Gerhard Vollmer
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Gerhard Vollmer (born 17 November 1943) is a German
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
and
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. He is perhaps best known for his development of an evolutionary theory of knowledge.


Life

Vollmer was born in
Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
. He studied in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
and
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
. After finishing his degree in physics in 1968 he studied
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
in Freiburg. He worked as a trainee in ''Deutschen Elektronen-Synchrotron'' (DESY) in Hamburg. In Freiburg he attained a doctorate (1971) in
theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...
. He stayed here after completing a year's stint as a research assistant in Montreal in 1975. In 1974, Vollmer attained an additional doctorate in philosophy. From 1975 Vollmer taught at the
Leibniz University Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...
. From 1981 he lectured on the
Philosophy of Biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and philosophers generally have lon ...
at the
University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...
. From 1991 he has taught philosophy at the
TU Braunschweig The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...
. He holds lectures and classes in
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
,
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
and
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
,
natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior throu ...
, and
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
. He has also worked on
evolutionary ethics Evolutionary ethics is a field of inquiry that explores how evolutionary theory might bear on our understanding of ethics or morality. The range of issues investigated by evolutionary ethics is quite broad. Supporters of evolutionary ethics have ...
, which he says consists of attempts to add evolutionary points of view to philosophical ethics.


Honours and associations

In 1963 he was awarded the Magnus Schwerd Prize for outstanding achievements in mathematics at school. Vollmer became a member in 1998 of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences Halle. He is a member of Giordano Bruno Foundation (a society dedicated to a sort of evolutionary humanism, weblink below) and (in 2001) was elected to the learned society, Braunschweig Sciences Society (Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft). On his 60th birthday in 2003 a
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
was produced in his honour called "Cold-blooded: Philosophy from a rational standpoint" ("''Kaltblütig. Philosophie von einem rationalen Standpunkt''" edited by Wolfgang Buschlinger and Christoph Lütge, published by Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart). In 2004 he received the ''Eduard Rhein Foundation Cultural Prize'' for having laid down the “''foundation of an evolutionary theory of knowledge and for his outstanding achievement in bridging natural sciences and the social and humanistic disciplines''”. He is one of the editors of the periodical ''Aufklärung und Kritik''. He is a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the
Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften The Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) (English: ''Society for the Scientific Investigation of Pseudosciences'') is a non-profit organisation promoting scientific skepticism, headquartered in Roßdorf, ...
(GWUP), a German-speaking organisation supporting
scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...
. Vollmer is also a member of the
Brights movement The Brights movement is a social movement whose members since 2003 refer to themselves as Brights and have a worldview of philosophical naturalism. Most Brights believe that public policies should be based on science (a body of knowledge obtaine ...
.


Publications

* ''Evolutionäre Erkenntnistheorie'' (Evolutionary epistemology) (1975, 8. Aufl. 2002) * ''Was können wir wissen?'' (What can we know?) (2 Bde. 2. Aufl. 1988) * ''Wissenschaftstheorie im Einsatz'' (Philosophy of Science in practice) (1993) * ''Auf der Suche nach der Ordnung'' (In search of order) (1995) * ''Biophilosophie'' (Philosophy of Biology) (1995) * ''Wieso können wir die Welt erkennen''? (How can we grasp the nature of the world?) (2002) There is a chapter by Vollmer in English in * Bartley, W W. and Radnitzky, Gerard (eds) ''Evolutionary epistemology, rationality and the sociology of knowledge''. La Salle, IL : Open Court, 1987. ; (pbk) * Hösle, Vittorio and Illies, Christian (eds) ''Darwinism and philosophy '' University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. (hbk) ; (pbk) (Chapter 13. How Is It That We Can Know This World? New Arguments in Evolutionary Epistemology, by G Vollmer)


References


External links


Gerhard Vollmer
at TU Braunschweig {{DEFAULTSORT:Vollmer, Gerhard 1943 births 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German physicists German skeptics Living people Academic staff of the Technical University of Braunschweig German male writers University of Hamburg alumni