Ethics

The profile area 'Ethics' represents a core area of our TRA and at the same time, with its high relevance for various already existing projects, such as 'Autonomy and Autonomous Systems', 'Digitalization, Law and Economy', it is an important cross-cutting topic of our other profile areas. The projects in the profile area 'Ethics' address questions concerning e.g. public health or the social consequences of the Corona pandemic. This cross-cutting theme aims to bridge the gap between the life sciences (medicine, philosophy, theology, ethics, law, etc.) and societal contexts (e.g. education, culture, market, politics).

At the heart of this profile area, the Hertz Professorship for 'Life Ethics' was filled in 2021 with Prof. Christiane Woopen, MD. With her research on ethically and legally relevant aspects of societal problems and challenges, which can only be answered by involving various disciplines from the humanities, social sciences and life sciences, Christiane Woopen establishes a link between the different research areas represented in the TRA. For this purpose, the 'Center for Life Ethics¹' was founded, whose research focuses on four systemically interacting dynamics that particularly characterize changes in our time: mechanization, economization, ecologization and globalization of our lives.

The expertise of the profile area 'Ethics' is furthermore complemented by Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe within the framework of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for 'Applied Ethics of Artificial intelligence' since December 2020. Both scientists work closely with each other and with many other members of our TRA on the development and expansion of this profile area.

Projects in the profile area 'Ethics'

Semantizing the future. Agency and integrity in face of "Grand Challenges"

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Andreas Odenthal
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter

Staff
Rasmus Wittekind (WMA)

David Renz (SHK)

Information about the project
The project examines the possibilities of an appropriate perception, description and interpretation of the (crisis-like) experience of world-societal transformation processes (such as the regional and global effects of climate change, increased mobility and migration, digitalization and artificial intelligence, biotechnology, democracy and governmentality) from a theological and religious studies perspective. Already the semantizations of such complexes of phenomena operate with concepts, categories, linguistic images and value patterns that have implications for the imaginary and real space of action for dealing with, shaping and norming such challenges. The project investigates which notions of salvation, agency and integrity are associated with certain semantizations and thus meaning-making processes in future scenarios.

Events

Workshop (10.03.2021): ‚Semantisierung in Zukunftsdiskursen‘²
Workshop (30.11.2021): ‚Zur Agency von Objekten und Personen. Semantisierung(en) und ihre Wirkung(en)‘³
Workshop (01.07.2022): ‚Ist es schon 5 nach 12? Krisen der Zukunftserwartung als Herausforderung für Agency und Integrität‘
Tagung (18.11.2022): ‚The Future is Now. Eine bildungstheoretisch-anthropologische Hermeneutik von Zukunftserwartungen‘
Workshop (09.12.2022): ‚Was hält die Demokratie zusammen? Konzeptionen des (Vor-)Politischen als Antworten auf die motivationalen Herausforderungen demokratischer Ordnungen‘⁴
Jahrestagung (15./16.12.2022)
Workshop (28.-30.06.2023): ‘Political Hope: Technology & Digital Transformation’
Workshop (12.10.2023): ‘Political Hope and Collective Action’
Workshop (02./03.11.2023): ‚Handelnd hoffen oder hoffend handeln? Zum Verhältnis von Ethik und Eschatologie aus exegetisch-neutestamentlicher und systematische Perspektive‘⁵. Further information here⁶.
Workshop (17.11.2023): 'Gemeinschaft - Gemeinwohl - Gemeinsinn'⁷. Further information here⁸.
Workshop (24.-25.11.2023): ‚Ambivalenz, Leistung oder ...? Suchbewegungen und Nachdenken über gesellschaftlich tragfähige Semantisierungen‘ ⁹
Oberseminar (30.11.2023): 'Die Macht der Sprache. Zur performativen Bedeutung von Semantisierungsen in Sinnbildungsprozessen' ¹⁰
The science night (16.05.2024): 'Zukunft. Jetzt und für alle Zeit! Was wir uns wünschen, was wir hoffen und wo unsere Sehnsucht liegt.' ¹¹
Lunch Series "Ethics | AI | Health"¹²
Themenabend "Diskutierma(hl)"¹³

