Professor Richard King (University of Glasgow, UK)

Professor Jorge Gracia (SUNY Buffalo, USA)

Professor Barry Stroud (UC Berkeley, USA)

Professor Saul Kripke (CUNY, USA)

Professor Christian Schäfer (University of Bamberg, Germany)

Professor Christian Illies (University of Bamberg, Germany)

 

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Professor Richard King

Professor, University of Glasgow

Richard King studied Literae Humaniores at the University of Oxford, as well as Philosophy and Sinology at the Free University of Berlin. After gaining his Ph.D. in Cambridge with an analysis on “Aristotle on life and death” (2001), King worked as assistant professor at the University of Munich. His main interests are Greek and Roman Philosophy as well as comparative ethics and Chinese Philosophy.  A special focus lies also on the concept of life. Right now King is working on a translation of Plotinus’ VI. Enneade.

Selected Works:

• Aristotle on Life and Death, London 2001;
• Aristotle and Plotinus on Memory, Berlin 2006;
• Ed. with Dennis Schilling, The Ethics of Ease: The Norms of Life in the Zhuangzi. Wiesbaden, 2008.

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Professor Jorge Gracia

Samuel P. Capen Chair, State University of New York in Buffalo

Jorge Gracia is SUNY Distinguished Professor at the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Comparative Literature at SUNY Buffalo since 1995. Gracia received his Ph.D. 1971 in Medieval Philosophy from the University of Toronto with a thesis on „Francesc Eiximenis’s Terç del Crestià“. Gracia also held numerous other positions, e.g. at the University of Puerto Rico, the University of Michoacán and at Fordham University. His main interest lies in Medieval Philosophy, Scholastics and classical Metaphysics as well as in Latin-American Philosophy, art and literature.
Gracia is the founding chair of the APA Committee for Hispanics in Philosophy, past president of the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy and past president of the Metaphysical Society of America.

Selected Works:

• Old Wine in New Skins: The Role of Tradition in Communication, Knowledge and Group Identity, Milwaukee 2003;
• How Can We Know What God Means? The Interpretation of Revelation, New York 2001;
• Metaphysics and Its Task: The Search for the Categorial Foundation of Knowledge, New York 1999.

Awards and Fellowships:

• National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, 1981-82;
• John N. Findlay Prize in Metaphysics, 1992;
• Aquinas Medal of the University of Dallas, 2002;
• University at Buffalo Teaching and Learning Award, 2003;
• Aquinas Medal of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, 2011.

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Professor Barry Stroud

Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy, UC Berkeley

Barry Stroud holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has been a member of the Berkeley Philosophy Department since 1961. For his book (1977) on Hume, Stroud won the Matchette Prize in 1979. Since then he worked on numerous other topics, e.g. Wittgenstein, Quine, Carnap and Kant. Stroud is former President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and has held ACLS, Guggenheim, NEH, and University of California research fellowships.

Selected Works:

• The Significance of Philosophical Scepticism, Oxford 1984;
• The Quest for Reality: Subjectivism and the Metaphysics of Colour, Oxford 1999;
• Engagement and Metaphysical Dissatisfaction: Modality and Value, Oxford 2011;
• Philosophers Past and Present: Selected Essays, Oxford 2011.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Matchette Prize of the American Philosophical Asscociation 1979;
• Numerous Research Scholarships (ACLS, Guggenheim, UC Berkeley) and Named Lectures (John Locke Lectures / Oxford University, Tanner Lectures on Human Values / Buenos Aires, the Gareth Evans Memorial Lecture / Oxford University, Whitehead Lectures / Harvard University, as well as the Dewey Lecture and the Romanell Lecture der American Philosophical Association).

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Professor Saul Kripke

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center

Saul Kripke studied Mathematics at Harvard University and graduated there 1962. He accepted a full-time position at Princeton University in 1977. One year after starting to teach at CUNY, Kripke was appointed a distinguished professor of philosophy there. The main interest of his work lies on mathematical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology, and set theory. Throughout his career, Kripke received several honorary degrees, e.g. University of Nebraska (1977), University of Haifa (1998) and University of Pennsylvania (2005). He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.

Selected Works:

• Naming and Necessity, Harvard 1980;
• Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: an Elementary Exposition, Harvard 1982;
• Philosophical Troubles. Collected Papers Vol. I, New York 2011.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Fulbright Scholar (1962–1963);
• Society of Fellows, Harvard University (1963–1966);
• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
• Corresponding Fellow, British Academy;
• Howard Behrman Award, Princeton University, 1988;
• Fellow, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea;
• Fellow, Norwegian Academy of Sciences;
• Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy, Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2001;
• Fellow, American Philosophical Society.

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Professor Christian Schäfer

Chair for Theoretical Philosophy, University of Bamberg

Christian Schäfer studied Catholic Theology, Philosophy and Political science at the LMU Munich, the Papal University Gregoriana as well as at the Universitas a Sancto Thoma Aquinate in Urbe. After gaining his Ph.D. at the University of Regensburg with his thesis on „Xenophanes von Kolophon. Ein Vorsokratiker zwischen Mythos und Philosophie”, Schäfer was Profesor adjunto at the Pontificia Universidad de Católica del Ecuador in Quito/Ecuador. Several Fellowships at numerous universities followed, e.g. Bogotá, Gießen, Princeton and Munich. Since 2009 Schäfer holds the chair for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bamberg.

Selected Works:

• Xenophanes von Kolophon. Ein Vorsokratiker zwischen Mythos und Philosophie, Stuttgart 1996;
• Unde Malum? Die Frage nach dem Woher des Bösen bei Plotin, Augustinus und Dionysius vom Areopag, Würzburg 2002;
• The philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite. An Introduction to the Structure and the Content of the Treatise On the Divine Names, Leiden/Boston/Köln 2006.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Exchange professorship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the National University of Bogotá, Colombia 2001;
• Research Fellow at Princeton University 2003/2004.

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Professor Christian Illies

Chair for Practical Philosophy, University of Bamberg

Christian Illies studied Biology, Philosophy and Art History at the University of Konstanz as well as at the Ecole Normale Supèrieure Fontenay/St. Cloud (Diplôme Philosophie (1993/94). After gaining his Ph.D. at Oxford University with his thesis on Kantian Ethics, Illies was assistant Professor under Prof. Vittorio Hösle and held several visiting fellowships, e.g. University of Notre Dame (1999) and the ECLA in Berlin (2001). Since 2008 Illies holds the chair for Practical Philosophy at the University of Bamberg. His main interests are in the field of Philosophy of Biology, Technology and Architecture as well as Metaethics.

Selected Works:

• Philosophische Anthropologie im biologischen Zeitalter, Frankfurt/M. 2006;
• The Grounds of Ethical Judgement, Oxford 2003;
• An Essay in Kantian Ethics. A New Interpretation and Justification of the Categorical Imperative, Oxford 1995.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Studienstiftung des dt. Volkes 1982-1989;
• Rhodes Scholarship 1989-92;
• Research Scholarship of the Instituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici 1994;
• Research Scholarship of the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung 1999;
• CRASSH Fellowship, 2007;
• Life Member Clare Hall Cambridge, 2008.