Carola Freiin von Villiez
Professor of Philosophy
University of Bergen
Research interests:
- Philosophy of Law
- Political Philosophy
- Ethics
- History of Philosophy: Enlightenment (esp. Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith), John Rawls
- Normative foundations of International Law
Current projects:
National sovereignty and self-determination of peoples: international law, normative foundations, discourse
Funding: Interdisciplinary Centre for Humanities Studies, rectorate of the University of Bergen (2019)
The principle of national sovereignty is widely acknowledged to be the birth-norm of international law. Its nature, legitimate extent and implications for the generation as well as execution of both national and international law can, however, be properly assessed only in connection with the principle of self-determination. Where the former is the birth-norm, the latter must be considered its grounding, indeed, its basic norm. The project seeks to analyse the factual, juridical and normative relationship between national sovereignty and self-determination in international law, in Immanuel Kant's writings on philosophy of law and political philosophy as well as in current popular discourse.
Friendship: concept, normative theory and practice
Funding: DAAD/NFR programme Personal Project Partnership (2017/18)
Friendship is part of our daily experience and, since antiquity, also an ideal of an accomplished life. While it remains constitutive of genuinely human life, its normative conception has changed. The project seeks to discern and analyse these changes in the concept, normative theory and practice of friendship.
CV
Prof. Dr. phil. Carola Freiin von Villiez
Current Position
- Since 10.2012
- Professor of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway
Career History
- 12.2008-12.2011
- Director of the Ethics Programme (Professor) University of Oslo (on leave from UDE)
- 04.2007-10.2012
- Professor of "Philosophy/Practical Philosophy with an emphasis on Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, History of Philosophy" and Head of the Department of Philosophy (07.2007-11.2008), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
- Juli./Okt. 2008
- Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN), University of Oslo
- Aug./Sept. 2007
- Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN), University of Oslo
- 2003-04.2007
- Wissenschaftliche Assistentin (equiv. Associate Professor), Department of Philosophy, University of Bremen, Germany
- 2000-2003
- Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (equiv. Lecturer), Department of Philosophy, University of Bremen, Germany
Academic Record
- 2006
- Habilitation in Philosophy: University of Bremen, Germany.
Habilitationsschrift: Dimensionen der Unparteilichkeit - Adam Smith auf der Suche nach dem moralischen Standpunkt [Dimensions of Impartiality - Adam Smith's Quest for the Moral Standpoint].
Colloquium: "Pflichten gegen sich selbst? Kritische Erörterung einer These Immanuel Kants" [On Kant's thesis of "duties against oneself"] Bremen (July 2006)
- 2001
- Dr. Phil. in Philosophy: University of Bremen, Germany
Thesis: Grenzen der Gerechtigkeit? Zur Begründung eines transnationalen Legitimationsgrundsatzes [Borders of Justice? A Principle of Transnational Legitimation]
- 2000
- M.A. in Philosophy and Political Science: University of Bremen, Germany. Thesis: John Rawls' Theory of Justice - A Critical Discussion
Areas of Specialisation
- Philosophy of Law
- Political Philosophy
- Ethics
- History of Philosophy: Enlightenment (esp. Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith), John Rawls
- Normative foundations of International Law
My full CV can be downloaded here.
Cooperation with Germany
DAAD/NFR programme Personal Project Partnership (PPP), 2017/18
"Friendship: concept, normative theory and practice"
Scientific aims:
Friendship is part of our daily experience and, since antiquity, also an ideal of an accomplished life. While it remains constitutive of genuinely human life, its normative conception has changed. Not only its commonalities or differences with emotions such as love or brotherhood, but also the expectations towards friends and towards oneself as a friend have undergone a radical change. On this presumption, the project has four goals.
- Conceptual clarification: The concept of friendship supplies the elements that belong to any form of friendship, while conceptions of friendship (an ideal of friendship or mere norms) determine that which may or should belong to a friendship.
- Comparison of the contemporary idea of friendship with the ancient and classical ideal: the friend is another self; the ideal is a common basic will and a common basic outlook.
- Analysis of the increasing differentiation of friendship: Many forms and norms of the contemporary experience of friendship challenge the general validity of this assumption.
- Investigation of the rise of alternative ideals of friendship, which ground on the negation of this premise.
Project managers:
I am a member of AcademiaNet since 06.08.2013, by nomination through the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. AcademiaNet is a database of profiles of excellent female researchers from all disciplines.
