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Milestone for philosophy: Prof. Merle celebrates 25 years of teaching!
Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe Merle from the University of Vechta was honored for 25 years of teaching and research at German universities.
Milestone for philosophy: Prof. Merle celebrates 25 years of teaching!
On April 29, 2025, Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe Merle celebrates his 25th anniversary of service at German universities. Vice President Dr. Marion Rieken presented him with a certificate on this occasion. Merle looks back on a total of 35 years of professional experience, including several years abroad. Since 2013 he has been a professor of philosophy at the University of Vechta.
His academic career began in 1990 at the bilingual University of Freiburg in Switzerland, followed by a doctorate at the same institution and a habilitation at the University of Tübingen. Before his current position, Merle worked as a research assistant and assistant at the University of Tübingen (from 1992) and as a senior research assistant at Saarland University (from 2002). He was also appointed honorary professor there in 2004. Additional teaching activities took him to the University of Tours and the University of Lorraine in Nancy, France.
Research priorities and projects
Merle is a specialist in practical philosophy, with his research interests in the areas of legal philosophy, political philosophy and the philosophy of emotions. He particularly focuses on topics such as property theory and global principles of justice as well as the philosophical discussion of friendship.
Through his research, Merle made numerous international exchange programs possible. Between 2016 and 2023, for example, he maintained an Erasmus+ partnership with the University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah in Fes, Morocco. The partnership focused on the normative justification of human rights. In recent years he has also organized various workshops and conferences to discuss legal and human rights issues.
- 2017-2018: Projekt „Begriff, normative Konzeptionen und Praktiken der Freundschaft“ mit der Universität Bergen (Norwegen).
- 2018-2021: Projekt zu den Menschenrechten in der westlichen und islamischen Welt, koordiniert mit Universitäten in Indonesien und Marokko.
- 2020: Projekt „Der Umgang mit dem Problem des Bösen und des Übels“ in Kooperation mit der Universität Fès.
Dialectic of human rights
A central theme in Merle's research is that Philosophy of human rights, which was collected in an anthology. The title of the work suggests an examination of human and international law realities that are controversial in philosophical discussion. It is important to take into account the multitude of these “realities” as they include moral, political, legal and historical dimensions.
A serious philosophy of human rights should not only recognize the complexity of these issues, but also promote interdisciplinary exchange between philosophers and scientists from other fields.
Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe Merle emphasizes the immediate importance of research and teaching in higher education and plans to continue this even after his retirement. His commitment to philosophy and human rights is evident in the multitude of his contributions and projects.