13 Facts About Stephan Witasek

Stephan Witasek was an Austrian philosopher noted for his contribution to the development of the Graz School.

Stephan Witasek is cited as the most talented psychologist of the school and was groomed as Alexius Meinong's successor.

Stephan Witasek was born on May 17,1870, in Vienna, Austria to Wenzel Johann Stephan Witasek and his wife Emilie nee Egery.

Stephan Witasek's father was a chief railway inspector while his mother, the second wife of Wenzel, was a daughter of a Hungarian civil servant.

Stephan Witasek obtained a degree in philosophy at the University of Graz after completing his study on complexion theory.

Stephan Witasek became a scholar, a career, which Rudolf Ameseder described as a meager life marked by hard work, poverty, and belated recognition.

Although, he was known for serving as Meinong's private assistant for a decade on Austria's first psychological laboratory, Stephan Witasek would be credited for directing the facility's development only after his death.

Stephan Witasek married Alice Makowiczka in 1903 and they had two children, Alice and Georg.

Stephan Witasek died in 1915 and this contributed to the disintegration of the Graz School.

Stephan Witasek is considered one of the most important representatives of the psychology of aesthetics alongside Theodor Lipps and Johannes Volkelt.

Stephan Witasek contributed to Meinong's work on complexion theory, particularly in the systematic knowledge of complexions.

One of the notable theories that Stephan Witasek pushed forward was his claim that pre-existing sensational elements create psychological products in the form of different perceptual configurations.

Stephan Witasek explored this idea further in collaboration with the Austrian-Italian psychologist, Vittorio Benussi, and the Austrian philosopher and psychologist, Alois Hofler.