Professor Dr Michael Esfeld
- Section Philosophy of Science
- Location Lausanne, Switzerland
- Election year 2009
Research
Main areas of research: philosophy of physics, philosophy of mind, holism
Michael Esfeld is distinguished for many contributions to both philosophy of physics and philosophy of mind. In his Habilitation thesis, he set out the conception of a holism that applies to both domains. Since 2002, he has developed that conception into a theory of causal structures that starts from the interpretation of quantum physics and leads from there to a comprehensive philosophy of nature in the sense of a metaphysics of science. This position integrates biological and mental properties in the framework of a conservative reductionism.
Michael Esfeld is distinguished for many contributions to both philosophy of physics and philosophy of mind. In his Habilitation thesis, he set out the conception of a holism that applies to both domains. Since 2002, he has developed that conception into a theory of causal structures that starts from the interpretation of quantum physics and leads from there to a comprehensive philosophy of nature in the sense of a metaphysics of science. This position integrates biological and mental properties in the framework of a conservative reductionism.
Career
- 2004-2014 Head of the Department of Philosophy of Lausanne University, Switzerland
- since 2002 Full professor of philosophy of science, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2001-2002 Associate professor (C3) of epistemology, philosophy of science and logic, University of Cologne, Germany
- 2000-2001 Lecturer in philosophy, University of Hertfordshire, UK
- 2000 Habilitation, University of Konstanz, Germany
- 1997-2001 Research Fellow and Privatdozent at the Department of Philosophy and Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Konstanz, Germany
- 1996-1999 Visiting Scholarships University of Cambridge (with Prof. Michael Redhead and Dr. Jeremy Butterfield, 1996/97), Australian National University Canberra (with Prof. Philip Pettit, 1998), and University of Pittsburgh (with Prof. Robert Brandom, 1999)
- 1994-1996 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, research work on the philosophy of quantum theory (group of Prof. Hans Primas)
- 1994 Ph.D. Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
- 1986-1994 Study of philosophy and history at the Universities of Freiburg (Breisgau), Germany, Lausanne, Switzerland and Münster, Germany
Honours and Memberships
- 2013 Research Fellow and Privatdozent at the Department of Philosophy and Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Konstanz
- since 2009 Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- 2008 Award of the cogito foundation for dialogue between the human and natural sciences
- 2000-2001 Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- 1987-1994 Scholarship by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes