apl. Prof. Dr. Thomas Zwenger

Personal information

Schooling and Abitur in Munich.

Studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. Studied Philosophy, Literature and Indology at the University of Munich (Philosophy classes with H. Krings, H. M. Baumgartner, A. Dempf, W. Stegmüller, R. Spaemann, R. Lauth, O. Höffe, M. Müller).

1976 MA. Master thesis title: "Die Kategorien der Freiheit in Kants Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft und die Probleme ihrer Interpretierbarkeit" [The Categories of Freedom in Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Problems of Their Interpretability].

1978-1982 Training in psychotherapy (Psychodrama Stuttgart); worked as a psychotherapist and communication coach until 1984.

Doctoral studies in Philosophy, History, Psychology, and Sociology at Gießen, Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Oxford (Philosophy classes with H. M. Baumgartner, O. Marquard, K.-O. Apel, D. Henrich, A. Kenny, D. Davidson).

Doctoral scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.

1989 Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Gießen. Dissertation title: "Handlung als konstitutives Moment von Geschichten. Transzendentalphilosophische Kritik handlungstheoretischer Modelle des Handlungsbegriffs" [Action as a Constitutive Moment of Histories. Transcendental Philosophy's Critique of Action-Theoretic Models of the Concept of Action].

2008 Habilitation at the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies at LMU Munich with a thesis on the foundations of philosophy of history.

Married since 1972; four (adult) daughters, three granddaughters.

Specialisms

Research

• Transcendental philosophy
• Historiology
• German idealism
• Metaphysics
• Analytic philosophy
• Philosophy of history
• "Philosophy and science fiction"

Teaching

• Modern theoretical philosophy
• Philosophy of history and of the state (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel)
• Ancient philosophy (Plato, Aristotle)
• Introductory courses on formal logic and epistemology
• Special courses on historiology and on science fiction