CEU Philosophy led project "Knowledge in Crisis" wins 9 million euro Cluster of Excellence

March 13, 2023
The Board of Directors of the Knowledge in Crisis project

On March 13, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) announced five Austrian research projects selected for major funding under the Clusters of Excellence initiative "excellent=austria".

The Knowledge in Crisis research cluster, headed by Tim Crane from CEU’s Department of Philosophy was awarded €8.9 million from the FWF, and with institutional funding added, will dispose over 15 million euro in the course of 5 years.

The project addresses threats to claims of knowledge caused by rapid and spectacular developments in technology as well as attacks on the very ideas of knowledge and truth. The flood of information on the internet challenges one’s ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, and a widespread rejection of standards of scientific evidence and expertise has grown. The researchers, who, in addition to CEU, include collaborators from the universities of Graz, Salzburg and Vienna, see this as a manifestation of a larger practical and theoretical crisis, affecting the way we live and a basic understanding of the world.

Katalin Farkas is the deputy head of the Board of Directors, and Asya Passinsky, Cathy Mason, Ferenc Huoranszki, Maria Kronfeldner and Anca Gheaus are involved as key researchers in the project.

“This Cluster of Excellence will address fundamental questions about knowledge, many of which have deep social, ethical, and political relevance, by linking many different areas of philosophy which normally function independently. This is something that never has been done before in philosophical research,” said Crane. The research questions will be addressed in entirely new ways to understand the crisis of knowledge in all its manifestations, and will seek strategies to address challenges and reshape relationships to knowledge. It will additionally transform the academic discipline of philosophy in Austria, firmly embedding CEU into the country’s research culture.

CEU's Medieval Studies and History Departments are partners in "Eurasian Transformations" another Cluster of Excellence that receieved funding.

For more information about the Knowledge in Crisis project, please click here.

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