Sven Ove Hansson (born 1951) is a Swedish philosopher. He is a professor of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and chair of the Department of Philosophy and History of Technology at the

Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university. Since 2018, KTH consist ...

(KTH) in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He is an author and scientific skeptic, with a special interest in environmental

risk assessment Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...

, as well as in

decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...

and

belief revision Belief revision (also called belief change) is the process of changing beliefs to take into account a new piece of information. The formal logic, logical formalization of belief revision is researched in philosophy, in databases, and in artifici ...

Career

Hansson obtained a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

medical science Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pra ...

in 1972, and then worked for a Swedish

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

, followed by a job with the Swedish

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

. He received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in theoretical philosophy at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in 1991, following which he was from 1993 to 1999 forskarassistent (the Swedish equivalent of an associate professor) at Uppsala. He received a second PhD in

practical philosophy Practical philosophy concerns itself mainly with subjects that have applications in life, like the study of values, norms, politics, art, etc. The modern division of philosophy into theoretical philosophy and practical philosophyImmanuel Kant, ...

at the

University of Lund Lund University () is a public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially founded in 1666 on the ...

in 1999, and since 2000 he has been a professor at KTH; he became department head in 2005. The

Swedish Government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...

appointed Hansson to the Products Control Board (1976–1982; the predecessor of the National Chemicals Inspectorate), the National Board for Spent Nuclear Fuel (1981–1992) and the Natural Science Foundation (1989–1992). He continues to write on radiation exposure risk assessment. He was also a member of two temporary Commissions on environmental policies appointed by the Swedish Government, expert advisor to a 1999–2000 Swedish government committee the ''kemikaliekommittén'', and a member of the board of the MISTRA project New Strategy for the risk management of chemical substances. Hansson's contributions on theories of risk assessment have been cited as recently as 2012. Since December 2000, Hansson has been a member of ''forskningsberedningen'', the Swedish government's advisory board of researchers. Hansson has contributed to the development of

theory, in particular, analysis of application of the AGM postulates. His work is also cited in discussions of

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

in institutional

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

lists 17,417 citations of his work and gives his ''h''-index as 68 and i10-index as 271 . he continues to publish on ethics,

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

in major journals. Since September 1999 he has been the Editor-in-Chief of ''

Theoria Christian mysticism is the tradition of mysticism, mystical practices and mystical theology within Christianity which "concerns the preparation f the personfor, the consciousness of, and the effect of ..a direct and transformative pr ...

'', the only international, peer-reviewed, philosophy journal published in Sweden. He was the founding chairperson of the Swedish Skeptics (Vetenskap och Folkbildning), and is still a board member and editor of the organisation's journal ''Folkvett''. Hansson has criticized

anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...

as a

pseudo-science Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

Publications

He has published numerous articles and books in Swedish and in English.

Books in English

* * * * *

Selected journal articles in English

* * * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
List of Hansson's publications in English
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansson, Sven Ove 1951 births Living people Swedish skeptics Swedish philosophers Academic staff of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Uppsala University alumni Philosophers of technology