Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 25, Issue 4, 2015

Gestalt as Structure Principles in Science, Art and Language

Gestalt Theory and Classical 20th-Century Philosophical Anthropology. Initial Analyses and Questions

In his paper the author reconstructs the categorial relations between Gestalt psychology and theory and classical 20th-century philosophical anthropology (Max Scheler, Helmuth Plessner). In the first part, entitled Inspirations, it is analysed how the views of a key 20th-century Gestalt theorist Wolfgang Köhler influenced Scheler, the author of The Human Place in the Cosmos. In part two, Parallels, the author investigates the categorial similarities between Plessner’s anthropology of laughter and contemporary comicality conceptions based on Gestalt psychology (Hellmuth Metz-Göckel).