Spring Conference 2009: Transformation of the Philosophy of Man in the Age of Information Sciences

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, 28 March 2009. – On 26 and 27 March a conference was held in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler on the “Transformation of the Philosophy of Man in the Age of Information Sciences”. It was hosted by the Europäische Akademie and the Philipps-Universität Marburg and addressed the joint project “The Research-Guiding Function of Metaphors from the Information Sciences and their Relevance to the Transformation of the Philosophy of Man”, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Metaphors which find their way into computer science and life sciences research are not to be ignored in today’s “knowledge society” and are ever increasing. Terms such as “information”, “gene”, “programme”, or “code” are not only prevalent in the research within various natural and social sciences as well as in cultural studies, but also affect the constitution and transformation of the philosophy of man in scholarship and society. The resulting anthropological assumptions of consequences from this research must be critically analysed and the terms of their validity closely examined in order to achieve an adequate understanding of man. This concerns the actual and potential use of the term “information” as well as a methodologically and philosophically verified reconstruction of the use of metaphors and models in those fields of research which work with an implicit understanding of man.
The speakers at the spring conference were experts from the fields of computer science, biology, and philosophy. They grappled with the meaning of metaphorical expressions, particularly those which are used in the latest bio-genetic research in the context of the philosophy of man.
The first section “Scientific Metaphors and the Philosophy of Man” addressed the use of the term information in biology. It was demonstrated that talking about the semantically charged term “information” only makes sense if the observer is capable of interpreting it. The second section discussed implicit assumptions in various philosophies of man in the context of technology and knowledge using the example of robotics and “ambient computing”. In today’s social environment with its increasing number of interfaces between man and computers (e.g. in “Facebook” or “Second Life”) questions regarding the use of these extended possibilities arise. At the end of the conference, perspectives regarding the use of metaphors for an informed understanding of man were presented; their role regarding a critique as well as the assumptions which are made in current life sciences research were particularly emphasised.
In the course of the conference, Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Carl Friedrich Gethmann, director of the Europäische Akademie, was also presented with the commemorative publication “Erkennen und Handeln” (ed. by G. Kamp and F. Thiele, Fink Verlag) containing contributions written by many of his scholarly companions in honour of his 65th birthday. 

Academic co-ordination of the conference:

• Dipl.-Päd. Ulrike Henckel und Thomas Engel, M.A., Europäische Akademie GmbH, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler;

• Professor Dr. phil. Dr. phil. nat. Mathias Gutmann, Universität Karlsruhe.

Speakers:

• Professor Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen Bereiter-Hahn, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt;

• Priv.-Doz. Dr. rer. nat. Michael Decker, Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse, Karlsruhe;

• Professor Dr. phil. Matthias Jung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum;

• Professor Dr. phil. Geert Keil, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen;

• Professor Dr. rer. nat. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max-Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin;

• Professor Dr. rer. nat. Sarah Spiekermann, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.