DEEN
Magazine Humboldt Kosmos Newsroom Newsletter

Search

Awards and fellowships Search Humboldtians

Search for tags

Alexander von Humboldt Professorship 2026

Michael Moehler

Michael Moehler is a globally recognized analytic philosopher. He is a leading authority in social contract theory and the interdisciplinary field of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). At Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, he is to play a key role in boosting the university's expertise in PPE and head a new university-wide research institute in this rapidly growing field of research.

  • Nominating University: Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Porträt von Michael Moehler
Saturn-ähnliches Dekortationsbild

Contact

Press, Communications and Marketing
Tel.: +49 228 833-144
Fax: +49 228 833-441
presse[at]avh.de

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Our globally interconnected world faces a myriad of individual and collective decision-making problems that cut across disciplinary boundaries. The most pressing social problems today are interconnected and multidimensional. They involve ethical, political, and economic dimensions and can be addressed adequately only through interdisciplinary analysis. To what extent do political institutions shape our economic options and vice versa? When should considerations of justice give way to considerations of economic efficiency? How can the welfare state and democracy properly function in fragmented pluralistic societies?

Michael Moehler’s research in the interdisciplinary field of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, addresses such questions. His multilevel social contract theory makes an original contribution to current debates about the foundations of society by suggesting a new social contract for the conditions of deep pluralism. It applies concepts and methods from economic theory to moral and political philosophy in order to develop solutions to social problems that are not only economically sound but also ethically defensible and politically feasible. 

With the recruitment of Michael Moehler and the establishment of a university-wide Research Institute for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf aims to advance and amplify its existing strength in PPE. The new Institute aims to connect scholars on and off campus and provide an internationally competitive research environment for faculty and students alike in this increasingly relevant interdisciplinary field of study.

Brief bio

Michael Moehler is currently a Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the London School of Economics. After his time in the U.K., he moved to the U.S. to build, over the span of a decade, the PPE Program and serve as the Founding Director of the David H. Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Virginia Tech. During his academic career, he held a Visiting Professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, served as John Stuart Mill Visiting Chair of Social Philosophy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and was a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at Tulane University, USA. He received several scholarships, awards, and honors for his research and teaching, including the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Michael Moehler has been selected for a Humboldt Professorship and is currently conducting appointment negotiations with the German university that nominated him for the award. If the negotiations end successfully, the award will be granted in 2026.