After studies in philosophy, history, and political science at the University of Göttingen and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), I obtained my PhD in 2007 from Marburg University. Before joining ICREA in 2014, I held positions at Marburg (1995-2000); UCSD (2000), the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences & Humanities (2001-2005), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (2005-2009), and the Dept. of Philosophy, UAB (Ramón y Cajal Scholar, 2009-2014). I am also a member of the IHC (UAB), the LOGOS group (UB), the Kant-edition at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences & Humanities, and Associate Research Fellow at the Wundt Center for Philosophy & History of Psychology, Universidade Federal Juiz de Fora (Brazil). From 2019-2021, I was Head of the Kantian Rationality Lab at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad. In 2019, I also became elected member of the Academia Europea.
Research interests
How is rationality understood in philosophy and the human sciences? How should it be understood? What is its function in various domains? These are the guiding questions for my research, which comprises topics reaching from early modern philosophy - esp. Immanuel Kant's philosophy - up to current discussions at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences. I study aspects of reason in Kant's philosophy, especially in relation to the sciences; I discuss psychological and philosophical theories of rationality and reasoning, past and present; and I study the potentials of such theories in politics, ethics, and education. I am moreover interested in the philosophy of knowledge, mind, and science. Methodologically, I combine tools of analytic philosophy and history of science and philosophy: I am unconvinced by widespread opinions according to which they cannot, or should not, be integrated.
Selected publications
- Sturm T 2024, 'The fifth EU freedom: Why and how to develop the “freedom of knowledge", European Review, 32, pp. 1-19.
- Sturm T, Meer R 2024, 'Kant on the many uses of reason in the sciences: A neglected topic' Studies in history and philosophy of science', 106, pp. 54-59.
- Sturm T, Meer R, eds., 2024, "The uses of reason in Kantian philosophy of science", Special Issue, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.
Selected research activities
2023-2027 PI, Critical Reasoning, Philosophy at Secondary Schools, and the Education of Democratic Citizens –Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project PID2022-141952NB-I00
2023- Advisory Board Member, Institute de Philosophie Indépendent (IPHI), Paris
2021- Member, Spanish-German Scientific Network, German Embassy in Spain, Madrid
2019- Member, Academia Europaea
2021-2024 Mercator Fellow, Rationality as Pragmatic Worldly Prudence (DFG project no. 449581114), Goethe University Frankfurt
2019- Member, LOGOS Research Group, UB
2017- Co-editor, New Academy edition of Part I, “Works” of Kant’s Collected Writings; PI: V. Gerhardt, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences & Humanities – DFG project GE 657/16-1
Invited talks at Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Halle University; Goethe University, Frankfurt; Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin; Vienna Academy of Science
Conference organization:
Kant and the Education towards Freedom - Public debate series, Ateneu Barcelonès, Oct 2024, co-organized with the Goethe Institute Barcelona & the Consulate General of Germany - https://www.goethe.de/ins/es/es/ver.cfm?event_id=25890066
Education towards Rationality - Summer Conference of Max Planck Institute for Human Development-ABC Group, co-organized with S. Hafenbrädl & G. Gigerenzer, Barcelona, June 2024
Director of 3 ongoing PhD theses
Editorial Board Member, History of Philosophy and Science (DeGruyter book series)