Prof. em. Dr. Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn
Prof. em. Dr. Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn
Retired Adjunct Professor at the Department of Environmental Systems Science
ETH Zürich
Additional information
Research area
Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn did research in philosophy of environmental science and in environmental ethics. Her philosophical and interdisciplinary research on environmental science covered computer simulation, data science, transdisciplinary research, the construction of ideal types and values in science. Her research on environmental ethics, sustainable development, and environmental decisions addressed general problems such as value pluralism, responsibility and decisions under great uncertainty, which she applied to systematize and understand specific problems of the environment and sustainable development, e.g., the gap between knowledge and action in environmental policy, fallacies of climate sceptics, and accounting for value pluralism in sustainability assessments.
Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn joined the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH in 1990, where she was Adjunct Professor 2006-2017. Born in 1953, she got a Ph.D. in educational science at the University of Zurich in 1989, having worked as an empirical researcher at the Educational Department of the Canton of Zurich from 1982 to 1988. She completed her habilitation on „Nature and Ethics in the Debates on the Environment“ at the Philosophy Department of the University of Konstanz in 1998 and was a Private Lecturer in philosophy there until 2006. She replaced the chair in ethics at the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 2000 and was a Guest Professor at the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies (IFF), Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt-Graz-Vienna in Vienna in 2009.She acted as Vice President of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) 2001-2006, President of the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net) of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences 2003-2008, and President of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (SAGUF) 1999-2005.
Additional information
Publications
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2021. Which Methods are Usefuld to Justify Public Policies? An Analysis of Cost-Benefit Analysis, Multi-criteria Decision Analysis and Non-aggregate Indicator Systems. J Gen Philos Sci. doi: 10.1007/s10838-021-09580-4.
Wuelser, Gabriela; Adler, Carolina; Breu, Thomas; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Wiesmann, Urs; Pohl, Christian. 2021. On which common ground to build? Transferable knowledge in transdisciplinary sustainability research. Sustain Sci. doi: 10.1007/s11625-021-01010-0.
Zumwald, Marius; Knüsel, Benedikt; Baumberger, Christoph; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Bresch, David N; Knutti, Reto. 2020. Understanding and assessing uncertainty of observational climate datasets for model evaluation using ensembles. WIREs Clim Change. 2020;11:e654. doi.org/10.1002/wcc.654.
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Baumberger, Christoph 2019. What Types of Values Enter Simulation Validation and What Are Their Roles? In: C. Beisbart and N. J. Saam (eds.), Computer Simulation Validation, Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications, pp. 961-979. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70766-2_40.
Knutti, Reto; Baumberger, Christoph, Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude 2019. Uncertainty Quantification Using Multiple Models - Prospects and Challengeges. In: C. Beisbart and N. J. Saam (eds.), Computer Simulation Validation, Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications, pp. 835-855. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70766-2_34.
Knüsel, Benedikt; Zumwald, Marius; Baumberger, Christoph; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Firscher, Erich M.; Bresch, David N; Knutti, Reto.2019 Applying big data beyond small problems in climate research. Nature ClImate Change. VOL 9 196, MARCH 2019, 196–202. doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0404-1.
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2018. On Rationales for Cognitive Values in the Assessment of Scientific Representations. J Gen Philos Sci 49:319–331. doi: 10.1007/s10838-018-9403-6
Hansson, Sven Ove; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2017. Argument-based Decision Support for Risk Analysis. Journal of Risk Resesarch. 21:12, 1449-1464 doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6699-3
Baumberger, Christoph; Knutti, Reto; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2017. Building Confidence in Climate Model Projections: An Analysis of Inferences from Fit. WIREs Climate Change, e454. Open Accecss. doi: 10.1002/wcc.454.
Adler, Carolina; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Breu, Thomas; Wiesmann, Urs; Pohl, Christian. 2017. Conceptualizing the transfer of knowledge across cases in transdisciplinary research. Sustain Sci. 13, 179-190. doi: 10.1007/s11625-017-0444-02.
