Education
Vollmer studied in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Freiburg. After finishing his degree in physics in 1968 he studied philosophy and linguistics in Freiburg.
philosopher physicist university professor
Vollmer studied in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Freiburg. After finishing his degree in physics in 1968 he studied philosophy and linguistics in Freiburg.
He is perhaps best known for his development of an evolutionary theory of knowledge. He worked as a trainee in Deutschen Elektronen-Synchrotron (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Hamburg. He stayed here after completing a year"s stint as a research assistant in Montreal in 1975.
From 1975 Vollmer taught at the University of Hanover.
From 1981 he lectured on the Philosophy of Biology at the University of Giessen. From 1991 he has taught philosophy at the Technology Union Braunschweig.
He holds lectures and classes in logic, epistemology and philosophy of science, natural philosophy, and artificial intelligence. He has also worked on evolutionary ethics, which he says consists of attempts to add evolutionary points of view to philosophical ethics.
Vollmer became a member in 1998 of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences Halle.
On his 60th birthday in 2003 a Festschrift was produced in his honour called "Cold-blooded: Philosophy from a rational standpoint" ("Kaltblütig Philosophie von einem rationalen Standpunkt" edited by Wolfgang Buschlinger and Christoph Lütge, published by Hirzel Verlag, Stuttgart). He is one of the editors of the periodical Aufklärung und Kritik.
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina]
He is a member of the Science Advisory Committee of the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP), a German-speaking organisation supporting scientific skepticism. Vollmer is also a member of the Brights movement.