Kurt Goldstein--a philosophical scientist

Abstract

Kurt Goldstein was one of the major proponents of the holistic movement which was opposed to the classical connectionist Wernicke-Lichtheim-Model in aphasiology at the beginning of the 20th century. Influenced by Kant, Husserl and Cassirer, his work goes beyond purely empirical research and approaches traditionally philosophical questions: How can we proceed from empirical data to a theory adequately reflecting reality? How can we understand man as mind and body? What is the relation between language and cognition? Goldstein's concepts of biological knowledge, self-actualization and abstract attitude seek to address these questions. His work thus becomes attractive for philosophers. It was taken up and interpreted by Cassirer, Merleau-Ponty and Gurwitsch.