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VAIHINGER, HANS (1852-1933), The Philosophy of 'As If': A System of the Theoretical, Practical, Religious, Fictions of Mankind. Trnslated by C.K. Ogden.
London: Kegan. paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, [1924]. First Edition in English. 8vo. xlviii, 370, [2] pp. Green cloth. Very Good. Signed by Ashley Montagu. ¶ "He was a German philosopher, best known as a Kant scholar and for his Philosophie des Als Ob (Philosophy of "As If", 1911. In Philosophie des Als Ob, he argued that human beings can never really know the underlying reality of the world, and that as a result we construct systems of thought and then assume that these match reality: we behave "as if" the world matches our models. In particular, he used examples from the physical sciences, such as protons, electrons, and electromagnetic waves. None of these phenomena have been observed directly, but science pretends that they exist, and uses observations made on these assumptions to create new and better constructs. This philosophy, though, is wider than just science. One can never be sure that the world will still exist tomorrow, but we usually assume that it does. Alfred Adler, the founder of Individual Psychology, was profoundly influenced by Vaihinger's theory of fictions, incorporating the idea of psychological fictions into his personality construct of a fictional final goal."
Offered for US$ 300.00 by: James Cummins Bookseller - Book number: 231272