Specialist areas

Philosophy sees itself as a science of reflection. Its task is to reflect on the fundamental concepts and procedures of everyday and scientific understanding of the world. Philosophy achieves this by explicating and systematizing the relevant strategies of justification and explanation as well as the corresponding claims to meaning and knowledge. In doing so, philosophy has developed a subject-specific identity as well as subject-specific quality standards for research and teaching.

Philosophy is distinguished from other disciplines by the fact that the history of the subject falls within its own scientific-systematic remit. On the one hand, it is one of the tasks of the subject to constantly re-explore its own tradition - in other words, to reconstruct it as philosophy. On the other hand, it is one of the methods of philosophical research to explicate its systematic questions in constant confrontation with tradition. This twofold reference to tradition is only possible in constant contact with philosophical-historical research. The interdisciplinary orientation of Kassel Philosophy makes it impossible to tear apart the connection between the history of philosophy and the history of science.

The structural and content-related profile of the Institute of Philosophy corresponds to the traditional systematics of the subject, which is oriented towards the objects and forms of research. It encompasses theoretical and practical philosophy, aesthetic theory and philosophy of language as well as the history of philosophy. In addition to its interdisciplinary orientation, the outlined self-image of the subject corresponds to a close interweaving of systematic and historical aspects of philosophical research and teaching.