Gunnar Skirbekk is a professor emeritus at the Department of Philosophy and the Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen

University of Bergen

The University of Bergen is located in Bergen, Norway. Although founded as late as 1946, academic activity had taken place at Bergen Museum as far back as 1825. The university today serves more than 14,500 students...

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Education

Skirbekk studied at the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 1957-59, in Paris 1960-61, and in Tübingen 1961-62. He was later a research assistant for Herbert Marcuse and Avrum Stroll at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

 (UCSD) 1966-67; dr.philos. at the University of Bergen in 1970; research at UCSD 1979-80, 1983, and 1991.

Academic career

Skirbekk became an assistant teacher at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bergen 1962, associate professor in 1964, professor in the philosophy of the sciences and the humanities in 1979. Director of the Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (established 1987) 1987-1991, 1995–1997, and 2001-2003.

Co-editor of Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift [Norwegian Philosophical Journal] 1979-1983; member of the editorial board of Praxis International 1980-1993, of Social Science Studies 1988-1994, member of the Overseas Correspondence Board of Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly from 1994, member of the editorial board of Redescriptions, Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History from 2004. Member of the board of Nordic institute of philosophy from 1981-1998. Member of the board of the Norwegian Research Council (NAVF) 1987-89. Member of the governmental commission for the freedom of expression, 1996-1999.

Norwegian coordinator of “Marco Polo” 1994-2005, a program of comparative studies of cultural modernization in Europe and East Asia, established in 1994, at the University of Bergen and East China Normal University in Shanghai.
Professeur invité at the University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis, spring 1997. Professor at the department of philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin, 2000-2001. Advisory professor at East China Normal University from 1998. Fellow (Kurator) at the Hans-Jonas-Zentrum in Berlin from 1998.
The Lauritz Meltzer Award for most outstanding research at the University of Bergen in the period 1990-1996.

He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

 and the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters

Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters

The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters is a learned society based in Trondheim, Norway.-History:DKNVS was founded in 1760 by bishop of Nidaros Johan Ernst Gunnerus, headmaster at the Trondheim Cathedral School Gerhard Schøning and Councillor of State Peter Frederik Suhm under the name...

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Publications

• Nihilisme?, Oslo 1958 (third ed. 1998; Engl. ed. 1972, second ed. 1998).
• Dei filosofiske vilkår for sanning. Ei tolking av Martin Heideggers sanningslære (The Philosophical Preconditions for Truth. An Interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s Theory of Truth), Oslo, 1966 (second ed. Bergen 1999: Om sanninga sitt vesen).
• Er ideologiane døde? (Are Ideologies Dead?), ed. and co-author, Oslo, 1969.
• Nymarxisme og kritisk dialektikk (Neomarxism and Critical Dialectics), Oslo 1970.
• Truth and Preconditions, Bergen, 1970.
• Politisk filosofi (Political Philosophy), Bergen, 1972, 2nd ed. 1976.
• Økologi og filosofi (Ecology and Philosophy), Oslo, 1972.
• Wahrheitstheorien, Frankfurt a. M., 1977, ed. and co-author.
• Filosofihistorie (History of Philosophy), Bergen/Oslo, 1980, from 1987 together with Nils Gilje; 2007 also with Anne Granberg, Cathrine Holst, and Rasmus Slaattelid. German edition, 1993; Danish and Swedish editions, 1995; Bokmål, 1996; Icelandic edition, 1999; Russian, 2000; English, 2001; Uzbek, 2002 (new preface); Chinese, 2004; Tajik, 2004 (new preface); Turkish 2004; French and Iranian 2010.
• Praxeology. Oslo, 1983, ed. and co-author.
• Ord (Words), Oslo, 1984.
• Manuscripts on Rationality, Bergen, 1984; revised and enlarged version Bergen, 1992.
• Objektivitetsproblemet i vitskapane (Problem of Objectivity in Science), Bergen, 1984, ed. and co-author.
• Til Djevelens forsvar og andre essays (In Defence of the Devil, and other essays), Bergen, 1987.
• Die pragmatische Wende, Frankfurt a. M., 1987, co-ed. and co-author.
• Modernitet - rasjonalisering og differensiering (Modernity - Rationalization and Differentiation), Bergen, 1988, ed. and co-author.
• Vernunft und Verantwortung, Bergen, 1992.
• Kulturell modernitet og vitskapleg rasjonalitet (Cultural Modernity and Scientific Rationality), Bergen, 1992.
• Eco-Philosophical Manuscripts, Bergen, 1992.
• The Commercial Ark. A Book on Ecology, Evolution and Ethics, co-ed. and co-author, Oslo, 1992.
• Geschichte der Philosophie, Frankfurt a. M., 1993, together with Nils Gilje.
• Rationalité et Modernité, Paris, 1993.
• Rationality and Modernity, Essays in Pragmatic Philosophy, Oslo/Oxford, 1993.
• The Notion of Sustainability, Oslo, 1994, co-ed. and co-author.
• Philosophy Beyond Borders. An Anthology of Norwegian Philosophy, co-ed. and co-author, Bergen, 1997.
• Vit og vitskap. Postmodernistisk ord-bok om modernitetens babelske forvirring (Wisdom and science. Postmodernist word-book on the great confusion of modernity), Bergen, 1998.
• Une praxéologie de la modernité. Universalité et contextualité de la raison discursive, Paris 1999.
• Øko-etikk (Eco-Ethics), Bergen 1999.
• A History of Western Thought, together with Nils Gilje, London 2001.
• Modernitetens makt og avmakt. Vitskapsteoretiske perspektiv på kunnskap og makt, Oslo 2002.
• On Pragmatics – Contributions to Current Debates, ed. and co-author, Bergen 2002.
• Undringa (Wonder), philosophical essays, Oslo 2002.
• Praxeologie der Moderne, Weilerswist 2002.
• Reflexion und Verantwortung. Auseinadersetzungen mit Karl-Otto Apel (Festschrift), co-ed. and co-author, Frankfurt a. M. 2003.
• Striden om sanningen (The Fight over Truth), ed., Gothenburg, 2004.
• Den filosofiske uroa (The philosophical restlessness), Oslo 2005.
• Religion, Modernity, and Rationality, Bergen, 2006.
• Timely Thoughts, Lanham 2007, also Chinese version.
• Rasjonalitet og modernitet, Oslo 2009.
• Une histoire de la philosophie occidentale, together with Nils Gilje, Paris 2010.

External links

• Gunnar Skirbekk's Homepage