The POLY Research Group will organise a series of public lectures during the winter term of 2025/26 at Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Bad Homburg. Outstanding researchers from disciplines other than history will share their insights to enrich our historical perspectives. The second lecture will be delivered by Professor Petra Gehring (Technische Universität Darmstadt).

About the Talk

The keynote discusses modern concepts of time. It builds on the distinction proposed by philosopher Han Blumenberg between worldtime—which tends to be continuous and infinite—and lifetime, which is marked by breaks and the fact of mortality. These two measures of time, or rather perspectives on time, are in tension with each other, according to Blumenberg. The keynote assumes that modern concepts of time seek to answer the question of existence in order to resolve these tensions. In concrete, three paradigms are discussed: that of life, that of a reality of „sense“ (i.e. of cultural meaning systems) and that of narration.

About the Speaker

Petra Gehring is Professor of Philosophy at Technische Universität Darmstadt. Her research areas include, among other things, the philosophical history of concepts as well as questions concerning the performativity of signs, voice, text, and sound. In addition, she works on issues related to biotechnologies, digitality, and digital infrastructures. She is co-editor of several academic journals, including the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, and serves on various committees, such as the Council for Information Infrastructures of the Joint Science Conference of the German Federal and State Governments, which she has chaired since 2017. Since April 2020, Petra Gehring has been the managing founding director of the Hessian Center for Responsible Digitalization.

The keynote will be streamed live via Zoom for remote participants: https://uni-frankfurt.zoom-x.de/j/63205330076?pwd=ayNeFdktPpfhK4e8KqyZ5So5NM0GBv.1