The Institute of Hermeneutics of the Protestant Faculty and the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Individuals, Institutions and Societies” of the University of Bonn, in cooperation with the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Religionsphilosophie", present the Prize Question 2020-2022: What is truth under the conditions of digitalization? An epistemological question in conversation with hermeneutics, philosophy of religion and sociocultural phenomenology
Prize money: First: € 1000,-; second and third: € 500,- each
Eligibility: Young researchers of all disciplines
Jury from theology, philosophy, political sciences: Kurt Appel, Martín Grassi, Volker Kronenberg, Cornelia Richter, Jochen Sautermeister
The question of truth is a genuine epistemological question. Investigation of this question requires transcendental philosophy and logic. Nonetheless, since at least the “Dialectic of the Enlightenment” (Horkheimer and Adorno), it has been shown that truth and reason are neither independent of their subjective enactment in and by individuals nor as of their sociocultural embedding. Furthermore, because of the many theoretical “turns” (at least linguistic, iconic and symbolic) in 20th century, the truth question is understood to be not only relative in the sense of being part of complex processes of production, but also in the sense of being dependent on respective epistemological and phenomenological premises: Matters can be logically true, historically correct, empirically exact, intuitively obvious, emotionally absolute and/or fundamentally meaningful – without sharing the same truth conception. All of this is further complicated by digitalization: Until the 20th century linear conception of thinking dominated. But digitalization has produced and produces modes of thinking in polyvalent levels of images with different dimensions of profoundness. Extreme differences, even opposites, can apply at the same time and in equal value. The crucial question for the essay competition will be: How is it possible to hold on to an ontological character of truth at least as a regulative idea while forcefully considering the consequences of a diversity of methodological perspectives and of the situatedness of truth? How would you respond?
Entry deadline: 31.12.2021 (covering letter and paper). The paper (max. 40.000 characters including spaces) will be evaluated anonymously by an interdisciplinary jury by 31.03.2022. The prize will be awarded and the best three papers will be presented at an international conference on 11.-12 November 2022. Submissions can be sent directly to Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter: cornelia.richter@uni-bonn.de. The flyer with all details can be downloaded here.