The philosophical subproject is devoted to a foundational philosophical reflection on the overarching theme of the Research Unit.

After the subproject in the first funding period examined the relationship between the temporality of life and its success or fulfillment from both an analytic and a phenomenological–existential philosophical perspective, the second funding period will investigate, from the same dual perspective, whether and in what ways individuals depend for their own good life on projects and relationships that transcend their own lives and can be continued or transformed in the future by other people. In this context, the project also considers how such prospective orientations—subsumed under a broad concept of generativity—may shape individuals’ engagement with their own past and their relation to previous generations.

The project is structured into two equally important, parallel, and closely interlinked subprojects:
(a) Starting from the prevailing view that only what falls within an individual’s lifespan is relevant to their good life, the principal investigator of the first funding period, Holmer Steinfath, examines subjectivist and objectivist accounts of the good life from an analytic-ethical perspective with regard to their capacity to contribute to an understanding of the significance of what happens before our birth and, in particular, after our death.
(b) The postdoctoral researcher of the first funding period, Anne Clausen—who will assume joint leadership of the project together with Holmer Steinfath in the second funding period—develops an independent philosophical conception of generativity drawing on phenomenological and existential philosophical approaches. Her work focuses on the existential significance of birth, the asymmetry of intergenerational relationships, and the temporal self-relation of the generative individual.

As in the first funding period, the insights gained are intended, on the one hand, to contribute to a better understanding of possible interrelations between medical innovations and the way individuals relate to their own lifetime. On the other hand, these insights are to be sharpened, modified, and, if necessary, revised through engagement with observations from the three fields of medical practice that serve as exemplary reference points for the Research Unit.

The subproject is based at the Department of Philosophy at Georg August University of Göttingen.

Senior researchers:

Prof. Dr. Holmer Steinfath
Dr. Anne Clausen

Student Assistant:

Felix Linn