Honorary Doctorate for Peter Janich

On January 22, 2016, the professor of philosophy and philosopher of science Peter Janich received an honorary doctorate. The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at KIT, Prof. Andreas Böhn, presented the ceremony at the premises of ITAS, which was attended by numerous guests from the faculty. The laudatory speeches were given by Prof. Hans-Peter Schütt and Prof. Mathias Gutmann from the Institute for Philosophy (KIT).

Peter Janich, a philosopher at the University of Marburg, has made critical contributions to technology assessment for about 25 years, especially through methodological and epistemological analysis and reflection. In various fields of science and technology, ranging from space flight to chemistry, biology and neurosciences, he has repeatedly pointed out that the purposes guiding the cognitive processes in science and the means and methods used to achieve these purposes determine the course of knowledge. Therefore, the result of research must not be detached and abstracted from its way of production. Using this approach, Peter Janich has impressively pointed to excessive interpretations of some results of brain research. He became known to a wider audience in particular through his controversies with the brain researcher Wolf Singer published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (28.01.2016)

Further links:

• Peter Janich at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek