Bielefeld Science Award

Professor Robert B. Pippin, US philosopher of German Idealism, receives the Bielefeld Science Award 2024

Press release no. 89/2024 from 20 September 2024, Media and News - Bielefeld University

"Pippin is the outstanding American interpreter of the philosophy of German Idealism," says Professor Dr Angelika Epple, Rector of Bielefeld University, who is also Chair of the Bielefeld Science Prize jury, "but the jury of the Bielefeld Science Award recognises in his work above all a unique contribution to the political, moral and aesthetic self-understanding of the society in which we live".

In numerous books on Kant and Hegel, most recently "The Actuality of German Idealism" (2016) and "Hegel's Realm of Shadows" (2019), Pippin has attempted to interpret philosophy around 1800 as an introduction to problems that continue to preoccupy us as inhabitants of modern society: Freedom as destiny, reason as normative expectation, self-criticism of modern culture set in perpetuity. Not least for this reason, antagonists of modernity such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger (most recently: The Culmination: Heidegger, German Idealism and the Fate of Philosophy, 2024) and Leo Strauss have also caught his attention.
In his books and essays, Pippin adheres in an inimitable way to a philosophising that does not pay much attention to the distinction between "analytical" and "continental" traditions. His style undermines such oppositions. Pippin's works also have the advantage of being easy to read.

"The jury was also particularly impressed by his unique combination of philosophy and culture/aesthetics, most recently his treatment of the medium of film from a philosophical perspective. He works out how fundamental problems of human coexistence are depicted and described in literature, art and the medium of cinema," says Angelika Epple.

Robert B. Pippin has made a name for himself with philosophical interpretations of literature (Henry James, J.M. Coetzee), modern painting (Manet, Degas) and popular film art, for example in books on the American Western as a young nation's self-understanding, on the fatal plot logic in the "film noir" of the 1940s and on the work of Alfred Hitchcock. In "Filmed Thought" (2019), he went so far as to interpret cinema films as independent forms of philosophical reflection.

Award ceremony on 9 December

The ceremonial presentation of the Bielefeld Science Award to Prof. Robert Pippin will take place on the evening of 9 December (for the first time) in the Wissenwerkstadt in the centre of Bielefeld.

To participate register online here by 29 November.

You will receive further information via the invitation to the award ceremony.

Bielefeld Science Award

In memory of the great Bielefeld sociologist Niklas Luhmann, the Sparkasse Bielefeld Foundation, in close co-operation with Bielefeld University and the City of Bielefeld, has been awarding the Bielefeld Science Prize since 2004.

The prize is endowed with 25,000 euros.

It is aimed at scientists from Germany and abroad, in particular from the social and life sciences. Proposals can be submitted using this form.

A jury made up of renowned personalities will decide on the award winners. The jury is chaired by Professor Angelika Epple (Rector of Bielefeld University).