Curriculum Vitae
| 1943 | born in Leobschütz (Oberschlesien); |
| 1950-1962 | School attendance in Herzebrock, Münster/Westf. and Dortmund; |
| 1962-1964 | Military service (Lieutenant of the Reserve); |
| 1964-1970 | As scholarship holder from German National Academic Foundation, studies in philosophy, theology, history and sociology in Münster, Tübingen, Saarbrücken and Munich; |
| 1970 | Earning a doctorate in philosophy („summa cum laude“: LMU Munich); |
| 1970-1971 | Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York; |
| 1971-1976 | Assistant professor; |
| 1974/1975 | Postdoctoral lecture qualification in philosophy; |
| 1976/1977 | Chair of philosophy at the University of Duisburg; |
| 1978 | Chair of Ethics and Social Philosophy and Director of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Freiburg/Switzerland, teaching in German and French; also lecturing Philosophy of Law in the Faculty of Jurisprudence; |
| 1985-1986 | Former Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin; |
| Since 1992 | Chair of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen; |
| Since 1994 | Director of the by himself newly founded Research Center for Political Philosophy; |
| Since 2002 | Permanent visiting professor for Philosophy of Law at the University of Sankt Gallen; Refused offers of chairs of philosophy at the Humboldt University zu Berlin and at the University of Zürich. |
Guest professor or visiting fellow at Harvard University, St. Louis University, the Japanese Science Foundation, the Alcatel SEL Stiftungskolleg at the University of Stuttgart, the Aquinas-Foundation (New York), the National Endowments for Humanities, the Historische Kolleg München (Institute for Advanced Stuy) and the Universities of Basel, Bern, Klagenfurt, Lausanne, Luzern, Sankt Gallen, Zürich as well as the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich.
Catedra de Excelencia at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2013).
Award of the Prize of the Egnér-Foundation Zürich in 1992 and the Karl-Vossler-Preis for scientific literature of distinguished literary quality written in German (2002) from the Free State of Bavaria Doctor honoris causa of the University of Porto Allegre (1999) and of the University of Belgrad (2009).
Fellow of the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, fellow and senator of the German National Academy: Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (since 2008 spokesperson of the section Cultural Sciences, www.leopoldina.org); sole international fellow of the Teheran Academy for Philosophy and Sagacity; Membro académico honorario of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Santiago de Chile; fellow of the Collegium Europaeum Jenense; Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia (Riga); Honorary Fellow of the Association of World Citizens (Paris), Swiss Section; Member of the brasilian Kant-Society Sociedade Kant Brasileira.
President of the Swiss Ethics Commission NEK-CNE (www.nek-cne.ch).
Member of the academic advisory council of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung; Member of the zentrale Ethikkommission der Deutschen Bundesärztekammer (1997- 2000); Member of the selection commitee of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (1996-2007).
Member of the Editorial Board of: Applied Philosophy, Ars Interpretandi, Cuadernos de Etica, Dialogo Cientifico, Hobbes Studies, Internationales Jahrbuch für Rechtsphilosophie und Gesetzgebung, IRIS European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate, International Journal of Applied Philosophy, Jahrbuch politisches Denken, Jahrbuch für Wissenschaft und Ethik, Kantian Review, Philosophie – Ethik, Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia del Diritto, Zeitschrift für Politik (until 2001).
Philosophical master classes:
- „Bourgeois – Citoyen – Cosmopolite: Bürger in einer globalen Welt“, Forschungsinstitut für Philosophie Universität Hannover, 17.-31.3. 2003
- „Aufklärung. Ihr Verhältnis zu Religion, Freiheit und Demokratie“, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, 26.-29. Mai 2010