Background
Geiger, Moritz was born on June 26, 1880 in Frankfurt.
philosopher university professor
Geiger, Moritz was born on June 26, 1880 in Frankfurt.
Moritz Geiger studied law at Munich in 1898, then history of literature in 1899, and finally philosophy and psychology in 1900, with Theodor Lipps. During the years 1901-1902, he studied experimental psychology with Wilhelm Wundt at Leipzig.
Returning to Munich in 1904, he became part of the circle of students around Lipps, which included Alexander Pfänder, Adolf Reinach, Theodor Conrad, Aloys Fischer, Max Scheler, and Dietrich von Hildebrand. He passed his thesis in 1907. Along with this Husserlian circle (including Max Scheler), he published the review Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung.
In 1915, he became a teacher at Munich and, after World War I, at Göttingen (1923).
When the Nazis had him dismissed from his chair because of his Jewish ancestry in 1933, he emigrated to the United States, teaching at Vassar College in New York and at Stanford University.
Although Geiger produced some interesting reflections on the nature and limitations of phenomenology and on the relationship between science and metaphysics it is principally for his applied phenomenology that he is remembered. In his phenomenological studies Geiger is concerned both with the objects of intentional experiences and with the experiences themselves. But in his most celebrated study the principal emphasis is on the experience. By means of a method which is neither inductive nor deductive but intuitive he seeks to lay bare the essence of aesthetic enjoyment. He first determines the essential features of enjoyment in general, distinguishing it from simple pleasure, being pleased, joy. evaluation, etc. He then asks what distinguishes aesthetic enjoyment from other sorts of enjoyment. His answer, in hopelessly condensed form, is that it is enjoyment in the disinterested contemplation of the intuitive richness of the object.