Jan-Christoph Heilinger

Employment

Since 2023: Chair for Practical Philosophy, Witten/Herdecke University

Since 2014: Permanent Visiting Professor (professeur invité en philosophie), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université d’Etat, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

2020–2023: Lecturer and researcher in Philosophy/Applied Ethics at RWTH Aachen University

2013–2020: Academic Director of the Munich Center for Ethics (until 2019) and lecturer in philosophy at LMU München, Department of Philosophy (until 2020)

2010–2013: Postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Zurich (Center for Ethics), Switzerland

2004–2010: Researcher and scientific coordinator of two research projects at Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Berlin

2003–2004: Editor’s assistant at De Gruyter publishers, Berlin

Visiting research stays abroad: Rutgers University (2023), The New School for Social Research (2020), University of Sydney and the University of Auckland (2017), ENS Paris (2012), NYU (2011), Columbia University (2009), University of Zurich (2008)

Education

2016: Habilitation (venia legendi: Philosophie), LMU Munich: “Global relational equality. Moral cosmopolitanism in a pragmatic perspective”

2010: Dr. phil. ("summa cum laude"), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: “Anthropologie und Ethik des Enhancements”

2003: M.A. ("mit Auszeichnung") in philosophy, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

1998–2003: Studying philosophy at the universities of Cologne, Paris (Paris-IV Sorbonne and Paris-X Nanterre) and Berlin (Humboldt)

Monographs

• Cosmopolitan Responsibility. Global Justice, Relational Equality, and Individual Agency. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2020.
• Anthropologie und Ethik des Enhancements. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter 2010.

Edited volumes/special issues (selection)

• Sustainable AI as an Oxyomoron. With Hendrik Kempt and Lauren Goodlad. Special issue in Critical AI (in preparation for 2024).
• Philip Kitcher: Moral Progress. With commentaries by Rahel Jaeggi, Susan Neiman and Amia Srinivasan. Edited and introduced by Jan-Christoph Heilinger. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press (2021).
• Global Justice and Structural Injustice: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives. Special Issue in Journal of Social Philosophy 52/2 (co-edited with Ryoa Chung, Lisa Eckenwiler, Verina Wild).
• Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration. Berlin/Boston 2019 (co-ed. with S. Karly Kehoe/Eva Alisic). [video]
• Moral, Wissenschaft und Wahrheit. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2016 (co-ed. with Julian Nida-Rümelin).
• Der Pragmatismus als Theorie globaler Gerechtigkeit. Schwerpunkt der Deutschen Zeitschrift für Philosophie 2016/5 (co-edited with Michael Festl).
• Anthropologie und Ethik. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2015 (co-ed. with Julian Nida-Rümelin).
• The Philosophy of Human Rights. Contemporary Controversies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2012 (co-ed. with Gerhard Ernst).
• Book series: Humanprojekt – Interdisziplinäre Anthropologie (managing series-editor, co-editors: Detlev Ganten, Volker Gerhardt, Julian Nida-Rümelin): 19 volumes since 2007.

Articles (selection)

• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph, Hendrik Kempt, and Saskia Nagel (2023): Beware of Sustainable AI! Uses and Abuses of a Worthy Goal. In: AI and Ethics (online first).
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2022): The ethics of AI ethics. A constructive critique. In: Philosophy & Technology (online first).
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Venkatapuram, Sridhar/Voss, Maike/Wild, Verina (2022): Realizing justice in the coordinated global coronavirus response. In: Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric 13/02, 21–40.
• Wild, Verina/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Thompson, Alison (2022): Covid-19 und Public-Health-Ethik. Gerechtigkeit ernst nehmen. In: Public Health Forum 30/1.
• Kempt, Hendrik/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Nagel, Saskia K. (2022): “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Doctor”: Meaningful Disagreements with AI in Medical Contexts. In: AI & Society (online first).
• Kempt, Hendrik/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Nagel, Saskia K. (2022). Relative Explainability and Double Standards in Medical Decision Making. In: Ethics and Information Technology (online first).
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2021): Individual responsibility and global structural injustice. Towards an ethos of cosmopolitan responsibility. In: Journal of Social Philosophy 52/2, 185–200.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2021): Democratic Contractualism: Philip Kitcher’s Pragmatic Account of Moral Progress. In: Philip Kitcher: Moral Progress. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
• Schröder-Bäck, Peter/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Wild, Verina (2020): Ethik in den Gesundheitswissenschaften. In: Oliver Razum, Petra Kolip (eds.): Handbuch Gesundheitswissenschaften. Weinheim: Beltz/Juventa, 192–211.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2019): Newcomer integration, individual agency, and responsibility. In: S. Karly Kehoe/Eva Alisic/Jan-Christoph Heilinger (eds.): Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2019, 131–147.
• Branford, Jason/Parisi, Eva/Grahle, André/Muth, Max/Wild, Verina/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2019): Cyberhate against academics. In: S. Karly Kehoe/Eva Alisic/Jan-Christoph Heilinger (eds.): Responsibility for Refugee and Migrant Integration. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 205–225.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2018): Die Grenzen des Menschen. In: Der neue Mensch. Schriftenreihe Band 10247. Hg. von der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn, 97–106.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2017): Individuelle moralische Verantwortung im globalen Kontext. Bin ich verantwortlich für den Klimawandel? In: Jahrbuch Praktische Philosophie in globaler Perspektive 2017, 264–286.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Müller, Oliver/Sample, Matthew (2017): Changing human nature. The ethical challenge of biotechnological interventions on humans. In: Thomas Schramme et al. (eds.): Springer Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine, vol. 2. Berlin: Springer, 1061–1076.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2016): Zwei Ideale globaler Gleichheit. In: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie (5), 757–767.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2016): Enhancement und Gerechtigkeit. In: Anna Goppel/Corinna Mieth/Christian Neuhäuser (eds.): Handbuch Gerechtigkeit. Stuttgart: Metzler, 372–374.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Müller, Oliver (2016): Der Cyborg. Anthropologische und ethische Überlegungen. In: Arne Manzeschke/Fabian Karsch (eds.): Roboter, Computer und Hybride. Was ereignet sich zwischen Menschen und Maschinen? Baden-Baden: Nomos, 47–66.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2016): Konflikte in der Ethik. Anmerkungen aus pragmatistischer Perspektive. In: Julian Nida-Rümelin/Jan-Christoph Heilinger (eds.): Moral, Wissenschaft und Wahrheit. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 145–159.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2015): Mensch, Weltbürger. Über Anspruch und Umsetzbarkeit des moralischen Kosmopolitismus. In: Jan-Christoph Heilinger/Julian Nida-Rümelin (eds.): Anthropologie und Ethik. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 113–134.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph/Pogge, Thomas (2015): Globale Gerechtigkeit. In: Julian Nida-Rümelin/Irina Spiegel/Markus Tiedemann (eds.): Philosophie und Lehre. Paderborn: Schöningh, 304–312.
• Johann Roduit/Jan-Christoph Heilinger/Holger Baumann (2015): Ideas of perfection and the ethics of human enhancement. In: Bioethics 29 (9), 622–630.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2015): Contemporary cosmopolitanism and elements of its history. In: Telegdi-Csetri, Aron (ed.): Problematizing cosmopolitanism. Cluj-Napoca: Argonaut 2015, 53–81.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2014): Anthropological arguments in the ethical debate about human enhancement. In: Humana mente. Journal of Philosophical Studies, 26, 95–116.
• Wild, Verina/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2013): Cosmopolitanism within borders: A normative foundation for health care for asylum seekers? In: American Journal of Bioethics 13 (7), 17–19.
• Roduit, Johann/Baumann, Holger/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2013): Human Enhancement and Perfection. In: Journal of Medical Ethics 39 (10), 647–650.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2013): Normative anthropologische Argumente und Human Enhancement. In: Studia philosophica 72 (1), 272–284.
• Slaby, Jan/Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2013): Lost in phenospace? Questioning the claims of popular neuroscience. In: Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy 1 (2), 83–100.
• Heilinger, Jan-Christoph (2012): The moral demandingness of socioeconomic human rights. In: Gerhard Ernst/Jan-Christoph Heilinger (eds.): The Philosophy of Human Rights. Contemporary Controversies. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2012, 185–208.

Policy papers

• Pandemic policy-making under conditions of uncertainty (co-authored with Christian Munthe and Verina Wild). 2021 Policy brief for the Kompetenznetz Public Health COVID-19.
• Ethical principles for the Coronavirus Global Response. Ethical guidance for the development of fast and equitable access to safe, quality, effective and affordable diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19 (co-authored with Sridhar Venkatapuram, Maike Voss and Verina Wild). 2020 Policy brief for the Kompetenznetz Public Health COVID-19.
• Public Health Ethics and COVID-19. The ethical dimensions of public health decision-making during a pandemic (co-authored with Alison Thompson and Verina Wild). 2020 Policy brief for the Kompetenznetz Public Health COVID-19.
• Global Individual Responsibility: The Role of the Citizen in Refugee Integration (co-authored with S. Karly Kehoe, Eva Alisic, Jennifer Plaul). 2019 Conference report and policy recommendations. Online report for the Global Young Academy.

Jan-Christoph Heilinger forscht und lehrt im Bereich der angewandten Ethik/angewandten politischen Philosophie und ihrer theoretischen Grundlagen. Seine Arbeit ist häufig disziplinenübergreifend und blickt regelmäßig über den wissenschaftlichen Kontext hinaus. Beeinflusst von der Aufklärungsphilosophie, dem amerikanischen Pragmatismus und der zeitgenössischen feministischen und intersektionalen politischen Philosophie sind seine Arbeiten den Idealen der relationalen Gleichheit und (globalen) Gerechtigkeit verpflichtet.

I work in the field of practical philosophy. My research is characterised by the ambition to identify practical problems, to undertake conceptual analysis of the underlying philosophical and ethical issues, and to contribute to developing responses that advance knowledge and contribute to practice. This approach draws upon both my philosophical training and my collaboration with practitioners and experts from different disciplines. My work is inspired in particular by the Enlightenment tradition, American pragmatism, and contemporary feminist and intersectional political philosophy; it is committed to the ideals of relational equality and (global) justice.

Sprechstunde nach Vereinbarung / office hours by appointment

I am interested particularly in applied ethics/applied political philosophy (climate change, environmental ethics and public health ethics, digital technologies/AI and human enhancement); the theory and practice of global ethics, relational justice and responsibility; and methods of ethical decision making in practical contexts.

My teaching and thesis supervision centres on these questions, too. It aspires to support students in gaining knowledge and skills, to analyse and understand the complex ethical challenges of our time and to contribute to overcoming them by making use of philosophical and ethical insights.

I am supervising students and scholars – BA, MA, PhD – in the field of practical philosophy. I particularly welcome expressions of interest for supervision in the field of my research expertise as outlined above.

Zum Lehrstuhl für Praktische Philosophie