Teaching events

Publications

Daniel Bauer: Impulse von Habermas' Genealogie für die Selbstverortung des christlichen Glaubens in der nachmetaphysischen Moderne. Eine praktisch-theologische Perspektive. In: ThGl 112 (2022), S. 166-181.
Andreas Krebs: Erdverbundenheit. Zur Kritik der gnostischen Struktur in Christentum und Moderne, in: Simone Horstmann, Gregor Taxacher (Hg.), Animate Theologies. Ein (un)mögliches Projekt?, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2022, 73–95.
Cornelia Richter (Hrsg.): The Illusion of the Obvious. On Truth and Reliability in Times of Crisis. Special Issue. JRAT 8, 2022/1, Brill: 2022.
Stefan Walser: Identitätsfindung und Glaubensdynamik. Implikationen für die systematische Theologie, in: Klaus von Stosch / Stefan Walser / Anne Weber (Hg.): Theologie im Übergang. Identität – Digitalisierung – Dialog (Kirche in Zeiten der Veränderung 12) Freiburg i. Br. 2022, 89–113.
Heidrun Mader: Hagar, die beschnittene Sklavin, und Sara, die unbeschnittene Freie: Eine Neuinterpretation der Allegorie in Gal 4,21-31 im Kontext des galatischen Konfliktes, in Korinna Zamfir/Uta Poplutz (ed.), Neutestamentliche Briefliteratur (Die Bibel und die Frauen: Eine exegetisch kulturgeschichtliche Enzyklopädie 2.2), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 2022
Andreas Odenthal/Cornelia Richter (Hrsg.): Semantisierung in Zukunftsdiskursen. Theologische Analysen krisenbezogener Sprachbilder. Herder: 2023.

What Does Theology Do, Actually? Observing Theology and the Transcultural (WDTD)

Project leader
Dr. Matthew Ryan Robinson

Staff
Miriam Dorlaß (SHK)

Saskia Held (SHK)

Jan Thelen (SHK)

Information about the project
The ‘What Does Theology Do, Actually?’-project aims not to do theology, but to observe what theologies do, in and for the communities in which theologies circulate and hold meaning. How is theology understood and practiced as a semantics of global society? What kinds of problems do theologies solve and how? These questions are pursued, moreover, with specific attention given to the “transcultural”.

Events

Conference (09.-10. July, 2021): ‘What Does Theology Do, Actually? Part II – Exegeting Exegesis’²⁹. Further information here³⁰.
Conference (07.-09. July, 2022): 'What Does Theology Do, Actually? Part III - The Unity of the Church and ist Histories'
Conference (May 31 - June 1, 2024): 'What Does Theology Do, Actually? Part IV - On loci and Locations ins Systematic Theology'.³¹ Further information here³² and here³³.
Tagung (17.06.-18.06.2025): 'Power in Practice, from/for Practical-Theological Perspectives '

Publications

Davis, Phillip Andrew, Daniel Lanzinger, and Matthew Ryan Robinson (eds.). What Does Theology Do, Actually? Vol. 2: Exegeting Exegesis. Leipzig: EVA 2023.³⁴

Towards New Demarcation Criteria for Borderline-Consciousness

Project leader
Dr. Charlotte Gauvry

Information about the project

Creation of an interdisciplinary and international research forum to develop new criteria for determining whether and when non-human entities, such as non-linguistic animals, new brain organisms, or advanced AI systems can be considered conscious.

Events

Conference (27./28. September 2023): ‘Detecting Unusual Consciousness: From Brain Organoids to AI Systems’.³⁵ Further information here³⁶.

Teaching events

Publications

U. Peters. 2023. « Unjustified Sample Sizes and Generalizations in Explainable AI Research: Principles for More Inclusive User Studies. IEEE Intelligent Systems (main author; co-authored with Mary Carman)
Charlotte Gauvry & Theodor Rüber, « Extrapolating Consciousness in Isolated Hemispheres. Hemispherotomy as a new challenge », Revue de métaphysique et de morale, Special Issue : « New research on Consciousness », 1 (2024).

Further activities

Click here to go to the project homepage⁴¹.
Call for Abstracts (Frist: 30.06.2023)³⁵

Think Journey: "Futures: Towards where do we want to live?"

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen

Staff:
Dr. Björn Schmitz-Luhn
Johanne Stümpel
Silke Gaertzen
Annika Dörrhöffer (SHK)
Judith Wolters (SHK)
Anna-Yumi Haußmann (SHK)

Information about the project
For the Think Journey, leading experts from different disciplines are invited to present their views on the future and to discuss them with the participants. Students and young scientists are given the opportunity to meet with these experts and go on a "journey of thought". Together, new ideas for an ethically sound design of futures are to be developed and models and approaches to action for coping with the diverse dynamic changes and designing futures of a good, successful life are to be developed. Students and young scientists have the opportunity to network with the experts and to identify further research and development opportunities for their own scientific path.

