On 24 October 2023, our honorary member Hans Albert passed away at the age of 102. From 1963 to 1989, Hans Albert held the Chair of Sociology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Mannheim.
He is regarded as one of the outstanding representatives of critical rationalism, which rejects in particular any form of infallibility, dogmatism, and the claim to ultimate justifications. The Münchhausen trilemma that he formulated illustrates this stance impressively: it shows that a conclusive justification of our knowledge is impossible, since we would either lose ourselves in endless justifications, resort to circular arguments, or cling dogmatically to unfounded assumptions.
On the occasion of Hans Albert’s 100th birthday, Rainer Hegselmann wrote an extensive appreciation of the life and work of this great philosopher and sociologist, to which we link again here.