Hans Blumenberg is often considered an intellectual solitaire, an "invisible philosopher" and a modern hieronym in the hermitage. But for Blumenberg's scientific work of the 1960s, the picture is very different. Julia Amslinger introduces Hans Blumenberg's interdisciplinary engagement within the research group Poetics and Hermeneutics that was founded in 1963.
The following essay is composed of two parts: chapter I tries to trace the main intention for Hans Blumenberg's "Theorie der Unbegrifflichkeit", which was developed between 1960 and 1980, and wants to integrate it into the transdisciplinary paradigm of the 'prelogical' or 'savage thought' since 1900. Chapter II describes Blumenberg's speculative approach to the hypothetical 'primal scene' of anthropogenesis by linking anthropology and aesthetics.
The aim of the paper is to present and demonstrate examples and comparisons of Blumenberg's use of variations as a method of exploring and interpreting the history of philosophy. Using unpublished archive material, the text will present Blumenberg's reflection on variations in music, further specifying the concept of variation, the relationship of experiment and variation by Ernst Mach, whose work Blumenberg followed. Finally, the text presents Marquard's reflection of Blumenberg's variation on the Thales theme.
The paper presents and discusses two previously unanalyzed biographical stories from Blumenberg's life that took place between Münster and Munich. The first one discusses the unsuccessful efforts of E. Grassi in the early 1970s to appoint Blumenberg to a professorship at the University of Munich. The second analyzes the cooperation between H. Blumenberg and M. Krüger, who published the magazine Akzente, where Blumenberg published 17 texts. The study draws on archival materials contained in the estate of H. Blumenberg and E. Grassi in Marbach and also takes into account correspondence between Blumenberg and M. Krüger.