History of the Chair
The Chair of Theoretical Philosophy has existed in its current form since the Institute of Philosophy was reestablished in 1992. For more information on the long history of philosophy at TU Dresden, which dates back to the establishment of the first chair of philosophy in 1871, please visit the Institute’s Profile and History page.
The Holders of the Chair
The first chairholder, from October 1992 to September 2020, was Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schönrich. He came to Dresden after many years of teaching at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a temporary appointment as chairholder at Chemnitz-Zwickau University of Technology. His work focused primarily on Kant, the theory of normativity, semiotics, and epistemic values.
From October 2020 to September 2025, Prof. Dr. Moritz Schulz held the Chair. After studying mathematics and philosophy in Hamburg and Oxford, earning his doctorate at Humboldt University in Berlin, and holding positions in Barcelona, Tübingen, and Hamburg, he moved to Dresden. His research combined epistemology and decision theory with the philosophy of language and philosophical logic. In October 2025, he accepted a position at Saarland University.
The Chair is currently vacant and is being filled on an interim basis.
Research at the Chair
Under Gerhard Schönrich, the focus was initially on the ontology and semiotics of institutions: From 1997 to 2008, the Chair participated in the subproject “Semiotics of Institutions / Ontology of Institutions” within the DFG Collaborative Research Center 537 “Institutionality and Historicity.” Later, the focus shifted to epistemology, for example with the DFG projects “Analysis and Explanation of Epistemic Values” (2012–2015) and “A Multidimensional Theory of Wisdom.”
With Moritz Schulz, the connection between epistemology and decision theory was added. Based at the Chair were, among other things, the DFG’s Emmy Noether Junior Research Group “Decisions and Knowledge” as well as projects on the concept of acceptance and on opinion formation in epistemic networks.
Dresden Reports in Theoretical Philosophy and Philosophical Logic
From 2001 to 2012, Gerhard Schönrich and Heinrich Wansing—the latter holder of the now-defunct Chair of Theoretical Philosophy and Logic—published the preprint series “Dresden Reports on Theoretical Philosophy and Philosophical Logic” (ISSN 1613-1762). The series is no longer in publication; the published issues remain accessible.