Prof. Dr. Joachim Horvath

Imagine you’re controlling a train that’s careening out of control and can no longer brake. On the track it’s traveling on, five workers are busy in the distance; they can neither see nor hear the train. If you did nothing, the workers would be run over. However, there is still a chance to intervene and switch the tracks so that the train veers onto a side track. There is a worker standing there who would then die. What is the morally right thing to do here? What is permissible?

This thought experiment, known as the “trolley problem” (where “trolley” refers to a streetcar in American English), exemplifies methods in philosophy—and while many of these established methods have been well researched individually, the general foundations of these methods have not. Joachim Horvath addresses this shortcoming in his work. His professorship is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the first five years.

About the Researcher

Joachim Horvath studied at the Stuttgart Media University from 1996 to 2000 and completed a master’s degree at the University of Tübingen from 2000 to 2006. He then worked in Tübingen and Cologne on his dissertation, which he completed in 2011. From 2016 to 2018, he served as executive director of the Society for Analytical Philosophy (GAP), and from 2018 to 2026, he was an assistant professor of metaphilosophy and experimental philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum. From 2018 to 2025, he led the Emmy Noether Group “Experimental Philosophy and the Method of Cases” at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). Since September 1, 2026, he has been a professor of metaphilosophy and epistemology at the Institute of Philosophy II, Faculty of Philosophy and Education at Ruhr University Bochum.