Christian Bermes

Christian Bermes (born September 3, 1968 in Trier ) is professor of philosophy at the University of Koblenz-Landau .

In his work he deals with questions and problems of ethics , philosophical anthropology , epistemology , philosophy of language and philosophy of culture . The historical works include the philosophy of the modern age, the philosophy and the history of science of the 19th century as well as the philosophy of the 20th century with special consideration of Edmund Husserl , Maurice Merleau-Ponty , Ernst Cassirer , Gottlob Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein .

Career

After graduating from high school at Hindenburg-Gymnasium Trier and studying philosophy, political science and history in Trier and Madrid, Bermes received his doctorate in 1996 with a thesis on the philosophical theories of meaning in phenomenology and analytical philosophy. In 2001 the habilitation followed with an investigation into the development of the philosophical concept of the world from the modern age to the 20th century. From 2006 to 2007 he represented the chair for philosophy at the Technical University of Chemnitz . From 2002 to 2008 he worked as a university lecturer for philosophy, then as an academic advisor at the University of Trier. There he directed a. a. the Philosophical Research Institute for Media and Culture. In 2009 he was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the University of Koblenz-Landau (Landau campus). From 2013 to 2018 he was a member of the Senate of the University of Koblenz-Landau, from 2011 to 2015 as Vice Dean, then from 2015 to 2018 as Dean of Faculty 5. Since 2019 he has been a member of the University Council of the University of Koblenz-Landau.

Research priorities

Philosophical anthropology with a view to a foundation of ethics and with regard to the analysis of a normative concept of life. Theory and function of values ​​in philosophy of the 19th and 20th centuries. History and systematics of phenomenology and analytical philosophy with regard to a theory of meaning. Requirements of the life sciences in the context of biology and medicine. Basics of cultural philosophy and its historical development in the 20th century. Change in the culture of language and debate in view of the development of digital communication media and populist tendencies in politics. Develop a theory of well-founded opinion.

Research projects

In 2019 the research project “What can opinions (still) mean? A defense of opinion in times of uncertainty of opinion? ”Included in the“ Suspicion of originality ”funding line of the Volkswagen Foundation. Against the background of changing communication possibilities and with a view to the constitution of modern societies, the research project asks which conditions must be met in order to understand an expression as an expression of opinion. The project thus takes up the current concern about what opinions can still mean for human orientation in view of the uncertainties caused by technical, social and political developments. The aim of the research project is to develop the independence of the concept of opinion in order to develop a theory of well-founded opinion.

Since 2019, Bermes has headed the international research group “Phenomenological Perspectives: Philosophical Anthropology and Cultural Philosophy”. Two research teams from Germany and China work together on current phenomenology issues with a view to the respective philosophical tradition in Europe and China. In addition to the University of Koblenz-Landau, the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou are involved in the project, which is supported by the DFG . In the research cooperation, the processing of early phenomenology is also advanced in order to open it up for the Chinese cultural area.

In the context of the discussions about changes in communication in public and political space, the study “Change in the culture of language and debate. Commitment - Articulation - Opinion. ”The study will be presented and discussed as part of the focus of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Berlin. The study provides an overview of current discussions in the social and cultural sciences on the topic and marks the framework conditions for political communication and the establishment of the public in a liberal democratic order with the titles “Commitment”, “Articulation” and “Opinion”. The study concludes with a systematic discussion of populism in which the function of political representation and the tendency to switch off political representation are addressed.

Since 2014 he has been the spokesman for the research consortium "Cultural Orientation and Normative Binding." The interdisciplinary research focus is thematically divided into three clusters, which in turn are related to each other in terms of content. Cultural practice, embodiment and language form the overarching subject areas of the clusters, in which the ambiguity of given and normativity of cultural facts is discussed using various examples. The research focus is anchored internationally through scientific collaborations, in it numerous research projects are developed and carried out, it is also dedicated to the promotion of young researchers and offers space for scientific cooperation with guest scientists.

Since 2011, Bermes has been the spokesperson for the graduate school “The Challenge of Life”. Doctoral students and post-docs from Argentina, China, Croatia, Italy and Germany are currently working in the graduate school on systematic problems in the life sciences, philosophical anthropology, phenomenology and the philosophy of language. The research work is accompanied by events in the form of workshops, conferences and colleges. The title “Challenge Life” is linked to the fundamental question of the purpose, function and understanding of the life phenomenon in its various dimensions, which has now become questionable as a unit. As a fact, life is the subject of interventions of various kinds, ranging from medicine to justice; at the same time, however, life in the sense of a principle denotes the basis of normative judgments that guide and limit action. Against the background of an integrative understanding of this double aspect, categories are developed in the research projects that systematically reflect the ambiguity of “life” as a principle and fact and thus contribute to the formation of theories in the life sciences and philosophical anthropology.

