The Helmuth Plessner Society understands itself as a forum for the newly awaken diversity of interests in Plessner’s thought, work and life and in philosophical anthropology in general. It would like to support the application of Plessner’s thought for interdisciplinary research and to support the wide public dissemination of his ideas. The society offers conceptual, organizational and to a limited extent financial support for scientific research in connection with Plessner’s work. Moreover, the society understands itself as the first scientific society systematically to promote philosophical anthropology as a discipline in its own right, that is, as a discipline that studies the highly complex interconnections between biological, cultural and social anthropology. In this sense, the society renews what Plessner himself had achieved in his own time.
The Helmuth Plessner Society is associated with the Helmuth Plessner Archives and the Helmuth Plessner Funds. The archive at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen comprises all of Plessner’s unpublished scientific work, which has only been in part made available for research. After a generous initial donation the Helmuth Plessner Fund is available to finance research at the archive. Contributions to the fund are welcome. Applications for support will be examined by the President of the Society in consultation with the administrative committee.
The Helmuth Plessner Society supports research on the work of Helmuth Plessner and seeks to establish contact among its members. The Society will publish a newsletter once a year. Currently, three activities stand at the center of concern to the Society. First, it is our intention to supplement the collected works (Suhrkamp Verlag) with missing additional texts that are difficult to obtain. Second, it is our intention to endeavor to make internationally accessible through translations Plessner’s works, especially the ‘Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch (Levels of Organic Being and Man)’. And finally, the Society plans symposium and congresses so as to bring together academic researchers on Plessner and philosophical anthropology who up till now have been working in isolation.
The Helmuth Plessner Society is an independent non-profit organization. New members are welcome. Annual fee: EUR 52,-; reduced: EUR 25,-. The presiding comitte decides on applications for reduced fee.
