Heisenberg Professorship for Oliver Müller

The senate at the University of Freiburg has agreed to establish a Heisenberg professorship that the German Research Foundation (DFG) had previously approved for private lecturer Dr. Oliver Müller. The DFG funding is limited to five years with a potential extension to a tenured professorship in the Department of Philosophy in the event of a positive interim evaluation. Müller will further develop the department’s profile in research and teaching with two new emphases: the philosophy of technology and philosophical anthropology.

Based on this aim, Müller will give particular attention to the question of how the rise and progress of modern technology have impacted individuals and societies as well as their understanding of reality and nature. Central research objectives include the examination of different ways to interpret our modern technological world as well as analyzing the possibilities and limits of the critique of technology. Among other things, Müller will analyze current forms of mechanization in areas such as biotechnology, medical technology and neurotechnology along with interactions between man and machine and robotics from an ethical perspective.

The Heisenberg professorship seeks to link philosophy closer together with the disciplines of natural sciences, technology, medicine as well as law and social sciences at the University of Freiburg. Collaborations with the Centre for Security and Society and the Cluster of Excellences BrainLinks-BrainTools are in the works, for instance. The contextual cooperation with external partners is also being considered, such as with the association of Upper Rhine University, “Eucor – The European Campus”.

Oliver Müller studied philosophy and modern German literature in Heidelberg, Hamburg, Venice, Italy, and at the Humboldt University of Berlin where he got his PhD in 2005. Thereafter, he switched to the University of Freiburg. He published his post-doctoral thesis 2014 under the title “Self, World and Technology. An Anthropological, Intellectual-Historic and Ethical Study.” Since 2013 Müller has run two sub-projects along with a junior research group since 2014 in the Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools, which develops advanced machine-brain interfacing technology.

For further information on Oliver Müller

Contact:
Private lecturer Dr. Oliver Müller
Department of Philosophy / BrainLinks-BrainTools
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-9502
E-Mail: oliver.mueller@philosophie.uni-freiburg.de