Photo: TN

 

 

      TORE NORDENSTAM

 

Born in Nyköping, Sweden, Dec. 2, 1934. 

Parents: Bengt Nordenstam, B.Pharm. (1907-1972), and Greta Nordenstam, née Lundh (1909-2008).

Four brothers: Bertil, botanist; Gunnar, physician, politician; Henrik, economist; Claes, designer, painter, musician.

             A childhood in Sweden - more pictures here.

Lived in Sweden up to 1961, then five years in the Sudan, back in Sweden 1966-68. After that Bergen, with a number of excursions in various directions.   

Married to Ruth Milde.  

Three children: Anna, Katarina and Andreas. Four grandchildren: Axel, Alma, Leander and Daniel.                                           

 

EDUCATION

Primary schools in Nybro, Hindås and Lycksele, 1941-45.

Secondary school (Hvitfeldtska högre allmänna läroverket), Gothenburg 1945-53.

                1948.               May 1953 - matriculation time.

University studies in Gothenburg, Uppsala and Oxford, 1953-61.

B.A. 1956, M.A. 1961, fil. lic. 1961 (University of Gothenburg). Ph.D. 1965 (University of Khartoum).

Courses in painting with the artists Grethe Berge, Randi Fossan and Jørgen Dukan (photo), 1999-2002.   

PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Teaching assistant, University of Gothenburg, 1958-61.

Lecturer in philosophy, University of Khartoum, 1961-66.

Lecturer in sociology, University of Umeå, 1966-68.

Docent in descriptive ethics, University of Umeå, 1967-68.

     

   Reader in philosophy, University of Bergen, 1968-81.   

   Professor of philosophy, University of Bergen, 1981-98.

 

Senior research fellow (Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung), Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1994, 1998, 2001.

Visiting professor, University of Khartoum 1985; Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 1990-93; Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1997.

Professor emeritus since 1999.

 

RESEARCH AREAS

Analytical philosophy of language, in the beginning; then ethics, aesthetics and the philosophy of the humanities. 

               

 

ADMINISTRATION

Various tasks in the students' unions in Gothenburg, i.a. chairman of the United Students' Unions, Gothenburg, 1958.

Faculty board member, the universities of Khartoum, Umeå and Bergen, 1963-1979.

One of the founders of The Staff Club, University of Khartoum, in the middle of the 60s, and Club Secretary for a couple of years.

Chairman, Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, 1969, 1978-79.

Member of the organisation committees for a dozen Scandinavian and international symposia and conferences. (Details here.)

Member of the governing board, the Association of Professors at the University of Bergen, for some years.

Member of The Norwegian Wittgenstein Project (1981-87); member of the governing board of The Wittgenstein Archives  at the University of Bergen and member of the editorial committee of the project's publication series, 1990-93.

One of the founders of The Scandinavian Society of Aesthetics, 1983; and member of the governing board for some years.

Member of the Committee of Research Ethics, the Western Norwegian Health Region, for some years.

Member of the governing board of The Centre for Ethics and Economy, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration,  Bergen, for some years.

Member of the advisory committees of the journals  AI & Society. The Journal of Human-Centred Systems and Machine Intelligence (1986-97), Cultural Dynamics (1989-96), and Mathesis. Filosofía e historia de las matemáticas  (from 1986 onwards).                           

 

INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS 

Participation in interdisciplinary projects has always been an important part of  my philosophical work.

The History of Science Project, 1973-1977, was a project within the framework of the Nordic Summer University. The project was led by Kjell S. Johannessen and myself. The emphasis was on the history of the humanities and social sciences.The results were assembled in a book which was to be published by The Danish University Press in 1980, but that publishing house ceased to exist in the middle of the printing process. A selection of the papers has been published in the volume Vitenskapenes vekst (1996).

At the same time, we began to cooperate actively with the departments of the history of art and theatre at the University of Bergen (Gunnar Danbolt, Tor Bastiansen Trolie, Dag Sveen et al.). For several years, we had common seminars once a week, which were attended by most of the students of art history and theatre.

                    Kjell S. Johannessen                       Gunnar Danbolt

Two research projects were developed within this framework: The history of the theory of art  and Fundamental problems in art historical research. The first visible result of that cooperation was the book Den estetiske praksis, authored by Gunnar Danbolt, Kjell S. Johannessen and Tore Nordenstam (1979). The intensive cooperation between philosophy and aesthetic subjects in those years has made a strong imprint on my later work. (Cf. Explanation and Understanding in the Arts, Books, Papers, and Twenty-Five Years of Philosophical Cooperation).