Events

WiSe 2022/23 (lecture series): ‚DenkReise 22/23: Wohin wollen wir leben?‘⁴² Further information here⁴³.
WiSe 2022/23 (excursion): ‚DenkReise 22/23: Wohin wollen wir leben?‘ ⁴²Further information here⁴³.
SoSe 2023 (Vorlesung/Seminar): DenkReise 2023: Wohin wollen wir leben?.⁴⁴
WiSe 2023/24 (Vorlesung/Seminar): ‚DenkReise 22/23: Wohin wollen wir leben?‘ ⁴⁵Further information here⁴⁶.
SoSe 2024 (seminar): ‚DenkReise: Wohin wollen wir leben?‘ ⁴⁷Further information here⁴⁸.
WiSe 2024/25 (seminar): ‚DenkReise: Wohin wollen wir leben?‘⁴⁹ Further information here⁵⁰.

Finance and Inequality

Project leader

Prof. Dr. Casten Burhop

Prof. Dr. Christian Bayer

Information about the project

Essentially, all income flows in the economy and all financial transactions linked to the acquisition and sale of assets are channeled through the financial sector. Shifts in the distribution of income and wealth correspond to shifts in financial activities. Thus, banks translate changes in the income distribution into a new allocation of wealth and capital in the economy. But the financial sector itself also shapes the evolution of income and wealth inequality: compensation trends in the financial sector contribute to income inequality and new financial products can accentuate differences in rates of return between rich and poor households. Yet finance can also help to reduce wealth inequality. For instance, capital gains from debt-financed home-ownership have been a key driver for middle-class wealth accumulation. Despite these close links between finance and inequality, financial historians, financial economists and macroeconomists have long ignored the intricate connections between both fields of inquiry. The proposed Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) aims to study the nexus between finance and inequality from a long-run historical and internationally comparative perspective. This is of particular interest at the current juncture where two prominent secular trends have characterized advanced economies in the past decades. First, in many countries income and wealth inequalities have risen substantially, reaching levels last seen in the 19th century. Second, over the last decades the size of the financial sector expanded significantly, household and public debt has grown to record levels, and the structure of financial intermediation has changed – a process that has been described as “financialization” of the economy and as a shift from managerial to investor capitalism. From a historical perspective, this concurrence of transformational changes in financial markets and shifts in the distribution of income and wealth recalls similar debates at the beginning of the 20th century when a transformation from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism was underway – back then the debate was framed with reference to terms like “Finanzkapitalismus” (in Germany) or “money trusts” (in the US). In the proposed CAS, we will study how fundamental changes in the distribution of resources in the economy have affected the development of the financial sector, shaped the patterns of financial intermediation and household finance, and influenced the business of banking over time. We will also ask if and how the financial sector contributed to rising and falling inequalities of income and wealth since the 19th century. Bringing together scholars of financial history, macroeconomics, and finance, the CAS will enhance our understanding of how financial markets have shaped and responded to secular trends in inequality, and inform the important scholarly and public debate about inequality.

Pluriversal Dialogues on Environmental Ethics: Decolonising Scientific Practice for Futures Beyond "Development"

Project leader

Jan Linhart

Information about the project

As part of a long term strategy for decolonising and opening the current science system towards a pluriverse of perspectives on global challenges, this joined project brings together a transdisciplinary group of experts from Latin America and Germany for engaging during one week in pluriversal dialogues on environmental ethics and education for futures beyond "development". A series of workshops will provide space for experimenting with pluriversal practices and methodologies from intercultural and environmental research and education, analysing them form different cultural, social, historical and geopolitical perspectives, providing important insights concerning the potential, viability and challenges of mobilizing diverging perspectives for co-creating social and ecologically sustainable solutions.

Events

Workshop (May 21-24, 2024): Pluriversal Dialogues on Environmental Ethics: Decolonising Scientific Practice for Futures Beyond ‘Development’⁵¹

Further activities

For further information click here⁵²
This is a joint project with the Global heritage Lab⁵³ of TRA Present Pasts⁵⁴

Winter Institute

Project leader

Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel

Jan Voosholz

Prof. Dr. Takahiro Nakajima (University of Tokyo)

Prof. Dr. Paul Pickering (Australian National)

Prof. Dr. Xudong Zhang (New York University)

Information about the project

The Winter Institute is an annual collaboration between Australian National University, New York University, the University of Tokyo and the University of Bonn to discuss a broad topic in an interdisciplinary setting. The program involves keynote lectures, faculty papers and graduate student presentations including cross-disciplinary questioning. The Winter Institute also includes social and networking events for delegates.

