Otfried Höffe

Otfried Höffe - Universität Tübingen (ALEMANIA)

Born in 1943. He studied philosophy, history, theology and sociology from 1964 to 1970 at the universities of Münster, Tübingen, Saarbrücken and Munich. 1970-71 Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York. From 1976 to 1978 professor of philosophy at the University of Duisburg.

From 1978 to 1992 professor of Ethics and Social Philosophy and Director of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Fribourg/Switzerland.

Since 1992 professor of Philosophy at Tübingen University; since 1994 Director of the newly founded Research Center for Political Philosophy. He is permanent visiting professor for Philosophy of Law at the University of Sankt Gallen, Fellow of the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Fellow and Senator of the German National Academy Leopoldina (since 2008 spokesperson of the section Cultural Sciences) and President of the Swiss Ethics Commission. His main and most famous books deal with ethics, philosophy of law and economics, and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Aristotle.

Research stay at UC3M: DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES: PHILOSOPHY, LANGUAGE, LITERATURE THEORY / RESEARCH GROUP ON LAW AND JUSTICE (GIDYJ)

Project: While freedom is without a doubt a key principle of modernity, the term is more multifaceted than usually conceived. My aim is to spell out this multifacetedness in detail and to investigate for every major facet arising difficulties, maybe even aporias and tipping points. For example: While the welfare state brings about a realisation of freedom, it also limits this freedom through various governmental rules and regulations, including bureaucracies.

Even though the project focuses a systematic problem, it nonetheless takes account of the classical theorists of freedom such as Rousseau, Locke and Kant, as well as Hegel, and also addresses contemporary debates. While the project is quite broadly based, it should nevertheless be realisable due to my previous research on that subject.

Stay Period: FEB 13 - JUN 13

Conferences

Lecturer: Ottfried Höffe
Title: Readings about civic identity: Aristotle, Kant and Rawls
Date: March 14 at 11:30h
Place: Aula 15.0.14. (Getafe Campus)