Joseph Agassi

Joseph Agassi, 2007

Joseph Agassi (born in Jerusalem on May 7, 1927) is an Israeli academic with contributions in logic, scientific method, and philosophy. He studied under Karl Popper and taught at the London School of Economics. He later taught at the University of Hong Kong, the University of Illinois, Boston University, and York University in Canada. He had dual appointments in the last positions with Tel Aviv University.

He has been married to Judith Buber Agassi – Martin Buber's granddaughter – since 1949. Together they had two children, Aaron, and Tirzah, who died of cancer in March 2008. They currently live in Herzliya, Israel. Tirzah´s name, when she was a child, was often used by Popper in his dictum "Write it for Tirzah!" to explain his view that everyone has the duty to write in a clearly and easily understandable language.

Philosophy

Agassi’s prime interest is in science, metaphysics, and politics. He takes it that philosophy is nothing if not rationalist. For over fifty years he studied the rationality of science, metaphysics, and democratic politics.

An advocate of Popper’s philosophy with variations, Agassi ignores many of the problems that concern some philosophers of science, chiefly that of theory choice. The problems of the philosophy of technology engage him, including the problem of choosing scientific theories and ideas worthy of application and implementation.

Political philosophy

Agassi suggests, in line with Popper’s political philosophy, that all schools of thought have thus far neglected the one major practical problem of ethics, namely moral brakes: when should one apply them? We know this much: the more decent people are, the sooner they are ready to put their brakes on. For example, Agassi observes that the German nation lost its moral brakes as soon as its Nazi rulers showed their hand.

According to Agassi, democracy is so outstanding that, no matter what the agenda is, it is still best. He developed further the methodology of critical rationalism which he adopted from Popper. According to him, critical rationalism gives the possibility to rationalists to account for checks and balances and democracy within their rationalism. Bootstrapping is the expression he coined for the approach to problems with the methodology of critical rationalism: Solutions are offered and then improved upon according to the results obtained as a never ending process. He acknowledges that even democracy is not immune to errors, and that it may even lead to its own destruction as it happened in 1933 in Germany. Nevertheless, says Agassi, democracy has a fair chance for success; in particular, in global politics due to its quick recovery procedure for confronting mistakes that find their way into the agenda of democratic institutions.

Global politics

Agassi has written widely on global politics and on the methodology to implement global politics. His methodology is consistently procedural, without having requests for systematic procedures. His demands from those that design global politics are minimalist: small methodological changes may lead to large scale achievements. Agassi also proposes to bring global problems to public agendas for discussions in different forums, in particular in workshops where discussions are held with an agreed upon agenda: the agenda, says Agassi should be discussed and set by the participants prior to the discussion.

Books in English

Books in Hebrew

1. Letters to My Sister Concerning Contemporary Philosophy, Omer: Sarah Batz, 1976 1977. New enlarged edition, Tel-Aviv, Yedioth Aharonoth Books and Chemed Books, 2000.

2. (with Dov Rappel) Philosophy of Education: A Philosophical Dialogue, Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1979.

3. Between Faith and Nationality: Towards an Israeli National Identity, Tel-Aviv: Papirus, Tel-Aviv University, 1984. Second Edition, Revised and enlarged, 1993. English translation, 1999.

4. (with Moshe Berent, and Judith Buber Agassi), Israeli National Awareness, Discussion Paper No. 11–88, 1988. Sapir Center for Development, Tel-Aviv University.

5. Albert Einstein: Unity and Diversity, Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1989, 1994, and 2000.

6. The Philosophy of Technology, Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1990.

7. J. A., Judith Buber Agassi and Moshe Berent, Who is an Israeli? Rehovot: Kivunim, 1991. A variant of the Discussion Paper.

8. The History of Modern Philosophy from Bacon to Kant (1600–1800): An Introduction. Tel-Aviv: Ramot, Tel-Aviv University, 1993 and reprints.

9. An Introduction to Modern Philosophy, Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1996.

10. (With Yeshayahu Leibowitz) Chemi Ben-Noon, editor, Conversations Concerning the hilosophy of Science, Israeli Ministry of Defense, 1996.

11. (With Yeshayahu Leibowitz) Chemi Ben-Noon, editor, The Limits of Reason: Thought, Science and Religion; Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Joseph Agassi in Conversation, Jerusalem: Keter, 1997.

Books in Italian

1. Scienza, metodolgia e societá, edited by Michael Segre, Roma: Luiss Edizioni, 2000. 186 pp.

2. Michael Segre, Accademia e società, Conversazioni con Joseph Agassi, Rubbatino Editore, 2004, 129 pages.

3. Joseph Agassi, La filosofia e l’individuo – Come un filosofo della scienza vede la vita, Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2005

Books edited

1. Psychiatric Diagnosis: Proceedings of an International Interdisciplinary Interschool Symposium, Bielefeld Universität, 1978, Philadelphia: Balaban Intl. Science Service, 1981. 184 pp.

2. (With Robert S. Cohen), Scientific Philosophy Today: Essays in Honor of Mario Bunge, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 67, 1982. 503 pp.

3. (With I. C. Jarvie), Rationality: The Critical View, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1987. xi+462 pp.

4. Hebrew Translation of Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, Jerusalem, Shalem Publications, forthcoming, 2005.

Online papers

External links

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