Research Overview

Theory & History of Biology
The present biological view of nature and of organisms as investigated by the biosciences is influenced by different theoretical concepts and has been formed on a long way of research in the history of science. We study these theories and their influences on philosophy, biological ideas and society, e.g. the influence of the darwinian evolution on philosophical epistemology and anthropology and vice versa. Our studies concern the theory and history of particular biological disciplines like embryology, primatology, botany, ecology, biochemistry, genetics including biographical studies of important biologists of the 19th and 20th century. Another question of research is how biotechnolgy does influence society and how biology interacts with modern concepts in the philosophy of nature.

Ethics in Biosciences
Since Darwin modern biology influences ethics and society. On the other hand, the relation between ethics and evolution has been analysed by modern philosophy. Particularly bioethics analyses a lot of problems in biotechnology and medicine and new kinds of ethical fields arise like animal ethics or environmental ethics. We study basics and ethical tools in these fields, e.g. the role of language in biomedical ethics, and analyse elements of an anticipatory bioethics dealing with future ethical problems e.g. with chimeras.