Amrei Bahr is a research fellow of the Research Group „The Ethics of Copying at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research“ in Bielefeld. She is currently working on her PhD thesis about artifact copies. Other fields of her study include artifact functions and ethical considerations regarding copying practices. Amrei’s primary interests in the network concern social functions of artifacts, the question as to how artifact functions and functions of social entities are interconnected, and the role of the social for artifact functions in general.

Miguel Hoeltje is assistant professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He received his PhD from the University of Hamburg for a thesis on truth-theoretic semantics. Miguel primarily works in the philosophy of language and metaphysics, with a little meddling in the philosophy of logic. Miguel’s current research interests include the semantics of generics, of (collective) action- and event-sentences, the notion of grounding and the related phenomenon of non-causal explanation. Within the network, Miguel is particularly interested in the metaphysical grounds of social functions and the notion of functional explanation.

Rebekka Hufendiek is a postdoctoral researcher at the SNF project „Biosemantics and Normative Pragmatics„. She received a PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin in 2012 with a thesis on embodied cognition and emotion theory. She just finished a book titled Embodied Emotions. A Naturalist Approach to a Normative Phenomenon, which will be published by Routledge. Her further interests lie in philosophy of mind, particularly naturalist approaches to the mind. She is currently working on the role that genealogical explanations play for naturalist theories. Within the network, Rebekka is most interested in the comparison of functional explanations in biology, philosophy of mind, and in the social sciences.

Daniel James is a PhD student at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and is currently completing his dissertation on Hegel’s theory of ‘Ethical Life’. His research is in 19th century German philosophy, as well social and political philosophy (including social and political ontology) and philosophy of social science. Within the network, Daniel is most interested in the emergence of social functionalism in 19th century social theory and philosophy, in particular against the background of contemporaneous accounts of biological functions.

Heiner Koch is a PhD student at the Humboldt University Berlin. He is writing his thesis on the social ontology of domination relations. Besides social ontology his main areas of research are philosophy of social sciences, normativity, applied ethics and scientific socialism. In the context of the network he is working on the role of functions and dysfunctions for social transformation.

Mari Mikkola is a Junior Professor for Practical Philosophy at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before joining the department in 2010, she worked as a lecturer in philosophy at the Universities of Stirling and Lancaster (UK). In 2005 Mari received her PhD from the University of Sheffield. Her work is mainly on feminist philosophy, and specifically on feminist metaphysics, gender, and pornography. Her forthcoming monograph titled The Wrong of Injustice: Dehumanization and its Role in Feminist Philosophy (OUP) deals with a number of social ontological issues pertaining to social identities like gender along with normative questions about social injustice. Additionally, Mari is editing a collection titled Beyond Speech: Pornography and Analytic Feminist Philosophy (OUP). As part of this network, Mari’s interests focus on social ontological questions relating to the functionality of social identities, and how such functions might affect unjust social relations.

Andreas Müller is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics in Münster. In 2014, he received a PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin with a thesis on metaethical constructivism. He is currently completing the manuscript of a book titled Constructing Practical Reasons, which will be published by Oxford University Press. Additionally, he works on the moral relevance of consent and related issues. Within the network, Andreas is most interested in the normative dimension of functional characterizations in general and social functions in particular.

Viola Schmitt is a student assistant at Philipps University Marburg. She received her Bachelor in 2015 and is currently studying political sciences in Marburg. Viola is especially interested in philosophy of science, political philosophy and feminist philosophy.

Raphael van Riel (coordinator) is currently holding a position as acting chair (theoretical philosophy) at Philipps-University Marburg and is head of the research group „A Study in Explanatory Power“ at the University Duisburg-Essen. He has published on various topics in analytic philosophy, mostly in the philosophy of science and metaphysics, including a book, The concept of reduction (Springer 2014). Raphael’s primary interest within the network concerns the explanatory role of social functions and the explanation of the occurrence of social functions.

Markus Wild holds the chair for theoretical philosophy at the University of Basel. He has been working on early modern philosophy. His current research interests are the philosophy of mind, animal philosophy, and teleosemantics. Markus’ interest in the network stems from his work on teleosemantics where the notion of function plays a crucial role. The question he’s interested in concerns the profitable extension of the functional account of teleosemantics.