Events

Winter Institute (07.-10. January 2025): "Techne and Human Sciences in the 21st Century"

Closed projects in the profile area 'Ethics'

History of Natural Law in Scottish Enlightenment

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Mathias Schmoeckel
Prof. Dr. Martin Keßler

Staff
Ji Chen (SHK)

Sophie von Depka-Prondzuynski (SHK)

Information about the project
In the Age of Enlightenment, natural and human rights were not only called for programmatically, but also proclaimed politically - as in Virginia in 1776. Civil rights do become parts of institutions. As universal as the legal claims as such are, the circumstances that led to their very implementation are just as diverse. The project investigates decisive moments and developments that added in various counties and ages to the political establishment of fundamental rights.

Events

Workshop (28.04.2023-30.04.2023): 'Natural law and the Definition of Good Order'

Teaching Events

Further information

Interview (video) with Prof. Dr. Martin Keßler on 'international collaboration in our TRA' (10/22)⁵⁷

The Illusion of the Obvious. On Truth and Reliability in Times of Crisis

Project leader
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter

Staff

Torben Alles

Information about the project
Further information will follow

Events

Meeting (13./14.11.2020): Die Illusion des Selbstverständlichen. Rhetorik und Pragmatik des strategischen Umgangs mit Wahrheit und Verlässlichkeit in politisch und sozial krisenhaften Zeiten⁵⁸

Teaching events

SoSe 2019 (seminar): Systematik auf der Insel. Einführung in die Religionsphilosophie. Thema: Hans Georg Gadamer, Wahrheit und Methode ⁵⁹

Publications

Cornelia Richter (Hrsg.): The Illusion of the Obvious. On Truth and Reliability in Times of Crisis. Special Issue in: JRAT, Brill: Wien, 2022 (zit. als JRAT 8, 2022/1)⁶⁰.
Cornelia Richter: Als-ob-nicht: ὡς μὴ – Fiktion mit performativem Wirklichkeitswert, in: Markus Firchow/Michael Moxter (Hgg.): Vernunft – Fiktion – Glaube, (MThSt 134) EVA: Leipzig, 2020, 95-109.
Cornelia Richter: Wahrheit, die sich einstellt. Skizzierung einer Hermeneutik der Performanz, in: Daniel Tobias Bauer/Thomas Klie/Martina Kumlehn/Andreas Obermann (Hgg.): Von semiotischen Bühnen und religiöser Vergewisserung. Religiöse Kommunikation und ihre Wahrheitsbedingungen. FS für Michael Meyer-Blanck, de Gruyter: Berlin/Boston, 2020, 27-41⁶¹.
Cornelia Richter: Wahrheit und Relevanz in Religionswissenschaft und Theologie, in: Christian Albrecht/Peter Gemeinhardt (Hgg.): Themen und Probleme Theologischer Enzyklopädie. Perspektiven von außen und von innen, Mohr Siebeck: Tübingen, 2021, 199-203.
Cornelia Richter: Missverstehen und „nicht verstehen“. Mehr als eine kognitive Unterscheidung, in: Michael Nathan Goldberg/Andreas Mauz/Christiane Tietz (Hgg.): Missverstehen. Zu einer Urszene der Hermeneutik, (Hermeneutik und Interpretationstheorie 4) Brill Schöningh: Paderborn, 2023, 167-181⁶².
Cornelia Richter: Der Mensch als sinnsuchendes Wesen. Schleiermachers Anthropologie und Cassirers Essay on Man in aktuellen interdisziplinären Diskursen, in: Holden Kelm/Dorothea Meier (Hgg.): Der Mensch und die Kunst bei Friedrich Schleiermacher. Beiträge zur Anthropologie und Ästhetik, de Gruyter: Berlin/Boston, 2023, 79-96⁶³.

Further information

Call for Papers⁶⁴ (Deadline: 31.07.2020)
- 1st place: Dr. Martin Breuel (Köln): „Lüge, Bullshit, Propaganda? ‚Postfaktische Politik‘ und das Rationalitätspotential der Demokratie‘“
- 2nd place: Florian Buchmayer (Bremen): „Das Gerede vom Postfaktischen als diskursive Wende“
- 3rd place: Eytan Celik (Bayreuth): „Fake News als Bedrohung für die moderne Gesellschaft – eine kantische Perspektive“
Prize Question⁶⁵ 2020-2022 (Deadline: 31.12.2021): What is truth under the conditions of digitalization? An epistemological question in conversation with hermeneutics, philosophy
of religion and sociocultural phenomenology
- Award winner: Dr. Matteo Belgrano (Philosophie, UCA/CONICET)