Neu gewählte Mitglieder 2003 (pdf) - Leopoldina

Prof. Ph.D.
Peter Gärdenfors
*September 21 th 1949 Forsakar (Sweden)
Section: Epistemology
Matricula number: 6913
Date of election: November 18 th 2003
Peter GÄRDENFORS studied mathematics, philosophy and
computer science at Lund University (Sweden). In 1970
he became B. Sc. and in 1974 he earned a doctorate
in theoretical philosophy at Lund University. His thesis dealt with logical aspects of
group decision making. During 1975–1980 he held various positions at the Department
of Philosophy, Lund University, and the Department of Philosophy of Science,
Umeå University (Sweden). In 1980 he was promoted to Associate Professor in
Philosophy at Lund University. In 1988 he was given a Research Chair in Cognitive
Science at the Swedish Council for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences.
Since 1994, he is Professor of Cognitive Science at the Department of Philosophy,
Lund University.
Peter GÄRDENFORS devoted his early research to decision theory and philosophy
of science. Then he became one of the founders of the theory of belief revision and
he has also contributed to non-monotonic logic. Later on he has been working on
concept formation and developed a theory of conceptual spaces based on geometrical
and toplogical models. He has also written a book on the evolution of thinking.
Peter GÄRDENFORS is the founder of the Section for Cognitive Science at Lund
University that has grown to an internationally recognized center. The build-up of
the section was facilitated by a Senior Individual Grant to him from the Swedish
Foundation for Strategic Research. He has also been the editor of Theoria (1978–
1986) and the editor of Journal of Logic, Language and Information (1992–1995).
Publications (selection):
– GÄRDENFORS, P.: Knowledge in Flux: Modeling the Dynamics of Epistemic States. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press 1988
– GÄRDENFORS, P.: Conceptual Spaces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2000
– GÄRDENFORS, P.: How Homo Became Sapiens: On the Evolution of Thinking. Oxford: Oxford University
Press 2003
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