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  • Auf den Spuren Bernard Bolzanos: Essays by Peter Demetz
  • Katherine Arens
Peter Demetz, Auf den Spuren Bernard Bolzanos: Essays. Arco Wissenschaft 24. Wuppertal: Arco Verlag, 2013. 77 pp.

This slight but delightful volume unites three essays previously printed in widely scattered and hard-to-find sources with one original essay to introduce [End Page 140] Bernard Bolzano (1781–1848), a Bohemian intellectual born in Prague. Bolzano is generally considered the founder of modern logic, and he is best known for his 1837 Wissenschaftslehre (theory of science) in four volumes, covering philosophy of science in the modern sense, logic, epistemology, and the pedagogy of science. His work in mathematical logic remains relevant today, and for those who believe in the existence of a tradition of Austrian philosophy, Bolzano remains at the top of the list in significance for the founding generation.

After coming to the Charles University in Prague in 1796 to study mathematics, philosophy, and physics, Bolzano turned to theology at the turn of the century. He completed his degree and took his orders in 1804; the next following year, he was appointed to a new chair in the Philosophy of Religion. Despite being elected Dean of the Philosophical Faculty in 1818, he ran afoul of the powers that be because he was a pacifist and because his teachings purportedly incited students to revolution. In 1819, he was accused of teachings contrary to the Church, removed from all official duties, and forbidden to publish for over a decade.

Demetz presents facets of Bolzano’s life and work that fall outside this familiar narrative. The first chapter describes the village that Bolzano chose as one of his sites of banishment after he was relieved of his duties: Tečhobuz, 70 kilometers south of Prague, where he lived on and off for the better part of twenty years on the estate of the owner of a glass factory. Here he was treated like family by the estate’s mistress, Anna Hoffmann. In an essay reprinted from the Stifter-Jahrbuch (2010), Demetz reconstructs this touching story of chaste devotion and academic labor in which a philosophical genius finds a discussion partner in Anna, who remains his interlocutor until her death. Today, the house in which he lived is the site of a modest museum dedicated to the philosopher, and Demetz takes the reader on a tour.

The second chapter addresses Bolzano’s nationalism by presenting his political biography. Demetz starts with a Latin Libussa poem in celebration of the mythical founder of the Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty that Bolzano wrote as a student (a patriotic piece that Demetz reproduces, both in the original text and in a German translation by the logician Robert Zimmermann, taken from the edition of Bolzano’s works now in progress). Again, this readable, charming essay introduces the Bohemian social politics of the era and the background of the philosopher’s career. The patroness of the nation leads the way past the abuses of politicians.

The third chapter (a reprint from Transit: Europäische Revue, 2001) discusses [End Page 141] Bolzano’s philosophy of language and his debates with the philosopher Jan Patočka and the Slavophile Josef Jungmann. Here, Bolzano’s part in language debates is represented in three 1816 essays, “Über das Verhältnis der beiden Volksstämme in Böhmen,” used to introduce the Bohemian state’s ethnic politics, critiquing especially the German-speaking Bohemians who resisted the emergence of Czech as part of national culture.

Finally, Demetz takes up Bolzano’s essays on the relations between Christians and Jews in an essay reprinted from a 2010 proceedings volume. Bolzano argued against anti-Semitism in all of its forms, showing how Christians were responsible for anti-Semitism in their historical treatment of Jewish populations. At the same time, Demetz notes that although Bolzano underestimated the role of German-Jewish intellectuals in his era, he is nonetheless a staunch supporter of political and social integration and equality under the law.

Peter Demetz has given us a book that one can read with pleasure on a rainy afternoon, yet still bring back into the office to explore the landscape of a Habsburg intellectual who all too...

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