Thomas Metzinger

Thomas Metzinger (; born 12 March 1958) is a German philosopher and Professor Emeritus of theoretical philosophy at the University of Mainz. His primary research areas include philosophy of mind, philosophy of neuroscience, and applied ethics, particularly focusing on neurotechnology, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. He has argued in his book Being No One that the phenomenal self is a mental construct created by the brain. His 2024 book The Elephant and the Blind compiled extensive research on meditation.

Academic career Metzinger studied philosophy, ethnology, and theology at Goethe University Frankfurt. He received his doctorate there in 1985, with a thesis on the mind-body problem. In 1992, he completed his habilitation at the University of Giessen. In 2000, Metzinger was appointed professor of philosophy of cognitive science at Osnabrück University, but moved to the University of Mainz in the same year.

Metzinger cofounded in 1994 of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, of which he has been a board and committee member, and was the 2010 president. From 2005 to 2007 he was president of the German Cognitive Science Society. Metzinger is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, a co-founder of the German Effective Altruism Foundation, president of the Barbara Wengeler Foundation, and on the advisory board of the Giordano Bruno Foundation and the MIND Foundation. From 2008 to 2009, he served as a Fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study; from 2014 to 2019, he was a Fellow at the Gutenberg Research College; from 2019 to 2022, he was awarded a Senior-Forschungsprofessur by the Ministry of Science, Education and Culture. In 2019 he founded the MPE project. From 2018 to 2020, Metzinger worked as a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. In 2022 he was elected into the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Personal life Metzinger has practiced meditation twice a day for over forty years. He has recommended vipassana practice.