Philippe Biermann
Theoretical Philosophy
Philippe Biermann, M.A.
Doctoral student at the chair of theoretical philosophy
Contact:
pbiermann@uni-bielefeld.de
Information
- PhD Project
© Crawford Jolly on Unsplash Evolutionary Debunking Arguments (EDAs) are currently a hotly debated topic, especially in metaethics. The idea: Assuming that moral facts exist mind-independently and thus claim to be objective and discoverable, we need a theory of how we can gain knowledge about these facts. However, according to the debunker, there is an insurmountable obstacle: the evolution of our psychological mechanisms. Since our moral judgments can be wonderfully explained by evolutionarily useful cognitive mechanisms without having to resort to the truth of the judgments, it seems that it would have to be a huge coincidence if these judgments were indeed true. And it is completely unclear how we can circumvent these biologically anchored attitude dispositions.
In my dissertation, I will generalize this argument form and apply it to other areas. It seems that our judgments are influenced in many ways by evolutionary processes. Our sensory perceptions (taste, smell, but also visual perception) seem to work as they do because our hunter-gatherer ancestors have gained an advantage that has nothing to do with the accuracy of the resulting mental content. But the same effect can also be seen in areas such as mathematics, language, folk psychology, and many more. What does this say about the reliability of these belief-forming processes?
- Teaching
WiSe 2022
Die Erfindung der Analytischen Philosophie – Frege und Russell [BA Seminar]
SoSe 2022
Selbstwissen und der Geist von anderen - Einführung in die Epistemologie des Geistes [BA Seminar]
WiSe 2021
Einführung in die Metaethik [BA Seminar]
SoSe 2021
Geist und Materie [BA Seminar]
Winter 2020
Research semester
Summer 2020
Führen unsere Instinkte uns in die Irre? Evolutionäre Psychologie und Erkenntnistheorie [BA Seminar] (Evolutionary psychology and Epistemology)
Skeptizismus [BA Seminar/Philosophischer Einstieg] (Skepticism)
Winter 2019
Research semester
Summer 2019
Sinn Bedeutung, Bekanntschaft - Die Sprachphilosophie von Frege und Russell [BA Seminar] (Sense, Reference, Acquaintance - The philosophy of language of Frege and Russell)
Winter 2018
Wie verlässlich ist unser moralischer Kompass? Evolutionstheorie und Moralischer Realismus [BA Seminar] (Evolutionary theory and moral realism)
- Handouts and helpful material
Term papers
Here you will find my guide to term papers, which informs you about my expectations, formalities, tips and tricks and more. If you want to write a term paper with me, I expect you to have read the guideline. The handout is in German.
GET SHIT DONE
If you are looking for support in time and task management, you will find material from me here. The documents were created for a workshop by me, but are also easily accessible on their own. All the documents are in German. If you have specific questions or need support, you can contact me.
- CV
