Current Research Projects

Third-Party-Funded Research Projects

• BIAS

  The project "Bias and Discrimination in Big Data and Algorithmic Processing, Philosophical Assessments, Legal Dimensions, and Technological Solutions (BIAS)", received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation in 2018. Prof. Dr. Dietmar Hübner is the leader of this project.

  Led by: Prof. Dr. Dietmar Hübner; Prof. Dr. Uljana Feest; Prof. Dr. Mathias Frisch

  Team: Markus Ahlers, M.A.; Dr. Philippe van Baßhuysen; Jannik Zeiser, M.Sc.

  Year: 2019

  Funding: Volkswagen Foundation

  Duration: 2019-2023
• Crash Algorithms for Autonomous Cars

  The Institute of Philosophy has been a part of the project MOBILISE - Mobility in Engineering and Science since 2017. The Institute of Philosophy is responsible for the philosophical subproject "Crash Algorithms for Autonomous Cars" under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Dietmar Hübner, in area DI-4 "Mobiler Mensch".

  Led by: Prof. Dr. Dietmar Hübner

  Team: Markus Ahlers, M.A.; Dr. Philippe van Baßhuysen

  Year: 2017

  Funding: Wissenschaftsallianz Braunschweig - Hannover

  Duration: 2017-2020
• DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2073

  The Institute of Philosophy in Hannover, together with the Philosophy Department in Bielefeld, established a graduate school in 2015 centred around the theme "Integrating Ethics and Epistemology in Scientific Research".

  Led by: Prof. Dr. Torsten Wilholt

  Team: DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2073

  Year: 2015

  Funding: German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

  Duration: 01.10.2015–30.09.2024
• Digital Contact Tracing, Privacy, and Discrimination: On the Ethics of Fighting Corona

  During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, measures that would normally be unthinkable in liberal democracies, such as lockdowns, curfews, bans on free assembly, and digital contact tracing, have been implemented in many countries. The aim of this project is to investigate what kind of measures are justifiable in the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic. In this investigation, we focus in particular on digital contact tracing, weighing the efficacy of various configurations, and their possible implications for, among other things, privacy violations.

  Led by: Prof. Dr. Mathias Frisch

  Team: Dr. Philippe van Basshuysen, Dr. Lucie White

  Year: 2021

  Funding: VolkswagenStiftung

  Duration: 2021-2022
• InRes

  "The Independence of Research as a Multilevel Problem: Interdisciplinary and Methodological Challenges" is a multi-institute project, coordinated by the university of Mainz, that has been running since 2015, and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. Institute-member Prof. Dr. Torsten Willholt is involved in this project.

  Led by: Prof. Dr. Klaus Lieb

  Team: Prof. Dr. Torsten Wilholt & PD Dr. Jochen Gläser

  Year: 2015

  Funding: Volkswagen Foundation

  Duration: 2015-31.10.2019 (individual projects will run longer)
• Machine Discovery and Creation (MDAC)

  The MDAC (Machine Discovery and Creation) project focuses on philosophical, epistemological and ethical questions raised by artificial intelligence (AI) in two areas: in science, AI is now used for a variety of knowledge-generating tasks, such as predicting protein structures for developing new vaccines or restoring ancient inscriptions and making inferences about past societies. And in creative spaces, generative AI is increasingly used to produce novel and convincing text and imagery for a variety of artistic and commercial purposes. MDAC seeks to make philosophical contributions to and facilitate interdisciplinary discussion of a range of novel epistemological, ethical and legal questions raised by these developments, such as: can machines be creators and discoverers in their own right? What attributes and virtues, e.g. imagination, autonomy or humility, do AI systems require to make significant contributions to artistic and scientific pursuits? Can generative AI used in science produce evidence, on par with material evidence or expert judgment, or can it merely produce hypotheses we might seek evidence for?

  Led by: Dr. Donal Khosrowi; Dr. Finola Finn

  Team: M.A. Elinor Clark

  Year: 2023

  Funding: LUH Flexible Funds
• Scientific Experts and the Pressures of Pandemic Policy Advice

  This project analyses how scientific expertise and trust can be generated under conditions of deep uncertainty and urgency, as illustrated by the current phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. It aims to develop a set of principles for guiding scientifically informed public debate and policy advice. Pooling the resources of philosophy of public health, philosophy of science, and social epistemology, the project fosters a critically informed public understanding of the science/public-policy interface.

  Led by: Mathias Frisch

  Team: Axel Gelfert (Technische Universität Berlin), Stephen John (Cambridge University)

  Year: 2021

  Funding: Volkswagenstiftung