Dieter Birnbacher

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Dieter Birnbacher (born November 21, 1946 in Dortmund ) is a German philosopher specializing in ethics .

Dieter Birnbacher

Life

Birnbacher studied philosophy, English and general linguistics in Düsseldorf, Cambridge and Hamburg. In 1969 he received his BA in Cambridge. In 1973 he received his doctorate in Hamburg. From 1973 to 1993 he was a research assistant and academic adviser in Hanover and Essen. In the period 1974–1985 he worked in the working group Environment Society Energy at the University of Essen . His habilitation took place in Essen in 1988. In 1993 he became professor of philosophy at the University of Dortmund . Since 1996 he has been Professor of Philosophy at the University of Düsseldorf , and in 2012 he retired.

Birnbacher is a member of various philosophical associations as well as the ethics committee of the medical faculty of the University of Düsseldorf and the scientific advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation . Since November 2016 he has been President of the German Society for Human Dying and Vice President of the Schopenhauer Society . He has also been a member of the Leopoldina since 2004 . The Philosophical Faculty of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2012. In 2016 he was a guest on the SWR1 show "People". He has been a member of the advisory board of the Hans Albert Institute since 2020 .

Birnbacher became one of the central figures in a dispute over the age of refugees . In the summer of 2015, following an article in the FAZ, in the course of the refugee crisis in Germany, he signed a “Berlin Declaration”, in which it was stated that expert opinions on age determination were highly inaccurate. At the same time, he was also the chairman of the ethics committee of the Medical Association, which in 2016 published a similar conclusion on the subject, which the German Society for Forensic Medicine accused of having false studies and which were described as “rationally incomprehensible”. Birnbacher later rejected any ideological influence on the commission.

Research areas

  • Methodological and factual questions of natural ethics: Here he deals with ethical reasons for the protection of species , the scope of obligations towards animals capable of suffering as well as justification problems of natural ethics.
  • Ethical and anthropological basic and application problems of modern medicine ( organ transplantation , predictive medicine, reproductive medicine , euthanasia , distributive justice in the health system). One focus is the role of bioethics between academic practical philosophy and political practice. He also examines methodological questions in medical ethics and applied ethics.
  • Anthropology: The focus is on questions about the status of qualia and the concept of emergence as well as theories of emotion .
  • Schopenhauer: Here he examines in particular Schopenhauer's body-soul identity theory from the perspective of modern neurophilosophy .
  • Didactics of philosophy: Together with Ekkehard Martens , Birnbacher accompanied a school experiment on practical philosophy in North Rhine-Westphalia . - The establishment of the school subject practical philosophy in North Rhine-Westphalia is largely thanks to Birnbacher's initiative.

Fonts

Monographs (selection)

Articles (selection)

  • Ecology, ethics and new action. Three guiding principles for an ecological approach to nature. In: Herbert Stachowiak (Ed.): Pragmatik. Volume 3, Meiner, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-7873-0731-1 , pp. 393-417.
  • with Wolfgang Klitzsch, Ulrich Langenberg and Utako Birgit Barnikol: dealing with dementia patients. Jointly responsible decisions. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Volume 112, 2015, pp. A-514 f.

Editing and translations

  • (Ed. With Norbert Hoerster ) Texts on ethics. DTV, Munich 1976 (13th edition 2007).
  • John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism. Translation, notes and epilogue by Dieter Birnbacher. Reclam, Stuttgart 1976.
  • (Ed. With Klaus M. Meyer-Abich ) What does a person need to be happy? Needs research and consumer criticism. Beck, Munich 1979.
  • (Ed.) Ecology and Ethics. Reclam, Stuttgart 1980.
  • (Ed. With Armin Burkhardt ) Language game and method. On the status of the Wittgenstein discussion. De Gruyter, Berlin 1985.
  • (Ed.) Schopenhauer in the philosophy of the present. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1996.
  • (Ed.) Ecophilosophy. Reclam, Stuttgart 1997.
  • (Ed.) Bioethics as taboo? Tolerance and its limits. Lit, Münster 2000.
  • (Ed.) Schopenhauer's philosophy of science: The "principle of reason". Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina - Newly elected members 2004, Halle (Saale) (PDF; 1.7 MB) p. 10.
  2. ↑ Prof. Dieter Birnbacher is the new President. German Society for Human Dying, November 14, 2016, accessed on November 18, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Member entry of Dieter Birnbacher (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b Prof. Birnbacher appointed honorary doctor . University of Munster. November 16, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  5. ↑ http://www.swr.de/swr1/bw/programm/MEN/prof/-/id=1895042/did=18088926/nid=1895042/qqx7an/index.html
  6. ↑ Advisory Board - Hans Albert Institute. Retrieved on February 23, 2020 (German).
  7. ↑ Sebastian Eder: Dispute over the age test for refugees. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 2, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Birnbacher, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher with a focus on ethics
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Dortmund