Als Ob
Als Ob
(Ger. as if) Fictional; hypothetical; postulated; pragmatic. The term was given currency by Hans Vaihinger’s Die Philosophic des Als Ob (1911), which developed the thesis that our knowledge rests on a network of artfully contrived fictions which are not verifiable but pragmatically justifiable. While such fictions, employed in all fields of human knowledge and endeavor, deliberately falsify or circumvent the stream of immediate impressions, they greatly enhance reality. — O.F.K.