Karim Bschir studied biochemistry and philosophy at the University of Zurich. Since January 2007, he is a research assistant at the Chair for Philosophy at the ETH Zurich. In 2011, he received a PhD in philosophy of science. His current research investigates philosophical implications of scientific uncertainties, and is supported by a Branco Weiss Fellowship.

Karim was a visitor at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation), and a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science at the Leibniz University in Hannover. He is also affiliated with the Collegium Helveticum and an affiliated research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences at California State University Sacramento.

projects

Realism and Scientific Practice (closed)

The Concept of Potentiality in Natural Philosophy

Uncertainty in Science

publications

books

Wissenschaft und Realität – Versuch eines pragmatischen Empirismus, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2012.

articles:

“Free Will From a Grammatical Perspective”. In: Abstract – Ideas, Facts, Fictions, published by W.I.R.E Think Tank of Bank Sarasin & Co. Ltd and Collegium Helveticum, Volume 3, 2010. Republished in German in: S. Achermann, S. Sigrist, B. Varnholt, M. Wannaz, G. Folkers (eds.). Was zählt – 2013. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2012.

Transient or Fundamental? The Code Metaphor in Molecular Biology. In: A. Gleiniger, G. Vrachliotis (eds.). Code – Between Operation and Narration. Birkhäuser, Lepizig, 2010.

Pahlich S, Bschir K, Chiavi C, et al. Different Methylation Characteristics of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 1 and 3 Toward the Ewing Sarcoma Protein and a Peptide. Proteins 61 (1): 164-175, 2005.

encyclopedia entries:

„Dialectics“, „Eristics“, „Elenctics“, „Classification“. In: Stefan Schierholz & Herbert Ernst Wiegand (Eds.), Wörterbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, (work in progrss).

“Teleology”. In: Enzyklopädie Philosophie, Meiner, Hamburg, 2010 (together with Michael Hampe).

reviews:

Harrison et al. Wrestling with Nature – From Omens to Science. In: Annals of Science, 2012.

Stengers, Isabelle. Cosmopolitics I. In: Annals of Science, 2011.

Chalmers, Alan. The Scientist’s Atom and the Philosopher’s Stone – How Science Succeeded and Philosophy Failed to Gain Knowledge of Atoms. In: Annals of Science, 2011.

Boi, Luciano. Symétries, brisures de symétries et complexité. In: Bibliographie de la philosophie, 2007 (German).

Siggen, Michel. L'expérience chez Aristote. In: Bibliographie de la philosophie, 2006 (German).

talks and poster presentations:

“Potentiality in Natural Philosophy”, Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences, Sacramento State University, October 2012.

“Popper and Feyerabend on Theory Proliferation and Anomaly Import”, International Conference FEYERABEND 2012, Berlin, September 2012.

“The Implications of Szabó's Physicalist Account of Mathematical Truth for Scientific Realism“, Theoretical Philosophy Forum, Eötvös University Budapest, April 2012.

“Uncertaintiy in Science”, Zentrale Einrichtung für Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsethik (ZEWW), University Hannover, April 2012 (in German).

“Decoherence: A View from Topology”, 3rd EPSA conference, Athens, October 2011 (with M. Epperson and E. Zafiris).

“Scientific Realism as the Quest for a Universal Criterion of Reality“, Tea Time Talk, Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, February 2010.

“Acategoriality, Archetypes, Emotions and the Limits of Language”, a reply to Prof Reinhard Nesper in the lecture series “The Empiricism of Emotions“ at the Collegium Helveticum, February 2009 (in German).

“Scientific Realism and Immediacy”, talk at the World Congress of Philosophy 2008, National University Seoul, July 2008.

“The Role of Truth in Science”, talk at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich, May 2008 (in German).

“Reality without Language? – Science’s non-linguistic access to reality”, talk at the International Graduate Conference, Freie Universität Berlin, December 2007 (in German).

“Realism and Scientific Practice”, talk at the Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich, June 2007 (in German).

“Experience and Reality – A Contribution to the Debate on Realism in the Philosophy of Science”, poster presentation at the symposium of the Forschungskredit of the University of Zurich, June 2007 (in German).

“On the Metaphor of the Genetic Code”, talk at the Centre for History of Science, ETH Zurich, July 2006 (in German).

“The Mathematization of Physics and the Concept of Experience in Galilei”, talk at the colloquium for theoretical philosophy, University Zurich, December 2005 (in German).

“On Putnam’s Sense, Nonsense, and the Senses”, talk at the colloquium for Theoretical Philosophy, University Zurich, June 2004 (in German).

teaching

Winter 2012    Atomism from Democritus to Einstein (Leibniz University Hannover)

Winter 2011     Philosophy of Science Classics: Popper and Feyerabend.

Winter 2010     Atomism

Winter 2008     with Michael Hampe: Philosophy of Biology – Evolution

Winter 2007     with Ursula Renz: Realism in Philosophy and Science.

Spring 2007     with Michael Hampe: Philosophy of Biology – The Concept
                      of Information in Biology.

grants and fellowships

2012              Society in Science - Branco Weiss Fellowship

2004-2006     Forschungskredit, University of Zurich.

2009-2010     Fellowship for prospective researchers, Swiss National Science Foundation

links

Collegium Helveticum

Centre for Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), LSE, London

Center for Philosophy and the Natural Sciences (CPNS), California State University, Sacramento