Dorthe Jørgensen

Dorthe Jørgensen (born 1959) is a Danish philosopher, theologian, and historian of ideas. In 2006, she became the first Danish woman to be awarded the honorary higher doctoral degree dr.phil.habil., in recognition of several successful publications. Since 2010, she has been Professor of Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Aarhus University.

Early life, education, and marriage Jørgensen grew up on a small dairy farm in Blegind near Hørning in Jutland. While her father attended to the livestock, her mother worked as a schoolteacher. She and her siblings had a pleasant childhood, based on old-fashioned farming traditions until her father died when only 49, suffering from changes in Danish agricultural practice.

She enjoyed school, especially writing essays, and dreamt of becoming an author while in the third grade at high school. She was appointed full professor at the university's Institute of Philosophy and the History of Ideas in 2010. In 2014, she was honoured with a second higher doctoral degree, this time a dr.theol.habil. in Systematic Theology in recognition of her Den skønne tænkning: Veje til erfaringsmetafysik. Religionsfilosofisk udmøntet (Beautiful Thinking: Pathways to the Metaphysics of Experience. Religio-philosophically Implemented).

Besides her 18 months in Berlin as a student and 9 months in New York as a young scholar, Jørgensen has also spent time abroad for longer periods in 2005-2006, 2010, and 2014 due to research positions at The Danish Institutes in Rome and Damascus.

Biography, list of publications, and further information are available at Dorthe Jørgensen's personal homepage.

Publications Jørgensen has authored 194 publications of which 23 are books. Her position as Denmark's leading expert on aesthetics is reflected in the following: (The Metamorphosis of Beauty: History of Aesthetic Ideas, 2001) (Knowledge and Wisdom: The Question of the Intellectuals, 2002) (History as a Work: The Work's History, 2006) (Beauty - An Angel Passed By, 2006) (Aglaia's Dance: Toward an Aesthetic Thinking, 2008) (World Poetry: Paintings and Thought Images by Philosopher Dorthe Jørgensen and Visual Artist Bettina Winkelmann, 2011) (Beautiful Thinking: Pathways to the Metaphysics of Experience. Religio-philosophically Implemented, 2014) (Presence and Afterthought: My Educational Laboratory, 2015) (Why Are We Afraid of the Imagination? About the Reformation and Aesthetics, 2017) (2021) (2021)