Georg Brun Philosophy
Georg Brun Philosophy
University of Bern; funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; funded by the German Research Foundation
Lead: Prof Dr.Dr. Claus Beisbart, Prof. Dr. Gregor Betz.
University of Bern; funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation
Lead: Prof Dr.Dr. Claus Beisbart. Case-study: Tanja Rechnitzer
ETH Zurich and Research Priority Program for Ethics, University of Zurich
In non-philosophical discourse, “identity” is often used in descriptions or evaluations of the specific character of non-personal objects. In contrast to identity as numerical identity, essence, persistence over time and the self-concept of a person, this notion has been neglected in philosophy although it is commonly used in everyday discourse as well as in, for example, aesthetic criticism and in consumer research. Buildings are said to contribute to a positive identity of a city, the Barcelona chair is claimed to have a distinctive identity, many people consider themselves to be attached to the specific identity of a certain landscape and corporate identity is an issue in many firms and organizations. As a first task, we clarify and delineate this notion of identity. We propose an explication which draws on the symbol-theory of Goodman and Elgin. This not only constitutes a further development of this symbol-theory but also calls for investigating the relation of identity to the basic notions of reference and exemplification, as well as to other aesthetic notions such as style. On this basis, we investigate in what sense an object can have multiple and even conflicting identities, and how identities can be evaluated. Our analysis is extensively illustrated with examples (especially, buildings, design objects and everyday objects).
The three projects address problems of choosing policies in the context of sustainable development. Choices among policy options are typically justified with reference to an evaluative ordering of these options. Evaluations of policies with respect to sustainability, however, run into difficulties because sustainability is a complex value that encompasses a broad range of often conflicting ecological, economic and social values. This calls for integrating conflicting values in a way that respects the basic idea of sustainability. In a first step, we analyse which conditions of adequacy the concept of sustainability places on methods for integrating diverse evaluations. Secondly, we analyse the potential and limits of using cost-benefit-analysis, of resorting to parity as a fourth value relation, and of methods of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). The results are applied in studies on economic valuation methods of forest externalities and in an analysis of uncertainties which arise in assessing methane mitigation policies relating to ruminants.
The project studies methods of analysing arguments and texts, especially with a view to their practical applicability and effectiveness for teaching skills in text analysis and critical thinking. We focus on techniques from philosophy and the humanities that are useful for philosophers as well as for scientists and engineers in a wide variety of contexts. How can formal logic, theory of argumentation, theories of definition and accounts of metaphor be put to use as general techniques for analysing texts and arguments?
In cognitive science and ethics, the emotions have been of central interest during the last decade. Some philosophers have argued that emotions can not only distort cognition but also motivate inquiry, determine relevance and provide access to facts, beliefs, norms and non-propositional aspects of knowledge. On this background, the project investigates possible roles emotions have been claimed to play in epistemology. While it is certainly not true that emotions invariably thwart our epistemic endeavours, it is less clear whether this calls for redesigning epistemology or just for more careful study of their contributions to knowledge.
As the theory of valid arguments, logic is of crucial significance for philosophy. It is also an important tool for analysing reasoning and argumentative text. However, the formal theories of logic are only relevant to arguments if they are supplemented by theories about the relationship between real arguments and logical formulas. The project develops a theory of formalization and investigates its philosophical implications and underpinnings. Specifically, the project aims at elucidating principles of formalization that are implicitly operative in standard practice of elementary first-order logic, and to investigate how they are related to various, for example, semantic or proof-theoretic conceptions of logic.