Nikolaus Knoepffler (born 1962 in

Miltenberg Miltenberg () is a town in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named district and has a population of over 9,000. Geography Location The old town lies on the Main ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

) is a philosopher and theologian. He currently holds the Chair of Applied Ethics and is the Director of th
Ethics Center
(Ethikzentrum) at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. Knoepffler is founder and president of the Global Applied Ethics Institute a consortium mainly involved with research on

bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, med ...

and

business ethics Business ethics (also known as Corporate Ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business co ...

Life

Knoepffler studied philosophy and theology in Würzburg and Rome (1981–1990) where th
Pontifical Gregorian University
awarded him a licentiate in theology (1989), in philosophy (1990), and a doctorate in philosophy (1992). He was awarded the

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1998 as well as further doctorates in political science from the

Leuphana University of Lüneburg Leuphana University Lüneburg is a public university in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Leuphana was founded in 1946 as a college of education (''Pädagogische Hochschule''). Leuphana established a unique university model within the German acad ...

and in theology from the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

. He was a fellow at th
TNN
(Institute of Technology - Theology - Natural Sciences) in Munich from 1996 to 2000 and was appointed Lecturer in Philosophy at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

in 1998. He then became deputy manager at TTN (2000–02). In 2002, he was a visiting professor at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, Washington DC. He was then appointed Professor of

Applied Ethics Applied ethics refers to the practical aspect of moral considerations. It is ethics with respect to real-world actions and their moral considerations in the areas of private and public life, the professions, health, technology, law, and leadersh ...

at the

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where he also leads th
Center of Applied Ethics
(Ethikzentrum), the Department of Ethics in Sciences, and th
Institute of History, Theory, and Ethics in Medicine
He is president of th
German Academy for Transplantation Medicine
and of th
Global Applied Ethics Institute
From 2005 to 2019 Knoepffler served as Chair of th
Ethics Commission
of Department of Social and Humanistic Studies, University of Jena. He serves as member of th
Bavarian Ethics Committee
an

at the Landesärztekammer Baden-Württemberg. From 2006 to 2013 he chaired the Graduate School on

Human Dignity Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...

and

Human Rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

funded by the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

(DFG). He was a principal investigator (2012-2018) in the trilateral project
Hearts of Flesh - not Stone
funded by the DFG that included scholars from Israel, Palestine, and Germany. Knoepffler speaks in academic and popular contexts on topics related to his field of ethics. For example, he lectured at the “Wissensforum 2007” of the

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

on the topic "Kant and the Stock Exchange." His research specialties include bioethics,

human dignity Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...

, conflict management, business ethics, leadership, and German philosophy. He has published widely in all these fields.

External links

Nikolaus Knoepffler's Personal Web Page

Chair of Applied Ethics and Ethics Center Web Page

Global Applied Ethics Institute
Link to Knoepffler's German language Wikipedia entry

Publications

*
Würde und Freiheit: Vier Konzeptionen im Vergleich.
' 2. Auflage. Alber, Freiburg im Breisgau 2021 (Erstauflage 2018), . *
Den Hippokratischen Eid neu denken: Medizinethik für die Praxis
'' Alber, Freiburg im Breisgau 2021, .
''Schlüsselbegriffe der Philosophie Immanuel Kants: Transzendentalität und Menschenwürde'', 2014

''Der Beginn der menschlichen Person'', 2012

''Angewandte Ethik: Ein systematischer Leitfaden'', 2010

''Der neue Mensch?: Enhancement und Genetik'', 2009
(together with

Julian Savulescu Julian Savulescu (born 22 December 1963) is an Australian philosopher and bioethicist of Romanian origins. He is Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, director of the Oxford Uehiro Cen ...

)
''Humanbiotechnology as a Social Challenge'', 2007
(together with Dagmar Schipanski and

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is a German metahumanist philosopher, a Nietzsche scholar, a philosopher of music and an authority in the field of ethics of emerging technologies. Life Sorgner was born on 15 October 1973 in Wetzlar (Germany). He studied ...

)
''Menschenwürde in der Bioethik'', 2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knoepffler, Nikolaus 1962 births Bioethicists German philosophers Living people People from Miltenberg