Prof. Dr. Manfred Frank

Brief Profile

• Research interests
• Curriculum vitae
• List of publications
• Editorial work
• Advisory board memberships

Research Interests

• Kant and the Kantians
• Early German Romanticism and Early German Idealism
• Theories of Self-Consciousness (continental and analytic)
• Hermeneutics, Literary Theory, and Aesthetics of the Classical Period
• Contemporary French Philosophy

• 22 March 1945 – Born in Wuppertal-Elberfeld
• 1951–1954 – Primary School at Mirker Bach
• 1954–1964 – Wilhelm-Dörpfeld-Gymnasium (classical curriculum) in Elberfeld; Abitur on 22 February 1964 (book prize)
• 1964–1966 – Studies in Philosophy and German Studies at the University of Heidelberg.
• Academic teachers during this period included in particular: Hans-Georg Gadamer, Arthur Henkel, Karl Löwith, Peter Wapnewski, Peter von Polenz.
• 1966–1967 – Studies in Berlin, primarily with Wilhelm Weischedel, Peter Szondi, Dieter Henrich, and Wilhelm Emrich.
• 1967–1971 – Studies in German Studies and Philosophy (major subjects) and English Studies (minor subject), especially with Hans-Georg Gadamer, Dieter Henrich, Karl Löwith, Ernst Tugendhat, Arthur Henkel, and Rudolf Sühnel.
• PhD – Final examination on 14 May 1971. Dissertation:
• The Problem of “Time” in German Romanticism. Time-Consciousness and the Consciousness of Temporality in Early Romantic Philosophy and in Tieck’s Literature
• Principal supervisor: Arthur Henkel; second supervisor: Dieter Henrich.
• Dissertation and oral examination both awarded the grade “excellent”.
• 1971–1977 – Research Assistant at the Chair of Herbert Anton (Modern German Literary Studies), University of Düsseldorf.
• 1977 – Habilitation (3 May) with the thesis:
• The Individual Universal. Text Structuring and Interpretation after Schleiermacher.
• The work received the Prize of the Friends and Sponsors of the University of Düsseldorf.
• 1977–1980 – Privatdozent (Lecturer) in Modern German Philology, University of Düsseldorf.
• 1981–1982 – Außerplanmäßiger Professor (Adjunct Professor) at the University of Düsseldorf.
• Awarded a Heisenberg Fellowship by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which was not taken up.
• 1981 (30 October) – Offered a full professorship (C4) in Literary Studies, specialization: Literary Theory at Bielefeld University; declined in favor of the Geneva appointment listed below.
• 1 April 1982 – 31 March 1987 – Full Professor (successor to Jeanne Hersch) at the Department of Philosophy, University of Geneva.
• Field: Modern and Contemporary Philosophy.
• 1986 – Declined offer from the University of California, Davis.
• Since 1 April 1987 – Full Professor (C4) of Philosophy at the Philosophical Seminar, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen; later retired.
• 1997 (8 July) – Offered a full professorship (C4) in Theoretical Philosophy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena; declined on 31 October 1997.
• Since 1 April 2010 – Retired; resident in Bielefeld since 1 September 2011.
• Married for the second time; three children.
• Since 31 January 2017 – Permanent Visiting Professor at the Philosophical Seminar, Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology, Bielefeld University.

