Category: Allgemein

Workshop on Philosophy of Language & Philosophy of Normativity, Bielefeld, June 25–26, 2026, organized by Benjamin Kiesewetter and Christian Nimtz in cooperation with the Society for Analytical Philosophy.

The call for applications poster can be found here. The workshop is aimed at doctoral candidates and prospective doctoral candidates in Philosophy with a project in the philosophy of language or the philosophy of normativity (metaethics and metaepistemology, reasons and rationality, foundational questions of moral philosophy and other normative disciplines of philosophy). Beyond this, there is no specific thematic focus. All topics within either of these two areas are welcome.

Participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas about their projects and research findings with each other and with established philosophers. The participating experts are: Singa Behrens (Frankfurt), Katharina Felka (Münster), Tim Henning (Mainz), Benjamin Kiesewetter (Bielefeld), Christian Nimtz (Bielefeld), and Sebastian Köhler (Frankfurt). All participants will give a substantive presentation on a topic of their choice from the context of their doctoral project (25-minute presentation + 20-minute discussion) and will have a detailed individual feedback session with two of the supervising experts.

To apply, (1) a text on the dissertation project (max. 1,000 words) and (2) an academic CV must be sent to eike.schilling@uni-bielefeld.de. Applications can be submitted in German or English. The application must be sent as a PDF file named after the applicant’s last name. The application deadline is May 1, 2026. Upon acceptance, a more detailed project description will be requested if available. Notifications of acceptance and rejection are expected to be sent by mid-May 2026.

The workshop itself is free of charge. We aim to finance accommodation and travel costs up to the amount of a 2nd class train ticket (with a BahnCard if possible) for all participants who cannot obtain funding elsewhere.

On December 18, 2025, Eike von Savigny passed away at the age of 84. He held a chair at Bielefeld University for nearly 30 years and during this time contributed significantly to making the Philosophy Department in Bielefeld a widely recognized center for analytical philosophy.

Von Savigny made significant contributions to the development of ordinary language philosophy and to the understanding of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later philosophy in the German-speaking world. He became known primarily through his books Die Philosophie der normalen Sprache (1969, 3rd ed. 1993), Zum Begriff der Sprache – Konvention, Bedeutung, Zeichen (1983), The Social Foundations of Meaning (1988), and Wittgensteins „Philosophische Untersuchungen“ – Ein Kommentar für Leser (two volumes 1988/89, 2nd ed. 1994/96, in one volume 2019).

Hans-Johann Glock honors the life’s work of Eike von Savigny in his obituary. The GAP will always honor his memory.

We would like to once again draw your attention to the seventh PhilPublica Workshop (March 25–27, 2026, Vienna). This time, the workshop will take place jointly with the FWF Cluster of Excellence “Knowledge in Crisis” at the University of Vienna. Lina Paulitsch (Der Falter) and Eva Stanzl (Wiener Zeitung) will explain the basics of journalistic craft, analyze sample texts from various media together with participants, and provide guidance in writing a short essay of their own for the newspaper.

Applications are open to philosophy master’s students, philosophy doctoral candidates, philosophy postdocs, and anyone whose philosophy master’s degree or doctorate was completed no more than two years ago. The application deadline is January 4, 2026. The full call for applications (including the required application documents) can be found here.

When we launched PhilPublica four and a half years ago, we had no overview of how diverse philosophy’s presence in the media is on topics that are also of interest outside academia.

Of course, most GAP members are already familiar with PhilPublica—the joint portal of GAP and DGPhil that collects contributions by academic philosophers in German-language media.

Recently, the 2,500th contribution appeared: one of the #Erklärt videos on our GAP YouTube channel, created with the BMBF project “Bildersturm.” The series explains central concepts such as happiness, knowledge, or fake news.

On this small milestone, we thank you sincerely—especially for your contributions to the “What I Still Wanted to Say” section, which now comprises 80 texts.

Those who wish to stay informed can subscribe to the newsletter here. The editorial team is also always grateful for tips about contributions they may have missed: info@philpublica.de.

The second GAP Lecture Series will take place in the winter semester of 2025/26 on the topic “Between Wilderness and Polis: Current Debates on the Ethics of Human-Animal Relations.”

The event is organized by Frauke Albersmeier (University of Münster) and Alexander Christian (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf). The lecture series is dedicated to new research approaches in animal ethics and the societal challenges in dealing with animals. The program and further information can be found here. The recordings of the GAP Lecture Series will again be available on our YouTube channel.

On June 20, 2025, Ansgar Beckermann, honorary member of the GAP and its president from 2000 to 2006, will turn 80 years old. Ansgar Beckermann’s Bielefeld colleague Christian Nimtz, together with Peter Schulte, Romy Jaster, and Hanjo Glock, has written a laudatio.

On March 19, 2025, Rüdiger Bittner, recipient of the Frege Prize awarded by the GAP, will turn 80 years old. The GAP Board extends its warmest congratulations! Rüdiger Bittner’s Bielefeld colleague Véronique Zanetti has written a laudatory address, which you can find here.

On May 21, 2024, Georg Meggle, Honorary President of the GAP, will turn 80. The Board of the GAP extends its warmest congratulations! Ulla Wessels and Christoph Lumer have written a laudation for the GAP on the occasion of Georg Meggle’s 80th birthday. You can find the laudation here.

On November 8, 2023, Gottlob Frege’s birthday marks its 175th anniversary. On this occasion, Dolf Rami (Ruhr University Bochum) has written a text for the GAP that honors Frege’s work while also critically examining insights into Frege as a person. The text is available here.

On 24 October 2023, our honorary member Hans Albert passed away at the age of 102. From 1963 to 1989, Hans Albert held the Chair of Sociology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Mannheim.

He is regarded as one of the outstanding representatives of critical rationalism, which rejects in particular any form of infallibility, dogmatism, and the claim to ultimate justifications. The Münchhausen trilemma that he formulated illustrates this stance impressively: it shows that a conclusive justification of our knowledge is impossible, since we would either lose ourselves in endless justifications, resort to circular arguments, or cling dogmatically to unfounded assumptions.

On the occasion of Hans Albert’s 100th birthday, Rainer Hegselmann wrote an extensive appreciation of the life and work of this great philosopher and sociologist, to which we link again here.