's entrance into academic discussion followed from the publication of his book, Das Vico-Axiom: Der Mensch macht die Geschichte [The Vico-Axiom: The man makes the history] (1976). Contrary to the influential, idealistic conception of history presented in Hegel's philosophy of spirit, Fellmann interprets Giambattista Vico's The New Science in light of cultural anthropology. Thus, man is the only originator of history, however, he cannot govern the course of history with will or consciousness. Fellmann's conception of history was strongly attacked by the Idealists as well as by the Materialists. For the Idealists, his conception of history was too naturalistic, and the Marxists accused his work of being a “spätbürgerlicher” revisionism. Currently, Fellmann interprets philosophy of history formally as the theory of historical consciousness.

Phenomenology and hermeneutics