I’m a philosopher and historian of science whose research focuses on conceptions of materiality and material practices between the 17th and the 21st century. On the one hand, I aim to understand the emergence of material epistemology: how human beings in different cultures and different periods have conceptualized the relations between artisanal and material practices – e.g. folding, weaving, braiding – and scientific and symbolic knowledge.  On the other hand, I examine how materials themselves have been (re)conceptualized in the 20th and 21st century, considered as ‘autonomous’, ‘intelligent’ or ‘active’. What practices and what social contexts allow these material practices and these materials to appear as such?

I am an associate researcher at the Bonn University. Before coming to Bonn, I held positions at the at the Cohn Institute For History And Philosophy of Science And Ideas at Tel Aviv University, at the Humboldt University, Berlin, at the Fourier Institute at Grenoble and at the Max Planck Institute for mathematics in Bonn. I was also a Senior Fellow (04/24−09/24) at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of Research. I was as well a visiting researcher at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv at Marbach during 2024 and at the Deutsches Museum in Munich during 2019.

I am working currently on two projects. The Dreams and Nightmares of Biomimetic Materials in the 21st century project investigates the connection between advanced bioinspired/biomimetic materials, scientific practices, and philosophical concepts of matter and materiality. It explores how ascribing autonomy and agency to these materials alters the notion of ‘nature’, creating and reshaping a new category of ‘beyond-nature’. The research examines how creating new materials fosters new knowledge and how metaphors, such as viewing nature as a resource library versus a source of inspiration, shape and enable this scientific field. Focusing on recent developments in ‘life-like’ materials and their accompanying discourses, the project aims to analyze contemporary intersections of historical and philosophical viewpoints in materials science.

The second book project Towards Blumenberg’s Scientific Non-Conceptuality deals with Hans Blumenberg’s thought on non-conceptuality and his interactions with the philosophy of science. The project is based on the premise that such an association is to be found in Blumenberg’s reflections on science, technology and mathematics, beginning with an archival investigation and cooperating with the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach. Aiming at a detailed examination of archive materials from Blumenberg’s archive on the subject, including his cards and unpublished materials, as well as his reading of various writings of philosophers and historians of science, I will formulate a more nuanced account on Blumenberg’s philosophy of science and how it related to his metaphorology on the one hand to his view on non-conceptuality on the other hand.

Contact: contact ((at)) michaelfriedman.de

Various publications can be downloaded from: https://uni-bonn.academia.edu/MichaelFriedman