Gerhold K. Becker is a German philosopher.

Biographical Sketch

Gerhold K. Becker grew up in Bad Salzschlirf

Bad Salzschlirf

Bad Salzschlirf is a municipality in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany....

, the eldest son of the
violinist Josef Becker and his wife Agnes née Goldbach. After
graduating from the humanistic high school at Fulda

Fulda

Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...

, he studied
philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

 at universities in Frankfurt/Main,
Heidelberg, and Munich, with, among others, Hans-Georg Gadamer

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 magnum opus, Truth and Method .-Life:...

,
Dieter Henrich

Dieter Henrich

Dieter Henrich is a German philosopher. A contemporary thinker in the tradition of German Idealism, Henrich is particularly known for the influence of Kant, Hegel and Fichte in his work.-Life:...

, Hermann Krings, Robert Spaemann

Robert Spaemann

Robert Spaemann is arguably the foremost Roman Catholic philosopher in Germany today.Spaemann's focus is on Christian ethics. He is known for his work in bioethics, ecology, and human rights...

, Michael
Theunissen, Ernst Tugendhat

Ernst Tugendhat

Ernst Tugendhat is a Czech-born German philosopher. He was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, to a wealthy Jewish family that commissioned Mies van der Rohe with the Villa Tugendhat in Brno. In 1938 the family emigrated from Czechoslovakia to St...

 and Heinrich Fries, Alois
Grillmeier, Wolfhart Pannenberg

Wolfhart Pannenberg

Wolfhart Pannenberg is a German Christian theologian. His emphasis on history as revelation, centred on the Resurrection of Christ, has proved important in stimulating debate in both Protestant and Catholic theology, as well as with non-Christian thinkers.-Life and views:Pannenberg was baptized as...

, Karl Rahner

Karl Rahner

Karl Rahner, SJ was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century...

, Trutz
Rendtorff and Eugen Biser, under whose direction he
completed a summa cum laude dissertation on the thinking of Ernst Troeltsch

Ernst Troeltsch

Ernst Troeltsch was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914...

. In 1975-1986 he taught at Munich University’s Institute for
Christian World View and Philosophy of Religion. During this time he
met his future wife, the musicologist and concert pianist Siglind Bruhn

Siglind Bruhn

Siglind Bruhn is a German musicologist and concert pianist.-Biographical Sketch:Siglind Bruhn was born in Hamburg. Her father was the engineer Ernst Bruhn, her mother the interpreter Leonore Bruhn née Kieberger...

. In January 1986 he accepted a position at the Department of
Religion and Philosophy of what is now Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong Baptist University is a publicly-funded tertiary institution with a Christian education heritage. It is the sole surviving institution of 13 major Christian universities that once operated on the Chinese mainland,...

. In
1987 his wife joined him in Hong Kong, where she taught for six years
at The University of Hong Kong. In 1991 Becker was asked to establish
Hong Kong’s first Centre for Applied Ethics

Centre for Applied Ethics

Centre for Applied Ethics at Hong Kong Baptist University was founded in 1992. It is the first of its kind established in China and one of the earliest in Asia...

 and become its founding
director; in 1992, he was elected as an Ordinary Member to the
European Academy of Sciences and Arts

European Academy of Sciences and Arts

The European Academy of Sciences and Arts was created in 1990 in Salzburg, Austria by heart surgeon Felix Unger of Salzburg; the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, Franz König; and the political scientist and philosopher Nikolaus Lobkowicz....

. From 1996-2004, he served on
the Hong Kong Government’s Council on Human Reproductive Technology

Reproductive endocrinology and infertility

Reproductive endocrinology and infertility is a surgical subspecialty of obstetrics and gynecology that trains physicians in reproductive medicine addressing hormonal functioning as it pertains to reproduction as well as the issue of infertility...

,
initially as a member, then as the chairman of its Ethics Committee.
Since 2004 he is a regular visiting professor at the Graduate School of
Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University of Thailand

Assumption University (Thailand)

Assumption University is a private Catholic university with three campuses in the Hua Mak, Central World Plaza and Suvarnabhumi areas of Bangkok, Thailand. The university is led by the Brothers of St. Gabriel, who have been active in education in Thailand since 1901...

, Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

Positions

• 1975-1980 Lecturer [], Institute of Philosophy (Institut für Christliche Weltanschauung und Religionsphilosophie), Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich
• 1980-1986 Assistant Professor [Akademischer Rat], Institute of Philosophy (Institut für Christliche Weltanschauung und Religionsphilosophie), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
• 1986-1988 Senior Lecturer, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist College
• 1988-1991 Principal Lecturer, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist College
• 1991-2000 Director, Centre for Applied Ethics, Hong Kong Baptist College [as of January 1994: Hong Kong Baptist University
• 1991-1995 Professor, Personal Chair of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist College [as of January 1994: Hong Kong Baptist University]
• 1995-2004 Chair Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University
• since 2004 Regular Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Philosophy and Religion, Assumption University of Thailand, Bangkok

Book publications (selection)

• Theologie in der Gegenwart. Tendenzen und Perspektiven, Pustet
  Pustet
  -History:The original home of the Pustets was the Republic of Venice, where the name Bustetto is common. Probably in the seventeenth century, the founder of the Ratisbon line emigrated to South Germany, where one of his descendants, Anton Pustet, lived as a poor bookbinder in the Lower Bavarian...
  
  , 1978. ISBN 3-7917-0557-1.
• Neuzeitliche Subjektivität und Religiosität. Die religionsphilosophische Bedeutung von Heraufkunft und Wesen der Neuzeit im Denken Ernst Troeltschs, Pustet, 1982. ISBN

3-7917-0734-5.

• Die Ursymbole in den Religionen, Styria, 1987. ISBN 3-222-11732-2.
• Ethics in Business and Society: Chinese and Western Perspectives (ed.), Springer, 1996. ISBN 3-540-60773-0.
• Changing Nature’s Course: The Ethical Challenge of Biotechnology (ed. with James P. Buchanan), Hong Kong University Press, 1996. ISBN 962-209-403-1 - Google
• Bioethics and Personhood. [The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Band 9/4, 1999]. ISSN 1054-6863.
• The Moral Status of Persons: Perspectives on Bioethics (ed.), Rodopi, 2000. ISBN 978-90-420-1201-1 - Google

Essays (selection, since 2002)

• “The Ethics of Prenatal Screening and the Search for Global Bioethics,” Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the (Im)Possibility of Global Bioethics, ed. by Julia Tao Lai Po-wah. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002, 105-130.
• “Moral Education in China and the ‘West’: Ideals and Reality in Cross-cultural Perspective,” Chinese Ethics in a Global Context: Moral Bases of Contemporary Societies, ed. by Karl-Heinz Pohl & Anselm W. Müller. Sinica Leidensia LVI, Leiden: Brill (October 2002), 245-278.
• “Ethical Issues in the Modernization of China,” [Polish tr.: “Etyczne problemy moderniyacji Chin,” in China: Social and Political Development at the Threshold of the 21st Century, ed. by Karin Tomala [Chiny: Rozwoj Spoleczenstwa i Panstwa na przelomie XX i XXI wieku]. Warsaw: Trio Publishers, 2003, 49-94.
• “Chinese Ethics and Human Cloning: A View from Hong Kong,” Cross-Cultural Issues in Bioethics. The Example of Human Cloning, ed. by Heiner Roetz. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi 2006, 107-139.
• “Divided Loyalties: The Moral Basis of Peace in a Multicultural World of Conflict and Humiliation,” Understanding Conflict and Approaching Peace in Southern Thailand, ed. by Imtiyaz Yusuf/Lars Peter Schmidt. Bangkok: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung 2006, 240-280.
• “Normative Relations: East Asian Perspectives on Biomedicine and Bioethics,” Life Nature Contingency, ed. by Marcus Düwell, Dordrecht: Kluwer/Springer 2008, 273-288.

Festschrift

• Responsibility and Commitment. Eighteen Essays in Honor of Gerhold K. Becker. Edited by Tze-wan Kwan. Waldkirch: Edition Gorz 2008. ISBN 978-3-938095-10-2 - Google

External links

• Complete bibliography of the writings of Gerhold K. Becker