Hugo Fjelsted Alrøe, PhD, Independent scholar
Hi!
I am a former professor in philosophy of science and ethics in relation to sustainable food systems at Aarhus University. Now I work as an independent scholar at the intersection of semiotics and philosophy of science, focusing on developing a sixfold model of sign action, which offers a workable framework for semiotics, and a general theory of observation that I call Observer Theory.
- Publications - A comprehensive list of my publications with papers for download.
I have a background in agricultural science and a PhD in philosophy of science from 2001 that focuses on systemic research methodology and ethics. In my university research work, my area of expertise was philosophy of science and ethics, with a practice relation to interdisciplinary and participatory research in the field of sustainable food production. In philosophy of science I place myself in the pragmatist tradition from Charles S. Peirce. I work with a perspectivist framework in line with Ronald Giere’s scientific perspectivism, but with a cross-disciplinary focus. Important theoretical fields in my work are semiotics, biosemiotics, and social systems theory. In ethics I am inspired by systemic approaches in environmental ethics and Hans Jonas’ ethics of responsibility. I focus on the ethics of knowledge and science as well as on ethics in relation to societal, technological and ecological systems, including recent systemic ethical concepts such as sustainability, precaution and ecological justice.
In 2011-2014 I was associate professor in philosophy of science and ethics at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University. Earlier, from 1998 to 2010, I was employed at the International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS), Aarhus University, as researcher and senior researcher. 2015-2016 I was scientific officer at ICROFS and 2017-2021 I was freelance consultant for ICROFS on the development of the Organic Eprints research archive.
In 2002 I founded the international online Organic Eprints research archive, which now contains more than 20.000 research papers. In 2004-2005 I served as expert member of the global task force on rewriting the principles of organic agriculture. 2008-2014 I developed and taught the course in Philosophy of agricultural science at Aarhus University. 2011-2014 I was project leader of the Danish interdisciplinary and participatory research project MultiTrust (www.multitrust.org), and Work Package leader in the crossdisciplinary EU research project HealthyGrowth (www.healthygrowth.eu).
In 2011 and again in 2016 I was visiting academic at the Centre for sustainability (CSAFE) at University of Otago, New Zealand, and scientific consultant at the New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard project. 2018-2019 I worked as scientific consultant for the Agriculture Food and Environment Program at Tufts University on the development of a sustainable diets framework.
In 2022, I completed a bachelor in Comparative Literature and Japanese at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Akita International University, Japan.
Presently, I work as an independent scholar, focusing on the foundations of semiotics and what I call observer theory. I also write prose and lyrics.
Hugo Fjelsted Alrøe, Ph.D.
Hærupvej 14, Hærup, 9500 Hobro, Denmark
Email: hugo.f.alroe \at/ gmail.com
Web: hugo.alroe.dk
Google Scholar page with citations and citation index
ResearchGate page with research interest score
LinkedIn page
Teaching Portfolio (70 page PDF file: 5 page intro + examples and documentation )