Nordmann, Alfred

Alfred Nordmann received his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Hamburg University in 1986. He is a German philosopher of science and technology, and has been based at Technische Universität Darmstadt since 2002. TU Darmstadt, located in the southwest of Germany, is highly engaged in research on the nanoscale. Nordmann has also worked at the Philosophy Department at the University of South Carolina since 1988. There, he became Visiting Centenary Professor in 2008. He studied philosophy and sociology at Tübingen University, Hamburg University (both in Germany), and Columbia University, where he was a research associate to Robert K. Merton.

Since 2000, Nordmann has been working on the philosophical and societal dimensions of nanoscience and converging technologies, framing the field of so-called nanotechnoscience. With Davis Baird, he initiated the first National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored research team on this subject. Nordmann served as rapporteur for the European Union (EU) expert group “Converging Technologies: Shaping the Future of European Societies” in 2004. Moreover, he is member of the Executive Committee of the International Nanoscience and Society Network (INSN) and member of the editorial board of the international journal NanoEthics.

From a methodological point of view, Nordmann's interests in the philosophy of science are inspired by both historical and sociological approaches. They concern the negotiation of contested fields of scientific knowledge such as theories of electricity and chemistry in the 18th century, mechanics in the 19th century, and nanoscale research in the 20th century. His research follows a trajectory that leads from classic philosophical epistemologies (Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Wittgenstein) to contemporary analyses of models, simulations, and visualizations, including their societal construction and impact. Against this background of the genesis and establishment of research programs and representations, also taking into account case studies, the development of nanotechnologies is analyzed by the Darmstadt group. Nordmann's focus, in particular, is on the development of a comprehensive philosophy of technosciences that reflects recent changes in the cultures of science and the changing relationships of science, technology, nature, and society.

Recent publications related to nanotechnologies include “Noumenal Technology: Reflections on the Incredible Tininess of Nano,” in Techné, a contribution [Page 607]in Nanotechnology: Principles and Fundamentals, and in Unnatural Selection: The Challenges of Engineering Tomorrow's People. With Davis Baird and Joachim Schummer, he edited Discovering the Nanoscale, and Nanotechnologien im Kontext, in German. In 2008, he published an introduction to the philosophy of technology, Technikphilosophie zur Einführung, also in German.