Dr. Michael Stöltzner
Bielefeld University
Institute for Science and Technology Studies
P.O. Box 10 01 31
33501 Bielefeld
|
Room U6-228
 0521-106-4661
 stöltzner@iwt.uni-bielefeld.de
|
- 1984-1989, Studies of Philosophy, Psychology, Rhetoric, Russian Literature,
and Physics (since 1987) at the University of Tübingen;
- Grant by German National Scholarship Foundation, 1989-1993.
- January 1995, Magister of Natural Science, University of Vienna. Thesis:
“Non-regular Representations in Quantum Electrodynamics” supervised by Professor Walter Thirring.
- 1998-2003, Ph.D. Studies in Philosophy at the University of Bielefeld.
- July 2003, Dr.phil. with the thesis “Vienna Indeterminism. Causality, Realism and the
Two Strands of Boltzmann’s Legacy (1896-1936)” supervised by Professors Martin Carrier and Michael Heidelberger.
- I am a full-time VolkswagenFoundation Research Fellow at the University of Bielefeld (BAT IIa)
within an interdisciplinary research focus on “Science in Transition. Towards the Knowledge Society”
at the Institute for Science and
Technology Studies at the University of Bielefeld.
- During the winter term 2004 I am a visiting scholar at the Department of
Philosophy and the Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame.
- May 1999 - August 2002: Research Fellow at the Special Research Program “Pluralism of Theories and
Paradigms” supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) at the University of Salzburg. My project was dedicated
to the Principle of Least Action as an instantiation of formal teleological reasoning.
- January-July 2001: Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at
the University of California at Irvine.
- 1996-1998: Scientific Coordinator of the exhibition „Beyond Art“ organised by the Neue Galerie Graz
at Budapest, Graz, and Antwerp. The exhibition was dedicated to the formal arts and formal sciences in
Austria and Hungary during the 20th century. It was one of the official projects during the Austrian EU
presidency. My duties included the selection of contributors for the exhibition and the 1000 pp. catalogue,
editorial activities, and arranging the scientific parts of the exhibition.
- Since 1995, Scientific Fellow at the Institute Vienna Circle, Vienna. I have participated in
various book projects, wrote the proposal for a summer university, and organised congresses, typically
working on a contract basis.
- Since 1995 Review Editor of the Institute Vienna Circle Yearbook, Associate Editor of
Vienna Circle
Institute Library.
- Since 1999 Secretary of the Program Committee of the
Vienna International Summer University
organised by the University of Vienna.
- 1996-1999 Project Coordinator of a Cooperation with the Eötvös University Budapest
in the field of „Philosophy of the Sciences“ (Partners: George Kampis and Miklós Rédei).
- Referee for Erkenntnis, Synthese, Philosophy of Science and Studies in History
and Philosophy of Modern Physics.
- Co-organizer of the Wittgenstein-Symposium 2005 at Kirchberg am Wechsel.
Generally speaking, I consider myself a philosopher of physics and applied mathematics who often avails himself
of historical arguments to base systematic claims. To this end, I did work in the history of science as well, in
particular, concerning the joint beginning of modern science and modern philosophy of science in Vienna.
Accordingly, I would also place myself partly within the newly emerging research field of the “history of philosophy
of science”, giving special emphasis to the European phase of the Vienna Circle and topics in physics from about
1880-1930.
I have a strong systematic interest in the philosophy of mathematical physics and the principles of theoretical
physics. So far I have worked on the emergence of the axiomatic method in Hilbert and von Neumann, and Logical
Empiricists’ partial misunderstanding of it. My investigations into Lakatos’s philosophy of mathematics provide
a conceptual background for the interaction between mathematics and physics, and I have thus classified a recent
debate among mathematical physicists on the import of string theory on the concept of mathematical rigour. Within
the next years I plan to apply this background to a systematic study of the variational calculus and action
principles in theoretical physics. To my mind, these principles constitute an important example of a mathematical
thought experiment, and to many scientists they have moreover represented an instance of structural realism.
Historically, these principles have often stood in the context of formal teleology – in the spirit of Kant’s third
Critique.
I am presently working together with sociologists of science in a Volkswagen project that investigates to
what extent the transition to the knowledge society and the emphasis on large-scale applications have changed the
relationship of theories and models in the physical sciences. It seems that application-dominated research
represents a mode of inquiry in which the use of ceteris paribus laws can be defended against the standard objections.
My case study concerns plasma science and fusion research.
