German researcher is a reference in medieval philosophy, metaphysics and ethics
Ludger Honnefelder was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from PUCRS.
Photos: Bruno Todeschini / PUCRS
Philosopher and researcher Ludger Honnefelder, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Bonn (Germany), was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from PUCRS, on Wednesday, Oct 4. The degree, suggested by the School of Humanities, has been awarded in recognition of Honnefelder’s work, who is an international reference, having published several articles on medieval philosophy, metaphysics and ethics. Such articles have influenced professors in several countries, especially in Europe and Latin America. The ceremony occurred in the auditorium of building 9 of the Main Campus (avenida Ipiranga, 6681 – Porto Alegre), and counted on several academic authorities and the Consul General of Germany for Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Stefan Traumann.
Dr Roberto Pich, professor of the Graduate Program in Philosophy, , claimed that “Honnefelder has noticed a unique contribution to complement the modern sense of deontological ethics in several studies on ethics, in Baroque scholasticism and in modern philosophy. Such contribution draws on influences from Immanuel Kant and is in line with the contemporary discourse on human rights and duties of universal appeal”. Pich went on to commend on Honnefelder’s power to conceive ideas and head institutions, such as the Institute for Science and Ethics at the University of Bonn (Germany), “which has disrupted the perspective of ethics, in the philosophers’ view, on major issues of applied ethics and legislation in Germany and in Europe”. He also mentioned the individual qualities of researchers, especially their ability to “establish fruitful bonds with their peers”.
During his speech, Dr Honnenfelder revisited professor Pich’s research, which was made possible as a consequence of the long-lasting partnership with PUCRS. “The cooperation in research has become particularly intense, because of professor Roberto Pich’s internship at Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which took the project to Scholastica colonialis”. The project includes many institutions and professionals all over Latin America, and “has revealed, over its six years of existence, what one could suspect but could not be sure: the status of philosophy, theology and law, at the youngest universities in the New World, and how its prestige was acquired”.
The President of PUCRS Br. Evilázio Teixeira commended the quality of Honnenfelder’s works and his academic legacy “for having instructed hundreds of researchers and professors who are now in prominent figures of reference in universities all over the world”. He also added that the challenge of ethics is of utmost importance to Honnefelder, as he said that “the modern subject and metaphysics crises reveal several questions that need to be addressed, which includes philosophy as a field of knowledge, the definition of truth, up to more contemporary issues permeated by an ontology of the detriment of the fragility of reason”, concluded he.
Ludger Honnefelder is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Bonn (Germany). He has served as professor at the University of Trier and at the Free University of Berlin. He has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in Düsseldorf, since 1989, and Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Innsbruck (Austria). His most recent work is Im Spannungsfeld von Ethik und Religion / The tension between ethics and religion (translation), 2014.
The Honorary degree is awarded to people in view of their expertise and contribution to arts, sciences, philosophy, languages or even to a better understanding between peoples. It is a degree that is highly valued in the academia, awarded to people who embody such qualities.
