The project focuses on the examination of evolutionary explanations for human traits. Such explanations are generally based on a broad spectrum of empirical evidence (chimpanzee and infant behaviour, archaeological studies, etc.) and are, at the same time, highly susceptible to unreflective ideological assumptions. We investigated this relationship as part of the research project ‘Explaining Human Nature: Empirical and Ideological Dimensions’, which was led by Prof. Dr Rebekka Hufendiek – Head of the School of Humanities – at the University of Bern from 2020 to 2024. 

The relationship between science and ideology is a key focus of research at the Humboldt Centre. You can listen to an introductory interview with the Head of Office, Prof. Dr Rebekka Hufendiek, on Deutschlandfunk.

We examine artificial intelligence from a philosophy of science perspective. Our focus is both on the applicability of criteria from the philosophy of science for good explanations and on the question of which conditions are relevant to human understanding. Whilst recent discussions have focused primarily on ‘biases in machine learning’, Jacob Costantino (M.A.), a PhD student at KEMAI, is investigating ‘biases in ontologies’ – and thus in the field of classical symbolic AI.