• 86 erster Legat der vom Suhrkamp Verlag und der Universität Tübingen gestifteten "Ernst-Bloch-Professur" ("Überlegungen zu Subjekt, Person und Individuum aus Anlass ihrer postmodernen Toterklärung")
• 1987 Vorträge an der Universität Århus (Dänemark) über "Neostrukturalismus und Sprachanalyse"
• 1988 Vorlesungen über Lyotard u. Habermas an der University of Irvine/California
• 1989 Einladung durch Richard Rorty als Fellow des neugegründeten "Commonwealth Centre for Literary and Cultural Change" in Charlottesville
• Seit 1989 schwebende Einladung zum Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin
• Oktober 1990 Christian Gauss Seminars in Criticism an der Universität Princeton (über "Style in Philosophy")
• 1992 Einladung des Committee for Social Thought an der Universität Chicago zu einer ständigen Professur für 'deutsche Philosophie von Kant bis Heidegger' (Nachfolge Paul Ricœur)
• 1992 Vortragsreihe an der Washington-University in Seattle ("Wittgenstein and Early German Romanticism")
• 1993 Vorträge über Selbstbewusstseinstheorien von Kant bis Kierkegaard an der Emory University in Atlanta
• 1994 Hall-Lectures in Iowa ("Foundations of Early German Romanticism" und "Is Subjectivity a Non-Thing, an Absurdity [Unding]? On Some Difficulties in Naturalistic Reductions of Self-Consciousness")
• 1995 "Ernan McMullin Perspectives in Philosophy Lecture Series by Distinguished Philosophers" an der University of Notre Dame, (Thema: "The Philosophy of Manfred Frank")
• 1996 erste Spinoza-Professur an der Universität Amsterdam ("Subjektivität und Argumentation")
• Herbstsemester 1998 Theodor-Heuss-Professorship an der Graduate Faculty der New School for Social Reasearch (New York)
• Mitte April 2000 Vorlesungen über "The Origins of Early German Romanticism" an der University of South Carolina (Columbia)
• Erste Oktoberhälfte 2005, Vorlesungsreihe über „Kant und Schelling“ am Philosophischen Seminar der Universität Babes Bolyai (Cluj/Klausenburg)
• 30. Mai bis 2. Juni 2006: als „annual Johannes Sløk-Professor“ Vorlesungen am ideengeschichtlichen Seminar der Universität Århus über Intersubjektivität (Habermas/Sartre) und Deutschen Idealismus (Kant/Schelling)
• Juni 2006: Einladung durch Prof. Mark Sacks zum traditionellen „Mini course“ über zwei Themen eigener Wahl am Philosophischen Department der Universität Essex (Frühjahr 2007)
• Invitation by Prof. Ernest Wolf Gazo on behalf of the Philosophy Department at AUC (American University in Cairo, Egypt) to be our annual DVP (Distinguished Visiting Professor) in the Spring Semester
• 2007 for 2 weeks (Vorgänger Jürgen Habermas, Gianni Vattimo, Bruno Latour). Angenommen für die erste Aprilhälfte 2010
• März 2011: Einladung des Spinoza Center am Van Leer Jerusalem Institute zu den Spinoza Lectures (Thema: „ Spinoza’s readers in Germany in the 18th century“; ich konnte nicht annehmen)
• 11. März 2012 „Journée Manfred Frank“ an the Faculté protestante de théologie“ (Fonds Ricœur)
• Im Oktober 2012 gab ich an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Vorlesungen mit zugeordneten Seminaren über „Präreflexives Selbstbewusstsein“
• Vom 11.-14. März gab ich auf Einladung der Universitäten von Sydney und New South Wales und Seminare und Vorträge zu den Themen ‚Early Romantic Philosophy. So what is it?’ und ‚Identity of Identity and Non-Identity. Schelling’s Path to an Absolute System of Identity’
• Am 24./25. April war ich an die Universität Turku zu einer abgestimmten Reihe von drei Vorträgen eingeladen (‚Early Romantic Philosophy. What Does That Mean?’, ‚Zeit und Selbst’, „From „Fichte’s Original Insight“ to a Moderate Defense of Self-Representationalism“)
• Für 30. Mai 2015: Einladung zur Entgegennahme eines Ehrendoktors der Humanistischen Fakultät der Universität Turku
• Zahlreiche weitere Vortragsreihen und Einladungen zu Gastdozenturen in viele(n) Ländern und Kontinenten

• 2004 – Honorary Doctorate, University of Cluj/Klausenburg (Romania), following repeated resolutions of the Senate and the Rectors of Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (1994, 1999, and 2003)
• 2005 – Honorary Doctorate, University of Pécs (Hungary)
• 2015 – Honorary Doctorate, University of Turku (Finland)

• 1980–1989 – Member of the core group of Poetik & Hermeneutik
• Since 1994 – Member of the Academia Europaea (London)
• 1995 – Appointed Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques
• Since June 1996 – Member of the Académie internationale de philosophie de l’art (based in Geneva and Bern)
• Since July 1996 – Member of the Société Européenne de Culture (based in Venice)
• 8 June 2004 – Elected to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• 17 November [year unspecified] – Offered appointment as Honorary Professor at the International Institute for Hermeneutics, University of Warsaw (https://www.iihermeneutics.org/); declined

List of publications

Here you will find my list of publications.

Lectures

Here you will find selected lecture series by me.