Hans Albert was born on 8 February 1921 in Cologne. He was the son of a teacher for Latin and History and studied Business Administration at the University of Cologne, where he earned his doctorate with sociological works that were critical of economics and later earned his habilitation in social policy.
From 1963 until 1989 – more than a quarter of a century of his professional life, Albert held the chair of Sociology and Epistemology at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Mannheim.
Hans Albert is a pioneer and representative of critical rationalism, a scientific philosophy in which theories are tested critically and empirically in order to get closer to the truth. He is on a par with Max Weber and Karl Popper and one of the most renowned philosophers of science, both in Germany and internationally.
During this time, he published his standard work “Traktat über kritische Vernunft” on the theory of knowledge and science and participated in the positivism dispute in which he took a stand together with Karl Popper against Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas.
For his academic work, Hans Albert has received honorary doctorates of the universities of Linz, Athens, Kassel, Graz and Klagenfurt. In 2008, he also received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse).
The University of Mannheim and the School of Social Sciences will honor the memory of Professor Hans Albert. We send our deepest sympathy to his family.