From the middle of the 1970s, I have cooperated with  Bo Göranzon in Stockholm in several projects.  The first was the so-called PAAS Project, Conditions for change in  working life, 1974-1983. Some of the results were summed up in the book Datautvecklingens filosofi. Tyst kunskap och ny teknik, Stockholm 1984. My research report on evaluations and paradigms in computer-assisted development belongs to the same context (Värderingar och paradigm vid datasystemutveckling. Exemplet ALLFA-utredningen, 1980). We were also invited to make an investigation of the working conditions in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm (cf. our 1976 report on this) and to make some research on part time work and home work for one of the Swedish labour unions (Svenska fabriksarbetareförbundet).

                                                   

My book on the power of example (Exemplets makt ) also testifies to the cooperation with Bo Göranzon and his colleagues in the department of Skill and technology at the Royal Institute of Technology (vide Yrkeskunnande och teknologi) – it has been published as a double issue of the journal Dialoger (69-70, 2005). (Now also in English -- here.) Cf. Adrian Ratkic's excellent survey  Dialogseminariets forskningsmiljö (2006) and Khalid El Gaidi's dissertation Lärarens yrkeskunnande. Bildning och reflekterade erfarenheter (2007). For more information on the Dialogue Seminar, go to  Dialoger and the volume Dialogue, Skill and Tacit Knowledge (2006).            PS Bo Göranzon retired from his chair in Stockholm a couple of years ago and is now guest professor in Skill and Technology at Linnæus University in the south of Sweden.

                                                       

Research, Ethics and Development - Research Policy in the Sudan was a project which started in 1977, with Dr Ibrahim Ahmed Omer (University of Khartoum), professor Håkan Törnebohm (University of Gothenburg)  and myself as participants. We produced many reports on the way to the final result, Research and Development in the Sudan, Khartoum University Press, 1985. Bergen Talks on Philosophy of Development (1982) gives some glimpses from our discussions at that time. 

     

      Håkan Törnebohm in Khartoum, 1977. 

 

Another project in the 70s was a seminar series with Gunnar Skirbekk and others on transcendental pragmatics. This led to my book on the Ought/Is-issue, Fra ”er” til ”bør”? (1984).  A later product was the collection of papers, Die pragmatische Wende (1986), edited by Dietrich Böhler, Tore Nordenstam and Gunnar Skirbekk.

Management and Change was a project led by professor Albert Danielsson, Industrial Economy and Organisation, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. It started in 1982 and ended with the book  Samtal om ledarskap, ledning och ledare, Stockholm 1986. The authors represent a wide spread of areas: Albert Danielsson, Ronald Fagerfjäll, Ove Granstrand, Håkan Lundgren, Lennart Låftman, Tore Nordenstam, Lars Olof Norén, Jan Odhnoff, Carl Martin Roos, Jon Sigurdson and Birgitta Wistrand. That project was followed by another one on ownership. 

The growth of the research field practical knowledge has given me a new intellectual home. For the last few years, I have cooperated with the Centre for Practical Knowledge at Bodø University College in Northern Norway. Amongst other things, I took part in the preparations for a Ph.D. programme in practical knowledge, which has approved in 2009 (Ph.D. in professional practice). Our report Praktisk kunnskap – som erfaring og som forskningsfelt  (2005) contains a survey of the development of the study of practical knowledge. (Bodø University College is expected to get full university status some time this year - the University of Nordland.) 

 

PRODUCTION  

In addition to books and papers, I have written various research reports and evaluations of applicants for chairs etc. Three critical reports might be worth mentioning here: the report on working conditions in the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, the report on practical knowledge mentioned above, and an evaluation of research in the humanities at the University of Gothenburg: Den humanistiska cirkelns kvadratur. Om humanioras möjligheter och framtid, University of Gothenburg, 2001.

I have also made some translations.

My oral production consists of lectures, seminars and courses for the last 50 years or so, mostly at universities in Scandinavia, Sudan and other places. In the last few years, I have given some lectures every year at the Centre for Practical Knowledge at the University College in Bodø. Video-recordings of three lectures in 2007 can be seen here: (1) , (2) , (3) . A lecture on the concept of science in March 2008 can be seen here: (1) , (2) .

In the last few years, I have also made some paintings.

 

 

 

  

 

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