Thomas Metzinger

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Thomas Metzinger (2010)

Thomas Metzinger (born March 12, 1958 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German philosopher and professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Mainz . His main areas of work are the philosophy of mind , the philosophy of science of neuroscience and neuroethics .

Life

Metzinger studied philosophy , ethnology and theology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. He received his doctorate there in 1985 with a thesis on the mind-body problem . In 1992 he completed his habilitation at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen . In 2000, Metzinger was appointed professor of philosophy in cognitive science at the University of Osnabrück , but moved to the University of Mainz that same year.

Metzinger co-founded the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness , where he was a board member from 1995 to 2008 and president from 2009 to 2011. From 2005 to 2007 he was President of the German Society for Cognitive Science , is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies and a member of the Advisory Board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation . From 2008 to 2009 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin . From 2014 to 2019 he received a five-year fellowship at the Gutenberg Research College.

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With the help of philosophical and cognitive science methods, he developed a theory of “self-models” that is supposed to explain the unity, reflexivity and intentionality of our consciousness . Part of this program is also a representationalist theory of subjectivity . In general, Metzinger has advocated the interdisciplinary opening of the analytical philosophy of the mind and new connections between applied ethics and philosophy of mind for many years.

Metzinger is considered to be one of the philosophers who are most keen to exchange philosophy with the neurosciences and cognitive sciences. For example, he deals with the philosophical interpretation of the search for neural correlates of consciousness.

In 2009 he published Der Ego-Tunnel, a presentation of his theory that claims to be accessible to those interested outside of academic philosophy and science. In this book he also discusses the ethical, cultural and social consequences of consciousness research and its results. A much expanded version appeared in 2014.

Another area of ​​Metzinger's work is applied ethics . There he tries to apply the results of anthropology and the philosophy of mind to debates in moral theory. A bilingual web portal for neuroethics with a subject-specific bibliography was thus created under the direction of Thomas Metzinger. Metzinger was the coordinator of a research group that deals with ethical issues in connection with neuroenhancement (“brain doping”), brought about by drugs that are supposed to improve cognitive abilities (so-called nootropics ). In 2018 he was appointed to the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence of the European Union to develop the European ethical guidelines for Artificial Intelligence, but in April 2019 initially expressed disappointment with the first results.

He is the initiator and coordinator of the MIND-Group, a group of interdisciplinary scientists and philosophers with the aim of bringing together and complementing each other empirical and philosophical approaches in the exploration of consciousness.

literature

Monographs

  • 1985: Newer contributions to the discussion of the mind-body problem. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-8204-8927-4 .
  • 1993: subject and self-model. The perspectivity of phenomenal consciousness against the background of a naturalistic theory of mental representation. mentis, Paderborn, ISBN 3-89785-081-8 ( online ; PDF file; 2.18 MB).
  • 2003: Being No One. The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA., ISBN 0-262-13417-9 (hardcover), ISBN 0-262-63308-6 (paperback).
  • 2009: The Ego Tunnel. The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self. Basic Books, New York, ISBN 0-465-04567-7 .
  • 2009: The Ego Tunnel. A New Philosophy of the Self: From Brain Research to Ethics of Consciousness. Berlin Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-8270-0630-9 (as e-book ISBN 978-3-8270-7037-1 ).

Editing

Selected articles and book chapters

  • 2003: The emergence of a shared action ontology: building blocks for a theory, together with Vittorio Gallese. In G. Knoblich, B. Elsner, G. von Aschersleben, T. Metzinger (Eds.): Self and Action. Special issue of Consciousness & Cognition , pp. 549-571.
  • 2003: Phenomenal transparency and cognitive self-reference. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences , pp. 353-393.
  • 2003: Phenomenal transparency and cognitive self-reference. In U. Haas-Spohn (Ed.): Intentionality between subjectivity and relation to the world. mentis, Paderborn, pp. 411-459.
  • 2003: Why are identity-disorders interesting for philosophers? In: Thomas Schramme, Johannes Thome (Ed.): Philosophy and Psychiatry. de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 311-25. This work was awarded the 2006 Prize for Philosophy in Psychiatry from the German Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology (DGPPN).
  • 2004: Précis: Being No One ( ZIP ; 6.6 MB). In PSYCHE - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Consciousness , pp. 1–35.
  • 2005: Out-of-body experiences as the origin of the concept of a “soul” (PDF; 1.7 MB). Mind and Matter, pp. 57-84.
  • 2005: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity: A Brief Outline in Six Steps. In: CS Herrmann, M. Pauen, J. W. Rieger, S. Schicktanz (Eds.): Awareness: Philosophy, Neuroscience, Ethics. UTB / Fink, Stuttgart, pp. 242-269.
  • 2006: Being No One - A very short German summary. In Basic Course Philosophy of Mind , Volume 1: Phenomenal Consciousness , pp. 424–475.
  • 2006: Conscious volition and mental representation: Towards a more fine-grained analysis. In N. Sebanz, W. Prinz (Ed.): Disorders of Volition. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), pp. 19-48.
  • 2007: Video Ergo Sum: Manipulating bodily self-consciousness, together with B. Lenggenhager, T. Tadi and O. Blanke. Science, 317, pp. 1096-1099.
  • 2008: Empirical perspectives from the self-model theory of subjectivity: A brief summary with examples. In Rahul Banerjee, Bikas K. Chakrabarti: Progress in Brain Research , 168. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 215-246.
  • 2009: Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood, with O. Blanke. In: Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13 (1), pp. 7-13.
  • 2010: The No-Self-Alternative (11th chapter). In S. Gallagher (Ed.): Oxford Handbook of the Self. Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK), pp. 277-294.

DVD set

  • 2009: Philosophy of Consciousness - 15 lectures at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz from the 2007/8 winter semester , auditorium network, 5 DVDs.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Metzinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Metzinger on the pages of the Mainz University Library ; accessed on September 21, 2015
  2. ↑ About Us - theASSC.org. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  3. ^ Board of Directors, Society for Cognitive Science. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  4. ^ Fellows / FIAS. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  5. ^ Advisory board, Giordano Bruno Foundation. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Fellowfinder. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger, Gutenberg Research College. Retrieved April 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Thomas Metzinger: Ethical washing machines made in Europe. In: Der Tagesspiegel. April 8, 2019, accessed April 29, 2019 .
  9. ^ About the MIND Group
personal data
SURNAME Metzinger, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main