Brun, Georg & Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2020. Textanalyse in den Wissenschaften. Inhalte und Argumente analysieren und verstehen, 4. überarbeitete Auflage. Zürich: vdf.
Hansson, Sven Ove; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude (eds). 2016. The argumentative turn in policy analysis. Reasoning about uncertainty. Cham: Springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30549-3
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2016. Temporal strategies for decision making. In: Hansson, Sven Ove; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude (eds). The argumentative turn in policy analysis. Reasoning about uncertainty. Cham: Springer, 217-242. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30549-3_9
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Brun, Georg; Soliva, Carla; Stenke, Andrea & Peter, Thomas. 2015. Decision strategies for policy decisions under uncertainties: The case of mitigation measures addressing methane emissions from ruminants. Environmental Science & Policy 52, 110-119. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2015.05.011
Adler, Carolina E.; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2014. The IPCC and treatment of uncertainties: topics and sources of dissensus. WIREs Climate Change 5/5, 663–676. Open Access.
Bodenmann, Tom; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2014. How Understanding Causal Relations Counts in Criticizing Arguments Against Anthropogenic Global Climate Change. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 23(1), 5-14. Open Access. doi: 10.1127/0941-2948/2014/0460
Bodenmann, Tom; Brönnimann, Stefan; Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Krüger, Tobias & Weissert, Helmut. 2011. Perceiving, explaining, and observing climatic changes: An historical case study of the “year without summer” 1816. Meteorologische Zeitschrift 20(6): 577-587. doi: 10.1127/0941-2948/2011/0288
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Urs Allenspach & Georg Brun. 2011. Warum Nachhaltigkeitsbeurteilungen Alternativen zu Kosten-Nutzen-Analysen erfordern. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen 162(11): 412-429. doi: 10.3188./szf.2011.0412
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Hoffmann-Riem, Holger; Biber-Klemm, Susette; Grossenbacher-Mansuy, Walter; Joye, Dominique; Pohl, Christian; Wiesmann, Urs; Zemp, Elisabeth (eds.). 2008. Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Heidelberg: Springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6699-3
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2003. Deskriptiv-analytische und praktisch-normative Funktionen von Naturbegriffen in der Umweltforschung. Philosophia naturalis 40, 103-126.
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude 2003. Risiken der technologischen Zivilisation als wissenschaftsethisches Problem. In: Becker, Katja, Engelen, Eva-Maria & Vec, Milos (Hrsg.). Ethisierung - Ethikferne. Wie viel Ethik braucht die Wissenenschaft? Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 138-152.
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude; Wölfing Kast, Sybille & Maier, Simone. 2002. "Restrictions & Options": A Heuristic Tool to Integrate Knowledge for Strategies towards a Sustainable Development. Journal for Sustainable Development and World Ecology 9, 3, 193-207. doi: 10.1080/13504500209470116
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 2000. Verantwortungsbegriff und kategorischer Imperativ der Zukunftsethik von Hans Jonas. Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 54, 2, 218-237. www.jstor.org/stable/20484952
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 1999. Nachhaltige Entwicklung und der Wert der Natur. GAIA, 8(4), 261-266. doi.org/10.14512/gaia.8.4.6
Hirsch Hadorn, Gertrude. 1997. Webers Idealtypus als Methode zur Bestimmung des Begriffsinhaltes theoretischer Begriffe in den Kulturwissenschaften. Journal for General Philosophy of Science 28, 2, 275-296. doi.org/10.1023/A:1008207612359
Hirsch, Gertrude. 1993. Wieso ist ökologisches Handeln mehr als eine Anwendung ökologischen Wissens? Überlegungen zur Umsetzung ökologischen Wissens in ökologisches Handeln. GAIA, 2, 3, 141-150. doi.org/10.14512/gaia.2.3.6