Bermes has led and carried out numerous other research projects in recent years. These include a. the DFG projects “Max Scheler: Formalism in Ethics”, “Max Scheler: Essence and Forms of Sympathy”, the DFG Villa Vigoni project “Cultural Expression and Human Nature”, the Thyssen Foundation project “Human dispute” and the research project “Protest and Cultural Criticism”, which is supported by the Franco-German University with binational doctoral workshops. The topic of protest movements in the focus of political theory and cultural philosophy is also processed and discussed in the trinational research group (France, Luxembourg and Germany) "Forms of civil and political representation".

Further functions in science and research

• 2013–2015 president, from 2015–2018 vice president, then member of the advisory board of the “ German Society for Phenomenological Research ”.
• 2006–2013 Vice President of the Max Scheler Society.
• Since 2005 editor of the archive for conceptual history
• From 2020, together with Ralf Becker and Dirk Westerkamp, ​​editor of the magazine for cultural philosophy .
• 2017 Appointment to the editorial board of the book series Studies on Phenomenology and Practical Philosophy .

Publications

Fonts

• Philosophy of meaning. Meaning as determination and determinability. A study on Frege, Husserl, Cassirer and Hönigwald. Würzburg 1997. ISBN 3-8260-1284-4 .
• World as a theme of philosophy from the metaphysical to the natural world concept. Hamburg 2004. ISBN 3-7873-1665-5 .
• Merleau-Ponty as an introduction. Hamburg 1998, 3rd expanded edition 2013. ISBN 978-3-88506-399-5 .
• Change in the culture of language and debate. Commitment - Articulation - Opinion. Berlin 2019. ISBN 978-3-95721-539-0 .

Editions, translations and anthologies

• Origin of thought - thought of origin. Scheler's philosophy and its beginnings in Jena, Würzburg 1998. ISBN 3-8260-1537-1 .
• Person and worth. Scheler's 'formalism'. Perspectives and Effects, Freiburg 2000. ISBN 3-495-47970-8 .
• Philosophy of language. Freiburg 1999. ISBN 3-495-48004-8 .
• The position of man in culture. Würzburg 2002. ISBN 3-8260-2232-7 .
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Eye and the Spirit. Hamburg 2003. ISBN 3-7873-1545-4 .
• Reason and feeling. Scheler's Phenomenology of Emotional Life, Würzburg 2003. ISBN 3-8260-2486-9 .
• Solidarity. Person and social world, Würzburg 2006. ISBN 3-8260-3303-5 .
• The formation of society. Scheler's Social Philosophy in Context, Würzburg 2006. ISBN 978-3-8260-3551-7 .
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty, characters. Hamburg 2007. ISBN 978-3-7873-1832-2 .
• Key Terms in 20th Century Philosophy. Hamburg 2008. ISBN 978-3-7873-1916-9 .
• The culture of the text. Studies on Textuality, Würzburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-8260-3964-5 .
• Life and suffering. From dealing with illness, Bonn 2012. ISBN 3-937621-41-5 .
• Max Scheler, The formalism in ethics and the material ethics of values. Hamburg 2014. ISBN 978-3-7873-2476-7 .
• Life world and life form. Hamburg 2016. ISBN 978-3-7873-3025-6 .
• 20th Century Philosophy. Stuttgart 2017. ISBN 978-3-476-05539-2 .
• Commitment. Strengths of a weak normativity . Bielefeld 2019. ISBN 978-3-8376-4469-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian Bermes in the catalog of the German National Library
• Christian Bermes on the website of the University of Koblenz-Landau
• Archive for conceptual history
• Research Training Group "The Challenge of Life"
• German Society for Phenomenological Research
• Max Scheler Society
• Research focus "Cultural orientation and normative ties"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Register of Associations VR 7054 Munich District Court
2. ^ University Council of the University of Koblenz-Landau
3. ↑ Press release "What can opinions (still) mean?"
4. ↑ German-Chinese research group "Phenomenological Perspectives"
5. ↑ KAS thematic focus "Change in the culture of language and debate"
6. ↑ Interview by Christian Bermes on the change in the culture of language and debate in the Rhine Palatinate from June 17, 2019
7. ↑ Research consortium "Cultural Orientation and Normative Binding"
8. ↑ Graduate School "The Challenge of Life"
9. ↑ DFG research project "Scheler: Formalism in Ethics and the Material Ethics of Values"
10. ↑ DFG research project "Scheler: Essence and Forms of Sympathy"
11. ^ Villa Vigoni: Cultural Expression and Human Nature
12. ↑ Research project "Human dispute"
13. ↑ Research project "Protest and cultural criticism"
14. ↑ Research project "Forms of Civil and Political Representation"