Georg Gangl

PhD
Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Science

History, Culture and Communication Studies
Faculty of Humanities

Georg Gangl

I am a philosopher of historiography with a special interest in questions of evidence, narrative, historiographic method, and hindsight. I believe that the theories developed by informational epistemology and post-positivist philosophy of science over the last decades can be fruitfully applied to historiography in an effort to reconstruct and justify how historiography produces probable knowledge of the past. I further believe that many of the most central questions in the philosophy of history can only be answered through a practical examination of actual historiography, for which we need the appropriate philosophical research programmes.

My dissertation, which was defended in November 2023, bears the title “Telling Like it Really Was. On the form, presuppositions, and justification of historiographic knowledge", and it can be downloaded here.

I also received a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a master's in philosophy of science from Leiden University, The Netherlands.

I am the coordinator of the Centre for the Philosophical Studies of History at the University of Oulu, and I was a member of the research project Microhistorical Epistemology (2018-2022) at the same place led by professor Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen. I am also an associated member of the research group "Dynamiken der Globalisierung" of the Centre Marc Bloch at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

I have lived in Taiwan for several years as 宮科宇. I have a strong interest in the preservation of 台獨 (Taiwanese independence) and the wellbeing of Taiwan's inhabitants.

Research interests

  • Philosophy of historiography
  • Philosophy of the historical sciences
  • Historiographic hindsight
  • The practical turn in the philosophy of historiography

Researcher information

Contact information

E-mail

Georg.Gangl@oulu.fi

Visiting address

Room GF320
Linnanmaa Campus
University of Oulu
Pentti Kaiteran katu 1
90570 Oulu