André Fuhrmann (born 30 April 1958 in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

) is a Professor of

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

Early life and education

Fuhrmann studied at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

and at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, where in 1984, he earned his Master of Philosophy (MPhil). He went to the Institute of Advanced Studies at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and got his Ph.D. in 1988. Fuhrmanns Ph.D. thesis was on

Relevance logic Relevance logic, also called relevant logic, is a kind of non-classical logic requiring the antecedent and consequent of implications to be relevantly related. They may be viewed as a family of substructural or modal logics. It is generally, b ...

and

Modal logic Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...

. From 1989 to 2002 Fuhrmann worked at the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz () is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is ...

as a post-doc and research fellow (Heisenberg-Fellow). During that time he had several visiting positions at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and at the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

. Fuhrmann had the position of a full professor of philosophy (titular) at the São Judas Tadeu University in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

from 2002 to 2006. He is a corresponding member of the Academia Brasileira de Filosofia. In 2006 he was appointed to the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy (main area: logic) at the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main. He was additionally appointed Professor of

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

in 2009.

Research areas

André Fuhrmann has made contributions in

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

relevance logic Relevance logic, also called relevant logic, is a kind of non-classical logic requiring the antecedent and consequent of implications to be relevantly related. They may be viewed as a family of substructural or modal logics. It is generally, b ...

and

modal logic Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...

. Fuhrmann is best known for his research on "belief revision" or "theory change", a field of

formal epistemology Formal epistemology uses formal methods from decision theory, logic, probability theory and computability theory to model and reason about issues of epistemological interest. Work in this area spans several academic fields, including philosophy, c ...

with applications for

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

. Fuhrmann also takes an interest in freshwater diatoms. Together with H. Lange-Bertalot he discovered and described new species, particularly in the genus Diploneis.

Awards and recognition

* Heinz-Meier-Leibnitz Prize for work in Cognitive Science (1993)

Selected works

*1989: Reflective modalities and theory change. ''Synthese'' 81. *1991: Tropes and laws. ''Philosophical Studies'' 63. *1991: Theory contraction through base contraction. ''Journal of Philosophical Logic'' 20. *1991: Models for relevant modal logics. ''Studia Logica'' 49. *1994: On S. ''Studia Logica'' 53; with E. D. Mares. *1994: Undercutting and the Ramsey test for conditionals. ''Synthese'' 101; with I. Levi. *1994: A survey of multiple contractions. ''Journal of Logic, Language and Information'' 3; with S. O. Hansson. *1995: A relevant theory of conditionals. ''Journal of Philosophical Logic'' 24; with E. D. Mares. *1997: Solid belief. ''Theoria'' 63. *1997: ''An Essay on Contraction.'' Studies in Logic, Language and Information. *1999: When hyperpropositions meet ... ''Journal of Philosophical Logic'' 28. *2002: Explanatory exclusion and causal relevance. ''Facta Philosophica'' 4; with W.P. Mendonça. *2002: Russell’s way out of the paradox of propositions. ''History and Philosophy of Logic'' 23. *2005: Existenz und Notwendigkeit – Kurt Gödels axiomatische Theologie. In: W. Spohn (ed.), ''Logik in der Philosophie.'' *2006: Is pragmatist truth irrelevant to inquiry? In: E. Olsson (ed.), ''Knowledge and Inquiry.'' *2013: Knowability as potential knowledge. ''Synthese'' 191. *2015: Blogging Gödel: His Ontological Argument In The Public Eye. In: K. Swietorzecka (ed.), ''Gödel’s Ontological Argument. History, Modifications, and Controversies.'' *2017: Deontic Modals: Why Abandon The Default Approach. ''Erkenntnis'' 83. *2020: ''Freshwater Diploneis.'' Diatoms of Europe, vol. 9; with H. Lange-Bertalot and M. Werum. *2023: ''Vorlesungen über Philosophische Logik.''

References

External links

André Fuhrmann page on Goethe University Frankfurt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuhrmann, André Living people Academic staff of Goethe University Frankfurt 1958 births Writers from Essen 20th-century German philosophers 21st-century German philosophers