Dr. Rudolf Meer

Office hours

by arrangement

Rudolf Meer defended his PhD with distinction on November 17, 2017. After a post-doc position at the University of Graz, he was a Marie Curie STAR fellow at the University of Siegen. Since March 2024, Rudolf Meer is the PI of the DFG-funded project Alois Riehl’s Critical Realism: Spatial and Temporal Foundations of Science (project number: 521640504).

Much of his recent work and work in progress centers on the history of philosophical ideas and philosophical analysis of science: especially on the sources of scientific philosophy. This work focuses here on finding links between the 18^th and 19^th century. In recent papers, he has examined the historical impact of Maupertuis’ principle of least action, the development of psycho-physical monism, a qualified realism based on Kant and the relationship between Mach and Riehl.

In addition to his 2018 book Der transzendentale Grundsatz der Vernunft, Meer has written many articles, details of which can be found here and in his ORCID-account. One of his most notable contributions to the profession is his editing work, in particular the special issues The Uses of Reason in Kantian Philosophy of Science in the journal Studies in History and Philosophy of Science and Kant's Transcendental Dialectic: A Re-Evaluation in the journal Open Philosophy. He is the editor of Alois Riehl's Philosophical Criticism (Meiner 2023), and co-edited the collection Kant in Österreich (de Gruyter 2021) and Konzepte der Einbildungskraft (de Gruyter 2019).

Meer has a very active speaking career, nationally and internationally. He has been a featured speaker at the Conference of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2021, 2024), an invited speaker at the Kant-Conference in Oslo, Vienna, Bonn (2015, 2019, 2024), and an invited speaker at multiple venues, notably the LMU, Trier Kant-Colloquium, and the KU Leuven. He has given about 40 talks overall.

Publications (selection) 

• Der transzendentale Grundsatz der Vernunft. Funktion und Struktur des Anhangs zur Transzendentalen Dialektik der Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter (Studies on Kant. Supplement Issues 207) 2018/19. [2nd edition as paperback, Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 2020] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110623611.
   
• “Die Raum- und Zeitlehre Alois Riehls im Kontext realistischer Interpretationen von Kants transzendentalem Idealismus”. Kant-Studien 113,3 (2022), 459–486. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/kant-2021-0031.
   
• (with Josef Hlade) “Zwischen Universitätsreformen und katholischer Renaissance. Alois Riehl und die Nachfolge Ernst Machs”. Grazer Philosophische Studien (2022), 293–328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18756735-00000159. 
   
• (with Thomas Sturm) “The Uses of Reason in Kantian Philosophy of Science”. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (2022). URL: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science / The Uses of Reason in Kantian Philosophy of Science / ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier.
   
• Alois Riehl: Der Philosophische Kritizismus und seine Bedeutung für die positiven Wissenschaften. Bd. 1: Geschichte und Methode des philosophischen Kritizismus. Ed. by Rudolf Meer. Hamburg: Meiner (Philosophische Bibliothek) 2023. URL: https://meiner.de/philosophische-bibliothek/der-philosophische-kritizismus-und-seine-bedeutung-fur-die-positive-wissenschaft.html.     
   
• “Heuristisch legitimierte Grundsätze der Vernunft und ideell interpretierte Vernunftideen. Zur Funktion der wissenschaftstheoretischen Beispiele des ersten Teils des Anhangs zur Transzendentalen Dialektik der Kritik der reinen Vernunft”. Con-Textos Kantianos 11 (2020), 55–91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3865124.
   
• “The Principle of the Transcendental Deduction. The First Section of the Deduction of the Pure Concepts of the Understanding and its Relation to the Subsequent Section(s)”. Revista de Estudios Kantianos 4 (2019), 44–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7203/REK.4.1.14339.
   
• (with Josef Hlade) “Alois Riehl – Leben, Werk und Wirkung”. In: Rudolf Meer, Giuseppe Motta (eds.): Kant in Österreich. Alois Riehl und der Weg zum kritischen Realismus. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter (Meinong-Studies) 2021, 3-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110747379-001.

Vita

• Since 03/2024: PI of the DFG-funded project Alois Riehl’s Critical Realism: Spatial and Temporal Foundations of Science (No. 521640504), Chair of Philosophy and History of Science, Ruhr University Bochum
   
• 06/2023–03/2024: Marie Curie STAR Fellow, Department of Mathematics, University of Siegen
   
• 11/2022: Max Kade Fellowship (awarded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences) for one year at Virginia Tech, USA
   
• 03/2020–10/2022: Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for the History of Science, University of Graz
   
• 12/2019–11/2021: Senior Researcher in the project Kantian Rationality and its Impact in Contemporary Science, Technology, and Social Institutions (No. 2019-220-07-5933), Academia Kantiana, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
   

Further Information

Personal Website: Rudolf Meer (https://rudolf-meer.com/)

Austrian Academy of Science: Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften
(oeaw.ac.at)