Prof. em. Dr. Ulrich Gähde

The CV (January 2018) is also available as a PDF file.

1. Investigations in the philosophy of science concerning the logical structure and development of empirical theories. I am particularly interested in how theories in empirical sciences react to anomalies – i.e. stubborn conflicts with observational data. How can such theories be defended against conflicts of this kind? What is the role of so-called theoretical terms here, and what are the limits to the immunisation potential of empirical theories? At the centre of this debate are the problems of confirmation holism. Located at the intersection of philosophy of science and epistemology they have become crucial for the contemporary discussion in both areas of philosophy, due particularly to the works by Pierre Duhem and Willard Van Orman Quine. In order to deal with these problems in a more precise way I am working on further developing a version of the semantic view of theories that draws on model-theoretic tools. These investigations are supplemented by case studies from the history of science, mostly from astrophysics.
2. Model building, simulation, and reduction of complexity. In empirical scientific disciplines, there is more and more research being done on systems that, due to their complexity, can only be grasped theoretically by employing extremely simplifying models and simulations. The focus of my secondary research area is problems in the philosophy of science and epistemology related to model building and simulations. I pursue this research in the context of an interdisciplinary working group that I have established within the Academy of Sciences in Hamburg. The working group includes, among others, physicists, mathematicians, engineering scientists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and physicians. In 2010, together with colleagues, I organized an international conference on this topic. The conference led to the publication of the corresponding volume U. Gähde, S. Hartmann, J. H. Wolf (eds.) Models, Simulations, and the Reduction of Complexity (Berlin – New York: de Gruyter, 2013). I am currently working – together with a mathematician – on a paper about the problems of model building in fluid dynamics.
3. Comparisons between the structures of descriptive-empirical and normative-ethical theories. The basic idea is that there are far wider-reaching parallels between both types of theories than previously assumed. In the context of this research area, two multi-year research projects were carried out that were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation). The first project concerned the immunisation mechanisms of utilitarian moral philosophy. The second project concerned the question of whether conceptions of coherence that have been developed within theoretical philosophy could also be profitably transferred to, and profitably employed in, practical philosophy. Both projects can be seen as part of a more comprehensive enterprise that aims at, on a trial basis, applying methods developed in the philosophy of science to ethical theories.

The list of publications (Decmber 2016) is also available as a PDF file.